No Fringe Benefits

The Lakers had lost Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night, the Detroit Pistons tougher perhaps than they thought, Larry Brown having sneaked up on them again, three years later.

Rick Fox left a disconsolate Karl Malone in the locker room, Malone staring dolefully at a box score the Pistons won everywhere but beside Shaquille O’Neal’s name, ultimately by 87-75 at Staples Center.

Game 2 is Tuesday night in Los Angeles, followed by as many as three games in Detroit.

At the outset of a Finals they had all played for and then waited for, Kobe Bryant missed 17 times in 27 shots, Malone and Gary Payton combined to score seven points, and only O’Neal, who had 34 points and 11 rebounds, kept the Lakers even close as they lost for the first time in 10 postseason home games.

“It puts a lot of pressure on us for the next game,” O’Neal said. “We came out a little too loose, too lackadaisical.”

Chauncey Billups scored 22 points and the Pistons attempted more free throws, shot better from the field and defended relentlessly, often enough to the final moments of the 24-second clock.

A team that did not make 40% of its shots in either of its previous two series, the Pistons scored 47 points and shot 48.6% in the second half and never led by fewer than six points in the fourth quarter.

And so the Lakers left a quiet gym and Billups and Richard Hamilton poked each other on the chest at the other end of the floor, the Pistons ahead in a series few had given them a chance in, the Lakers having lost home-court advantage almost before the series started.

“This is unbelievable, man, the feeling that we have right now,” Billups said. “But, you know, it’s no time to dwell on that. We’ve got a long, long series ahead of us.”

Fox looked back and pointed a thumb down the hallway, where the Pistons quietly celebrated their victory.

“I don’t know if we truly respected the fact that team defends like a championship team,” he said. “We’re going to have to shift our mind-set. We are not going to beat them at the style of game we played tonight. We’re going to have to play an ugly game.

“For us to have an opportunity to win, we’re going to have to flip hats and try to out-defend this team instead of outscore them.”

Three years later, Billups stood where Allen Iverson did. Larry Brown sat where, well, where Larry Brown did. The Lakers had won 11 consecutive games to start the 2001 postseason and the days before the Finals were spent much as this week’s were, hailing the Lakers’ expected dominance and pitying the underdog, in that case the Philadelphia 76ers.

The 76ers won Game 1, hysteria struck Los Angeles, and then the Lakers won the next four games, the last three in Philadelphia.

So, now the Lakers believe the Pistons believe.

“It happens,” Derek Fisher said.

The Pistons did things to the Laker offense with their length and determination, so the only one unaffected was O’Neal.

He had 20 points and six rebounds in the first half alone. By the second, the Pistons double-teamed O’Neal away from the ball, the defense preferred by most Western Conference coaches. Still, O’Neal made 13 of 16 shots and eight of 12 free throws. He also watched teammates miss jump shots, many of them forced.

Bryant scored 25 points, but Tayshaun Prince made most of his 27 shots difficult, and he went to the free-throw line only four times. He was one for six from the three-point arc, so perhaps his rabid defense of Hamilton softened his legs.

“Kobe had a hard time shooting over Prince,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “I thought, individually, that was probably one of the best defensive matchups they had all night.”

Bryant, ever proud, did not disagree. “It’s going to be interesting,” he said.

Although the Pistons don’t score much, their 64 points at the end of three quarters were enough to lead the Lakers by six.

At that point, Payton had three points and five fouls and Malone had two points and 10 rebounds.

The only Lakers scoring were O’Neal and Bryant, and Bryant’s points were the result of a lot of shots, many of them challenged by the willowy Piston defenders.

Jackson left O’Neal on the bench for the first 2:13 of the fourth quarter. The Pistons scored seven points, the Lakers scored none, the Piston lead was 71-58 and the crowd, perhaps expecting the first moments of a four-game sweep and getting a loss instead, actually booed.

Malone missed his first six shots, did not make one until the third quarter, and then blamed himself for the whole thing. He sat in the corner and iced his balky right knee and took the hit for them all.

“I expect more out of me,” he said.

But Malone was hardly alone. Fisher was one for nine from the field, and since his knee injury in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals has made two of 16 shots. Payton was one for four. Kareem Rush, six days after making six consecutive threes, missed all three of his shots.

“I don’t know if we could ever defend better,” Brown said. “That’s what it’s going to take.”

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Low Points

The fewest total points scored in an NBA Finals game since the 24-second shot clock was introduced for the 1954-55 season:

*--* Points Teams (Points) Date 145 Fort Wayne (74) def. Syracuse (71) April 7, 1955 147 San Antonio (80) def. New York (67) June 18, 1999 150 Chicago (96) def. Utah (54) June 7, 1998 153 New Jersey (77) def. San Antonio (76) June 11, 2003 155 San Antonio (78) def. New York (77) June 25, 1999 162 DETROIT (87) DEF. LAKERS (75) June 6, 2004 162 Chicago (87) def. Seattle (75) June 16, 1996 163 San Antonio (84) def. New Jersey (79) June 9, 2003 163 Houston (85) def. New York (78) June 8, 1994

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