But the Pistons used defense to beat the ultra-talented Lakers.
2004 NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS SERIES
The Eastern Conference representatives to the NBA Finals won a total of six championship games from 1999-2003 and the Pistons entered this series as heavy underdogs because of the Lakers’ all-star line-up. Even without home-court advantage, the Lakers made the NBA Finals by beating the San Antonio Spurs and Minnesota Timberwolves. The Lakers stormed back in 2004 after adding future Hall of Famers Karl Malone and Gary Payton to their line-up. The Lakers won three straight titles from 2000-2002 but struggled in 2003 and lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals. Series Odds: Detroit Pistons +500, Los Angeles Lakers -700 This series wasn’t supposed to be any different but the Suns were fueled by Kevin Johnson and Tom Chambers as they took out the Lakers in five games. But Los Angeles had beaten Phoenix in their previous six meetings in the playoffs including a 4-0 sweep in the 1989 Western Conference finals. The Lakers won 63 games that season and faced a Suns team that had 54 regular-season wins themselves. Los Angeles lost Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to retirement during the previous offseason but they still had the core of Magic Johnson, James Worthy, and Byron Scott on hand. They entered 1990 winning two out of the last three Western Conference Finals, winning the NBA title in both seasons.
The Los Angeles Lakers dominated the 80s decade by winning four NBA titles under the Showtime era.
Series Odds: Phoenix Suns +500, Los Angeles Lakers -700 In the last 30 years, we’ve seen the underdog prevail over the favorite several times but here are the biggest upsets we’ve seen in the NBA playoffs during the past three decades: 1990 Western Conference Finals
The NBA Playoffs is the 16-team tournament after the regular season which features the Top 8 teams of each conference playing each other in a 1 vs 8 formats over a seven-game series.Īlthough the higher seeds represent the better teams during the regular season and they enjoy home-court advantage during the series, there always a chance that the lower seed pulls off the upset. We have witnessed some of the biggest upsets in the NBA during the postseason.
0 kommentar(er)
