I was wrong. I thought the Lakers could not be headed in their march to Phil's one for remaining digit. Now, I STILL think the Lakers are title material. But the Pistons proved Sunday night that Los Angeles can be beat.
In fact, if the Lakers hadn't pulled this rope-a-dope routine before in these playoffs, I'd be thinking Bill Davidson is going to have a fine 2004. The Pistons deserved to win and they did it with little bits and pieces of the engine not sparking at maximum levels. Imagine a night when Rip Hamilton proves he's the league's best under-appreciated star. Or a night when the chief cement-head Rasheed Wallace places like the all-star he can be. And we've all seen Ben Wallace surprise us with big scoring nights. None of those imaginary threats realized themselves and Detroit STILL put a double-digit hurt on the Lakers.
Soooo, why shouldn't Motown fans start lighting up the parked cars? Cuz the Lakers get lazy in first games of series these days. Comes from knowing they can turn things on at will. The Adulterer had a lousy night for a 20 plus scorer and the team still manages to ignore O'Neill in favour of wilder shots late in the clock. On a night where O'Neill wasn't an embarrassment from the charity stripe, the Lakers AND the Pistons both left him alone to toss in the odd dunk and short jumper. What's the rule? If it works, keep doing it until the other team proves it can stop it. Meet the Lakers, where no success shall ever be repeated.
Given my pessimism about the Pistons, nothing would make me happier than to be wrong yet again. Corliss Williamson is one of the good people (The Big Nasty? Puh-lease. The guy's a pussycat off the floor). And Chauncey Billups is one of the cadre of shooting PG's I've championed over the years. I didn't get to know Billups during his pass-through of the Raptors, but the rep was good from people who I trust.
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