Which team is inconsistent yet disciplined enough to let a team score 40 points in a blitzing opening quarter, then hold them to 64 over the next three while methodically overturning a twenty-two point defecit? There’s only one: the Detroit Pistons. No other team could pull that off. The Mavs would have just kicked into 4th gear and tried to score 130 points themselves in an all-out offensive war. The Suns could have given up 40 in the first quarter and still been in front, while the Spurs wouldn’t get down by twenty-two points in the first place. Only Detroit with its typically casual arrogance can pull off a win like that and say “Just executing, that’s all it was”. Executing my ass. 

The man responsible for the best Pistons comeback I can recall in recent years was Sheed, scoring 11 points in a three-minute burst in the fourth that broke the spirit of the Oakland crowd and gave the Pistons a lead they wouldn’t surrender. Sheed is the man. If you had to pick the Pistons MVP so far this season, it’s Sheed. I’ve always said he’s one of the most underrated players in the league, and one of the most talented players I’ve ever seen. People seem to pay him out for his softness and tendency to drift around the perimeter. The fact is his range is as good as ANY one’s in the league, yet he also happens to have such an unstoppable inside game that it puzzles most people as to why he needs to shoot the three. Don’t take it from me, take it from coach Skiles after the Bulls survived a 36-point explosion from Sheed last week: “Scary is a good word to describe him. He’s one of those guys who has an unblockable shot. You can’t get to it. I don’t care who you are, you just can’t get to it. You can just challenge it. And if it’s going in, it’s going in.”

Have we seen the end of crazy Sheed?

Add to that his supreme defensive skills; I still haven’t seen any one defend Tim Duncan better than Sheed in the ‘05 Finals. He had Timmy completely baffled. If Sheed was to never play another game, at least I can die in peace knowing I saw him shut down the greatest power forward of all time. That is something I will seriously tell my kids (and then conveniently omit the part about the Spurs going on to win the series).

The fact that Sheed seems to have his head screwed on this season is a cause for rejoice for all NBA fans. We might see him unleash his best season yet, if his level-headedness and new physique are anything to go by. It couldn’t come at a better time for the Pistons who are fighting a league-wide perception that their championship window is closing and they are essentially the same team who weren’t good enough to get past Lebron and the Cavs last playoffs. They’re not the same team, and that’s because Rasheed doesn’t seem to be the same guy. I watched him closely after he nailed the massive three that basically won the game with under two minutes left against the Warriors. There was no screaming, no chest thumping, no taunting of the opposition crowd, no staring down of the refs. He just jogged back down the court, turned the other way, and focused on the defense.

Rasheed Wallace. Focused. What does that mean for the rest of the league? Scary is a good word to describe it.

1. Sheed “our number 1 option”
2. HTFU Detroit, the sinking Lakers and the charging Bucks
3. The Happiest Aussie in Auburn Hills
4. Day 9 & 10 - Kobe cruises and the MIP
5. Back-to-back Sheed and more Puerto Rican guy

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