Fool them once, shame on them. Fool them twice, it gets real embarrassing, real fast.

The Pistons good name as a playoff-ready team seemed to diminish with every ridiculous turnover that they made last night.

Watching this team last night was as painful as watching a professional Texas Holdem poker player going all-in against an opponent holding a Royal Flush.

This has been stressed and I agreed with it: The Pistons are a better team than the 76ers, they’re just not playing up to par. Well, now I’m not so sure. How good can a team be when it works so hard to grab a comeback, statement Game 2 win, only to get absolutely annihilated in Game 3.

Was there no lesson to be learned? Or are the playoff-seasoned Pistons just too experienced to have any lessons left to learn on the playoff stage?

I know, I know. Why panic? It’s not like we’re facing elimination, right? Not technically, no. But an ESPN2 commentator put it best when he said that you never know who will get injured, or what will happen. You have to play every, single playoff game like it’s your last.

This is a Pistons team we are not used to seeing. Yes, we’ve seen faltering near the end of the road, but not this early on in the playoff hunt. I guess this is what it takes to get them to realize that their dominance and cakewalks to the Eastern Conference Finals aren’t there anymore. As a loyal Detroit fan, I hate to be so critical on my team, but there’s not much swagger left to take away.

I’d love to chalk it up to a bad shooting night. What Pistons fan wouldn’t? But instead, I have to face the music. The Pistons did not want to win last night. There is no exaggeration when I say that they played like it was the preseason out there. And in Philly, as good as a road team as Detroit is, shame on them.

The turnovers were the biggest story of this one. All 23 of them. And these weren’t silly bench turnovers. 17 of them were committed by the starting five, including 5 from Tayshaun and 4 from Rasheed and Rip.

Luckily, Rip and Tayshaun were on the offensive money last night. I think that was the only thing saving us from a 40-point self-destruction.

What was up with Chauncey? I certainly hope we’re not witnessing the once-per-season shooting slump that he didn’t really catch this year. Because those weren’t just slight misses, many of his shots were far short of the rim- routine shots that he knocks down 90% of the time.

If anyone blames Flip Saunders for this debacle, they are sorely mistaken. Do you think Flip goes out there and tells his crew to play with the half-energy and lethargy that we saw last night? This one’s on the players. The only thing I would’ve liked to see more is more feeds to Sheed in the post.

Reggie Evans’ celebrating after every (and I mean every) microscopic play that he makes is getting pretty old, for me at least. But honestly, I wish we had someone on our team that ran around and pumped up the crowd in these dark days, because that’s the difference between these two teams: one has motivation. Must be nice to be the underdog, right?