In the battle between the Celtics and the Pistons in last year's playoffs, the strength of the two teams can be said to be equal, but luck is on the side of the Green Shirts, if it weren't for Thomas's key mistakes in the last moments, or Dantley and Johnson's accidental injuries, it is not yet known who will die, and the Green Shirts that year also became the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals, becoming the greatest foil of Magic Johnson, this year's Celtics, or those people, Bird, McHale, Parish, Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge - It's just that everyone is a year older, and this time, will luck still be on the side of the Celtic?

In the first game, the smiling assassins came out of the sheath, scoring 35 points and 12 assists on 12-of-19 shooting, completely blowing up Danny Ainge who was only 7-of-18 shooting on the opposite side, and in the first game, the Pistons defeated the Celtics 104-96 under the leadership of Thomas.

In the second game, the two teams began a gorgeous offensive battle, the two sides fought for two overtimes, and finally the Celtics won the final victory, the Pistons' Isaiah Thomas, Dantley, and Vinier Johnson, the Celtics' Parish, McHale and Dennis Johnson all scored 20+ points, Bird also scored 18 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists of quasi-triple-double data, after two games, the two teams tied 1:1.

In the third game, Joe Dumas, who had been tepid before, scored 29 points on 12-of-21 shooting, and single-handedly redeemed McHale's 32 points on 11-of-17 shooting, Bird scored 18 points, 11 rebounds and 8 assists, but the shooting percentage was only 6-of-17, Parish scored 6 points and 6 rebounds on 2-of-7 shooting, and the Pistons Thomas was still steady, scoring 23 points and 6 assists on 7-of-14 shooting, and Dantley scored 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting, In the end, the Pistons, who played even better, won the third game.

In the fourth game, Thomas played diving, scoring 4 points on 10-of-10 shooting, Thomas scored 12 points on 6-of-20 shooting, and the Pistons' best player was Ranbier, who scored 29 points on 10-of-15 shooting and 6 rebounds, while the Celtics relied on the steady performance of the whole team, and the five-man double-double performance defeated the Pistons 79-78, and the fifth game made Thomas, who shot 35 points in the whole game, Dumas and Dantley also contributed 18 points each, On the other hand, the Celtics were still defeated by the Pistons despite the three scoring 20+, in the sixth game, the Pistons did not give the Celtics any chance, the Pistons sacrificed a championship-level super crushing defense in advance, although McHale slashed 33 points and 11 rebounds, but the others did not play well, except for McHale, Dennis Johnson, who scored 17 points on 6-of-16 shooting, and Bird, who scored only 16 points on 4-of-17 shooting, were the only three players on the team who scored double-doubles, Parish left the court early after only 6 minutes due to injury, and the Pistons' Viniel Johnson shone in this game, scoring 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting, Dantley scoring 22 points on 9-of-18 shooting, and the Pistons defeated the Boston Celtics 95-90 to reach the NBA Finals for the first time in history!

Throughout the series, the Celtics are declining, day by day, Bird, Parish, Dennis Johnson are all aging, 30-year-old McHale is playing well, averaged 26.8 points per game, but it was difficult to support alone, and after being defeated by the Pistons, it struggled for several years before entering the rebuilding period, on the other hand, the Pistons are in their prime, Thomas, Dantley, Dumas and even Ranbier have played well, this year's Pistons, under the leadership of this group of bad boys with very different personalities, reached the first peak in team history!

The Eastern Conference Finals picked off the old rival Celtics, and in the Finals, there is a traditional giant waiting for the Pistons to challenge, that is the Los Angeles Lakers, the Lakers were in the limelight that year, Worthy, Irvin Johnson, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are all quasi-Hall of Fame superstars, Byron Scott is an outside attack arrow, AC Green and Michael Cooper are the team's defensive spearheads, and the team also has an experienced veteran champion, and now David Thompson's dad Michael Toms plays as a substitute for Abdul-Jabbar, Everyone has their own job, and every position is perfect.

On June 7, 1988, the first game of the Finals was played on the Lakers' home court, and Dantley was so powerful that Staples Arena was bleeding and made Michael Cooper's defense lose face, Dantley scored 14 of 16 shots in this game, slashed 34 points, and led the team to defeat the Lakers 105-93, and Vinier Johnson, the super sixth man on the bench, also played well, scoring 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting, The Lakers still swallowed the bitter pill of the loss despite Elvin Johnson's 28 points, 10 assists and 8 rebounds on 8-of-11 shooting.

It is worth mentioning that the relationship between the smiling assassin Isaiah Thomas and the Magic Johnson, these two people are childhood friends, the two used to play and train together, before every game between the Pistons and the Lakers, the two always have to kiss on the cheek, in the eyes of others, they can't kiss anymore, knowing that Johnson has AIDS, and was finally selected as an All-Star by fans, many stars, including Karl Malone, are afraid of contracting the terrible virus and refuse to compete with Johnson, but Thomas, is still to give Johnson a kiss to express his position, everyone thought they would be friends for life, but no one could have imagined that after the two retired, the plot took a 180-degree turn, Johnson's new book criticized Thomas, saying that he was too hypocritical, good at forming gangs, making himself tired, and spreading rumors that he was gay, and Thomas began to refute himself, who is right and wrong, we are not the parties, and we will not discuss this issue for the time being. I only know that Thomas and Johnson's 30-year friendship is gone.

