Sunday's win against the Pistons saw two franchises normally used to certain roles suddenly swapping them, a la Freaky Friday or Vice-Versa (to name two cheesy 80's movies).

On one side you had the Hawks, so long the suffering franchise with a lack of talent or chemistry or both, a team of inexperienced youth prone to giving away winnable games down the stretch. On the other the Pistons, former world beaters, a veteran team that Knows How To Get It Done, a team that turns losses into wins late in games because of its ability to execute offensively and defensively in crunch time.

Which team was which yesterday?

The Hawks were the team that, despite offensive struggles of their own, put the defensive clamps on Detroit and forced them repeatedly into bad shots, which helps explain how you can score only 33 points in a half and still win.

Though Detroit whittled Atlanta's lead to as little as 4, you never had the sense that they were capable of taking over. I can't remember the last time I felt that way with the two teams in question.

Sekou Smith said it in his blog entry after the game, and I heartily agree with his conclusion:

"After Sunday’s win over Detroit (the current holder of the No. 5 spot in the conference standings and a team, based on what I saw today, that would have a hard time knock these Hawks off in a best-of-seven playoff series - which would be the matchup if the postseason started this morning) it’s become increasingly clear that these Hawks aren’t going anywhere anytime soon."

This Hawks team would be favored to beat this Pistons team in the playoffs, no question, especially given the homecourt advantage which is looking more and more possible with each passing game. At 17-10 and a season-best 7 games over .500, the Hawks are taking advantage of the long homestand and creating some separation between themselves and their opponents as we head into the middle third of the season.

The 4 seed in the East is not going to be handed to the Hawks; they'll still have to work for it. But when I look around the Conference to try to figure out who might make a run at them, I must say Detroit seems way too dysfunctional right now to be one of them. Between Rip Hamilton getting ejected and Allen Iverson sulking on the bench, they showed a decided lack of the poise we are accustomed to seeing. There is still some talent there (young and old - old nemesis Rasheed Wallace and second-year guard Rodney Stuckey did the most damage against the Hawks yesterday), but Sunday's outcome definitely made it seem like the two teams were passing each other on escalators to the opposite ends of the Eastern Conference, and the Hawks are the team on the way up.