The old saying goes: "Defense wins championships."

Of course, the Detroit Pistons are a great defensive ballclub. But they weren't championship material until they went out mid-season & traded for Rasheed Wallace. When they made to bold maneuver to go get 'sheed, I went on record stating that Detroit would come out of the East & provide serious competition for the NBA title. If the Finals had featured the Kings, Spurs, or a healthy T-Wolves squad, I think it would have been a pretty good series. But fate has delivered these infamous Lakers instead, who are rapidly imploding just as I expected they would. The Pistons play great team defense, match-up at every position (no one's gonna intimidate Ben Wallace, Shaq), have solid bench play, and sport one of basketball's best coaches (despite his lack of a NBA championship) - which is why they lead the Lakers 3-1 in the best-of-seven series to the surprise of those in the media, but not me. Rasheed had 26 points and 13 rebounds in the Pistons' 88-80 game 4 win Sunday nite, and he can help close out the series on Tuesday. It's just about time to break-up the Lakers...go Motown!

This entry was posted by mr gilbert at 6/13/2004 11:43:00 PM.