The more things change...

They said that everything had changed, that this year would be different, that there was a whole new level of excitement in the air. But yesterday, when all the predictions were set aside and the action finally happened, things looked remarkably similar to before. The defending champion Detroit Pistons came out and won their game, and the defending Western conference champion Los Angeles Lakers came out and won theirs too. They are now on top of their respective conferences in the standings. Fan-tastic.