The way Boston played down the stretch to win at The Palace in the most anticipated game of the NBA season to date told the Pistons that they can expect to see the Celtics for an extended engagement this spring. The way the Celtics reacted to winning told the Pistons that Boston fully anticipates the same thing.

“It’s crazy,” Chauncey Billups said Monday, after a full day to digest the game and its aftermath. “As much publicity as they’ve gotten, they’re looking at us like we’re the big dog. And it’s validation of it when they win the game (and) they go crazy like it’s the Super Bowl. Yeah, it’s a big game to win against a good team, but when it was vice versa and we won (in Boston), we walked off the court, good game, see you next time.

“We’ve been in that situation so many times. They haven’t, as a team. So a big win for them.”

The Pistons looked at Boston’s posturing – Paul Pierce proclaiming the Celtics the best team in the NBA before leaving the court, James Posey taunting the crowd – with equal parts amusement, amazement and irritation. Pierce and Posey have a combined 17 years of NBA experience behind them and were acting like giddy schoolboys over a January win. The Pistons aren’t moved to react equally out of proportion to the circumstances, but you can bet they’ll file it away.

“You know what (Boston’s reaction) is,” Billups said. “It doesn’t linger. It’s not that big of a deal, but when a team reacts like that, you know how they look at you. That’s all.”

Translation: The Pistons had Boston’s attention. Now Boston has theirs.

To be certain, the stakes have been raised in what already was emerging as a rivalry for all basketball fans to embrace.

But be careful taking too much away from the way that game shook out. It’s two months until they play again. Here’s a guess that the rookie who has the biggest impact on their March meeting is Rodney Stuckey, not Big Baby Davis. The Pistons and Celtics are approaching the regular season differently.

The Celtics are to 2008 what Dallas was to 2007 and the Pistons to 2006, enjoying winning too much to step back and take the long view. It caught up to the Pistons two years ago when they got to May with a wrung out bunch of starters and an underdeveloped bench. It zapped Dallas last spring a franchise-best 67 wins meant nothing in the face of Golden State’s first-round fury.

That’s not a prediction that it will catch up to Boston, only that the Celtics need to be vigilant about monitoring their priorities. When the Pistons got off to their 37-5 start in 2005-06, it became a living, breathing monster that fed on itself. They became everybody’s game of the year, every newspaper in every city trumpeting their arrival. When you know you’re going to take every team’s best shot, human nature drives an in-kind response. Before you know it, it’s March and you’re dizzy from the drumbeat.

The Pistons can only hope Boston is driven to chase the 72-win record put up by the 1996 Chicago Bulls. Saturday’s win raised the Celtics’ record to 29-3 – on pace for 74 wins. The Pistons can tell them that when mid-April rolls around and 14 teams shut it down for the season, the 16 still standing all set their odometers back to zero.