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#5 Los Angeles Lakers: 2003-04
The 2003-04 Los Angeles Lakers and their fans had dreams of being a superteam not like any other, but the first superteam of the new era. They were all broke after they got defeated in the second round of the Western Conference by the San Antonio Spurs in 2003 as they were confident enough that they would win four titles in a row.
In 2003-04 NBA season, the Lakers, as they were more ambitious than ever before, added elites like Karl Malone and Gray Payton during the off-season in free agency to make their roster rock-solid. At the start of the season, they had stars like Kobe Bryant, Shaquile O'Neal, Gary Payton, and Karl Malone. The Lakers finished the regular season with a record of 56-26 and clinched the second seed in the Western Conference.
In the playoffs, they defeated the Houston Rockets in the first, San Antonio in the second, and the Minnesota Timberwolves in the final round of the Western Conference to head to the NBA Finals where they played against the underdogs Detroit Pistons. The Lakers got defeated by the Pistons in a five-game series and the dream of becoming a superteam couldn't get turned into reality as the Lakers were fragmented after that season.
Karl Malone and Gary Payton never won a title and they signed with the Lakers to win one, Bryant got into a scandal of sexual assault in Colorado during the off-season and had to visit Colorado for a court appearance and due to that he missed several games.
O'Neal had a feud with Bryant throughout the season and the Chemistry of the Lakers' roster didn't seem like of a superteam. Malone suffered knee injuries and missed several games as well. Payton was disturbed because of the Lakers' head coach Phil Jackon's triangle offense as he could not use his ball handling and scoring ability in that.
The whole team including Jackson was off-track as Jackson showed disdain for Bryant and called him "uncoachable". All these turned into the weaknesses of the Lakers and that' what helped the star-less Detroit Pistons to win the title.
Guess the Bulls players in this quiz and it's not going to be easy!
