Pistons Turn Obstacles Into Launching Pad

Age, injuries and the loss of key players are the crippling blows that keep champions from repeating. But the Detroit Pistons avoided or overcame those pitfalls, even thrived on them, as they won their second straight NBA championship Thursday night.

The Pistons wrapped up the title with a 92-90 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, completing a three-game road sweep. (Story, C1.)

Only once before has a team won three straight titles--the Boston Celtics, who won 11 titles in 13 years, including a run of eight straight from 1959 to ’66.

Two years ago, the Lakers became the first team in two decades to repeat and last year the Pistons prevented the Lakers from making it three straight.

This year, the Pistons overcame a string of obstacles on their way to a repeat.

* They had an average age older than the Lakers, but survived while Los Angeles was eliminated in the second round.

* They lost starting power forward Rick Mahorn in the expansion draft, and plugged in James Edwards as a replacement without depleting their bench strength.

* They lost All-Star guard Joe Dumars with a broken hand down the stretch of the regular season, and managed to hold on to the best record in the Eastern Conference.

* They lost starting forward Dennis Rodman with an ankle injury for almost two games in the NBA Finals.

“We’ve never depended on one guy,” Dumars said. “We rely on different people doing it every night and playing defense night after night.”

The Pistons became the first team in NBA Finals history to win five consecutive games on the road over two seasons. They beat the Trail Blazers three times this year and completed a sweep of the Lakers in 1989 by winning two at the Forum.