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With three championships in franchise history and a total of 42 playoff appearances, the Detroit Pistons have been home to some of the best teams in NBA history.
However, none was better than the 1988-89 Pistons team, the club's first championship squad.
Head coach Chuck Daly's group was coming off a Finals loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in the '88 playoffs. The Pistons fought hard, but wound up losing in seven games.
Every player on Detroit went into that summer more motivated than ever, and what happened during the 1988-89 season will be talked about in the Motor City forever.
The Pistons started the season an impressive 16-4. Their calling card was defense. Detroit only gave up 100.8 points per game, giving them the second-best defense in the NBA.
No one wanted a piece of the “Bad Boy Pistons.” If you were coming into the lane for a layup, you were going to get knocked down hard by Detroit's big men, led by Dennis Rodman and Bill Laimbeer.
Hall of Famers Adrian Dantley and Isiah Thomas led the Pistons in scoring to begin the season. However, midway through the year, Detroit traded Dantley to the Dallas Mavericks for Mark Aguirre due to personal conflicts with Thomas.
“Zeke” is one of the best point guards in NBA history. He averaged 18.2 points and 8.3 assists that year and guided the Pistons to 63 wins in the regular season. Detroit was the No. 1 seed in the entire playoffs and Thomas and Co. were ready to atone for their 1988 Finals defeat.
Detroit began the '89 playoffs with a first-round matchup against the Boston Celtics. Joe Dumars averaged 20.7 points and the Pistons swept the Celtics in three games. Back then, the first-round of the playoffs was a best of five series.
Aguirre was solid as well, putting up 17.7 points and 3.3 rebounds. The Pistons were moving on to the second round, where the Milwaukee Bucks were their next targets. Pretty much all season, Detroit played with a mean streak and vengeance because they were so upset after losing in the Finals to the Lakers. Nothing was going to stop the Pistons from getting back to the Finals.
The poor Bucks never stood a chance against the mighty Pistons. Detroit swept Milwaukee behind the broad shoulders of Laimbeer. He averaged 14.5 points and 11.8 rebounds in the four-game sweep, sending the Pistons to the Eastern Conference Finals.
This series wasn't going to be easy like the first two rounds. The Pistons were about to face Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Detroit initially didn't take this matchup seriously. The Bulls stole Game 1 in Detroit behind 32 points from Jordan. The Bulls now had home-court advantage in the series.
As expected, though, the Pistons bounced back in Game 2 to avoid going down 0-2. Detroit won to even up the series, with Thomas putting up 33 points to lead the Pistons.
Isiah, a Chicago native, grew up wanting to play for the Bulls, but now his main focus was eliminating Jordan and the team he grew up rooting for.
Game 3 in the Windy City was one of the best games of the '89 playoffs. Jordan was simply unstoppable for the Bulls. He put up 46 points to lead Chicago to a 99-97 win.
The pressure was now all on the Pistons. If they lost Game 4 and went down 1-3, their goal of getting back to the Finals and redeeming themselves from last season's blunder would be in serious jeopardy.
This is how the Pistons wanted it, though. They need to get through Jordan and the Bulls and face that type of pressure because the Finals were going to be that 100 times over. Thomas, in front of friends and family, scored 27 points in Game 4 to give Detroit home advantage back in the series. The Pistons were done playing games with the Bulls and sensed it was time to put the series on ice.
Detroit went on to win Games 5 and 6 to close the series and advance to the Finals. And just like they wanted it, the Pistons would be facing Magic Johnson and the Lakers again—the player and team that embarrassed Detroit in the '88 Finals.
As soon as the '89 Finals started, everyone could see and feel that the Pistons just wanted this more. Thomas scored 24 points in Game 1 and Dumars put up 33 in Game 2. Detroit jumped out to a 2-0 series lead and frankly never looked back.
This was the Pistons' magical season and not even the Lakers were going to stop Detroit this time around.
The Pistons swept the Lakers to capture the franchise's first NBA championship. Dumars won Finals MVP. He averaged 27.3 points, 1.8 rebounds and 6.0 assists in the series.
