In the 2004 NBA Finals, the Pistons' opponent was the Los Angeles Lakers with four superstars, before that, the Lakers had won three consecutive championships, established a dynasty, this season, it recruited Carl Malone and Gary Payton to help the team, but although the Lakers team has a strong lineup, it is not without weaknesses, Malone played in the finals with an injury, which more or less affected the state, plus he and Payton are also older, and it is normal for the court to not keep up with the pace of young people, But these are all superficial, what really matters is -

Infighting.

Kobe and O'Neal are fighting for the distribution of the ball, no one is willing to make concessions, the rest of the team is forced to stand on the side, old players such as Marlon Payton of course support O'Neal, and Kobe's supporters are of course Fisher, Wharton, Cook and other young players, for the sake of ball control and boss status, the two do not give in to each other.

In the first game of the finals, there was a big upset, the Pistons defeated the Lakers 87:75, the Pistons' defensive strategy is very simple, that is, to strangle the "OK" combination, let others go, O'Neal is surrounded by double Wallace, still 13 of 16 shots and 34 points and 11 rebounds, but also paid as many as 6 turnovers, Kobe Bryant played poorly under Prince's close entanglement, only hit 10 shots in 27 shots in exchange for 25 points, and the player with the most points in others was the starting small forward, Devin George, who scored five points, is already the third-highest score on the team.

And the Pistons are more flowering, Billups finished the small fish Fisher and Gary Payton, this game is also the epitome of the entire one-round series, both of them can't hold Billups's big ass, he scored 22 points, 3 rebounds, 4 main players and 3 steals on 8-of-14 shooting in this game, Rasheed Wallace played a magical battle, and got 14 points and 8 rebounds with only 4 shots in the game.

The Pistons' first victory was not the advent of Lady Luck, after this game, the world really realized how strong the Pistons are, they are disciplined, like an army, compared to Payton, Kobe, Malone, O'Neal The four kings only see the intricate relationship, the Pistons are more concentrated, Big Ben and Tianzun needless to say, Prince has a long arm, which is not suitable for ball control, and Hamilton has also weakened his ball-holding offense, which is not good at it, Full-time became a pure shooter who catches and shoots, and all the ball of the team is concentrated on Billups, so to speak, Billups was the core brain of the Pistons back then, he pointed there, where is the direction of the team, all the players screamed and rushed in this direction, concentrated a little, and killed the enemy in front of the horse!

In the last 10.9 seconds of the game, the Pistons led the Lakers by 3 points at 89:86, the Lakers sent the ball in the front court, Kobe Bryant singled out Hamilton at the top of the arc, and after continuous shaking, he faced Hamilton's defense and pulled out a three-point shot to drag the game into overtime, and this three-pointer was the only three-pointer Kobe Bryant made in the whole game.

In overtime, the Pistons' offense suddenly lost power, and only Hamilton scored 2 points, while O'Neal and Kobe Bryant combined to score 10 points, and the Pistons lost to the Lakers 91-99, and also made the efforts of Billups and Hamilton, who combined to score 53 points, go to waste.

Although the Lakers finally won the game in this game, it also exposed the Lakers' biggest hit this season, that is, the overall age of the team, O'Neal is 32 years old, Kobe Bryant is 26 years old, and Malone is 41 years old, Payton is also 36 years old, and the team's important substitute Rick Fox is also 35 years old, in fact, this is the last year of Fox's career, Fox retired after the season, and it doesn't matter if the main players are old, The point is that the benches are still a bunch of raw eggs, backup guard Derek Fisher is 29 years old, starting small forward, Devin George, fifth year is considered long, backup forward Medvidenko is a fourth-year, perimeter shooter Karim Rush is a second-year, and O'Neal's main substitutes Luke Wharton and Brian Cook are just starting the first year of their careers.

