Hoops Habit
Fansided

The 30 greatest NBA team rivalries in league history

By Daniel Lubofsky

Paul Pierce, Boston Celtics, Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers. AFP PHOTO / GABRIEL BOUYS (Photo credit should read GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)
Paul Pierce, Boston Celtics, Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers. AFP PHOTO / GABRIEL BOUYS (Photo credit should read GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
26 of 31
Next
Isiah Thomas, Detroit Pistons, Larry Bird, Dennis Johnson, Boston Celtics
Isiah Thomas, Detroit Pistons, Larry Bird, Dennis Johnson, Boston Celtics. (Photo by Dick Raphael/NBAE via Getty Images) /

6. Best NBA rivalries of all-time: Boston Celtics vs. Detroit Pistons

The Boston Celtics managed to keep hold of the Eastern Conference for the better part of the 1980s, during which they advanced to five NBA Finals and won three of them. Towards the end of the decade, however, a new challenger emerged, one looking to take the throne away from a dynasty still chugging along.

That team was the Detroit Pistons, a hungry bunch built on one of the stingiest defenses the league had ever seen. Their prowess at that end of the floor stemmed from an overwhelming level of physicality bordering on illegal, a fact Boston took exception to as the rivalry began to heat up.

As most teams were back then, the Celtics weren’t any different when it came to making an opponent feel their presence, but the Pistons took things to a whole other level. They didn’t just foul to stop a potential bucket, they hacked any and everybody to make sure nobody would even think about driving to the basket ever again.

This was not a style the Celtics appreciated nor respected, and it showed with several fights to send a retaliating message. In the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals, that didn’t seem to matter, as Detroit had the lead with seconds left in a pivotal Game 5 with the series tied at two.

What followed was as clean of a choke job as there is. Inbounding the ball, Isiah Thomas’ pass was stolen by Larry Bird who then flipped it to Dennis Johnson for the game-winning layup. Boston would go on to win the series in seven games, crushing the Pistons after they had come so close to changing the NBA’s landscape.

The following year, Detroit would finish what had been started with a six-game victory over the Celtics in the conference finals. For the Celtics, it marked the end of four consecutive NBA Finals appearances, while the Pistons kicked off a string of three straight.

Boston grew to despise the Pistons due to a style of play that broke some of the unwritten rules of basketball. This assumes that Detroit cared, which the Pistons didn’t. What mattered to the Pistons was winning a championship, which to them meant slaying the true beasts of the East in whatever way necessary.