There is no team that Pistons fans dislike more than Cleveland, and the revenge factor would add great drama to the festivities. The Game 6 loss last June 2 left an impression and colored the Pistons’ off-season. The Cavs’ surprise sweep of the final four games raises the unanswered question: Does the route to the NBA Finals go through Cleveland, or does it still go through Detroit? Meeting that team for a third straight season would be extremely exciting.

Then there’s Boston, which would provide a very different scenario. The Pistons’ history with the Celtics goes back decades and has been virtually dormant since the Isiah Thomas, Larry Bird era. The Celtics beat the Pistons in five games in 2002, but that was an isolated episode and only Paul Pierce remains from that team. The Pistons have no built-up hostility for the new-look Celtics. In fact, outside of the competitive arena, there’s a lot of love between the teams.

Flip Saunders, like most everybody else, has great affection for Kevin Garnett, his former player in Minnesota. Garnett is an icon of playing the right way, being unselfish and avoiding self-promotion. A player that great and that respected will become the No. 1 emotional lightning rod for series storylines. And it’s almost impossible not to like Ray Allen, another model citizen that average fans will root for to finally get his championship.

There is also an innocence about the Celtics. When they beat the Pistons at the Palace in the final seconds on Jan. 5, they were like kids in a candy store, flush with excitement about standing in against the Eastern Conference legends from Motown. The Celtics won only 28 games last year before the amazing deals for Garnett and Allen transformed them overnight. America loves stories of redemption and of unrequited greatness finally achieved. The Pistons, of course, would shove all that aside and try to crush them. But the emotional storyline for fans and the NBA promotional machine would still be there.

For me, Boston is the choice. June 3 marks the 20th anniversary of the Pistons’ great breakthrough, when they finally overcame the team Chuck Daly called “the 800-pound gorilla.” The shot of Kevin McHale wishing Isiah Thomas well against the Lakers on the Silverdome floor remains prominent in Pistons lore. Pete Skorich and our TV department would have a field day drawing comparisons to the present while reliving those wonderful memories of finally defeating the hated Celtics. It’s my point exactly. I’m rooting for Boston and Detroit to battle it out because the storylines will be fantastic!

When the great “Bad Boy” Pistons swept the then-dying Celtics the following year en route to their first championship, the late Red Auerbach told Detroit sportswriters: “I hate them. … There is some obligation to give a good image. What goes around comes around. If I owned a team, I wouldn’t want that sort of stigma attached to my team.” Back then, the Pistons were simply ahead of their time, changing the ballet-like style of the NBA to one that stressed tough defense, a style that became a formula for success to this day.

And by the way, tune in this Wednesday. It’s the Pistons’ regular-season finale with the Celtics and it’s in Boston. We promise you more than just a few good stories.