On the other hand, Pistons Tianzun and Big Ben are both 30 years old, Billups is 27 years old, and Hamilton is only 26 years old, these people are strong and strong, not afraid of tossing, but the Lakers are not good, Malone dragged the 41-year-old body and struggled on the court for a full 41 minutes, in this game, Kobe and O'Neal accounted for 47 of the team's 80 shots, and scored 62 of the team's 99 points, while the rest of the team did not score a double-double.

The main players are older, and their physical strength has long been exhausted after 82 regular season games and all the way to the finals, and the role players are young and have enough experience in the big game, this is the biggest hit of the Lakers that year! However, their opponent is the Detroiters who focus on defense and advocate hand-to-hand combat, and the Lakers' F4 combination is like a lion who has been old and decrepit, and happened to meet an upright young and strong wolf, and it is not yet known who will kill the deer!

In the third game, the two sides moved to Detroit, the Lakers were tired of this game, the game trend was a thousand miles, the old lion was pressed to the ground by the wolves and beaten, O'Neal scored 14 points is already the highest score in the team, Kobe Bryant used 13 inefficient shots in exchange for 11 points, no one else can score, and the Pistons' Hamilton scored 31 points, shining all over the court, the Pistons defeated the Lakers with a score of 88:68, and the series score became 2:1.

The fourth game was still held at the Pistons' home Auburn Hills Palace, the relieved Lakers began to resist desperately, O'Neal dominated the inside, shot 16 of 21 and scored 36 points and 20 rebounds, the Pistons' strategy was simple and clear, and O'Neal couldn't prevent O'Neal from directly letting Big Ben defend alone, not wrapping up, and then strangling the outside, Kobe Bryant vs. Prince, the offensive ability was automatically weakened by 30%, and only 8 of the 25 shots scored 20 points, and the Pistons' three major firepower points, Tianzun, Billups and Hamilton combined to score 66 points, the first three quarters of the two teams played 56:56, evenly divided, to the fourth quarter of the Lakers can not bear it, O'Neal this point is still a problem that the Pistons can't solve, in the last quarter he shot 5 of 6 to score 13 points, but the Pistons' three major firepower points took turns to make the Lakers unable to parry, the so-called indiscriminate punching to kill the master, it may be about this in the end, the Lakers in addition to O'Neal scored 13 points in the last quarter, and Kobe Bryant scored 8 points, and the others only contributed 3 points, And the Pistons Tianzun, Billups, and Hamilton scored 29 points together, and directly took away the game in waves, and the Pistons led the Lakers 3:1, and victory was in sight!

The fourth game is still held on the home court of the Pistons, the Lakers can still bite the opponent in the first quarter, only one point behind at 24:25, and they can't parry the Pistons' combination punches in the second quarter, Hamilton 7 points and a punch, Big Ben 7 points and a punch, Memet Oku on the bench also scored 7 points, and gave the Lakers a punch, and the Lakers Kobe Bryant scored 8 points in a single quarter, which is a counterattack, and then look back, no one is there, O'Neal only scored 3 points in a single quarter, the so-called double fist is difficult to beat four hands, this Laker's one-handed can't beat people's three punches!

After halftime, the Lakers trailed the Pistons by a full 10 points.

In the third quarter, the Pistons took advantage of his illness and wanted him to die, Prince scored 7 points to give the Lakers a big ear scraper, Billups scored 6 points and slapped again, Hamilton and Campbell even pinched and scratched together to score 8 points, and the Lakers O'Neal recovered, scoring 10 points in a single quarter is considered a counterattack, and then looking back, there is no one left, Kobe Bryant only scored 4 points on 2 of 6 shots, and what is even worse is the role player, except for OK, the others have a total of 8 shots and 0 shots, not even a free throw, let alone fight back, and they also untied their shirts and lay on the bed to let the Pistons go crazy out!

After only three quarters, the overall situation was decided, the Lakers trailed by 23 points at 59:82, and in such a slow-paced defensive game, 23 points were like an insurmountable moat, and the four kings of the final quarter came down one after another, giving the role players plenty of time to perform, and finally chased back 10 points, and finally lost to the Pistons 87:100.

