I'm pretty much at a loss for words. The pistons played the best that they could have possibly played. Combine that with shady officiating (more on that later) and less than average play from the Lakers and I guess the outcome of this series isn't as 'surprising' as the lame ass media would have you believe.

As far as the officiating goes, I am not saying it was some conspiracy cooked up by the NBA. What I am saying is there is no way you'll ever convince me that one team could be 'aggressive' enough to shoot 171 free throws in five games (avg 34.2 per game) versus 111 (avg 22.2 per game). My view? The refs allowed one team to play physical because that's how they played all year long while they blew the whistle if the other team played physical. Tayshaun Prince wasn't moving his feet on Kobe at such an incredible rate that he could stop him, he was holding and pushing long enough for help defense to arrive (Strangely enough, tv announcers throughout the series applauded Detroit for playing Kobe and Shaq straight up, yeah never saw that).

I know this sounds like sour grapes but when a team is in the penalty within the first three to four minutes of every quarter, it makes it extremely hard to be competitive. Especially when the calls aren't being made on both sides of the floor. Just how often is Ben Wallace allowed to jump over someone's back to tap the ball out? Is Chauncey really allowed to take two steps and a hop.....when catching the ball?!?! Rasheed is allowed to curse the referees blatantly for 3/4 of a quarter but if Gary Payton so much as looks at a referee it's time for a technical? One sided affair and I'm not talking about the gameplay....