NBA History: Looking at all the NBA Champions since 2000

#7 Detroit Pistons - 1 championship (2004)

NBA Finals Game 5: Lakers v Pistons

Beginning in the 2001-02 season, the Detroit Pistons started a 7-year run as the most dominant team in the Eastern Conference. They would win 50 plus games a season culminating in a 64-18 record in the 2005-06 season. They were led by great players like Rip Hamilton, Chauncey Billups, and Rasheed and Ben Wallace.

The Pistons would appear in 6 straight ECFs winning it twice and appearing in two straight NBA Finals winning once in 2004. The Pistons had some internal management issues as in that seven-year period of greatness they were had as many as three head coaches in Randy Carlisle, Larry Brown, and Flip Saunders. It was under Brown’s tutelage in 2004 that the Pistons would win their first NBA Title since their Bad Boy days two-peat in '89 and '90.

Their victim in 2004 were the Kobe Bryant and Shaq led Lakers who were in their 4th NBA Finals in 5 years after winning the crown from 2000 to 2002. The Pistons in 2004 used an effective inside out game with either big forcing Shaq to wander away from the basket on defense to guard the shooting of power forward Rasheed Wallace.

This allowed Ben Wallace to slip inside without Shaq marking him for putback dunks, rebounds, and back door cuts while the Lakers had no rim protection. After losing their crown to San Antonio the next year, the Pistons could never get out of the ECF again.