Lakers/Pistons Parallel

I was a huge fan of the Pistons back in the late-80's early 90's...i love team ball and commitment to defense. But I was so disappointed with the way they handled finally losing to the Bulls in 1991.

I've been thinking about the way the Lakers are acting in this series vs. the Spurs. It's not over, but they've been handled pretty well by SA. And they have been so amazingly ungraceful in defeat...blaming everyone and everything other than the fact that San Antonio just flat out beat them. It reminded me of the Pistons back in the day....apparently this guy agrees with me, but for different reasons.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2003/story?id=1551209
Thursday, May 8

Lakers' plight parallels plummet of '91 Pistons

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By Sam Smith
Special to ESPN.com

We in the media business here look for signs and trends and precedents. This is so you can spend more time concentrating on "American Idol." Who, by the way, is no longer Michael Jordan. But I digress.

This feels a lot like 1991. There's one of those signs we and M. Night Shyamalan have been looking for. It was back then that the U.S. kicked some Iraqi butt. And it was back then when a tough, old-school dynasty fell to a bunch with younger legs and fresher frustrations.

Phil Jackson should remember since he was there. I remember the famous talk he gave the Bulls the year before when they didn't have home-court advantage against the Pistons, who would beat them in the playoffs in 1990 for the third straight season. Jackson said the Pistons had just three chances to win one on the Bulls' home court, but the Bulls had four chances to win one on the Pistons' home court. Phil then smiled knowingly, and it even made sense to Stacey King.


Phil Jackson, right, has witnessed the downfall of a dynasty before as the Bulls' head coach.
So then, like the Spurs this season, the Bulls would try again in 1991 against the two-time defending NBA champion Detroit Pistons. It should have been three-time, but they were practicing giving the Lakers foul calls back then when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar got a suspicious one in Game 6 of the 1988 Finals just as the Pistons were about to win their first NBA title. He made a couple of free throws and the Lakers held on and then won Game 7 for their last pre-Phil title. Everyone would have been a lot more upset except the foul was called on Bill Laimbeer. And if he didn't commit that one, he deserved to be called for many others. It was sort of like the Texas justifications for those guys on death row: Well, they may not have done the one they're there for, but they surely did some others.

Anyway, here were the Pistons trying to extend that dynasty, but there were some problems. One thing was the lack of home-court advantage. It was a tough season for the champs. Their leader, Isiah Thomas, was hurt and missed part of the season. They never quite got it going until late, winning nine of their last 15 to get to 50 wins while the Bulls cruised to 61 wins and the best record in the conference.

This all went on after the U.S. wrapped up a war with Iraq with a president named George Bush.

Eerie, eh? Then the Bulls played a mediocre first game at home, but won, and then took a two games to none lead heading to the home of the defending champions.

Uh oh.

Could this be the end of the Lakers' mini-dynasty? Just as it was the Pistons' in 1991, when a younger, faster team that had been frustrated for years broke through behind the guy winning his second MVP after everyone stopped watching the war news on CNN?

Detroit even had the Phil Jackson of that era, Chuck Daly, whose calm was credited with carrying the battling Pistons through tough times and tough games. Daly went the entire 1992 Olympics without calling a timeout and was famous for negotiating the Thomas-Laimbeer feuds of that era. He folded his arms a lot and was considered a genius.

This 2003 Lakers team is looking an awful like that 1991 Pistons team. And this 2003 Spurs team is starting to look a lot like that 1991 Bulls team that began its championship run. With MVP Tim Duncan, 27 (a year younger than Jordan was then), a baby backcourt of Tony Parker, 21, and Manu Ginobili, 25, and the chance to buy a top player or two this summer in the free-agent market with the retirement of David Robinson, the Spurs could be setting up the next NBA dynasty.

Though let's not get too far ahead, since the Spurs have won a championship and their run was one in a row. This has been the franchise, some have suggested, with the tissue paper logo.

It's certainly too soon to write off any defending champion. Not with the comebacks we've seen in the playoffs from the Lakers the last three years. Really, I still can't believe the Trail Blazers blew that 15-point lead in 2000 and Robert Horry hit that shot last year against the Kings. But champions do that. Runners-up say they can't believe it happened.

But this is serious stuff. It's not that the Lakers have fallen behind two games to none -- that's no real big deal for champions. It's the way it has happened.

Rick Fox has got to feel slighted about the MVP vote now. After all, how do Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant get in the top five, but the Lakers can't win unless Fox is in the lineup?

The three-time defending champions need Fox and his 42 percent shooting and nine-point average from this season?

That's trouble. It's a big reason the Lakers are in trouble. They never fortified their bench after last season, choosing to be satisfied that you can't get better than three straight titles. So Fox goes down, and then when Devean George does, too, depth is a problem. Now Horry can't just wait until the ball bounces to him while he's standing out of position. Now he's got to look to score. And start. And play lots of minutes. Who's idea was that, anyway?


