AUBURN HILLS, MICH. ? The Detroit Pistons are a victory away from giving Larry Brown the only thing his coaching career is missing — an NBA title.

Detroit can deliver the milestone victory by beating the Los Angeles Lakers today at home in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, or in one of the following two games on the road.

“He won’t say it, but I think it would validate a lot for him,” Lindsey Hunter said.

Brown has won more than 1,000 NBA games with seven teams over 21 seasons, but another victory this week would vindicate his Hall of Fame career.

“I probably would be smarter if it happened,” Brown joked.

While many are stunned Detroit leads Los Angeles 3-1 in the NBA Finals, the Pistons are not.

The Pistons have been confident in their chances winning, and it had nothing to do with anything new Brown said or did.

Before the series started, Brown simply repeated his mantra, “Play the right way” — meaning be unselfish on offense and aggressive on defense. He has never strayed from his cool, calm demeanor.

“He’s taken the same approach ever since Day 1 — in the preseason,” Tayshaun Prince said. “It hasn’t changed since we got to the playoffs and advanced to the finals.”

When Brown’s title quest was put in focus the day before Game 5, he did his best to deflect the attention.

“I’ve been taught my whole career, it’s really not about me,” he said, almost pleading to change the subject. “It’s about these players.”

In NBA history, 26 coaches have won titles, and the longest any of them (Red Auerbach and Bill Fitch) had to wait for their first was 11 seasons.

If Detroit wins one of the next three games against Los Angeles, Brown will beat that mark by 10 seasons.

Since the Pistons won their second straight title under Chuck Daly in 1990, just three coaches have won it all: Los Angeles’ Phil Jackson (nine), former Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich (two) and San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich (two).

“There’s a lot of pretty special coaches in this league,” Brown said. “We just happen to have been in the same era of a guy that’s been phenomenal.”

After six seasons in Philadelphia — where he became frustrated with Allen Iverson’s tardiness and attitude — Brown enjoyed coaching the Pistons this season, saying it was like coaching the Olympic team.

The players showed up on time for practices, accepted his demanding ways and played hard in games.

Throughout Brown’s 10-team, 32-year career, he has been hired to make poor or average teams good — until he came to Detroit. The Pistons are the first professional team he has coached that had a winning record the previous season.

Brown was given a five-year, $25 million deal to turn a contender into a champion.

Brown is the first coach to lead seven different teams to the NBA playoffs, and to take four teams to the conference or division finals.

His 933 regular-season victories in the NBA rank seventh all-time and his 84 playoff wins trail only Jackson, Pat Riley and Auerbach; he was coach of the year when he led the 76ers to the 2001 finals. He led Kansas University to the 1988 NCAA title.