Got a request? Leave a comment here. ask.fm/gearmast3r The best highlights from the 2004 NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Detroit Pistons.
At the end of this series the "experts" were still trying to figure it out. It was superb hustling hard-nosed defence along with disciplined well executed offense. The Lakers got out-worked and out-played by a bunch of young gritty Pistons. Great upset!
Die hard laker fan here but this pistons team is a very underrated championship team. They had a sharp shooting clutch play making PG. a scoring SG. an elite defending SF. A stretch 4 and an enforcer in the paint. Just a really really complete team
Jordan Downs yes. Very few finals now a days feels like this anymore, it all feels cheap and fabricated now a days. In part due to the high octane social media age with athletes, super teams, but also due to the vastly different playing style now a days which (as incredible as it is at times) has made real tough, gritty, every possession is critical basketball (the very best kind) extinct.
la as a team had 49 points with prime shaq and prime kobe and gary payton karl malone fisher george walton rush slava with 4 seconds to go in the 3rd lol ....like what?...that dont make no sense...LeBron today alone scored 46 points 12 rebounds and 5 assists
I feel the reason why is cuz most NBA Finals are predictable. Usually we already know how the series is gonna go. 2004 and 2011 were the only upsets that no one expected and that’s why everyone loves them. They didn’t feel scripted.
They don't trade for Sheed if they draft Melo or Wade. While I agree they definitely should have gotten one of them, without Sheed who knows if the Pistons even win one? Maybe they win 4, maybe they win 0. Without Sheed it's tough to know, his defensive versatility was special. In the end, it's safe to say this team should have been a dynasty regardless. Getting rid of Larry Brown was arguably an equally big mistake.
They dont need melo or wade to be a dynasty....all they need is to put Defense on....they should have won back to back if it wasnt for Horry's 3 in '05 finals....
@@SL-pg4dh everybody who says Melo would throw chemistry off is smoking crack. He was a 19 year old kid, would’ve been coming to a team full of strong personalities, with an already established culture. He absolutely would’ve fit in. He got along fine with Chauncey years later? I mean, Darko was lazy, entitled and (he even admitted himself years later) and alcoholic. Did he mess up the chemistry? No, he just got his ass benched. Corliss Williamson was never a good defender, I watching his whole career with the Kings. He was undersized vs big forwards and slow footed vs wing players. Memhmet Okur was a softie on the defensive end but he had a role and just had to play adequate D.... but as a role player they fit in FINE. Melo was absolutely a better athlete than Corliss/Memo, playing in a culture of effort, work and accountability he absolutely would’ve learned better man to man defense. You guys forget he was in a zone w/Cuse, who traditionally doesn’t produce good defenders at the pro level. BUT Melo was still a teen with plenty of potential to learn and develop.
Haha artificially made 😂 that team looked so generic.. almost like a 2K setup.. it actually made them look silly I could only imagine what all of those HOF’s were thinking 💭 after they were swept like that 🧹 it goes to prove you can place as many elite players together as you want but if the chemistry isn’t there you have nothing.. Malone definitely did not belong on the Lakers nor did Byron Russel.. they thought him and Malone could add to Kobe & ShaQ & it was gonna be a walk in the park.
The Pistons were the ones to realize that the key was never stopping Shaq, it was stopping Kobe, and then stopping Kobe. Man I miss this era of Deee-troit Baaa-sketball
He wanted the Lakers doing so bad. This commentary was pathetic the entire series. Dude was majorly butthurt that the Shaq/Kobe run was getting dismantled before his eyes.
Not really. I'm surprised they even got through San Antonio. I do think if lakers were at full strength they would've given the pistons a hard fought series
Kobe 4 of 13, 0 of 4 from 3, 5 turnovers. Shaq went 7 of 14. Should've gotten 2x as many shots. This was the game that let me know the Lakers were in deep shit.
Lakers have always been vulnerable. Shaq would never come out to perimeter to defend during a screen. Most teams in 00s didn't shoot good from range. It was mostly iso. The pistons abused the lakers with alot of switching and giving up good shot for a better shot. Basically all 4 guys on Detroit can shoot and stretch the floor. None of them had ego
@@st4r444Not that many Big men defended the Perimeter and were mostly known as Rim Protectors. Only few had a rarity to be able to switch to guards like KG, Russell, Hakeem, Ben Wallace and Dennis Rodman.
The best defensive team in NBA history is the only thing that lost the Lakers this series. This Pistons team held 6 straight NBA teams to under 70 total points during the regular season. This '04 team was just special, a team I'd put up against ANY of the all-time teams simply because of that defense.
this was one of the best championship games ever. The Pistons had five good players who with great teamwork beat the most starstudded teams of all time; the Lakers with Malone and Peyton added for overkill but the meat and potatoes team had beat them. Timeless
@@pragadeeshkannan4938 yup they are not yet retired that's why may not say so yet. KD, Curry, Klay and Dray are actually all time greats. Why? I believe at the level of Gary payton is Dray at least if not more. Malone has a strong argument over Klay but Klay has more rings and was vital for those rings. But on star power I can out Malone over Klay. As for KD and curry we may not be able to put Kd with Shaq or Kobe in terms of All time. But we know Curry and KD are definitely all time greats. Don't forget the warriors had Buggie Cousins and great bench.