L.A.'s refusal to restock has led to matchups like Mark Madsen, right, on Tim Duncan, left.
Brian Shaw is starting. Jackson didn't even know Shaw was under 40, and that can't be a good thing. The Lakers even lowballed Shaw a year or so ago, letting him go in order to cut his salary. Good thing he was from California and had nowhere else to go.

I never thought I'd say this, but I saw Mark Madsen guarding Duncan one on one. In a playoff game. You know, if you stay around long enough ...Phil Jackson is playing rookies in playoff games. He never even knew that was allowed.

"Other guys in the locker room need to stand up and make contributions to this team," O'Neal said after the Lakers' Game 2 loss on Wednesday.

This cannot be a good thing.

It was 1991 when Jordan coined that "supporting cast" thing that everyone accepts now like the NBA is the movies. Forget the basketball. The guy invented long shorts, the beauty of baldness and tie-wearing, though Allen Iverson didn't get that memo.

It was Game 1 of those conference finals for the Bulls against the Pistons in 1991. The Bulls were stumbling against a Pistons comeback at the end of the third quarter. Jackson's practice was to rest Jordan the first three or four minutes of the fourth quarter. The game was tied and the Pistons were coming. What, Phil worry? So a bunch of guys named Will, Scott, Stacey and Cliff went out there and got a 10-point lead for Jordan, who was gracious enough to dub them his supporting cast when he returned to finish the victory.

The Lakers don't have those guys anymore, not without Fox and George. Everyone moves up in the rotation, and when they yelled at you for shooting all season, it's hard to get 20 points now.

The Spurs also aren't so dumb. They noticed that Bryant and O'Neal can get their 30 each and the Lakers still might not score 80 points. So they're staying on Derek Fisher, who hit 21 threes in the opening series against Minnesota. Fisher is shooting everytime he can, which means he's had 11 shots so far.

By the way, that Minnesota series did have an effect. Everyone noticed the Lakers could lose. And if you can lose to Kevin "What's a Second Round?" Garnett and the Timberwolves, how good could you really be?

The Lakers are good, but they're worn down and shorthanded. Look, Shaq is healthy now. Or seems so. If they were going to be dominant, this was the time.

Bryant also has noticed who's in the lineup. It's like Jordan used to say when everyone taunted him about how Magic Johnson was superior because he made his teammates better. "It's easier," Jordan liked to say, "to make Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy better."

It's not so easy to make Jannero Pargo, Madsen and Kareem Rush better. Not now. Not when the pressure is on.


Bruce Bowen has been effective defensively and offensively against Kobe Bryant.
Forget those seven threes Bruce Bowen made in Game 2. He's doing the best job on Bryant I've seen. Bryant is averaging more than 30 points a game -- and he can get 30 against a Marine batallion if he wanted to -- but he's averaging more than 30 shots per game. It's what he's had to do against the Spurs. He shot less than 38 percent against them in the regular season. Bowen gets up on him, but he also doesn't go for all those head fakes and pumps that send Bryant to the foul line so much. I always wonder why any guard jumps. They might block one shot in a hundred. Just get your hand up.

It's also been wonderful to see Robinson having an impact. Heck, it's great to see him walking. This is the last walk through for him and maybe he's the guy to actually quit after winning a championship. No one stops Shaq. We have to say that -- more if you're on TV. But Robinson also has stayed in front, held his ground and made O'Neal take tougher shots. If he has to work, and the other guys are covered, he and Bryant are going to have to get 40 each.

But then they might play less defense than they do. The Timberwolves averaged 100 points per game in the first round. The Spurs are averaging 100 now, and that's with taking off after three quarters in Game 2. It is not the stuff of championships in this era, not when the Lakers are trying to walk it up. No one comes out on the pick and roll, that no one usually going by the name of Shaq. They're giving up easy baskets on cuts. They're turning the ball over by the count of 35-24 in favor of the Spurs.

The Spurs' big problem, even when they won a championship, was it was bor-ing. They dropped the ball into Duncan, waited for a double team, swung the ball around, shot a three and moved the ball back in. Whatever. Who was paying attention anymore?

Now they run and Parker throws up those little teardrops in the lane. And Lakers' fans are crying. Ginobili may think like a lefty, and he surely plays like one. He comes from odd angles, tipping balls, picking up loose ones and scrambling the entire game. The Lakers are not sure he knows just who they are. And even if Duncan doesn't shoot as much as he probably should -- C'mon Tim, it's Mark Madsen -- he's reliable on the defensive boards. Those extra possessions were always a mark of a Jackson playoff team, as well as taking out some major opponents' weapon. The Spurs, though, may have too many now, apparently too many for the Lakers.

Hey, should a team with Madsen, Rush, Stanislav Medvedenko and Pargo in their rotation and Brian Shaw starting win a title? It may be asking too much of even the great Bryant and O'Neal.

But so what if the Lakers don't win again. What if it is like 1991? That turned out pretty good for the Hollywood Democrats, eh Mr. Bill. Oh no, not another Clinton!