With the resurgent Los Angeles Lakers done playing opossum ...

And with the Indiana Pacers doing their impression of "Four Men and a Baby" while Ron Artest auditions for Smashing Pumpkins ...

And while the New Jersey Nets use the New York Knicks as punching bags but sprain their hands on everybody else ...

	At 20.4 points per game, Rip Hamilton is the leading scorer for the defensive-minded Pistons.

Could Thursday night's game between the Lakers and the Detroit Pistons be a preview of the NBA Finals?

It's not that the Pistons are tearing up the league right now, given their four-game losing streak in the midst of a difficult West Coast swing. But, hey, they have just as good a chance as anybody else in a Leastern Conference that is riddled with mediocrity and inconsistency.

I mean, who else is there? The Boston Celtics? At a time when, the Boston Globe reports, the team is going to suspend Vin Baker for alcohol-related problems.

Big surprise there. Back in the spring of 2000, rumors were rampant around Seattle that Baker was abusing alcohol, and they became even more pronounced when former players Dirk Minnifield and Clifford Robinson, working for the player's association, began hanging around the team in an effort to counsel Baker.

When I confronted Baker on the issue, he said he was suffering from "depression," a claim that enraged Sonics higher-ups because it elicited sympathy rather than forcing Baker to deal with his real problems.

When Baker suffered "heart palpitations" before playing the Sonics last month, we learned that heart palpitations are caused, according to a medical Web site, by, "fear, stress, alcohol and physical activity."

Now, it seems, Baker will hopefully be forced to face the thing from which he has been running for years. However, if the Globe's reporting is accurate, I'm not sure how a two-week suspension is going to cure the problem. Baker will need far longer than that time frame. Here's hoping he takes it, because you know the Celtics are willing to give it.

In any event, back to the Pistons, a team that seemingly has been overlooked all season, while Indiana and New Jersey have had their names run up the flagpole.

Pistons coach Rick Carlisle, however, is quick to say his team is no longer overlooked because it has often been suggested lately that the Pistons are an overlooked team. Every underdog has its day, as it were.

Historically speaking, though, the Pistons seem to be an anomaly. After all, when was the last time a team made it to the NBA Finals when its best player -- in this case, Ben Wallace -- was a dominant defender?

Carlisle argued that Hakeem Olajuwon was a great defensive player when he led the Rockets to back-to-back titles in the mid-'90s. However, I counter that Olajuwon will always be more remembered for his inspiring "Dream Shake" and the wide-open 3-pointers he produced than for his shot blocking.

No, the last team to go to the Finals primarily thanks to a dominant defender may well have been the Boston Celtics behind Bill Russell, and that was 35 years ago.

"Strange things happen in this league," Carlisle said. "It's possible to go deep into the playoffs with that type of team."

Here's the great irony of the Pistons' situation: When Carlisle was an assistant to Larry Bird on the Indiana Pacers team that went to the Finals in 2000, Carlisle was considered the offensive mind of Bird's staff, while Dick Harter designed the defense.

Now, Carlisle has constructed a team with probably the league's best defense. It culminated when the team jettisoned Jerry Stackhouse for Richard Hamilton, eliminating Stackhouse's dominant personality from the team and giving the Pistons an equally dangerous, less expensive scorer.

	“	We let our game speak for itself, and it has. Especially when we've played that, quote-unquote, tough team. ”
		— Pistons forward Cliff Robinson

But the makeover started when the Pistons acquired Cliff Robinson, who I think is one of the league's most underrated players. In 13 years, Robinson has never been on a team that missed the playoffs.

"The coach has got to take his group of players and try to play them with their strengths," Carlisle said. "When Joe (Dumars) made the trade for Cliff Robinson, all of a sudden we were looking at two of the best defensive forwards in the game. Those are two anchors to build around defensively. We believe in a solid defense and a tough style of play that requires a lot of physical contact."

That's what is funny about this disregarded Pistons team; it's truly the most beastly team in the East, a moniker that has gone, deserved or not, to the Pacers.

There is some debate on this issue, because some feel the media created the Pacers as the "Bad Boys" as a natural tie to Isiah Thomas's days in Detroit.

Others think the Pacers have taken the image and run with it, particularly in light of Artest's antics, Jermaine O'Neal's scowls, and the rash of technical fouls that have been doled out in Indiana-related games this season.

But the Pistons, who allow a league-low 85.7 points a game while allowing opponents to shoot only 42.7 percent, scoff at their highly celebrated neighbors to the south, with whom they have created a nice little rivalry, one that could emotionally conclude in the playoffs, if things go well.

After all, the Pistons point out, for all the attention it is paid, Indiana allows more than 94 points a game, 14th in the league. And, more importantly, the Pistons have defeated the Pacers in five of their last seven meetings.

"We're not the type of team to get caught up in all of that," Cliff Robinson said. "Our make-up isn't like that. We let our game speak for itself, and it has. Especially when we've played that, quote-unquote, tough team."

Frank Hughes, who covers the NBA for the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.