Unbelievable. The first bump in the road and everybody falls off the bandwagon.

Sometimes our sports community deserves all the misery it gets. What an impatient, irrational and fatalistic bunch we've become.

Since when do you fire a basketball coach because his team can't shoot?

You have to believe in the Pistons. Not because you're a homer or because you're living in some fantasy world, but because the Pistons are worth believing in.

Time after time, this team has been doubted. And time after time, it has responded. From the day this collection of misfits and castoffs was put together by team president Joe Dumars, people have had doubts.

Some even among us, but mostly from NBA America.

Tracy McGrady has become a rover, and the Pistons have to make him pay.

On defense, McGrady often has left his man, usually Michael Curry, and helped on double-teams, hounding the Pistons' guards as they brought the ball upcourt.

That has forced the Pistons to get into their half-court offense later, at times leaving precious few seconds to run a play.

Even though he is only 23 and might play another dozen years, Tracy McGrady looks around the NBA and realizes his good fortune. His Orlando Magic barely squeezed into the playoffs, and now he is one victory away from playing in Round 2.

McGrady knows this isn't something to be treated casually.

"This is my time now," he said Tuesday after practice at the RDV Sportsplex. "This is really my time. I see that. I have great vision, and I'm just going out and leaving everything on the basketball court and playing with a lot of passion, a lot of emotion, because I know what's at stake.

The Pistons have assumed the personality of their head coach.

And that's why their season is on the verge of crashing in flames.

They vow that there's one good fight left in them, but it will be interesting to see if the last swings are directed toward each other.

It's good to be Tracy McGrady these days.

He is the leading scorer in the playoffs (36.3 points per game), and his team needs one more victory to close out the Pistons and end a three-year streak of playoff futility for both himself and the Magic.

"There's no pressure," McGrady said. "We've got a pretty good cushion, but we want to play like it's an even series now. We just want to close out this game, and we don't want to give them any type of hopes.

Grant Hill is not visible, but his presence is certainly felt.

As the Magic prepare to go to Detroit and try to close out their playoff series Wednesday night, Hill is in their thoughts, and vice versa.

"A big part of this is for him," Tracy McGrady said Monday. "We know how bad he'd like to be here with us. We know he wants us to go out there and close out this series. He definitely wants us to end it on their home court."

There's an old saying that you should be careful about what you wish for because you may get it and regret it. The Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers can relate.

The Pistons wanted to finish the regular season with the best record in the Eastern Conference so they could enjoy home-court advantage throughout the conference playoffs. They got it and opened the best-of-seven-game first round against the Orlando Magic, whom they had beaten twice in three games during the season.

Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel reports: The Detroit Pistons plan to get physical with Tracy McGrady and the Orlando Magic when their playoff series resumes Wednesday night. Orlando holds a 1-0 series lead after taking the first game on Sunday afternoon 99-94.

"It's not just that Tracy has to hit the floor. . . . But a lot more of those guys are going to hit the floor," said Pistons guard Chucky Atkins.

"You got to bump him when he has the ball. You got to bump him when he doesn't have the ball," guard Richard Hamilton said. "You got to wear on him."

McGrady, who had 43 points in Game 1, isn?t backing down.

"If they want to be physical, let them be physical. . . . I know how to prevent myself from being caught up in whatever they're trying to do to me. It's not going to work, whatever they're going to do."

John Denton of the Florida Today reports: Magic forward Grant Hill did not accompany the team when they traveled to his old stomping grounds in Detroit for the first two games of their first round series.

In fact, Hill hasn?t been back there since the trade that sent him to the Magic for Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins three years ago, nor has he attended a Magic game since his most recent surgery, March 18.

"Just because of the distractions. Let us focus on the games," said Magic coach Doc Rivers said. "If he would have wanted to come, we would have brought him up. But I think it's better with him at home -- at least the first two games.

"In a lot of ways he's been cast as a villain, and that really upsets me when that is done. He did everything he could for this franchise here in Detroit, and everything he could for our franchise. It just hasn't worked out for him, but not because he hasn't tried."