Shaquille O’Neal left Thursday’s game against the Boston Celtics during the second quarter after taking a hard foul, has suffered a “significant right thumb sprain” according to TNT’s David Aldridge, and will not return to the game. Shaq’s short-term future doesn’t look bright, and Anderson Varejao and J.J. Hickson are worth a look if Shaq is out. Varejao has better size for the position, and projects to be a more consistent option than Hickson, who will provide more upside and scoring possibilities. Both will struggle with foul trouble.

Elsewhere around the NBA:

Boston: Coach Doc Rivers said Thursday that Paul Pierce’s thumb is not healthy enough to sustain contact during a game, and that he could miss “a couple of games of for sure.” “We just want to get him to the stage where if someone hits it he can sustain the hit, and right now if someone hit it it would go right back to where it was at,” said Rivers.

Oakland: C.J. Watson will miss Thursday’s game due to the flu and a possible appendicitis according to team officials. The Golden State Warriors are decimated by injuries, which means that Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry are strong candidates to play close to a full game, and Anthony Morrow and Anthony Tolliver will get more touches.

Utah: Andrei Kirilenko made it through Thursday’s practice and is expected to play Friday against the Sacramento Kings.

Sacramento: With Jason Thompson out for up to two weeks with a back injury, Kings beat writer Ailene Voisin reported that Spencer Hawes worked with the first team during the portion of Thursday’s practice that was made available to the media. His status for Friday’s game against the Jazz is still unknown, although beat writer Sam Amick said he would be surprised if he didn’t suit up.

Sacramento: Jason Thompson will miss up to two weeks with two non-displaced transverse processes fractures in his lower back, which were confirmed by X-rays taken Thursday.

Chicago: Joakim Noah missed Thursday’s practice due to a prescheduled doctor’s appointment about his plantar fasciitis.” No worries,” Noah said. “I’m just trying to get back as much as I can and help this team. I’m hurting, obviously, but it’s the end of the season right now and I want to be there for my team and I want to be as ready as possible come playoff time.”

As the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, the Detroit Pistons were a member team of the old National Basketball League (NBL) and the Basketball Association of America (BAA) before joining the NBA in 1949 and becoming the Detroit Pistons in 1957.

Today, the three-time champion Detroit Pistons play their home games at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Their head coach is the newly-hired Michael Curry, and their general manager is Joe Dumars, who played on the back-to-back title winning Pistons of 1989 and 1990.

Early Years in Detroit

When the Pistons first moved to Detroit in 1957, they immediately established themselves as a tough team to beat. They made the playoffs in each of their firsts six seasons in Detroit, though they didn’t get past the division finals.

The 1960s and 1970s were far from kind to the Pistons, who boasted some big names of the era but could not translate that into winning seasons. Between 1963 and 1973, the team only appeared in the playoffs once, despite having high-profile players like Bob Lanier, Dave DeBusschere, Dave Bing, and Jimmy Walker.

Despite a few playoff berths in the mid-1970s, the Detroit Pistons did not begin to establish themselves as an NBA contender until they drafted an Indiana point guard named Isiah Thomas in 1981.

Isiah and the Bad Boys

The Pistons continued to build after drafting Thomas. They acquired guard Vinnie Johnson and center Bill Laimbeer in 1982. This paid quick dividends for the team, as they returned to the playoffs in the 1983-84 season. They lost in the first round to the New York Knicks, but things were beginning to look up for Detroit.

The Pistons picked little-known shooting guard Joe Dumars in 1985, and they picked up forward Rick Mahorn in a trade that same year. Thomas, Dumars, Mahorn, Laimbeer and Dennis Rodman would form the core of the team that would earn the nickname “Bad Boys.”

The Detroit teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s had a rough, physical style of play that earned them the nickname. Rodman, Mahorn, and Laimbeer were well-known for their ability to get under the skin of opposing players. The team, under the leadership of head coach Chuck Daly, had a defense-first mentality that cast them as the polar opposite of flashier teams like the L.A. Lakers.

