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The Detroit Pistons face the San Antonio Spurs in the 2005 NBA Finals. The series begins tonight. Here are quotes from local San Antonio and Detroit newspapers about the Spurs vs. Pistons:

San Antonio Express-News: Rarely have two men been so alike physically and so opposite emotionally. Rarely have two public figures had such similar opinions of the media and such dissimilar responses. Rarely have two students attended universities in the same state and learned such diverse lessons. Rarely have such talented, 6-foot-11 stars had such opposing reputations. And never has Rasheed Wallace been as close to Tim Duncan as he is tonight.

San Antonio Express-News: Spurs as favorites? Everyone — including Vegas — should rethink that. The Pistons ought to be no worse than an even bet, and not just because of Rasheed. The Pistons have the long arms to counter both Duncan and Manu Ginobili, and Chauncey Billups gives Detroit something the Spurs don't have. Which is a point guard with a reliable jumper. As for the Spurs scoring in the 100s against Phoenix — get ready for some nine-minute scoring droughts.

San Antonio Express-News: But Rasheed is also the one who finished off the Heat, with offensive boards at the end, and he's supplied the edge the Pistons have now. Whether Larry Brown is coming or going, whether the Pistons face elimination, Rasheed plays us-against-them with a title belt slung over a shoulder. "Rasheed is as good a player," Brown said recently, "as I've ever coached."

San Antonio Express-News: The first piece of NBA wisdom Larry Brown gave Gregg Popovich had far more to do with dressing the right way than playing the right way. Plucked out of a small Division III college to be an assistant on Brown's inaugural Spurs' staff, Popovich arrived in the NBA with two sports coats: a standard-issue blue blazer he received from the Air Force Academy more than a decade earlier; and a brown hound's-tooth coat with leather buttons and patches on the elbows. Popovich chose the latter for the Spurs' season opener against the Los Angeles Lakers. The ball had barely left the official's hand for the opening tip when Brown noticed his assistant had neglected to remove the dry-cleaning foil from his buttons.

San Antonio Express-News: Popovich has reason to feel conflicted. Brown brought him into the league and befriended him. Popovich was the best man at his wedding. After Detroit won the Eastern Conference championship, Brown said his children couldn't wait to see Popovich. While the Pistons played the Los Angeles Lakers in last season's Finals, Brown regularly consulted Popovich. Popovich served on Brown's staff during last summer's Olympics, enduring Team USA's bronze-medal finish with him.

San Antonio Express-News: Tim Duncan's footwork might have helped earn him the nickname "Big Fundamental," but he didn't display the smoothest of moves Wednesday. Duncan was climbing steps to the podium to speak with the media when he tripped. For a brief moment, the Spurs' two-time MVP looked like he was about to fall hard on his face. Duncan, much to the relief of the Spurs' brass, somehow recovered, steadied himself and finished off the performance by pantomiming a jump shot.

San Antonio Express-News: Tony Parker: Like Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan, has improved his scoring in playoffs. Gregg Popovich has urged Parker to look for his shot and be aggressive. ... One of league's quickest guards. Will break down teams if he's allowed into lane. ... Aggressive defender who will pressure his man full court. ... More consistent than previous seasons, but still has up-and-down moments. ... Struggled with jumper in last few games of conference finals

San Antonio Express-News: Manu Ginobili: Averaging almost six more points per game in playoffs than he did in regular season. ... Relentless driver. Will attack basket time and again. ... Averaging nine free-throw attempts per game in playoffs. ... Much-improved 3-point shooter, making 46.2 percent of his attempts in playoffs. Shot 62.5 percent overall in two games against Detroit. ... Could begin series guarding Tayshaun Prince, but also will spend some time on Richard Hamilton. ... Named to All-Star team for first time.

Detroit News: When the Pistons came tumbling off their team bus Wednesday, they were greeted by a seven-foot tall replica of the Larry O'Brien Trophy. It transformed them immediately into school kids. They all wanted to touch it. Rasheed Wallace gave out a loud "whoo-hoo." Elden Campbell posed for a picture with it. Enough. Enough with the silliness. And, while we're at it, enough with the politeness, too. Enough about the warm and fuzzy relationship between Larry Brown and Gregg Popovich. Enough about both teams playing the right way and being good for the game. Enough about mutual respect and admiration. Enough, enough, enough.

Detroit News: If they are going to beat the San Antonio Spurs and repeat as NBA champions, the Pistons are going to have to get a lot nastier, a lot edgier. Warm and fuzzy won't get it done. The Spurs are too good, too diversely skilled, too deep and too hungry. If the Pistons are going to overcome the methodical dominance of Tim Duncan, the flash and fury of Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, and the perimeter power of Robert Horry and Brent Barry, they are going to have to get dirty. They were superior to the Lakers in last year's Finals in execution, chemistry, balance and hunger. The Spurs are the Pistons' equal in all those categories, if not their betters. The Spurs also match or exceed the Pistons' defensive tenacity.

Detroit News: They've beaten nemesis Indiana twice. They've beaten nemesis Shaquille O'Neal twice. They've beaten top seeds and lower seeds, in thrillers and blowouts. They've pounded perceptions and crushed doubts an estimated 3,769 times. So what more must the Pistons do to expunge all questions? Excellent question, one the champs don't mind posing. Well, this is it, I swear. Finally, absolutely, the Ultimate Test, with no qualifiers or explanations attached. We appreciate more than most what the Pistons have done the past two-plus seasons. Now, for the unconvinced -- and they're out there -- this NBA Finals against San Antonio is the final eraser, the last confirmation. If the Pistons win this one, against an opponent just as defensive-minded, just as driven, nearly as experienced, no one should ever again question how good they really are. No one. Ever.

