The Celtics-Lakers that Never Happened

Sunday afternoon, the pundits were buzzing again. Detroit's "shocking" blowout of the Phoneix Suns was an unexpected result in what figured to be a competitive, potential preview of the 2008 NBA Finals.

But to anyone who has followed the Detroit organization since President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars' re-institution of Detroit as an NBA powerhouse it's old hat by now. For most of the Tim Duncan era, Detroit has remained at or near the top of the Eastern Conference, evident in their five consecutive trips to the Eastern Conference Finals. But what gives? Why only 1 title, and 2 trips to the Finals?

Its my theory (among other smaller reasons) that Detroit's hubristic attitude--which is also their greatest strength--has consistently caught them off guard in the most crucial of moments during their runs at the Larry O'Brien trophy (with the exception of the 2004 World Championship).

Think about Detroit's attitude as a Marxist adaptation of Michael Jordan's sense of individual superiority. The Pistons have always known they've had the talent, and the teamwork to compete with anyone--including the big bad Western Conference, but because the team's intensity generator is not centralized under one individual player, it becomes lazy, hard to control and falls prey to the classic "play to the level of the competition" archetype.

But today's post isn't about picking apart the specific ins and outs of the Bad Boys II era, it's about a broader storyline--one that has quietly defined the course of the post-Jordan NBA. It's about the great NBA rivalry that never really happened.

It's about the Spurs-Pistons rivarly that almost defined its era--but didn't.

Quick flashback: Game 5 of the '05 Finals, overtime. The series is tied at two games even, and Detroit has a 2-point lead with less than 10 seconds remaining in overtime. A victory gives would Detroit a pivitol 3-2 lead over San Antonio, as they would need to win only 1 of the 2 remaining games of the series in San Antonio to sucessfully defend their title in 2004. San Antonio inbounds the ball to Manu Ginobili who is immediatley trapped in the corner by Rasheed Wallace. The only problem...Wallace leaves Robert Horry--arguably the most influential last second shooter in NBA playoff history. Ginobili makes the pass to Horry the elbow and rest is history.

This is a bonehead move. No, no...this is the bonehead move. Of the series, the playoffs, and maybe of the entire era. Rasheed Wallace's inexcusable abandonment of Robert "Big Shot Bob" Horry--a man who has historically killed teams time after time by drilling huge 3's in huge games was was the equivilant of the Zidane headbutt in the 2007 World Cup.

The Pistons rallied to win game 6 in San Antonio (an incredible feat in itself considering San Antonio's home record that season) decisivley--but didn't have enough to win a game 7, at the SBC Center. Of course, it's grand conjecture to say that if Wallace makes the right play and stay on Horry, the Pistons go up 3-2, head to San Antonio and win the series in 6 games. But the reality is, this wasn't the only blatanly blown opportunity to take home hardware at the end of the season.

In the follwing season Detroit blazed through the regular season owning everyone, including the Spurs. They were on a mission to claim what was rightfuly theres. Except somewhere, a team that had flourished offensively since Flip Saunders became coach, unexplicably lost their shooting touch after game 2 of the Eastern Conference divisional playoffs against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavs. The Cavs rallied from being outright dominated in games 1 and 2 to win the next 3 games. Detroit eventually won the series in seven games, but the mystic around the team on a mission was over. And Miami disposed of the Pistons relativley easly in 6 games.

The following season, Ben Wallace left, but the Pistons kept winning. But once again a playoff stumble for the favorites happened again. This time, their defense allowed LeBron James to essentially drop 30 straight points, while their anemic pressure cooker offense failed them again and another team that wasn't supposed to, got to the promise land thru Detroit.

Here's the point of all this historical exposition: Detroit is the only team other than Dallas (who was robbed in '06) and the Shaq-Kobe-Phil Lakers that legitametley pushed San Antonio to the limit. The only team with a real shot of beating San Antonio in a 7-game series. Do that in the East, and you're the bonified foil to Tim Duncan and his masterful run at defining the Post-Jordan context.

But it never happened. Detroit failed--in maddening collapses/departures from the majority of their regular and post-season performance--time and time again. Even in 2003, when New Jersey embarassed them in the Conference finals, Detroit was clearly the better team.

Had Detroit been able to keep some semblence of the championship form in any number of the years they simply collapsed in one form or another, it wouldn't be implaussable to believe that they would have met up with San Antonio on multiple occassions. Perhaps even beating them once or twice. In that sense, Rasheed Wallace's misplay is enormous. Not just in the context of the series--but in the way we talk about the era. Do the Spurs still become a dynasty? Is Tim Duncan still clearly the most important, and significant player of his time? Or would the era be defined as two equally matched foes battling beautifully in an egalitarian battle for basketball supreamacy in the basketball universe?

I suppose we can only dream.