NEW YORK (AP)—This didn’t look like a club fighting for a No. 7 or 8 seed. These resembled the old Detroit Pistons, who used to beat up on those types of teams in the playoffs.

Richard Hamilton scored 22 points, Rasheed Wallace had 14 points and 12 rebounds, and the Pistons rolled into a tie for seventh place in the Eastern Conference by beating the New York Knicks 113-86 on Wednesday night.

Antonio McDyess added 13 points and 16 rebounds for the Pistons, who pulled even with Chicago for the No. 7 seed and lowered their magic number to one to clinch their eighth consecutive playoff berth. Detroit will be back in the postseason with its next victory or one more loss by Charlotte.

With the Allen Iverson experiment over because of his bad back and with Hamilton and Wallace healthy again, the Pistons believe there’s still time to find their form for the playoffs after a disappointing regular season.

via Pistons rout Knicks, move into tie for 7th in East – NBA – Yahoo! Sports.

Sheed has been terrible and the guards not much better. Perhaps the team is finally too old for the playoffs in today’s NBA? Or are they overconfident, sure they can “flip the switch” when their backs are really up against the wall? Or has Flip finally flipped?

I was keen on this team through the regular season but I’m not seeing any glimmers of hope. Coaching has been mediocre and the team has just been apathetic at best. Let’s see if they can turn it around. If even they do, they’re going to find themselves tired out after a long first round series they should have finished off in four or five games.