Championships

In the 1987-88 season, after amassing 54 regular season wins, the Pistons established themselves as the class of the Eastern Conference, beating the Washington Bullets, the Chicago Bulls and the Boston Celtics on their way to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1956 (when they were the Fort Wayne Pistons). They battled hard with the Western champion Lakers, but they eventually fell in seven games.

The following season, the Pistons won 63 games and returned to the NBA Finals bent on revenge against the Lakers. They got their revenge, sweeping the Lakers in four games.

The following year, the defending champion Pistons won 59 games and returned to the NBA Finals, this time against the Portland Trail Blazers. The opponent was different, but the result was the same. Detroit beat the Blazers in five games, making the “Bad Boys” back-to-back champions.

By the 1993-94 season, most of the core players had either retired or been traded, and the Bad Boy era came to an end.

Joe Dumars, the last holdover from the championship era, retired in 1999 and was named Detroit’s general manager in 2000. From the bottom up, he built a team that would eventually consist of Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Ben Wallace, and Rasheed Wallace, among others. With these players, and the guiding hand of head coach Larry Brown (hired in 2003), Dumars constructed a team that would give him a third championship ring, and the team defeated the Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant-led Lakers in the 2004 Finals. That Finals victory had at least an indirect impact on the fate of the Lakers, who, until then, were considered the first NBA dynasty of the new millennium.

2007-08 Season

With much of the championship core still in place (Ben Wallace left for the Chicago Bulls in 2006), the 2007-08 Pistons racked up 59 regular season wins and looked to be a favorite to win the East. They beat the Philadelphia 76ers in six games and the Orlando Magic in five games before falling to the eventual champion Boston Celtics in six games.

At the end of the 2008 season, head coach Flip Saunders left the team and was replaced by assistant coach Michael Curry.

2008-09 Outlook

Rasheed Wallace, Billups, Prince and Hamilton return, though they are a year older. Young players like Jason Maxiell and Rodney Stuckey will be expected to take on additional minutes and relieve some of the pressure off the older players. If they can do that, the Pistons will be a contender to win the East.

Greatest Players

Dave Bing, Chauncey Billups, Joe Dumars, Richard “Rip” Hamilton, Grant Hill, Dennis Rodman, Isiah Thomas

The Orlando Magic is one of the fastest rising teams in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. They boast one of the league’s best big men in Slam Dunk champion Dwight Howard, and they are coming fresh off a 52-win season.

The Magic play their home games at the Amway Arena. Their head coach is Stan Van Gundy, and their general manager is former Magic player Otis Smith.

Early Years

The Magic entered the NBA in 1989 as part of a four-team expansion effort with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Miami Heat and the Charlotte Hornets. Their first coach was Matt Guokas, and their first draft pick was shooting guard Nick Anderson. The expansion draft, which allowed certain players to be chosen from each team in the league, brought players like Reggie Theus and Scott Skiles (who would later set a league record for assists in a game with 30). The first team went 18-64.

After drafting forward Dennis Scott out of Georgia Tech in 1990, the Magic improved rapidly. In their second season, they put up 31 wins and served notice as a promising young team.

Between 1989 and 1992, the Magic averaged 23 wins. But thing were about to change.

The Shaq Draft

In 1992, the Magic won the first pick in the draft lottery and selected seven-foot center Shaquille O’Neal out of Louisiana State University. O’Neal, a powerful, agile center, paid immediate dividends, and the Magic improved from 21 wins to 41 wins. Shaq was named an All-Star starter as a rookie, the first player in NBA history to be so honored.

Picking up a Penny

The Magic lucked out again the following year, winning the first pick in the lottery in spite of a .500 record. They selected forward Chris Webber out of Michigan, and traded him to the Golden State Warriors for Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway.

The combination of a dynamic point guard and a bruising center turned the Magic into one of the NBA’s best teams nearly overnight. They won 50 games in the 1993-94 season and placed second in the division, losing to the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs.

