For the first time in eleven years, the NBA Finals is coming down to a seventh and deciding game to determine the champions of the NBA. Yes, it has been quite a while since such drama ensued during the Finals, and hopefully drama is in store for this year’s seventh game. Coming into the Finals, nobody wanted to see the Pistons and Spurs face off when there was a possibility of the Suns and Heat facing each other in the NBA’s final playoff series, two teams that were very explosive. That is, unless you consider yourself an NBA purist. However, with everyone believing this series was destined to be all defense, it was anything but. In the first two games of the Finals, it was a MANU-ficent eight quarters of basketball for the San Antonio Spurs. The man of the hour was no doubted Manu Ginobili whom scored a combined 53 points in the first two games, which thus helped lead to two huge blowouts at home. With Ginobili’s contributions, the Pistons were forced to put all of their attention on one player, which thus forced the defending champs, at the same time, to take their attention off of one of the NBA’s best players, Tim Duncan.
And with all of this offensive production being put on by the Spurs, it sure didn’t help the Pistons when the team received very little production from any of their starters. The only Piston that had seemed to show up for Game 1 was Chauncey Billups who turned in 25 points, 4 rebounds, and 6 assists. Thus, the Spurs, as a team, experienced quite a cakewalk for the first two games of the NBA Finals.
When both the Spurs and Pistons arrived in Detroit for the next three games, the two teams could not have felt the momentum change any faster than it proved to do in this series. Spectators were waiting to see what the Pistons could do in front of their home crowd. And in return, fans got a definite answer.
The Pistons actually knew how to play basketball.
The defending champions found its scorers finally landing on their feet somehow after all of the mishaps in San Antonio. Richard Hamilton, who somehow found a way to escape from the smothering Bruce Bowen, was the leading scorer in Game 3 with 24 points. And while Hamilton did the entire running around throughout the game, Ben Wallace dominated the middle with 15 points, 11 rebounds, and 5 blocks.
Now the Pistons had finally gotten a Finals game under their belt. The question was, would the momentum carry over into Game 4?
Well, to answer your question, carry over was an understatement.
Game 4 of the NBA Finals had proven to be the fourth straight lopsided result. If such thing exists in the game of basketball, then the Pistons shot and played a perfect game. While the Pistons were executing to perfection, the Spurs were blank, bewildered, and a beaten team all in one night. Every member of the starting five for the Pistons managed to show up contributing various ends to their team’s annihilation over the Spurs. The Pistons’ bench even had a big performance with one of its members, Lindsay Hunter, who managed to amazingly rake in a total of 17 points for Game 4.
After the Pistons had proven that the home team clearly had the advantage in this year’s Finals, many believed that it was more than likely that the Pistons would take a 3-2 series lead in the Finals. However, Game 5 of the Finals proved that drama did actually exist within the NBA’s championship series. Game 5 would also be a game where Robert Horry would find himself marking another notch on his belt of late-game heroics.
This Finals game was the first in this series that had actual competitiveness amongst the two teams competing, the Pistons and Spurs. Throughout the entire game, one team found itself right behind the other. When the fourth quarter was nearing an end, Duncan found himself with the chance to close the door shut on Game 5, but could not capitalize. The two-time NBA MVP somehow missed a lay-up in the final seconds of the game sending Game 5 into overtime.
Thus, the Spurs were able to bring out their secret weapon, Robert Horry. From the second half and on into overtime, Horry went on a streak of scoring 21 points with the final 3 coming in the final 9.6 seconds of the game.
Horry, otherwise known as “Big Shot Bob” was left all alone for some reason by Rasheed Wallace giving Horry a good 15 feet of sudden space to roam. With no one in sight of one of the NBA’s greatest postseason shooters, Horry scored the final three points of the game giving the Spurs a one-point victory, 96-95.
With the two teams returning back to San Antonio, no one really gave Detroit much of a chance to win for fear of that the Pistons might still be looming over the sudden disastrous lost of Game 5. However, the team from Motown had other plans.
If there is one thing that the Pistons have which the Spurs seem to be lacking, then it is tenacity. No matter how bad the Pistons lose, they always seem to try and find a way to come back the next night, which is something that a championship team must have.
Throughout Game 6, there were 23 lead changes and seven ties in the first three quarters before the Pistons gained an early seven-point lead in the fourth quarter.
No one gave the Pistons much of a shot of winning Game 6 coming in, and no one still gave them much of a chance if the game were to remain close throughout. However, even with the game still close between the Pistons and Spurs, the defending champions were not just going to give up their title.
In the final three minutes of the game, foul-plagued Rasheed Wallace scored seven points giving the Pistons a sizeable lead margin to work with which eventually led to a nine-point victory over the Spurs, 95-86.
One of the deciding factors during Game 6 was that the Pistons had a total of 19 assists, while only committing five turnovers in the entire game.
Now with a Game 7 finally in the works, it’s anyone’s guess who will win the deciding game and be crowned NBA Champions.
May the best team win.