Individual matchups in sports can be analyzed till you’re blue in the face. This offense against that defense, our quickness against your muscle, headset versus no headset. But sometimes all you need to do is look at history. One team has dominated the other for so long that diving into the X’s and O’s is an exercise in futility.
Here, we take a look at two games on an action-packed Saturday night, each of which comes with its own ugly, lopsided history.
Pistons at Bulls Saturday 8 p.m. Chicago, IL
At one point this season, the Pistons were 2 and 2. Even Steven. Then they lost their next three contests and haven’t sniffed .500 since. Now sitting at 9-10, they will have the opportunity to square things up with a win in Chicago on Saturday. Easier said than done. Much easier.
Rodney Stuckey
It’s not just that the Pistons lost by 20 to these same Bulls only a week ago. That’s one game -- not a tremendous cause for concern. But the Pistons and Bulls have been on severely unequal footing for some time now.
When the Pistons took down Chicago late last season, it meant nothing in the standings. It brought the Stones to a rotten 26 and 52. But it was meaningful because it was the first time the Pistons had emerged victorious in that head-to-head in the last NINETEEN games. That’s right, prior to that win, the Bulls had beaten the Pistons 18 consecutive times.
Teams suffer injuries, they come out flat, they change personnel every season; yet somehow, the Pistons dropped almost 20 in a row to one opponent. Simply amazing, and one of those stats that looks almost unbelievable when you read it in black and white.
The United Center has been a particular House of Horrors. The winless streak for the Pistons in that building stretches back to February of 2006 -- 14 games and 37 Mike Abdenour sweater vests ago.
Weird note: In that game (7+ years ago), Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng were in Chicago’s starting lineup -- they will also be starting Saturday night. In the free agency era of professional sports, that is very rare, especially when neither guy is a franchise-type player.
Chauncey Billups and Rasheed Wallace are the only ones remaining from Detroit’s side, and they’ll both be wearing business attire for this one. In true ‘Sheed fashion, he even jacked up eight shots from long range that night, connecting on absolutely none of them. How frustrating it was to have a capable frontcourt player that refused to attack the rim on a consistent basis, instead settling lazily for long jumpers that rarely found home, crippling the offense on many a possession. Good thing the Pistons don’t have a player like that anymore!!
As if the task wasn’t daunting enough, the Bulls will be riding high following their best effort of the season, a 107-87 dismantling of the champion Heat in Chicago. Joakim Noah grabbed every rebound, their defense was suffocating, and they led at one juncture by 34 points.
The Pistons have .500 in their sights heading into the weekend. All it takes is one win. Unfortunately, it’s against a team they can’t beat beat in an arena they can’t conquer.
Which leads us to...
Spartans vs Buckeyes Saturday 8:17 pm Indianapolis, IN
Ohio State hasn't lost for 24 games. It is by far the longest active streak in college football, and it should be at least three to five years before all of those wins are vacated due to flagrant rules violations.
The Spartans are no slouches themselves; their streak of W’s stands at eight. The nagging issue here is the same one that plagues the Pistons (vs Bulls) -- recent matchup history.
Ohio State and Michigan State have squared off nine times this century, the kids from Columbus taking all but one. That lone MSU victory was a brutal affair from two years ago in which one combined touchdown was scored in the first 59 minutes and an anonymous gentleman named Joe Bauserman played quarterback for the Bucks.
Be honest -- you’ve never heard of that guy. This is a sports town and we take our football seriously, but let’s all admit together that we have no recollection of a Joe Bauserman ever playing quarterback for Ohio State. It doesn’t mean you aren’t a sports nut or a football fanatic; it just means that you have a healthy life outside of the Big Ten.
The Spartans will have a fighting chance on Saturday night, mainly due to their ferocious and unforgiving defensive unit. Consider this -- in five of their last six games, they did not allow a touchdown. That doesn’t seem real. What team plays six schools from a major football conference and allows a touchdown to just one of them? They shut out Purdue, allowed 3 to Illinois, 6 to Michigan, then the out-of-place 28 to Nebraska, 6 to Northwestern, and 3 to Minnesota. Those are freakish numbers.
It remains to be seen how Connor Cook will perform on such a big stage, and if Michigan State’s offense can reach that magical 20-24 point territory likely necessary to pull the upset. The fact that the game is being played indoors without swirling winds or biting cold temperatures greatly benefits the more offensive-minded team. If this game were set at frigid Lambeau Field, with brute force being the deciding factor, it’s probably a Green and White parade. But indoors, in pristine playing conditions, it naturally becomes a more high-scoring affair, which could spell doom for MSU.
A New Beginning?
The last dozen years have not been friendly to the area teams in these rivalries. The Pistons bow down to the Bulls, and the Spartans look up to the Buckeyes.
It is true that you cannot rewrite history. The events are complete, their results written in stone.
But no story arc marches on uninterrupted forever. At undetermined points on the path, the pencil snags, the perfect line goes astray, and the underdog lets its voice be heard.
Trends, logic, and common sense all suggest that no such occurrence will take place this weekend. But the future is not the past. It is clean and unblemished, rife with possibility.
Those possibilities could be scary, but they also might be glorious.
Only time will tell.
