How the West Was Beaten

Over the past 10 days the Los Angeles Lakers discovered what the New York Mets, Washington Redskins, New York Rangers and Baltimore Orioles already have found out the hard way: money can buy superstars, but only chemistry can build a team.
Having a regular season and playoffs seemed like a mere formality in October, because everybody assumed the Lakers were going to steamroll through both en route to their fourth NBA title in five years.
Some were even speculating that L.A. might challenge the 1996 Bulls record of 72 wins in a regular season. But, of course, they didn’t come close.
Like most Laker regular seasons, the team took games off, rarely played with intensity and set their sights for the playoffs. In the process of slacking through the 81-game season, the Lakers managed never to gel into a team.
They always seemed a little bit… off. Gary Payton was clearly never comfortable with the triangle-offense (and made a point of telling anybody who would listen, and some who wouldn’t, about it), Karl Malone couldn’t seem to figure out the role of a third-option and Shaq played hard in about 50% of the games due to his nagging toe injury.
And then there was Kobe. Between his jet-setting back and forth to Colorado, his penchant for taking over games all by himself and that bizarre game in April against the Kings when he answered critics by taking zero shots in the first quarter and finishing the game with eight points, Bryant looked like he was playing more as an escape from his legal troubles than for his team.
In the end, Los Angeles didn’t seem to care. They sleep-walked through their first-round series versus the Rockets, needed a Derek Fisher prayer to get past the Spurs and took advantage of a green Timberwolves team to sneak into the Finals. But never in any of those series did it seem like the individuals on the Lakers were ever on the same page.
But, depending on the matchup, they still could have won the NBA Finals. Had the Pacers or Nets snuck out of the East, the Lakers would have pieced together four victories and would have gone down in the history books as a troubled, but victorious team.
But unfortunately for L.A., they met-up with a Pistons team that had the one thing the Lakers didn’t: heart.
A team that was comprised of players that had been written-off early in their careers, the Piston players had something to prove in the NBA Finals.
While everybody was giving the Larry O’Brien trophy to the Lakers before the series started, the Pistons knew better. They knew they were the better team. Sure, they didn’t have the marquee names, all the banners in the rafters or Jack Nicholson sitting courtside, but they played together. In every game. And as it’s been said over the past 24 hours, five beats two every time.
With Karl Malone nursing an injury and Gary Payton doing his best Penny Hardaway impersonation, the Lakers were forced to start Devean George and Stanislav Medvedenko in Game Five, two guys who wouldn’t have started for the Cavaliers this year.
The Pistons, in part due to great coaching by Larry Brown, exploited the Lakers weaknesses, got L.A. down early, and for all intents and purposes, wrapped up the title at halftime.
On paper, it was shocking.
The Lakers have four Hall of Famers on their roster, the Pistons have none. The Lakers had the coach who is tied for the most championships in NBA history while the Pistons’ coach was better known for his vagabond ways than for his extraordinary coaching ability.
But the only championship that L.A. won this year was the one on that same paper. The Lakers were thoroughly beaten in every facet of the game; offense, defense, rebounding, passing, hustle, coaching and emotion.
Had it not been for a Pistons break-down late in Game 2 that allowed Kobe Bryant to hit a game-tying three with under three seconds, this series would have been done on Sunday. That’s how much better Detroit was than the heralded Lakers.
Was Detroit the best team in the league? Probably not. It would have been interesting to see Sacramento, San Antonio or Minnesota play the Pistons in the NBA Finals. But that doesn’t matter. The Marlins weren’t the best team in baseball last year, nor were the Lightning the best hockey team. However, all of those teams were the best when it counted.
The Lakers didn’t lose because they played as individuals because Kobe was selfish or because Karl Malone and Horace Grant were hurt or because of some Eastern Conference conspiracy. The reason there won’t be a parade down Ventura Boulevard this week is because the Detroit Pistons were the better team.

- With the series victory, Detroit becomes the first Eastern Conference team to win the NBA title since the Chicago Bulls did it in 1998. And perhaps even more amazing, the Pistons and the Bulls are the only Eastern Conference teams to win the Championship since 1986 (the Bulls won six, the Pistons now have three).

- Chauncey Billups was great in the NBA Finals and was a fine choice for MVP, but my vote would have gone to Ben Wallace. The Pistons won the series because of their shut-down defense, and the man who played the biggest part in that was Wallace. The afroed one brought down nearly 14 boards a game, including 22 in the deciding game.

- I think Kobe is going to end up staying with the Lakers. Even though all conventional wisdom suggests that he’ll be signing elsewhere after opting out of the final year of his contract, I just don’t see him in another uniform. Unless of course it’s an orange jumpsuit.

Tomorrow: U.S. Open Preview