AUBURN HILLS, Michigan, 17 June 2004 — Ben Wallace notched 18 points and 22 rebounds to help the Detroit Pistons crush the Los Angeles Lakers 100-87 on Tuesday to claim the NBA championship and end one of the great dynasties in league history.
Showing attacking flair to go along with their trademark gritty defense, the Pistons completed one of the biggest upsets in the NBA finals to lift their first title since 1990 with a startling dissection of the heavily-favored Lakers.
With three titles in the last four years and a roster stocked with All-Stars and future Hall of Famers, the swashbuckling Lakers arrived at the finals expecting to add to the franchise’s glorious legacy.
But the Pistons, who rely on teamwork over glitz and glamour, utterly dominated the Lakers to win the best-of-seven finals 4-1 and return the title to the Eastern Conference for the first time since 1998.
The Detroit victory earned their Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown the first NBA title in his 21-year career while denying his LA counterpart Phil Jackson a record 10th championship ring.
It also gave Detroit’s reclusive billionaire owner Bill Davidson his second championship in as many weeks, adding the Larry O’Brien trophy to the Stanley Cup his Tampa Bay Lightning picked up last Monday.
“This is a great night and the guys did a tremendous job,” said the 81-year-old Davidson over the deafening cheers.
Brown said: “I told them before the game it would be a great statement if we had an opportunity to win because we do play the right way, and we truly are a team.
“Since this is toward the end of it for me, and we did win against such a quality coach and a quality team, it’s a pretty incredible feeling.”
While it was the Pistons’ crippling defense that carried them to the title, it was the team’s offensive guard Chauncey Billups who walked away with Most Valuable Player honors.
The Pistons and Lakers stepped on to the court for Game Five aware that each team would have to write a small piece of NBA history to claim the title.
For the Pistons, winning the championship at home would mean sweeping the three middle games of the best-of-seven series, something never before accomplished since the NBA introduced the two-three-two finals format in 1985.
For the Lakers, the task was even more daunting, no team having ever clawed back a 3-1 deficit to lift the crown.
If the Lakers were going to send the finals back to LA they were also going to have to do it without future Hall of Famer Karl Malone, who finally gave into the sprained right knee ligaments that had bothered him since Game Two. The 40-year-old had joined the Lakers in the hope of capturing the title that had eluded him in a brilliant 19-year career, but he looked a forlorn figure on the LA bench as his championship dream faded away.
With the sellout Palace crackling with excitement and expectation, the Pistons ran on to the court to a thunderous ovation.
A positive start by the Lakers, sparked by an eight-point outburst from Malone’s replacement Stanislav Medvedenko, seemed to indicate LA would not go down without a fight. But after weathering the short-lived challenge, the Pistons stamped their authority on the contest in the second quarter to surge ahead 55-45.
The Lakers would never again get closer than nine points and at one stage trailed by as much as 28, the crowd roaring their approval with every basket as the Pistons stepped on the accelerator to power to an 82-59 third-quarter lead.
“They came out and played with great intensity,” said Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal, who was held to 20 points.
“We started off with nice energy and we got into quick foul trouble then they just had us on our heels. They just came out and played real good team ball and they played well and they flat out beat us.”
