Its not so ironic when you consider the impact Shaq has.

One big difference is how they took the lose. The Lakers were sore losers. I still remember how cranky Phil Jackson was about it . The Pistons showed very good sportsmanship all around. Admitted they were beat and congradulated the other team.

One thing you can say about the current Pistons - they are the best losers we have ever had.

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."

Especially Chauncey.

I know, even after game 3, where objectively, the Pistons were showing that they were better, I still had the feeling that the Lakers only had to get it back to LA. Surreal is right, Micro. But what a great feeling when we kept winning.

I never seem that blank look on Shaq's face before--not quite that way. That one game he scored 40 and the Lakers still went down. That is why he bristled when the finger pointing started. And Kobe was in a bad nightmare. He kept telling the press, I will take care of it next game.

Actually I meant how they take a loss. A big loss. Never complain and go out of their way to make sure they congradulate every player.

I think all the credit goes to Flip (Saunders) when it comes to teaching this team what it takes to lose. Maybe that's why Joe brought him in here. He felt this team needed to be better losers and Flip had proven he was one of the best losers while he was with Minnesota.

Just a quick blast from the good old days.

This is still in my Favorites in my browser.

And it still works.

http://www.nba.com/playoffs2004/

I especially like the poll at the bottom of the page. You have to vote to see the results, but NOBODY expected us to win.

It's fun to talk about this. I remember that after Game 2 I booked the day off work for the day after Game 5. My boss was laughing pretty hard at me for that. But I was still pretty nervous the whole time. My rational side saw that we couldn't lose, but the irrational side insisted the Lakers would suddenly show up. Even halfway through the 4th in Game 7.

Last year's win wouldn't have been nearly as sweet. We were already hateable. We were so incredibly likeable in 2004. Last year woulda been nice for the 2 Game 7s on the road bit.

It wasn't a clean win. With Malone not wounded I don't know how much more competitive the Lakers could have been. But most fans at the News knew the Fakers were meat. The national media ended up needing a Mulligan.