Getting back to the point that in the second game of the 1988 Finals, the Lakers regained face at home, James Worthy scored 26 points, 1 rebound and 6 assists on 10-of-19 shooting, Byron Scott and Johnson also both scored 20+ points, and Dantley scored 19 points on 5-of-10 shooting on the Pistons, and the Pistons lost the second game 96-108.

In the third game at the home court of Detroit, the Lakers relied on the overall play of Worthy, AC Green, Johnson and Scott to win the game, Thomas scored 28 points but Thomas himself was unable to support himself, Dantley scored 14 points and the second highest score on the team, and in the fourth game Dantley recovered, scoring 27 points in the game, and Venice Johnson scored 16 points to help the Pistons beat the Lakers 111-86.

In the fifth battle of Tianwang Mountain, 75% of the teams that won this game were able to win the final championship, and finally, the Detroiters who had the last laugh, the Lakers' aging Abdul-Jabbar rarely took out 21 shots and 12 of 26 points, Johnson scored 15 points and 17 assists, but the Pistons' firepower was more dispersed, Dantley scored 25 points with a high shooting rate as always, Joe Dumas scored 19 points, Thomas scored 15 points and 8 assists, and Vinier Johnson scored 16 points, Edwards scored 10 points, Bill Lanbial scored 8 points and 11 rebounds, and after five games, the Pistons held the match point 3:2, and the championship trophy was in front of them.

Game 6 was played on the Lakers' home court, and the game had just begun, and Thomas suffered a severe ankle sprain during a breakaway! Once unable to play, the Lakers refused to use their own equipment to treat Thomas's injured ankle, Thomas had to ask Johnson for help, called him, but Johnson did not answer, in the end, it was a good friend of head coach Chuck Daley, Los Angeles Raiders owner Aldees quickly sent medical equipment over, I don't know if the injury inspired Thomas's fighting spirit, or Johnson did not answer the phone to make Thomas resentful, in short, after Thomas came on the court with an injury, he completed a big explosion in the sixth game of the finals! Slashed 25 points in the third quarter, creating a new record for single-quarter scoring in the NBA Finals, with 43 points, 8 assists, 6 steals and 5 turnovers on 18-of-32 shooting, even the "Devil's Coach" Chuck Daley was moved by this game, Thomas could only drag one leg to complete the layup and shooting, but in the end the Pistons still lost to the Lakers by 102:103 by one point, the Pistons except Thomas, Joe Dumas' 16 points and Dantley's 14 points were the only three players on the team to score in double figures, while the Lakers, Johnson had 22 points and 19 assists, and Worthy had 28 points and nine rebounds.

27 seconds before the end of the game, Abdul-Jabbar singled out Ranbir and caused the latter to foul, but the slow-motion first Ranbier This was a very successful defense, and the two sides did not have physical contact, but unfortunately there was no advanced replay technology that year, the referee insisted on awarding the Lakers two free throws, Abdul-Jabbar hit both free throws, and the Pistons lost to the Lakers by one point.

The final tie-break has made a Hall of Fame superstar, he is not Thomas, not Dantley, not Ranbir, not Dumas, not Johnson or Abdul-Jabbar, but James Worthy, nicknamed "Cobra", Worthy is omnipotent in the game, and he shot 15 of 22 and scored a big triple-double of 36 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists, although the Pistons scored as many as 7 double-doubles, but in the end, it was the Bostonians who won the victory, and Worthy relied on this triple-double, This time, the only triple-double in his 12-year career won the MVP of the finals!

In this series, Dantley is undoubtedly the best player on the Pistons, averaging 21.3 points and 5.0 rebounds per game with a whopping 57.2% shooting rate, while Thomas can also average 19.7 points and 9.0 assists per game, but the shooting rate is only 42.6%. The Pistons have been an unprecedented success this season, although they didn't win the championship, but you can say that they lacked some luck, if the sixth game is changed at the last minute, a fair decision is made, if the seventh game Pistons can even make one more shot, the outcome of the game may be changed, but this is the NBA, this is the charm of basketball, the game, there can never be ifs.

Although the Pistons failed to compete for the championship this season, it is undeniable that they have gradually reached the peak, and are trampling the traditional giants of the previous decade, the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, and in the 1988-1989 season, the Pistons made a comeback. Thomas averaged 18.2 points and 8.3 assists per game and was selected as an All-Star for the eighth consecutive year, Bill Lambir averaged 13.7 points and 9.6 rebounds per game, Dennis Rodman is gradually finding his own way of playing, he is averaging 9.0 points and 9.4 rebounds per game this season, Viniel Johnson still sits on the bench to contribute to the team, averaging 13.8 points per game, this season's Pistons team has been soaring in the regular season, ranking first in the East, but at this time, the Pistons have ushered in a change——

In 1988, after 42 games, the Pistons unexpectedly sent the team's lead scorer, "singles king" Adrian Dantley to the Mavericks without warning, and got Mark Aguirre, at this time Dantley was at the end of his career, he only wanted a championship ring, but just when he was trying to win the championship wholeheartedly, he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks, a Western underdog, which made Dantley very angry, Dantley always thought, including the media at the time, that it was also so, This deal without warning was planned by "Smiling Assassin" Thomas from beginning to end.