Four of the 50 best playoff runs since 1967 belong to the Detroit Pistons, according to a list compiled by ESPN.com.

And that's saying something considering the Pistons have only won three NBA championships.

That's right, one Pistons teams cracked the top 50 despite not winning a title.

ESPN.com's John Hollinger put together the list and eliminated the pre-1967 era since those teams didn't have to survive at least three playoff series to win the NBA title.

He based his rankings primarily on three factors: How many games opponents won, opponents' regular-season scoring margin, and margin of playoff games. The rankings could also be adjusted based on other factors such as blowouts, competitive balance or injuries.

Since the Pistons made the list four times, all three of their championship years are included. (Because the list is on ESPN's pay site, readers can only access the introduction without paying a fee.)

The 1988-89 Pistons were No. 11 on the list. They swept the Celtics in three games and Milwaukee in four before beating the Chicago Bulls in a six-game Eastern Conference Finals series.

In the finals, they extracted some revenge for their 1988 Finals loss by sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers in four games. Hollinger said he moved the Pistons down a few notches because Magic Johnson pulled his hamstring in Game 1 and missed the rest of the series while Byron Scott did not play either.

"Considering the Pistons won the final three games by 2, 4 and 8 points without those two playing, I think it's fair to say Detroit would have faced a much longer series otherwise," Hollinger wrote. "Nonetheless, we shouldn't discount the fact they were (11-2) in the playoffs before Magic went out."

(That Lakers team, by the way, was listed at No. 30 despite losing. They were the highest-ranked team of the 11 on the list that failed to win the NBA crown. The Lakers swept Portland, Seattle and Phoenix before the Pistons ended their 3-peat bid.)

The Pistons won their second title in 1990 when they repeated by beating the Portland Trail Blazers in five games. That helped them check in at No. 18 on Hollinger's list.

Before beating the Blazers, Detroit swept Indiana in three games, knocked off the New York Knicks in five and then survived a seven-game series with Michael Jordan and the Bulls.

In the Finals, the Pistons and Trail Blazers split the first two games in Detroit before the Pistons swept the middle three in Portland, where they hadn't won in 17 years. They clinched the championship when Vinnie Johnson made a memorable 14-foot jumper with 0.07 seconds left on the clock in Game 5.

"Detroit's win over the Blazers in the Finals was almost an afterthought after their seven-game series against Chicago in the Eastern Conference finals," Hollinger wrote. "Chicago won 55 games that year and was steadily gaining steam. While the series was close, the individual games mostly were not; Detroit's final two wins were by 19 and 18 points to keep the Bulls at bay for another year."

The Pistons' 2004 championship run was ranked No. 26.

That year, Detroit beat Milwaukee in five games, New Jersey in seven and Indiana in six before nearly sweeping the Lakers, who lost in five thanks only to Kobe Bryant's 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left in regulation that forced overtime in Game 2.

The Lakers won 99-91 as Bryant was sensational with 36 points.

"The Pistons gained steam as the playoffs went on," Hollinger wrote. "They dropped Game 2 at home to a middling Milwaukee team in the first round before rallying with three straight double-digit wins, and they had the fourth lowest second-round score on this list for the New Jersey series – one which they won with the help of a series of Ben Wallace face-up jump shots in Game 7. (Yes, really.)

"With Detroit's swarming defense ... the Pistons blitzed the Lakers by a combined 41 points over the final three games."

Although they didn't make it to the Finals in 1987, the Pistons still managed to crack the list at No. 47 for their performance that year, when they lost a seven-game Eastern Conference Finals vs. Boston.

The Pistons swept Washington in three games in the opening round, knocked off Atlanta in five and then lost to the Celtics in seven after being on the verge taking a 3-2 series lead back to Detroit when Isiah Thomas committed the biggest blunder of his brilliant career at the end of Game 6.

With Detroit leading 107-106 in the waning seconds, Dennis Rodman blocked a shot by Larry Bird and the ball went out of bounds off the Celtics with five seconds left. Thomas attempted to inbound the ball to Bill Laimbeer under the basket but Bird stepped in and made "The Steal" that Celtics' fans still talk about to this day.

After intercepting the pass, Bird passed to Dennis Johnson cutting down the lane – all the while tip-toeing the baseline to avoid stepping out of bounds – and Johnson laid the ball into the basket with one second left for an improbable 108-107 victory.

In Game 7, the Pistons lost both Vinnie Johnson and Adrian Dantley when they knocked heads while diving for a loose ball. (The joke at the time was that it was the first time in his career Dantley dove for a loose ball and look what happened.)

"Entering the playoffs, the young team on the rise was supposed to be Atlanta, not Detroit – the Hawks had won 57 games and had the best scoring margin in the conference," Hollinger wrote. "But third-seeded Detroit surprised them in five games, winning two of them by a single point, and should have defeated top-seeded Boston in the conference finals, too."

Surprisingly, the 1988 Pistons didn't make the list even though that team could have – and probably should have – beaten the Lakers in the Finals.

The Pistons were leading the series 3-2 and Game 6 by a 102-101 score in the final seconds when Laimbeer committed what many still call the "phantom foul" on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, whose two free throws gave the Lakers a 103-102 victory.

Game 6 was when Thomas played perhaps the most memorable game of his career, scoring 43 points on a severely sprained right ankle.

The top 10 teams on the list, by the way, were the 2001 Lakers, 1996 Bulls, 1991 Bulls, 1971 Bucks, 1983 Sixers, 1986 Celtics, 1985 Lakers, 1982 Lakers, 1987 Lakers and 1999 Spurs.

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