NBA FINALS, GAME FOUR: I don't have a lot of time to write tonight--let me just say that the consensus opinion on Game Four that seems to be emerging is that Kobe cost them the chance to win the game by refusing to get it in to Shaq. Which could be interpreted as saying the Lakers are the more talented team, they just don't want to win as badly as the Pistons, or do the things they need to do to win. Kobe in particular won't take it to the hole. Then again, it's not like the Pistons provide easy access to the hole.

I just want to avoid delegitimizing the Pistons. Yes, much of the Lakers discombobulation is of their own making, but that doesn't change the facts that 1. outside of Shaq and Kobe, they aren't the most talented team; 2. talent aside, they don't have anybody who can guard Rasheed; 3. with Karl Malone out, they are very much the same team who lost to the Spurs last year with the occasional Gary Payton drive to the basket; and 4. guys just get less hungry after they win. And guys are really hungry until they win. So in terms of desire and mental stability, the Pistons are the better team.

Look, it's a cliche, but this thing is hardly over; all the Lakers need is a couple of good, smart games from Kobe and we're looking at Game Seven. Whether Kobe can give them that kind of game at this point is questionable, but he's certainly physically capable of it.

I dunno. Maybe people are talking about the Lakers after these losses more than the Pistons because it's such a spectacular self-destruction. I just don't want to take anything away from the Pistons. Maybe, of all the teams the Lakers could have faced, the Pistons were the one most capable of pushing them to the brink. Their defense brings out the worst in any team; with the Lakers, it just happens to take the form of the drama we've been hearing about all season but amped up to the nth degree. So perhaps if the Lakers are self-destucting, they're being goaded into it.

Not that they've completed that process yet. One game to go. The Pistons better do it tomorrow night; if this thing goes back to LA.....I know no team has lost after being up 3-1, and no team has ever won the middle three. I get the feeling that if the Pistons don't change the latter fact, they may end up being the first team that give up the title being up 3-1. The Lakers still scare me, in other words, and should scare the Pistons as well.

At least Shaq won't get that extra day of rest this time.