well, although the pistons lost and the spurs won, at least i can be comfortable knowing the pistons pushed the spurs to actually earn their rings, unlike the previous years when the spurs reached the finals. game 7 was actually pretty close, and at times in the pistons' favor. i thought the pivotal moments came when detroit's best big men were sitted b/c brown was afraid to get them in deeper foul trouble. that's when duncan just took advantage of the mismatches, b/c detroit went small. but give the spurs credit; i don't think they have any glaring weaknesses out of all the teams in the nba. detroit did spectacular, but you could say in game 7 their weakness of a thin bench finally came out, because once they got in foul trouble, they really got nailed.

strangely enough, bob got his wish after game 4; all the following games were close.

series recap in short:
i was wrong about parker; the big guard for the spurs was manu ginobili, and the x-factor came from robert horry. duncan was of course their constant; wasn't flat-out dominant like in previous years when he almost got a quadruple double, but the big overall consistent person.

i was also wrong about detroit; their main guard was billups; i seriously don't give this guy enough credit; doesn't always score big every game, but he's the most consistent offensive player. big ben was also a serious mvp candidate for the pistons, as he played his heart out after game 2, with rebound after rebound; although he had his difficulties w/guarding duncan, the series would have even greater swung towards the spurs if it weren't for him. and mcdice was huge off the bench. the series could have been greatly different if prince was a much bigger factor; he was just too quiet offensively.

despite what it seemed like, i think maybe, just MAYBE, detroit could've won in 6 if rasheed had not tried to double ginobili in game 5 during overtime(basically if detroit actually won 3 in a row at home). but then again, i don't know if spurs would've played the same during game 6, and ditto for the pistons.