Detroit News: The Spurs are mostly healthy and thoroughly balanced, just like the Pistons. They have the standard two stars -- Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili -- and the favorite's role. Truth is, this matchup is as even as possible, as perfect as possible, between the two best teams in the NBA and its two most fundamentally sound teams. "It's going to be a harder time to try to win it this year because we're playing a harder team than last year (against the Lakers)," Rasheed Wallace said Wednesday. "Nobody's giving us any credit this year either. If you just take a consensus poll of yourselves (in the media), nobody's got us winning it."

Detroit News: They are two players who couldn't be more different, yet so much alike. One is quiet and leads by example. The other is loud and brash. He is, in fact, what he recently called himself: "a megaphone." But Pistons center Ben Wallace and forward Rasheed Wallace share more than just a last name. They have the same passion for winning. Ask any teammate which Wallace wants it more, and they'll shake their head, throw their hands up and ultimately call it a tie.

Detroit News: Rasheed was just that in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals at Miami on Monday. Wallace, who had 20 points, came up with a number of big plays down the stretch, including a crucial tip-in of a missed Tayshaun Prince shot with less than a minute to go. "Rasheed's unbelievable," Chauncey Billups said. "I always said he's our best player even though he doesn't come out and demand the ball. And he's just so unselfish."

Detroit News: Tim Duncan, the understated star of the San Antonio Spurs, is to the NBA what "Seinfeld" was to television sitcoms a decade ago. And, like Seinfeld, Duncan, the two-time league most valuable player, is a show about, well, nothing -- at least by today's standards in the NBA, where self-promotion seems to be the rule rather than the exception. "He's not impressed with the NBA, all the hoopla around the NBA," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. "He likes the basketball, he likes the competition. But ... there's no MTV in him -- that's the best I can say. What you see is what you get. There's no act, no show, no hype, there's no nothing."

Detroit News: They are Big Shot and the Heartbeat. Chauncey Billups never met a shot he didn't like, no matter the time of the game or the desperation of a situation. While others cringe at taking last-second, long-distance shots, Billups welcomes them. Richard Hamilton is the heartbeat. He bounces, pumps and bangs through bodies to get just the right shot at the right angle. He keeps the scoreboard clicking as he wears down opponents with his relentless energy and mid-range jumper. Some consider the Pistons' backcourt the best on the NBA. Neither player, however, has made an All-Star Game as an individual. As a team, they are dynamic. They face their stiffest challenge of the playoffs against Spurs guards Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili in the NBA Finals.

Detroit Free Press: This is a different challenge for the defending champions. And the Pistons have faced their share of challenges. It's different from Game 6 at New Jersey in the 2004 Eastern Conference semifinals, when the Pistons were down, 3-2, in the series. They had played two lousy road games and lost a triple-overtime game at the Palace before rallying to win the last two games. It's different than playing Indiana -- which is always an emotional tug-of-war. It's even different than facing a fractured Lakers team in last year's Finals. Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal couldn't get along, Karl Malone was hurt, and Gary Payton was fenced in by the team's triangle offense. Detroit won in five games.

Detroit Free Press: The Spurs can run. They can grind it out. They can score. They can defend. They can make life miserable for the champs if the Pistons don't play the right way. "I thought last year was a challenge," said Brown, who won his first NBA title as a first-year Pistons coach. "When you get to the Finals, obviously you're playing against a great team. The difference between this year and last year is the style of play."

Detroit Free Press: OK, we get it. It's Detroit against the world. It wasn't enough that in the Heat series, it was Detroit against South Beach. Or in the Lakers series last year, it was Detroit against Hollywood. No, now the stakes are higher. Now it's the 2005 NBA Finals. So the basketball gods sent the good people of Detroit the entire planet as an opponent, wrapped in the black-and-white uniforms of the San Antonio Spurs. Forget Texas. Texas is just the start. Think Europe. Think South America. Think the Caribbean. Think Slovenia. (OK. So you have to look up Slovenia. Look it up. Then think it.)

Detroit Free Press: Chauncey Billups said he doesn't see much similarity between the Spurs and the Lakers squad that the Pistons beat last June for the title. "I think we're facing a tougher team this year in the Finals," Billups said. "It's going to be a lot tougher this year."

Detroit Free Press: The anti-hype machine is already in fifth gear. A lot of people say Pistons-Spurs will be slow, it will be boring, its TV ratings so low, we'll mistake it for hockey's ratings. And not last year's hockey ratings -- this year's -- hockey ratings. I can't predict the ratings, but this should be a great series, and anybody who says otherwise has putty for brains. These are the two best teams in the NBA. We've known it for months. And the league's last two champions have not met in the Finals since 1987, when the Celtics and Lakers faced each other in historically tight shorts.

Detroit Free Press: Rasheed Wallace, Ben Wallace and Antonio McDyess were incredibly frustrated in the Miami series. They were frustrated by Shaq and what physicists describe as his "immense immenseness." They were frustrated by foul calls, although that was hard to notice, since Rasheed never complains about it. They spent most of the series on the bench (with foul trouble) or on the court (trying to stave off Shaq's gimongous rear end). It was not fun.

Detroit Free Press: Tony Parker is the only true glamour player in this series. In a matchup of rough, physical, meat-and-potatoes guys, Parker is French pastry. He is tiny, he's quick, and he's dating Desperate Hot-wife Eva Longoria.