Detroit Pistons eliminated Orlando in Game 7 at Little Caesars Arena and advanced to the Eastern Conference Semifinals for the first time since 2008. The bars on Woodward didn't wait for a formal announcement.
Cleveland is next. The series opens Tuesday at Little Caesars Arena, Thursday too, before it shifts to Ohio for Games 3 and 4. That's at least two guaranteed game nights on the corridor this week, and operators who staffed up through a seven-game first round are not backing down now. Extended hours, tip-off specials, walk-in surges on a Tuesday. Playoff basketball at this level is a hospitality event as much as a sports one.
Sunday's Game 7 wasn't close at the end. Fans stayed in their seats when it was over, stayed in the hallways. That energy carried into the night and into the week. Spots along Woodward and through Midtown have been the informal second venue for this run, and the crowd at the bar and the crowd at the arena tend to feed off the same frequency.
The Pistons became the 15th team in NBA history to erase a 3-1 series deficit and come back to win. The first to do it twice against the same franchise, having done it to Orlando in 2003 as well. For a team that went more than a decade without this kind of May relevance, the fact lands differently here than it would somewhere else.
Cleveland is close enough to send a contingent of visiting fans up I-90 and across the state line. Corridor operators know this. A rust-belt rivalry with real road fans attached is a different animal than a series against a Florida team.
This is also the first time in recent years that both teams in a second-round series won their first round in seven games. That kind of drawn-out first act builds an audience. By Game 7 on Sunday, the crowd-building machinery on social had been running for two weeks. Spots that posted specials and signage in the first round saw it translate. The second round gives them more material.
The Pistons went down three games to one, then won three straight. Detroit's bars were there for every turn of that. Now they've got Cleveland.
