Summary
The Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic entered the NBA, giving the league 27 teams in its four divisions. Rick Mahorn of the defending champion Detroit Pistons went to Minnesota in the expansion draft and was replaced as a starter by James Edwards, who was a better scorer but lacked Mahorn's intimidating physical presence. (The Pistons tried to get Mahorn back through a trade, but he ended up with the Philadelphia 76ers instead.)
Every division race was pretty close. The Lakers led the league with 63 wins, but finished just four games ahead of the Portland Trail Blazers. The Pistons were the best team in the East, with 59 wins, but they were also only four games ahead of the Chicago Bulls. Philadelphia won the Atlantic Division by one game over the Celtics and San Antonio finished one game ahead of Utah in the Western Conference's Midwest Division.
A third straight championship matchup between the Pistons and Lakers seemed likely but it certainly wasn't a sure thing. Detroit won seven of eight games to get into the Eastern finals, but they were pushed to seven games against Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls, now coached by Phil Jackson.
The Lakers, meanwhile, were eliminated by the Phoenix Suns in just five games in the Western semi-finals and the Suns lost to Portland in six games.
The Pistons beat the Trail Blazers in five games, but it wasn't as easy as it sounds. There was one blowout, a 121-106 win in Game 3, but the other three Piston victories came by a total of only 9 points. In two of those games, Portland held leads late in the fourth quarter, only to succumb to Detroit comebacks. In the third, officials ruled that a 3-point shot by Danny Young that would have sent the game into overtime came a split-second after the buzzer.
