AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — The Pistons had a mini-celebration Friday, and it had nothing to do with having a .500 record since All-Star Weekend.
Saying the Pistons have played .500 ball since the break sounds better than it really is. The Pistons have split their two games at the Palace — a horrid 97-68 loss to the 76ers Tuesday night, and a 109-94 win over Charlotte on Wednesday.
With a 12-25 record, the Pistons are going nowhere in the standings.
But that doesn't make it all gloom and doom around the Palace — and it shouldn't. There are some rays of hope for this team. The Pistons are 8-5 in their last 13 games, and they have an energy level that did not exist at any time in the last two seasons.
Jonas Jerebko, the 6-foot-10 forward from Sweden, turned 25 on Friday.
Ben Wallace, the heartbeat of the Pistons for the better part of a decade, coordinated the entertainment.
"You've heard the Five Heartbeats, right?" Pistons coach Lawrence Frank said, referring to the 1991 movie about a fictional singing group. "We have the Three Heartbeats. And so Ben has his crew and they sing a rendition — so they sang their rendition to Jonas.
"We asked them to do it in Swedish, but that was a little bit beyond what we could get done."
Who are the Three Heartbeats?
"Figure it out," Frank said. "The rookies."
There was no Eddie King, a main character in the movie.
"There was no Eddie King, but he (Jerebko) got a little serenade, and he got a little cake. And we'll give him some ribs tonight in Memphis," Frank said.
After practice, the Pistons flew to Memphis, where they play the Grizzlies on Saturday night.
The reality is that one birthday serenade is not a barometer on the well-being of any franchise. It doesn't mean the Pistons are a heartbeat — or three or five heartbeats — away from contending for a championship.
There are things to like about the Pistons, and it starts with their two young players, 20-year-old point guard Brandon Knight and 21-year-old center Greg Monroe.
There is a fresh atmosphere surrounding the team. They've had better records the last three seasons — marginally better, anyway — but the toxic environment that existed in those seasons has been cleaned out.
There have been no whispers of a team mutiny or disgruntled veterans tuning out the coach.
I once asked a prominent NFL coach what he looked for to judge how players react to a coach. His answer was to look at a player's eyes. See if he's looking at the coach during a teaching moment, or if he looks away.
One thing seems certain about Frank: he has the players' attention.
Frank was asked to explain the difference between Wednesday night's loss to Philly and beating Charlotte the next night, and how he measures development.
"We all want to win," Frank said. "It's more the process of how you're winning or how you're losing. The Philly game, they kicked our tail. First game after the break, you want to throw it out, not out, whatever. We don't throw it out.
"The Charlotte game — the way our guys played the game, took five charges, eight blocked shots, held them to 43 percent. Offensive, we attacked. The offensive rebounds our guys got was because they set better screens, which forced help when they gave separation, and they gave the effort to go to the glass.
"I'm more concerned about that because, to me, that will then lead to wins. Again, we're 1-1 after the break. Let's just keep on getting better."
