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Editor's note: This article was actually submitted to InsideHoops.com a day before Game 1.

Everyone expects the Lakers to win. They have the best players, the coach with the most rings and home court advantage. Will that be enough? Although belonging to the minority I will state my case.

Let’s start with home court advantage. It’s a deceiving factor, above of all because it can be inverted at any time over and over. And I see LA fans being more demanding. The Pistons have done all they were supposed to do by winning the East. The Lakers were expected to set a new win record and were far from it. That is why it is more likely for their own fans to boo, if things don’t go according to plan.

Is Phil Jackson really the better coach? He has a huge merit in getting results, even if his teams were probably the best. It’s not easy to combine enormous egos in a winning team. But Larry Brown has been able to overachieve several times. Getting Philadelphia to the Finals was an amazing accomplishment

The most important factor is the roster. I expect the frontcourts to be even. Shaq and Malone won’t dominate the Wallaces. And Rasheed could emerge as the MVP. His ability to play the 3 spot could also be useful to bring in an extra big guy. Prince will probably outplay George, unless he shoots the lights out every game. But the backcourts are going to decide the series. If Hamilton and Atkins can combine a similar points total as Kobe and Payton, the games will be even. And in the finals minutes Detroit is a better team, unless Bryant takes all the responsibility on his own and gets a Jordan-like performance. The benches won’t be much of a factor except for limited time.

In overview it seems to me that this is a pretty balanced series, although the general assessment is that the Lakers will win easily. I expect Detroit to win one of the first two and Game 3. After that, and if Kobe doesn’t carry the Lakers, they could implode and the series might not return to LA. My prediction is Detroit in 5 or 6.