Haven't you figure it out yet...the championship series is only boring when the Lakers aren't playing. After all, everyone expected the Lakers to win. San Antonio is too smalltime to compete with the likes of glamorous (cough-cough) LA. It has to do with demographics. [/quote]
You have to throw in the little dig huh Jordan? Couldn't be gracious in victory huh? Oh wait, your team has to win something before that would apply to you, or are you jumping ship and becoming a Piston's fan now?
In response to your question BBF, I thought the same thing last night as I watched one of the most impressive defensive performances I had ever seen and I have a couple of thoughts, and I am not knocking the Spurs, just stating what I think is the differnence between them and the Pistons.
1. The Spurs never look inspired or energetic, they don't play exciting basketball, it has nothing to do with their "small market" status or anything to do with them being from Texas, it has to do with Popovich's unbelievably boring defensive and offensive schemes, there is no creativity on either end of the floor and that is one reason LA beat them, they were able to disrupt the set and staid defense and Popovich made no adjustments, or at least he made too few or incorrect ones, as a result we saw panic in the Spurs, and LA capitalized. You know every time what the Spurs will do, and if you adjust, you can overcome it, because they won't adapt or adjust themselves. The only one that gets creative or plays exciting ball is Ginobili. They're boring, period.
2. Detroit played similar defensive schemes but were never tied to them, they were creative and adaptable, I think Brown saw that letting Shaq and Kobe get theirs while shutting down the rest of the Lakers was a bad plan to stick with the rest of the series and decided Kobe was not going to get his and implemented the perfect measures to effect that decision. Detroit played exciting, creative, energetic (did I say creative?), and inspired defense. They were creative and adaptable (did I say creative?). And they NEVER got rattled except after Kobe's miracle shot in game 2, which lasted all of 5 minutes and they were right back to playing team defense for the next 3, no panic, no nerves, no anything but cold blooded efficiency coupled to emotion and desire. I never saw that in the Spurs and for that matter absolutely never saw it in the Lakers in the Finals.
I hate that LA lost, no question, but Detroit's defense was exciting, Ben Wallace was an animal, and it was an incredible display of what we all know is a fundamental truth, defense wins championships. Their defense is what opened up their offense and they played exciting basketball, it would have been exciting regardless of the opponent, I almost wish it hadn't been LA, cause they were pasted by a clearly more focused and better coached team.
