  a few minutes ago the detroit pistons routed the los angeles lakers 100-87 to win the nba finals 4-1. like every laker fan i'm disappointed. but clearly the better team won here. how did they do it? let me count the ways: 1. teamwork. starters rasheed wallace, ben wallace, rip hamilton, tayshaun prince and chauncey billups were equally awesome. relievers like lindsey hunter and elden campbell also put in some quality minutes.
2. defense . in their four losses the lakers managed a measly 77.5 points per game. in their only win they scored 99 points. the pistons, meanwhile, averaged 90.8 points per game. 3. hunger . the lakers had experience.
they knew how to win championships. but being the kings of the hill, they were a bit complacent. the pistons wanted it more. that desire was evident on both ends of the court. 4. inconsistency . shaquille o'neal and kobe bryant showed up to play.
but the rest of the lakers didn't. gary payton, devean george, derek fisher and stanislav medvedenko simply sucked. the thinness of the laker bench was exposed. expect drastic roster revamps in the off-season. 5. injury . karl malone was one of the few lakers who played defense.
he guarded tim duncan, the 2003 mvp, in the western conference semifinals. he guarded kevin garnett, the 2004 mvp, in the conference finals. when he re-injured his knee early in the nba finals, he became a liability. he'll be retiring without a championship. 6. coaching . larry brown out-coached phil jackson.
he was able to rally his players in crucial stretches of the series, especially after that tragic game 2 overtime loss. he knew how to build up his troops' confidence. the pistons weren't intimidated at all by the big, bad lakers in this series. their coach had a lot to do with it. long story short, lakers lose. sigh.
better luck next year. 
