5 Things for March 27: Pistons lose to Cavaliers on Waiters Buzzer-Beater

1. The Pistons lost, or won, depending how you view it, to Cleveland on this Dion Waiters shot as time expired:

Cleveland went on a 23-5 run to end the game.  Matthew Dellavedova scored a career-high 21 points for the Cavs.

If you are pro-tanking, I can not overstate how massive this 'victory' was for Detroit.  The Pistons now have the eighth-worst record in the league, which is a very important number because their draft pick is top-eight protected.  The Cavs have the ninth-worst record in the league, and the Pistons have a two-game 'lead' on them.  In my opinion, that shot going in was a massive blessing for Detroit, who is 5.5 games out of a playoff spot with 11 games remaining.

The NBA, it's tanktastic.

2.  Unlike Pistons-Cavs, two good NBA teams met in a heavyweight battle last night.  The Pacers may have just sealed home-court advantage throughout the eastern conference playoffs by edging the Heat 84-83.  Paul George scored 23 points, including these two on LeBron James:

The Pacers have a three-game lead on the Heat for first place in the eastern conference.

3. I was about to say that the Wings have a huge game tonight, but I guess they are all huge from here on out.  They play the Montreal Canadiens at the Joe tonight. Detroit is part of a four-way tie for the last two playoff spots.  You can view the standings here on NHL.com.

Ansar Khan of mlive.com reports that Tomas Jurco will be back in the lineup.  Justin Abdelkader and Pavel Datsyuk are also getting closer to returning.

4. A big decision was made that could shift the landscape of college football.  The NLRA has ruled that Northwestern football players are 'employees'.  That means that the players can seek better medical coverage, workman's compensation, and other benefits that they currently do not have.  CNN.com has you covered with more details and a link to a PDF of the board's ruling.

5. Justin Verlander continued his spring dominance, giving up just one hit in 6 and 1/3 innings as the Tigers beat the Phillies 1-0.  Verlander did not give up a run in 20 innings of work this spring.