Business as usual for Pistons

The Pistons killed two birds with one stone in Wednesday’s victory over the Orlando Magic, having captured homecourt advantage in the East playoffs and their third straight division title — the fifth in six years and eighth since the 1987-88 campaign.

San Antonio is the only team with more division crowns (10) since then.

Head coach Flip Saunders now has to focus on what team will capture the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Detroit could possibly square off with Orlando, New Jersey, Indiana or even Philadelphia in the opening round of the playoffs.

The Magic, who got swept by Detroit in four games this season, are currently the eighth seed in the standings.

With four games left on the regular-season schedule, there is no doubt Saunders will cut back the minutes of his starters. Forwards Jason Maxiell and Ronald Dupree and center Nazr Mohammed are the top candidates to see more action.

"Some guys we might play more," Saunders said on the team’s website. "The one thing we do want to do is make sure our guys maintain rhythm, so I don’t want to do anything to take them out of rhythm. I’ll look at everything today on the flight out and look at our practice schedules. Our main guys aren’t going to be up over 30 minutes, I know that."

It’s best that Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Chris Webber, Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace get as much rest as possible. This isn’t the same 64-win squad from last season, so its vital the top five are healthy and relaxed come playoff time.

Hamilton leads the Pistons in scoring with 20.0 points per game, and has reached double digits in scoring over 69 of 72 games played this season.

Detroit is in the postseason for the sixth straight year and owns a 53-40 record in the playoffs since the 2001-02 season.

The Pistons have won three straight and eight of their last 10 games overall. They will take a trip to Toronto on Friday for a showdown with the Raptors at the Air Canada Centre.

Only Philadelphia, the Raptors and Boston are left on the slate.