The following season, the Orlando Magic were considered a contender for the title. They placed first in the Atlantic Division with 57 wins and beat the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls (minus the retired Michael Jordan) before exacting revenge against the Pacers in the conference finals.

In the NBA Finals, the Orlando Magic faced Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets. Shaq was no match for the wily veteran center, and the Magic were no match for the Rockets, who swept Orlando in four games.

The 1995 season saw the championship window begin to close for the Magic. The team was intact, but Jordan was back from his first retirement. Despite 60 wins and another division title, the Magic lost to the Bulls in the conference finals, 4-0.

Thus ended the dynamic duo of Shaq and Penny.

Shaq leaves for La-La Land

In 1996, Shaquille O’Neal left the Magic as a free agent and joined the L. A. Lakers. The Magic were still a playoff team even without O’Neal, but they were no longer a title contender. The team traded Hardaway to the Phoenix Suns in 1999.

2007-08 Season

The Orlando Magic have re-established themselves as one of the most dangerous teams in the East. Led by high school phenom Dwight Howard, the team won 52 games and the Southeast Division title. They beat the Toronto Raptors in the first round before falling to the Detroit Pistons in five games.

2008-09 Outlook

With Howard, point guard Jameer Nelson, Hedo Turkoglu and J.J. Redick, the Magic have a talented young nucleus and figure to be a favorite to repeat as Southeast Division champs. Whether or not that translates to a deep playoff run remains to be seen.

Greatest Players

Nick Anderson, Grant Hill, Dwight Howard, Penny Hardaway, Tracy McGrady, Shaquille O’Neal

Given the Miami Heat’s recent struggles, it’s difficult to believe the team won an NBA championship just two seasons ago. Since then, a shoulder injury to star guard Dwayne Wade and the Shaquille O’Neal trade have helped turn a champion into a lottery team.

The Miami Heat play their home games at the American Airlines Arena. Their head coach is Erik Spoelstra, and their general manager is former head coach (and former NBA player) Pat Riley.

Early Years

The Miami Heat joined the NBA (along with the Charlotte Hornets) in 1988. A ragtag group of rookies and veteran castoffs, they did what new expansion teams do — they lost, to the tune of 17 straight to begin the 1988-89 season.

In their first three seasons, the Heat averaged 19 wins, but their win totals grew steadily each year. In the 1991-92 season, they won 38 games and made the playoffs. The Heat had the misfortune of drawing the Chicago Bulls, and fell to them in a three-game sweep.

The Heat made the playoffs twice more in the next four seasons, but could not get out of the first round, losing to the Atlanta Hawks in 1994 and the Bulls again in 1996. The Heat got to the Eastern Conference finals in 1997, only to lose to the Bulls once again.

The Shaq Acquisition

In 2004, buoyed by the success of 2003 draftee Dwyane Wade, the Heat made a move destined to make or break the team. They traded Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, and Caron Butler to the Los Angeles Lakers for center Shaquille O’Neal. The superstar big man was given a huge public welcome, during which he promised to deliver a championship to the city of Miami. (He will probably be remembered as delivering on his promise, but Shaq had more than a little help.)

The Heat responded immediately. They won 59 games in 2004-05 and made it to the conference finals, where they lost to the Detroit Pistons in seven games. Pat Riley, who had resigned his coaching post to concentrate on his GM role, resumed his coaching duties in 2005. It has been speculated that Riley, intrigued with the prospect of coaching O’Neal, engineered the departure of coach Stan Van Gundy and took Van Gundy’s place on the floor.

The Championship Season

The 2005-06 season saw a slight decrease in regular season wins — from 59 to 52 — but the Heat were finally able to get over the hump. After beating the Bulls, the New Jersey Nets, and the Detroit Pistons, respectively, the Heat went to their first-ever NBA Finals, where they met Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks (who were also in their first Finals).

Dallas took the first two games at home and were winning Game 3 in the fourth quarter when Wade took over. The Heat came back to win Game 3 and never lost another game in the series, winning the NBA title, four games to two. Dwyane Wade was named the Finals Most Valuable Player.

