The Pistons’ season is over. It plateaued, for the third straight year, in the Eastern Conference finals. But for it to happen repeatedly doesn’t make it any easier for the players to understand. “If I knew (the obstacle), we’d get past it,” said Chauncey Billups following the Celtics’ 89-81 series-clinching Game 6 victory at The Palace. “I can’t really put my finger on it.” Same predicament. Same question: What if? “There’s always ‘what ifs,’ but you can’t get them back,” Billups said. “You can’t get them back. You could play the last 30 seconds of Game 5 over again, we’d probably come out better, but you can’t get it back. You’ve got to know that going into an elimination game.” Game 5 - when Detroit erased a 17-point deficit on the road to make it a one-point game down the stretch - was a difficult loss, but not necessarily the back-breaker. For Tayshaun Prince, the 14-point loss at home was the toughest to overcome. “Game 3 pretty much cost us everything,” Prince said. “But we didn’t take care of home court like we should have. You fight through the regular season to get home court. We didn’t do that. We did what we had to do as far as getting that win in Game 2 out in Boston and came out so flat in Game 3 and gave [home-court advantage] right back to them.” The Palace was no kinder to the Pistons in Game 6. For the first time in their streak of six conference finals appearances, the Pistons were closed out on their home floor. The team’s disappointing effort in Game 3 surely will stick with the Pistons, but for Billups the question will linger like the hamstring injury that plagued him through the final three weeks of the season. The Pistons had earned a 2-2 split against Boston despite a visibly bothered Billups. He averaged 11.0 points in the first four games, making only one field goal in the Game 3 defeat. But he scored 26 in Game 5 and ended the season with guns blazing, shooting 9-for-20 and a game-high 29 points to go with six assists and six rebounds. “The one thing I really wish is that my leg felt as good as it did the last 48 hours at the start of the series, so I could be a lot more aggressive, a lot more effective,” Billups said. “It just took a little too long. That’s me personally speaking for myself. My timing felt good out there. We couldn’ t get over the hump.” There were questions about the health of Detroit’s other All-Star, Rip Hamilton, after he hyperextended his right elbow at the end of Game 5. He seemed to answer them in the first quarter of Game 6, scoring 10 of his 21 points on 5-of-7 shooting. In the fourth quarter he drained a jumper that put Detroit ahead, 70-60. It turned out to be the final basket of Hamilton’s season, and set the stage for even greater heartbreak. The Pistons were outscored 29-13 in the fourth quarter, their 10-point lead erased in a few minutes. And that, Prince said, should clear head coach Flip Saunders of any “what ifs” directed at him. “The media has talked about over the past couple of years how as far as us losing in the Eastern Conference finals and it being Flip’s fault. Today was a prime example that it wasn’t,” Prince said. “We had a 10-point lead. I think in the fourth quarter when you have a good lead that we had … obviously they’re a good team and they’re able to come back. But us as players, we have to respond and really close the game out like we should.” The Pistons have fallen short three times to three different opponents - Miami in ’06, Cleveland in ’07 and Boston in ’08. They are the only common denominator, which makes finding the flaws even tougher to do. It requires looking in the mirror. “I can’t do anything but smile at this point,” said Antonio McDyess, the Game 4 hero who said his team should have no excuses for missing the NBA Finals. “I can’t beat myself across the head anymore. It’s like we tease each other and tease our fans. We give them a good dose in the beginning and let them down in the end.” --

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