Some will say the Lakers didn't show up for game one of the NBA Finals. Dan Nied saw a whole different story.
Note: this is the second installment of a special NBA finals series. check back to 210 West after every finals game to get Dan Nied's column.
Detroit Pistons forward Rasheed Wallace elevated from behind the three point arc, let the ball go and watched it swish gracefully through the hoop.
With that, Wallace put his team up 3-0 over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals and all of a sudden, after one possession in the series, the Pistons were not quite the pushovers the world made them out to be.
If there was any doubt about the Pistons ability to stay with the Lakers, it was quashed when LA had to rally late in the second quarter to take a one point lead into the half. Any and all doubts about the toughness of this Detroit team were extinguished after an 87-75 Piston win that put the series score at 1-0 in favor of the doormats.
Sure, we’ll hear today that the Lakers just didn’t show up for game one. Of course we will. If you believe the media, the Lakers haven’t actually been beaten in this post season, they’ve just let other teams outscore them. So be it. But the way it looked Sunday night in Los Angeles the Pistons may just be the gritty workhorse that crashed this Tinseltown championship party.
Long-armed Detroit forward Tayshaun Prince glued himself to Laker guard Kobe Bryant, altering his rhythm and forcing bad shots. While Bryant ended the game with 25 points, he didn’t help his team by shooting 10 of 27 from the field.
Bryant did help his team by holding potent Pistons guard Richard Hamilton to just 12 points. But the Pistons had an answer in point guard Chauncey Billups, who led his team with 22 points. Heading into this series against the defensive minded Pistons, it was thought that all the Lakers had to do was contain Hamilton. But the secret is out: more than one player can score on this Detroit roster.
Still, the Lakers got 34 points from center Shaquille O’Neal, but the way the Pistons played O’Neal may have been the reason for the win. After a first half of double teaming and fouling the Lakers’ brick house, Detroit coach Larry Brown decided he would let O’Neal win his battle. The Pistons stopped their double team tactics in favor of making sure no other player got his shot. It worked. Other than O’Neal, no Laker shot 50 percent or better from the field. On the other side, five Pistons hit that mark.
It remains to be seen whether this game was an anomaly or if the Pistons have figured out how to beat the Lakers. But what most thought was bad offense in the Pistons’ Eastern Conference Final series against the Indiana Pacers, a series where the teams struggled to find 70 points, was proven to be great defense. But the Lakers have been here before, losing game one at home to Philadelphia in the 2001 Finals. They took the next four and the series four games to one.
No matter, Sunday the Pistons have proved they aren’t going to lay down for media destiny. When Rasheed Wallace hit that three pointer on the game’s first possession, the Pistons were alive and the battle had begun.
Surprise.