We'll see how we do against them. That's the nice thing about having games down the stretch -- you might as well test yourself against the best. This will be the first time we've played Detroit since we've made the changes in our team. We'll see how far we've come.

Against this caliber of team, you just can't do that.

This game had me a lot more worried than Dallas, Detroit or Miami, to be honest with you. Against those teams, you know your guys are going to play at the top of their game . . . in the beginning of the game, it was very similar to our past games (against the Hawks) -- too much dribble penetration and too many offensive rebounds.

That's part of his learning curve, when he's going against guys like that inside. I thought there were a few where he could have tried to power himself to the basket a little bit more.

It's hard for me to talk about next year. All I really want to do is make sure we finish up this season on the right note and that's our game Wednesday night against Indiana.

We haven't stopped talking about it and that's where we are. We have games coming up with people ahead of us, Chicago, Philadelphia, Indiana, and that's certainly not overlooking tomorrow's game against Atlanta.

You always want to play well against your former teams. But I don't think it's going to create a situation where anybody's going to become overly emotional or anything like that. If anything, maybe it raises your focus a little bit.

He's one of those guys who any night can explode for 40 or 50 or -- you certainly hope not -- 60 points against you. He's so tough because he's constantly attacking and he never really gives your defense a chance to relax. And pound for pound he's probably the toughest guy in the league.

We haven't ever stopped talking about it. We still have games against the people in front of us. . . . I said it before the season, during the season and I said it recently, it's all going to be decided in Game 82. Those six, seven and eight spots are going to be decided on the last day of the season.