Shaquille O’Neal’s stellar tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers came to a discordant ending during the 2003-04 season. The team had added Hall of Famers Karl Malone and Gary Payton to a roster that already featured O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, leading some people to predict a 70-win season.
Instead, the Lakers went through many ups and downs due to injuries, infighting and a weak supporting cast. Somehow, they made it to the NBA Finals and were heavy favorites against the Detroit Pistons.
But instead of claiming a fourth championship in five years, they went down in five games to a Pistons team that was one of the greatest defensive squads in basketball history. While many remember that series as one in which Bryant played poorly in four out of five games, O’Neal was also a culprit.
The big fella was his usual dominant self only part of the time. In addition, his rebounding and defense were simply too meek to neutralize a deep Detroit frontline that included Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace.
Wallace, who had lost several playoff series to O’Neal in the past when he was with the Portland Trail Blazers, talked recently about how he and his Pistons teammates were able to contain O’Neal.
“No, we didn’t slow Shaq down,” Wallace said. “Ben and I and Elden Campbell and Corliss [Williamson] and Mehmet Okur, we played him to our best. We just made it hard for him.
“… We just had to slow him down. It was like, ‘Look, we got more fouls. We got the energy and more fouls. We just gonna have to [expletive] him up. Ben’s strong [expletive], ‘Y’all stay home.’ I was like, damn.”
O’Neal scored 34 points in Game 1 of that series and went for 29 points in Game 2 (in a contest that went into overtime) and 36 points in Game 4. But all too often, he let Detroit’s frontcourt players grab offensive rebounds, which allowed Detroit to dictate the abysmally slow pace it preferred. In Game 3 and Game 5, both of which Los Angeles lost in blowout fashion, he only mustered a total of 34 points.
Los Angeles never got in gear offensively and never reached 100 points or even 90 points in regulation in the finals. As everyone knows, O’Neal was traded just weeks later, and the franchise went into a period of purgatory.
But, of course, it worked out well. O’Neal got a fourth championship ring in 2006 with Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat, while Bryant earned two more on the Lakers with Hall of Fame big man Pau Gasol.
As for Wallace and those Pistons, they turned out to be very much a one-hit wonder.