AUBURN HILLS, Mich. --  Only with hindsight will Raptors veterans Chris Childs and Antonio Davis be able to gauge just how tough this series against the Detroit Pistons really was.

For now, when asked to pinpoint the most draining playoff series they ever have played in, both Childs and Davis pointed to the numerous battles between the New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers in the late 1990s.

Childs was a Knick at the time, while Davis was a Pacer.

"Those series we (the Knicks) played against Indy and Miami, there was nothing like that," Childs said yesterday. "There was no ballet, no tippy-toe. It was man on man, let's go to war.

"You could have a no-layup rule back then. You could knock a guy down. You could be physical. But you can't do that anymore, not with the referees so quick to call flagrant fouls. You can't play the same way."