Detroit Free Press

ATLANTA -- The faces told it all. Grant Hill looking down into his chest and sighing. Bison Dele scowling as he ...

First, I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I vote for people, not parties.Second, I am neither a liberal nor a conservative. I worry about people, not ideology.Third, I am not a gun owner.Ah. Changes things, doesn't it? I was safe on the first two, a common-sense type of guy. But as soon as I wrote that third item, some of you said, "Friend," and others said, "Enemy."

THE CZECH rookie had been having a pretty lousy time in Detroit. Fifteen seconds into Tuesday's Game 3, he was slammed into the wall by Detroit's Kris Draper and went flipping over, landing in the laps of his teammates. How embarrassing.Then, early Thursday night, he was upended by Draper once more, landing on his back like a kid who falls out of the top bunk.

AN OBVIOUS question: Who were these guys?These couldn't have been the same Pistons who crawled under the tires of the Atlanta Hawks the previous two playoff games. The crushed-by-Mt. Mutombo Pistons? The can't-break-70-point Pistons? Where'd they go? Who were these guys?Who was this Lindsey Hunter? Not the Lindsey Hunter from Games 1 and 2. That Lindsey Hunter couldn't buy a basket and couldn't finish a play. That Lindsey Hunter heard his father call him up after Game 2 and say, in so many words, "You were terrible." And that was his father!

THE GENIE went back in the bottle, the glass slipper melted away, and the puck that had been stopping everywhere ...

ATLANTA -- Their big man, Dikembe Mutombo, was having the time of his life. He backed in on one Piston, knocked ...