It was a fourth championship ring for O’Neal, and the first ring for veterans like Alonzo Mourning, Antoine Walker, and Gary Payton.

2007-08 Season

Injuries hit the 2007-08 Heat. Wade had badly injured his left shoulder the season before, and wasn’t back to his dominant self yet. Mourning suffered a season-ending knee injury. Shaq was in and out of the lineup with chronic hip problems. In February of 2008, Shaq was traded to the Phoenix Suns for forward Shawn Marion. The Heat won only 15 games.

2008-09 Outlook

The Heat drafted power forward Michael Beasley and NCAA title game hero Mario Chalmers in 2008, and moved assistant coach Erik Spoelstra up to head coach after Riley decided to return to the front office.

Spoelstra has his work cut out for him, but Wade has returned to form. If he can get a contribution from Beasley, plus some unexpected help, the Heat may begin the long return to playoff contention.

Greatest Players

Alonzo Mourning, Shaquille O’Neal, Glen Rice, Dwayne Wade

For a team that always seems to be around at playoff time, the Phoenix Suns have precious little to show for it. Despite being one of the NBA’s most successful regular-season teams (and one of the most entertaining to watch), the Suns have yet to win an NBA title.

The Suns, who play their home games at the US Airways Center, enter the 2008-09 season with a new coach (Terry Porter) and renewed hopes for that ever-elusive championship ring.

Early Years

The Phoenix Suns were born in 1968 as an NBA expansion franchise. They only won 16 games in their first season, but expansion teams are expected to struggle, and fans of new teams tend to be patient with them — as long as they show steady improvement.

In their second season, led by coach Cotton Fitzsimmons,they made their first playoff appearance by posting a 39-43 record. The Suns lost to the L.A. Lakers in seven games.

The next few years were up and down for the Suns; they didn’t make the playoffs again until the 1975-76 season. That year, they made a spectacular run.

NBA Finals Appearances

Although they were only two games above .500 in the 1975-76 season, the Phoenix Suns hit the ground running in the playoffs. They beat the Seattle Supersonics and the defending champion Golden State Warriors before losing to the Boston Celtics in six games.

In spite of their perennial playoff status, the Finals would elude the Suns until 1993 — the season of Charles Barkley.

Barkley was in his prime at the time of his trade from the Philadelphia 76ers. He had arguably the best season of his career, garnering his first and only Most Valuable Player Award.

Guided by Barkley, the Suns won 62 regular-season games before beating the Lakers, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Supersonics to win the Western Conference title. But they ran into Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls, who beat the Suns, four games to two.

2007-08 Season

The 2007-08 season was marked by blockbuster midseason trades in the Western Conference, starting with the Lakers’ acquisition of Pau Gasol. The Gasol trade immediately made the Lakers title contenders, and other teams made trades in an attempt to put themselves back on the map. This is how the Suns ended up trading forward Shawn Marion to the Miami Heat for Shaquille O’Neal.

In his prime, O’Neal was the most unstoppable big man in the league and one of the most dominant in NBA history. At 36, though, Shaq is far from his “Superman” incarnation. Still, general manager Steve Kerr was convinced that Shaq made them title contenders.

While trying to work Shaq into the team framework, the Suns went 55-27 and drew the San Antonio Spurs in the first round. The Spurs beat the Suns handily, four games to one.

Head coach Mike D’Antoni left the Suns after the season, signing with the New York Knicks. Terry Porter was named the Suns’ head coach in June.

2008-09 Season Outlook

The Phoenix Suns are built to win now. Their best player — point guard Steve Nash — is 34 years old. Shaq is 36. Grant Hill, too, is 36. The Suns look ready to win, but their window is closing rapidly. In fact, by trading away their best defender in Marion, the window may be shut. But if Nash and Shaq can remain healthy, and the team can play cohesively under new coach Porter, the Suns should be around at playoff time, as usual.

