ESPN

PHILADELPHIA -- We'll tell you all you need to know about Game 6 of the Pistons-76ers series in a dozen words: It took just 236 seconds for the home fans to start booing.

In what quickly turned into an almost unwatchable game, the Sixers were that bad right from the get-go Thursday night, falling behind by double digits for good just three minutes and 15 seconds into the game -- just 19 seconds after those boos began -- in what ended up as a 100-77 loss to the Pistons.

Detroit won the series 4-2 and moves on to a second-round series beginning Saturday night against the Orlando Magic.

"From a heart standpoint and a preparation standpoint, this series prepared us for Orlando. Guys now understand what we need to do to exert our will in order to be successful."

The Magic and Pistons split their season series, Orlando winning the first two -- one by 18, the other on a 12-footer by Rashard Lewis as time expired -- and Detroit triumphing in the final two. Last season, the Pistons swept the Magic in the first round.

"It'll be a lot different -- they shoot a lot of 3s and they push it inside to Dwight Howard, and they play a lot of four-out, one-in," said Chauncey Billups, who found his offensive touch early in the clincher and finished with 20 points on 8-for-11 shooting, combining with Richard Hamilton (24 points on 9-of-14 shooting) to form a one-two backcourt punch that knocked out Philadelphia with ease.

The Pistons said afterward that this had been a wake-up call series for them after they fell behind 2-1 and were down 10 at halftime of Game 4, but time has shown us that they make that statement every spring, so it remains to be seen if they truly learned a lesson.

But since halftime of Game 4, they have played with peak energy and efficiency, and Thursday night's manhandling gave them an extra boost of confidence heading into the next round.

How different are the Magic from the Sixers?

Well, consider that Philadelphia made three 3-pointers in Game 6, upping their total for the series to 11. (Rasheed Wallace outdid them all by himself, making 13 3s in the six games. He also had 20 blocks, nearly matching Philly's team total of 22.)

Orlando, on the other hand, knocked down nine 3-pointers in the first quarter of their opening game against the Toronto Raptors and finished that series shooting 48-of-148 from downtown.

It wasn't just the Sixers' players who were inept -- the public-address announcer mistakenly referred to Jason Smith as Jason Williams, and the stat crew credited two missed free throws by Andre Iguodala to Samuel Dalembert before later correcting their error. And as noted by ESPN.com's live-blogging Henry Abbott, even the cheerleaders were missing their dunks.

So we had ample opportunity to quiz one of the scouts sitting along press row about how the Pistons-Magic series might play out.

His take: "The key to the series will be how Chauncey does against Jameer [Nelson]. Jameer hasn't had a lot of success against him in the past."

Saunders also must decide whether he wants to defend Dwight Howard by sticking with Jason Maxiell as his starting center, a move he made after Antonio McDyess broke his nose in Game 3 and stayed with thereafter -- though Saunders did say he expects backup center Theo Ratliff to play an increased role "against Superman."

After shutting down Iguodala, who shot 23-for-69 in the series, Tayshaun Prince likely will have the defensive assignment against Hedo Turkoglu, and Rasheed Wallace will match his inside-outside game against the similar skill set of Rashard Lewis.

The pick here is Detroit in seven games, and ESPN.com's picks will be up on the site by this weekend. As much as I like Orlando, I think the Pistons' experience will make the difference in a win-or-go home Game 7.

Yes, the Pistons swept the Magic last year, but this year's Orlando team is a different animal with a different coach and a different offensive scheme.

And, yes, this year's Pistons team is hitting some of the same type of roadblocks that they hit the past two years, but the utter embarrassment of dropping two games to a clearly inferior opponent seems to have truly sobered them. If there's a letdown against Orlando, rest assured it'll be nowhere near as egregious as the ones the Pistons had in Games 1 and 3 and in the first half of Game 4 against Philly.

"We really didn't catch a rhythm in this series until the second half of Game 4, and we really got our defense going, our offense going and things like that," Hamilton said. "And we kept carrying it over, so hopefully we can continue to do that."

Chris Sheridan covers the NBA for ESPN Insider. To e-mail Chris, click here.

Playoff Dimes Past: April 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | May 1

PHILADELPHIA -- Andre Iguodala says he is coming back to the 76ers.

But will he? We'll have to wait and see, because he didn't exactly increase his value these past couple of weeks.

A season that began with Iguodala turning down a $57 million contract extension ended with him being shut down by Tayshaun Prince and having a subpar offensive series as the 76ers were eliminated from the postseason with a 100-77 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Thursday night.

Iguodala, who will be a restricted free agent over the summer, was believed to be asking for almost $10 million more than the Sixers were offering when the window for agreeing to an extension closed at the end of October. Whether the Sixers will now yield to his demands remains to be seen, but Iguodala certainly didn't raise his stock in a series in which he often seemed to be lacking confidence in both his outside shooting and his free-throw shooting.

At one point during Thursday night's blowout loss, a fan in the second row behind the basket screamed "Finish!" at Iguodala after he drove to the basket and bounced an ill-advised pass to Samuel Dalembert that caromed out of bounds. A few minutes later when Iguodala drove and unsuccessfully tried to dunk over two defenders, the fans gave him an extra round of applause just for trying.

Iguodala finished the series shooting just 33 percent from the field and 14 percent from 3-point range, and he was booed at times by the home crowd (not all that big of a deal, given that Philly fans are notoriously quick to boo) during the clincher.

"Those folks who stayed in the stands after the game was decided, they had good things to say," Iguodala said. "I plan on being here. We've done a lot of good things, and I want to show these fans I am the guy who can have this team playing into May and June."

The price has to be right, however, so don't put Iguodala's prediction in stone. If the dollars remain an issue, a sign-and-trade might be the only deal that makes both sides happy -- especially after the way Iguodala failed to assert himself as the franchise player he yearns to be paid like.

Chris Sheridan covers the NBA for ESPN Insider. To e-mail Chris, click here.

PHILADELPHIA -- The Sixers Dancers just spent the timeout using a small trampoline to complete simple dunks. They finished up with four straight misses, and one dancer landed while doing the splits, which may or may not have been intentional. The whole thing was designed to get the arena pumped up, but I think instead it made people nervous. Like this game for the Sixers so far, at this point it's one of those "well, at least nobody got hurt" kind of things.

To read the entire blog, click here.