When we did win it all, the team had incredible luck with opponents suffering major injuries.... maybe this team wasn't as good as we'd like to believe. It could be that our expectations are too high... back to backs are very rare these day. It seems that as soon as you get a good core other teams are waiting like vultures to snatch your talent... success breeds large unaffordable contracts. Why should we expect a dysnasty when we have a cheap owner and high draft picks?
The post season is where you play for all the marbles, but really it is only a fraction of the entire season. Yes, it's what you play for, but the best team does not always win the championship. IMO, The Pistons WERE easily the best team last year. Miami was the best team in the Playoffs. History marks Miami as the champion. Fair enough. They got hot at the right time and got some help from the NBA front office (without that assistance wouldn't Dallas be getting the rings?). I understand. It's not where you start...but where you finish that counts. But that's the thing. If people are so upset we didn't win the championship, isn't it because they believed WE were the best team and should have won? If not, then didn't we go as far as we were supposed to go?
Miami was even more lucky than us. If Tyson Chandler didn't get injured in the end of Game 4 the Heat had a serious chance of losing in the first round. If Richard Jefferson didn't get injured in Game 1 maybe NJ beats Miami. If Rasheed didn't get injured maybe we're off to the Finals. Injuries are a part of the game though. Remember that Rasheed and JO were both injured in the ECF. I don't think 04 was lucky at all. Like you said repeats are very hard to pull off and this team was a couple minutes away from pulling it off.
Maybe if Uncle Cliffy doesn't get caught with the stash/chronic, the Nets push the Heat to seven games.....and we win what now turns out to be the worst lost of the seaosn...game 1 of the ECF!!
From an article on the tigers website: Is Detroit one of a kind? First the Red Wings ... then the Pistons ... now come the Tigers, sporting the best record in baseball. Has a city ever had three of its pro teams, let alone two, finish the regular season with the best overall record? Answer from site: I looked through the league standings for the four major sports all the way back to 1935, and no city has done that. A lot of people have emailed in to mention 1935, when Detroit teams won the World Series, NFL and NHL titles. However, the Red Wings didn't win the Stanley Cup until the 1935-36 season, and neither the Lions nor Tigers had the best record in their leagues en route to their titles. A handful of cities have had two teams
Like max, I am still shocked. I was pissed when the Spurs lossed b/c I wanted to kick their ass this year. Then I was going to begin looking forward to the rubber match in next year's finals...
