Rout of Order / Pistons make it look easy as they win first championship in 14 years

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. —  They were built for one season, built to top a dynasty, and now that’s gone.

The Lakers of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson, of drama and three long-ago NBA titles, of reinforcements Karl Malone and Gary Payton, were finished Tuesday night by the Detroit Pistons, and they may never look the same.

Warned of the perils of closing out an NBA Finals, the Pistons played their finest game of the series, defeated the Lakers, 100-87, at the Palace and won the franchise’s third title, and their first in 14 years, in five games.

Piston Coach Larry Brown won his first, and kept Phil Jackson from his 10th.

Detroit guard Chauncey Billups was the most valuable player. He averaged 21 points in the series. Five Pistons scored in double figures in Game 5, led by Richard Hamilton with 21. Ben Wallace had 18 points and 22 rebounds.

O’Neal got into foul trouble early and lacked the touch and liveliness he had in Game 4, in which he had 36 points and 20 rebounds and the Lakers lost by eight. Bryant averaged 24.5 points in the Finals but shot 41.3%.

Afterward, Jackson stood among his four grown children, the girls weepy, gestured to them and said, “They’d love me to say this is it, this is my last game.... Right now, I’d say there’s a pretty slim chance I’ll be back next year.”

Owner Jerry Buss, according to sources, is leaning against bringing Jackson back. Buss left the Palace before the fourth quarter. If so, the Jackson era will be defined by three championships, the last three of his nine as a coach, and by his ability to bring the squabbling O’Neal and Bryant together over long stretches, particularly come springtime.

Still, even as he left the arena possibly for the last time as Laker coach, Jackson expressed hope that O’Neal and Bryant could go on without him.

“I think they really have found a way to work together very well this year,” he said. “This is the most successful year we’ve had together with them.”

Bryant, who can leave the Lakers in July and could be on trial by August, said again he intended to opt out of his contract. After that, with the Clippers and New York Knicks believed to be among his options, Bryant said he did not know.

“I love playing for Phil,” he insisted. “I learned so much playing for Phil. Playing with Shaq, too, we got a lot of things accomplished, despite our differences.

“I wouldn’t be opposed to playing with them forever. It’s not up to me. It’s not my decision.”

Asked to clarify that, Bryant said, “It’s going to be my decision where I play next year. It’s their decision what they’re going to do with this team.”

Malone is expected to opt not to extend his contract into next season as soon as today, and spend the next few weeks assessing his injured knee, which kept him out of Tuesday night’s game. He is mulling retirement. Payton is expected to wait for Jackson’s decision, then decide by the weekend if he’ll return to the Lakers. If it appears as though Jackson will leave, then Payton, who felt his game was muted under Jackson’s triangle offense, could be more likely to stay.

O’Neal, who can leave after next season and has been openly critical of General Manager Mitch Kupchak, has hinted of demanding a trade if the team is not rebuilt to his specifications. Two weeks before, he’d said he was pleased to have delivered the NBA Finals to his friends, Malone and Payton, that he’d felt like a man of his word.

By late Tuesday night, while the Pistons celebrated and reeked of champagne, O’Neal fell short of inviting Bryant back, but didn’t seem to mind, either.

“I’ll always do what’s best for me, and I’m not sure really where the organization wants to go from here,” O’Neal said. “It’s all a business. Whatever happens, happens.

“Kobe is a great player. Every great player needs a one-two punch. And, obviously, me and him are the one-two punch. Like I said earlier, it’s going to be a funny summer. Everyone’s going to take care of their own business and everyone’s going to do what’s best for them, and I don’t know what that entails.”

On his way to a bus that took the Lakers to Los Angeles and scattered them all for the summer, O’Neal grumbled about the organization’s inability to provide him with more. Despite his occasional disagreements with Jackson, he appreciates his coaching skill and his appreciation for him.

Still, O’Neal would not be happy. “When things ain’t done right,” he said, “it ends like this.”

Rick Fox has said he might retire. Derek Fisher is expected to opt out of his contract by the end of the week. Other parts, veteran parts such as Horace Grant and young parts such as Slava Medvedenko, can be free agents.

Kupchak walked from the arena with three minutes left in the fourth quarter, brushing past the league official who held the Larry O’Brien Trophy, covered in a towel, in her arms. He declined to address the many changes, the nine potential free agents, the coaching staff in the middle.

“We’ll start working on our things as soon as we possibly can,” he said. “Tomorrow.”

So, 11 months after they arrived, spurning millions to do it, making the Lakers overwhelming favorites to add to their three-peat of 2000, 2001 and 2002, Malone and Payton did not get their championships, falling three victories short.

For five years, they were the NBA’s glamour team. O’Neal and Bryant won three titles, two of them at each other’s throats, winning with Jackson’s triangle and around it.

It ended, perhaps, with Jackson seated, his arms crossed. Eight feet away, Fox stood, his arms crossed.

It ended in five games, one three-point shot and one overtime from a sweep, in humiliation, the blue-collar Pistons harder-working and flashier, in a series that was supposed to be a walkover. For the Lakers.

The Pistons again were more forceful. They scored 55 first-half points, took 50 rebounds to the Lakers’ 36, shot 39 free throws to the Lakers’ 33 and scored 23 points on the fastbreak.

Billups scored 14 points. Rasheed Wallace, a midseason acquisition, scored 11. And the Lakers just went away.

Bryant scored 24 points but missed 14 of 21 shots. O’Neal missed 10 of 16 free throws. The Lakers shot 41.3% from the floor.

By the end of the third quarter, the Pistons led, 82-59, spurring memories of San Antonio’s eliminating the Lakers in last year’s Western Conference semifinals by 110-82.

Down to the final moments of their season, Brian Cook, Luke Walton and Kareem Rush started the fourth quarter, the Lakers already on to next season.