The Pistons won the NBA championship in the 2003-2004 season, the title of the Predators resounded throughout the United States, and it shocked the world, before the Finals began, no one would believe that they would win, the Lakers' F4 Uranus was star-studded, in contrast, the Pistons' starting five Tigers were just like a grassroots team, and the Lakers' head coach Phil Jackson publicly said that before the Finals, they hadn't even studied the video of the Pistons, and he himself didn't believe that the Pistons could go all the way to the Finals, they always thought that they were on the floor of the Finals, and the opponent they faced would be the Indians, the NBA is such a place full of legends, and the Pistons broke out what can be said to be the biggest upset in the history of the NBA!

The Pistons defeated the invincible Los Angeles people in this year, which led to a huge butterfly effect, the Lakers collapsed quickly within a year, the disheartened Malone announced his retirement, Payton was sent to the Celtics, and the contradiction between the team's pillar O'Neal and Kobe Bryant was openly intensified and irreconcilable, Lakers President Buss Sr. weighed again and again, and chose to rebuild around the younger Kobe Bryant, sending O'Neal to the Heat, head coach Phil Jackson said that Kobe Bryant could not coach, and voluntarily resigned, and the following season, The Lakers fell quickly and didn't even make it to the playoffs......

Of course, this is all a later story, the success of the Pistons this season is inseparable from one person, he is the team's general manager - Joe Dumas, from the Hawks to trade Rasheed Wallace, who was mistaken by the world at that time as a "troublemaker", from the 76ers to poach the old coach Joe Dumas, this is Dumas's handwriting, especially the latter stroke, it is simply a match made in heaven, the old coach Brown is hot-eyed, everyone knows that the Lakers O'Neal is the first firepower, so almost all teams will cover O'Neal when facing the Lakers, But Old Brown just didn't, insisting on letting Big Ben and Tianzun defend alone, so as to block the Lakers' outside line with more experience, this move also forced the Lakers to a dead end, Kobe's performance in the finals was a big disappointment, and the Lakers' offense stagnated, as Old Brown said after the game-

I know that the Lakers' offense is better than that, and as long as we block the Lakers' offense, I believe our defense is better than the Lakers' offense! That's why we won!

Finally, on the finals stage that year, Chauncey Billups, who averaged 21 points and 5.2 times per game, lifted the FMVP trophy and became arguably the most civilian Finals MVP in NBA history! At the same time, he is also the first FMVP in NBA history to have never made it to an All-Star before!

Well, that's it for the Pistons-Lakers Battle of the Century.

In 2004, the Pistons signed Antonio McDyce for 4 years and 22 million on the basis of retaining the original lineup, McDyce is 206 cm tall, serving as a power forward, and when he first entered the league, he was also a type of flying away, and his physical fitness was extremely good, (Uncle McHai didn't have to bend his knees when he jumped, he belonged to a helicopter-like straight up and down, with this trick alone, he couldn't produce one in the league for fifty years, and he was a strange person, the peak was in the Nuggets, averaging 21 points and 12 rebounds per game) and later fell because of a knee injury, Although he can't jump, his basic skills are still there, especially his invincible small and medium shots are extremely accurate, and Uncle Mai became the best substitute for the Pistons this year, averaging 9.6 points and 6.3 rebounds in 23.3 minutes per game, with a shooting rate of 51.3%.

In the 2004 draft, the Pistons selected Carlos Delfino, a wild guard from Argentina, with the 25th pick in the first round, and Delfino, who was later nicknamed Defei, also became the first player selected by Argentina in the first round of the NBA, Defei is the main player of the Argentine national team, and in 2004, he helped Argentina defeat the United States to win the gold medal and became famous all over the world, but the Defei in her rookie season was attacked by injuries and only played 30 games. Averaging only 3.9 points per game, Defei, who returned in the second half of the season, did not make the Pistons' 12-man playoff squad.