This Pistons team is my favourite team of all time. The discipline on the defensive end was insane. The Lakers needed 5 1/2 minutes to score their first points. They had a fucking three peat.
2004 Pistons was the best team when they won championship against Lakers! They had great players during that time but sucks they didn’t repeat & 2005 was their last NBA Finals appearance
@@Only2GendersCommonSense Kobe had gotten his ankle messed up this game and barely played 9 minutes in game 2. Throw out that game and his average goes to 19 PPG. And I will admit he shot pretty bad in that series but he also secured them the win in Indiana when Shaq fouled out. Although I am Kobe's biggest fan, this year it was still clear that Shaq was the best player on the team. And with the Pistons-Lakers series there was so much crap going on off the court but I give the Pistons a ton of credit. They were arguably the greatest defensive team of all time and were supremely hungry for a championship which is no coincidence that they made that consecutive run of so many Eastern Conference Series.
Sam Rodriguez dude u can’t disregard a game n then do the stats n it wasn’t that anyway...he made terrible decisions vs Detroit the entire series n they were good but u have to play better vs teams like Detroit not like shit like Kobe played.. he’s just not jordan
The big mistake Joe Dumars and Pistons management made in 2005 was that they minimized their bench. In 2004, thay had one of the deepest benches in the NBA, and come 2005, they had one of the weakest benches in the NBA. Because of this, the starting five were played the stew out of. The fact that they managed to go seven games with the Spurs, and could have beaten them, with practically five players, proved how formidable the Pistons were during this time. This Pistons crew will always be my favorite 🏀
I think it was cap casualties that was the reason for that. Corliss mehmet okur mike james all got paid big money for bigger roles. Joe d actually did a good job getting mcdyess.
Imagine someone just tuning in at the end to see that the Lakers won. Then turning the television off and celebrating all night thinking that the Lakers were going to easily win it all.
Damn I loved this finals! No, it wasn't a great series as far as the teams being more even in talent, athleticism, or determination, but it was the flakers getting CRUSHED by the HUGE underdog Pistons. DEEEEtrooiit Baasketbaaaaaaall!!!
In 89 and 04 pistons crushed la 8-1 and the only loss game in ot in la after a lucky 6 point swing late on a bs call...otherwise pistons have actually owned la 11-5 in finals games....they got robbed in 88 in game 7...
Payton was terrible in the triangle offense. He looked awful in the series. As a matter of fact he got torched by Sam Cassell in the previous series. I tell my friends all the time if Cassell hadn't got hurt, it would have been a Pistons-Timberwolves finals.
Lakers had injuries to fox and Malone and Payton was trash and Kobe was meh...and Shaq wasn't as dominant...makes sense...rasheed made Detroit way better...although west teams are always favored vs the east pre 2011 LeBron miami days...post mj era ..from 1998-2010 the west always had home court except for 2008. ...since 2011 LeBron only had it 2 times so the east has only had home court 3 times since 97...even in mjs last season with bulls he didn't have home court in the finals vs Utah..that's 10 times in a row from 1998-2007 lol..and in the 10 years aince only 3 times...3 in 20 years lol...
Back then I thought it was a foregone conclusion the Lakers was gonna win. Little did I know how stout that Pistons team was and the Lakers wasn’t a team. Plus Shaq and Kobe was going through drama
No cabe duda lo difícil que es hoy ganar con tanto tirador Estos equipos que a duras penas metian 100 puntos no tenian nada que hacer en el básquet actual
Zone? Quite the contrary. Larry Brown hated zones and they were rarely used in those 2003/2005 Pistons. They were mostly about straight up,physical man-to-man defense, not to mention their help defense,switches and effective doubles were insane. When Pistons started to run zones often, with Flip Saunders as the coach, things went downhill for them. The 2 best defensive teams of the decade(Spurs and Pistons) rarely used any zones. Interestingly enough, Poppovich was a Larry Brown assistant, which may explain why they had similar defensive styles.
@@egyptianpiffin No worries. They did become known for zone later on, when Flip Saunders was the coach, but their reign was over, never got to the finals again
Former Laker Elden Campbell's pinch hitting defense on Shaq in the 2nd half helped put this game away. Big Elden wouldn't even let Shaq catch entry passes.
If lakers went with a younger pf instead of Malone and had Malone come off the bench, I think lakers could've kept up, the Pistons were young and hungry...maybe even start fisher cause he was pretty young too
I didn't get a chance to read the book but I remember watching their games an all that... but this finals loss hurt but I could tell something wasn't right with all the problems they had during the season with kobe an Karl then shaq an kobe
ensayofr Shaq was not to overweight to take his talents to south beach. He quit on this team. If he isn't posting up, he's not doing anything. Shaq got so many lane violations in his career, because stays by the basket. And that my friend, is why he shoots higher percentage. Ben Wallace shut him down
