It had been an interesting opening-round playoff series against the Detroit Pistons, but by the time Game 6 rolled around, a fair number of the paying customers didn't believe the home team could force a deciding game. And, apparently, neither did the Sixers. Both were right.

"They clamped down on us," coach Maurice Cheeks said.

Uncharacteristically, the Sixers came out without their standard willingness to compete. They didn't exactly roll over, but close enough, and the Pistons don't need much of an opening to take control of a game.

That's what happened in the first quarter as the game, and the series, slipped away so quickly that all those who decided to stay home and save their ticket money - not to mention the gas money - were satisfied with the decision.

It's not the way you want to finish the season, disconsolately playing out the string against a far better team in a series that once appeared so promising. That is what the Pistons can do to a team when motivated, however.

At halftime of Game 4, when the Sixers held a 10-point lead and seemed capable of grabbing a three-games-to-one lead in the series, the Pistons started to play.

"They steamrolled from there," Cheeks said.

They wiped out the Sixers with a great third quarter in that game and then took firm hold of the next two games with overwhelming first quarters. In those three quarters, the most important ones of the series, the Pistons outscored the Sixers, 99-49.

If you want to know the true distance between these teams - between where the Pistons are and where the Sixers are - those three quarters, and that point differential, provide the answer.

"They are what we want to be, what we are working to get to," Cheeks said earlier in the series, and that remains the truth.

With last night's 100-77 dismissal behind them, the Sixers can begin to look for the bright spots in a season that had more than a few, and in a playoff series that had some for a little while.

"This has been a learning experience for us the whole series," Cheeks said. "I think that guys who have been through a playoff series and had some success learn so much."

One thing general manager Ed Stefanski has certainly learned - something he no doubt knew beforehand - is that the Sixers aren't going to win anything without a real three-point shooter on the roster.

The Pistons were able to double-team on the perimeter in this series, unafraid of what would happen if the ball were reversed around the arc, because the Sixers don't have that player. As a real example of how much difference that can make, the Sixers made 11 three-pointers in the entire series and the Pistons dropped in 32. Rasheed Wallace had 13, out-bombing the Sixers all by himself.

What else was learned? A few things.

The primary lesson is that Andre Iguodala is a nice player, but not as special as might have been hoped. The Pistons decided to shut him down and did that fairly effectively, holding him to an average of 13 points per game and, by extension, the Sixers to an average of 86.

Iguodala is a good regular-season player - "You get some easy shots then," Cheeks said - but not the caliber of star capable of leading a team in the playoffs.

That's a disappointing thing for any organization to learn, that it's biggest hole is the biggest hole possible - a go-to guy. Those aren't usually found on the free-agent market and they certainly aren't found with the 16th pick in the draft. The Sixers will have to get lucky to land the guy they need in that role.

What else? Thaddeus Young is going to be a good player, perhaps very good, for a long time. If he is Billy King's only lasting legacy to this team, it is a fine one.

The rest of them ran up and down the floor and tried hard for most of the series, with last night a notable exception. Andre Miller went full-speed trying to keep them afloat and finally ran out of legs. Sammy Dalembert's most memorable contribution to the series was an ill-considered haircut before Game 5.

How far away are they from true contention, from getting to where the Pistons are? It's hard to say. Stefanski has a lot of work to do, but he will have some money to spend and whatever positive carryover can be taken from returning to the playoffs.

"Philadelphia gave us a hell of a series," Detroit coach Flip Saunders said. "They woke us up."

And then the Pistons put the Sixers to sleep. The end came quickly, in front of 6,000 empty seats, and with the deep bench playing out garbage time in a game that was never even close.

The fans who showed up, and stayed to the end, applauded the team as the final seconds ticked away. The Sixers deserved that much, even if they didn't earn a better outcome in this series.

"I'm proud of them," Cheeks said. "It's unfortunate it ended the way it did."

But it did, and the Sixers fade into off-season as a team that is clearly coming, and as a team that just as clearly still has a very long way to go.

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