Greatest Players

Charles Barkley, Tom Chambers, Connie Hawkins, Dennis Johnson, Kevin Johnson, Jason Kidd, Dan Majerle, Shawn Marion, Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Paul Westphal

The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the National Basketball Association’s highest-profile teams. Like the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League, the Lakers are synonymous with glamour. The purple-and-gold uniforms, the hordes of celebrity spectators regularly found in the stands, the “Showtime” teams of the 1980s – all add to the glamorous mystique of the team. When you’re blinded by the glitz of L.A.’s primary hoops team, it’s difficult to remember that the Lakers’ roots go back to the Midwest.

The team we now know as the Lakers began in 1944 when a National Basketball League team in Detroit was purchased and relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota. The state is known as the land of 10,000 lakes, hence the name Minneapolis Lakers.

The Lakers have a long-standing tradition of great big men, including the man generally regarded as the league’s first great big man, George Mikan.

At 6 feet, 10 inches tall, George Mikan moved with the agility of a much smaller man, and with the paucity of very tall players in the league, Mikan dominated for years. Led by Mikan, the new Minneapolis Lakers won the NBL championship in the 1947-1948 season.

The Lakers moved to the Basketball Association of America (the precursor to the NBA), along with three other NBL teams, in 1948. They won the BAA championship in 1949, led, once again, by Mikan, who played in the Finals series with a broken wrist. When the BAA merged with the NBL to form the NBA, the Lakers won the first NBA Finals.

Predictably, the Minneapolis domination of the league ended when George Mikan retired in 1954. Six years later, the Lakers moved to Los Angeles, becoming the first west coast team in the NBA. The L.A. Lakers were good but not dominant, until they acquired their next great big man, Wilt Chamberlain, in 1968.

Chamberlain, considered by many to be the most dominant big man in history, brought L.A. its first title, in a five-game defeat of the New York Knicks in the 1971-71 season. The next season, the Knicks returned the favor, beating the Lakers in five.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, formerly known as Lew Alcindor, was the Lakers’ third great big man, acquired from Milwaukee in 1975. He had several promising seasons in L.A., but they didn’t become the Showtime Lakers until the Lakers drafted Earvin Johnson in the 1979 draft.

Johnson had an immediate impact on the Lakers. Together with Abdul-Jabbar, he led L.A. to the 1980 NBA title with a six-game win over the Philadelphia 76ers. During that series, Abdul-Jabbar was injured, and Magic played center in Game Six. Johnson scored 42 points and grabbed 15 rebounds.

The Lakers of the 1980s – dubbed “Showtime” for their flashy style of play – won five NBA titles while engaged in a fierce rivalry with the Boston Celtics. For their part, the Celtics, led by Larry Bird, won three titles during that time span.

The Lakers’ fortunes took a downward turn in 1989 when Abdul-Jabbar retired after 20 years in the league. Magic Johnson led the Lakers to a Finals appearance in 1991, only to be beaten by Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Johnson was diagnosed with HIV later that year, and retired in November.

In 1996, the Lakers traded for their next great big man, Shaquille O’Neal, and traded Vlade Divac to the Charlotte Hornets for the rights to rookie Kobe Bryant.

O’Neal and Bryant immediately made the Lakers a Western Conference contender, but they weren’t able to get over the championship hump until the 1999-2000 season, when the team hired Phil Jackson. The team immediately responded to Jackson’s offbeat coaching style and his championship pedigree (he had won six titles with the Chicago Bulls), winning the NBA title the next three seasons.

A loss to the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 Finals, coupled with personality conflicts between Bryant, O’Neal, and Jackson, caused a breakup of the mini-dynasty. Shaq was traded to the Miami Heat and Jackson did not return to the team for the next season.

Jackson soon returned replacing Rudy Tomjanovich, but the Lakers did not return to title contention until the 2007-08 season, when they acquired Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies. Bryant and Gasol led the Lakers to the 2008 NBA Finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics in six games.

The Lakers enter the 2008-09 season filled with optimism. Their two top players, Bryant and Gasol, squared off against each other in the 2008 Olympics gold-medal game, but they return as teammates, hoping to accomplish what they very nearly achieved last season.