Won 13 consecutive victories for the third time, winning the championship twice before! The Rockets, a replica of the Eastern Conference, have quietly become the dark horse in the championship.

Winning 13 consecutive victories! This is the third time in team history that they have delivered such a performance. The previous two times they won the championship in the same season, the Pistons, who can be called a replica of the Rockets in the Eastern Conference, are quietly becoming the most anticipated dark horse in the championship.

Winning 13 consecutive victories

After defeating the Bucks in the previous game, the Pistons faced off against the Pacers. Before the start of the game, the Pistons quietly rose to fourth in the latest strength list officially announced by the NBA, closely chasing the Thunder, Nuggets and Rockets in front of them. In the end, the Pistons defeated the Pacers 122-117 and won 13 consecutive victories.

This is the third time in the history of the Pistons that they have won 13 consecutive victories. The previous two times they won 13 consecutive victories were in the 1989-90 season and the 03-04 season. The Pistons won the championship in both seasons.

Since the Pistons are not a traffic team, even if they win 13 consecutive victories, the attention is relatively limited. Most people's impression of this Pistons still remains in the bottomless decade of 21-23. The better ones only paid attention to the fact that they pushed the Knicks into desperation in the playoffs last season. But in fact, this Pistons, which can be called a replica of the Rockets, is quietly becoming a championship-level team.

Top draft vision

Calling this Pistons team the "Eastern Rockets replica" is not disrespectful to them, but their team building process is too similar to the Rockets. The Rockets have become competitive earlier. As a latecomer, the Pistons will inevitably be frequently compared with the Rockets.

Both teams struggled without a bottom line from 21 to 23. During this period, they both showed their top draft vision and successively selected the core of their respective team building.

In 2021, the Rockets selected Jaylen Green with the second pick before the Pistons selected Cunningham, the No. 1 pick. The latter surpassed Doncic to rank 4th in the latest MVP list released by the US media ClutchPoints, second only to SGA, Jokic and Antetokounmpo. He is becoming one of the league's top superstars.

In 2022, when the Rockets won Ethan and Jaa, the Pistons also selected Jaylen Duren with the 13th pick. The latter has become a stable 20+10 level insider since the beginning of the season, and is expected to become an All-Star for the first time in his career. His exaggerated physical confrontation ability made the famous talker Perkins joke that he grew up eating dumbbells.

In 2023, the Rockets and Pistons selected the twin Thompson brothers with the 4th and 5th picks. Like his brother Amen, Osar also has NBA historical level athletic talent and is growing into one of the league's top all-around defenders.

The idea of ​​successful coaching selection

is not only to select the core of the team at the same time, but also the reconstruction ideas of the two teams are exactly the same. When the Rockets introduced Udoka, the Pistons reluctantly gave up Monty Williams, who had 5 years and 65 million left on his contract, and chose to build a future with Bickerstaff.

After Bickerstaff joined the Pistons, he adopted a very similar tactical strategy to Udoka, setting defense as the team's first priority, while frantically emphasizing the details of the game on and off the court.

The Pistons, like the Rockets, quickly got rid of the weak ranks with their strong physical confrontation, fierce quick transitions and tenacious defense. Since the beginning of the season, the Pistons' defensive performance has risen to second in the league, second only to the defending champion Thunder.

Excellent leak-picking ability

While insisting on rebuilding around a young core, the Pistons have also shown top-notch leak-picking abilities in the past two seasons, and have successively won surprise players in transactions and the free market.

This is still the case this season. With the sharpshooter Beasley mired in off-court affairs and unable to return, the Pistons decisively introduced LeVert and Dunro to fill the shooting vacancy. Dunro has hit 36 ​​three-pointers so far in the season, with a shooting rate of 41.4%.

Coupled with Javonte Green, who is earning a minimum salary, and Jenkins, who frequently becomes a surprise player, the Pistons have an extremely deep lineup and have adopted a 12-man rotation for a long time.

MVP-level elite point guards + digital All-Star-level iron-blooded blue-collars + high-volume outside marksmen. Whether it is the lineup configuration or the extremely tough iron-blooded culture, this Pistons is very much like their former championship-winning self.