No one else thinks it's a coincidence that...

[HOoopCityJones]

The 04 Pistons and 08 Celtics , considered two of the greatest defensive Teams of all time are the only two loses in Kobe's Finals record?

[ralph_i_el]

great defensive teams often make the championship round...It's probably a coincidence

[Doranku]

I think the '08 Celtics are a little overrated, honestly. I remember after Game 3 it looked like Kobe had figured them out. Game 4, 20 point halftime lead for LA.

Then the entire team, including Kobe, f*cking collapsed out of nowhere. Watching that shit was traumatizing. I think if they don't have that collective one half meltdown, they probably win the series.

Team was just too mentally weak to recover from that loss. It showed in game 6 when the entire team just waved the white flag and got stomped by 40.

Thankfully, they were able to build from that humiliation and became a noticeably tougher team in '09 and won b2b rings, but god damn they should have a 3-peated.

Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes.

As for the '04 Pistons, well that's another story. I don't think we'll ever see a defensive team like that again. 5 straight games holding teams to under 70 points, never gave up 100 points in the playoffs (except for a triple OT game.. hell, they only gave up 90 three times in regulation over 21 games). Crazy stuff.