Being a long-time Lakers fan, I anticipated the team's return to the NBA Finals to try to make up for last year's loss to the Celtics. As the season went on, I thought they were on track to get that title. Now, I'm not so sure.
Having a close eye on the playoffs thus far, I don't know if the Lakers can win a series with the up and coming Denver Nuggets. Even if so, it seems the Cleveland Cavaliers are the hot team this season - though it lost 2 of 3 to the Magic in the regular season.
But sports fans know, anything can happen. I expect the Lakers to rally and take the series with Denver 4-2, then in one of the best finals in recent history, come back to beat the Cavaliers 4-3 winning the last 2 games of the series.
OK basketball fans, what say ye?
john,
i'm with you in being cautiously optimistic about our title hopes this season - and perhaps beyond. this was a message i just shared with a few friends.
had to do this while some of these thoughts are still fresh in my mind. it's hard to describe how overwhelmingly relieved i am after tonight's game. relief, mind you, is very different from elation. i was elated when magic hurled the ball upcourt against portland in 1991; i was elated when the lakers - as an eighth seed - pushed the cb34 led suns to a game 5 in 1993; i was elated when we beat indiana at the stapler in 2001 to claim our first title in over a decade. i was elated when will smith hit his triple from the top of the arc in 2002 [proudly wearing my #5 jersey at the time]..........however, tonight i was simply relieved. the media and the spin doctors in bristol can play the nuggets up all they want. the reality is that this team shouldn't beat the lakers twice in 15 games! i don't even want to debate that.
what i really want is everyone's opinion as to why i should get excited about the lake slow [formerly read: lake show] again this season. we got to the nba finals last year without bynum and an unrealized gem [ariza]. this year with a healthy bynum, one of the nba's best kept defensive secrets in ariza, and a very solid shannon brown, we didn't even secure homecourt advantage. fine, maybe charles barkley and greg popovich have a point, the regular season matters less than going into the playoffs healthy and with momentum on your side.
we let a dejected and undermatched jazz team win game three. more important than the fact that it was game three is the fact that this was our first "test." an opportunity to send a message to the cavs that we can win and win convincingly on the road in the playoffs. we fell flat.
we let a depleted rockets team beat us twice [after yao went down] in four games. the first of the four games without yao featuring a 30-point rockets lead at one point!
tonight we faced the nuggets. forget for a moment that we were playing at home, or that george karl has yet to win anything in his career, or that we have lamar odom, pao gaol and andrew bynum to neutralize [generous to say the least] the denver bigs while kobe/ariza handle carmelo. they're young, they make lots of mistakes and they have no answer for kobe bryant or a bynum-gasol frontcourt. i want someone to convince me that phil jackson is even an 'average' basketball coach. with 8 min left in the game, down by about 4, we have sasha and farmar on the floor while ariza and brown are riding the pine. was he "saving" their energy....this is the wcf not game 11 of the regular season. these are the world elite athletes, they can run around for 40+ minutes with a few timeouts and some espn commercial breaks! well, pj must have heard my damning incantations, because he put ariza in shortly thereafter and all trev did was nail a triple and then stole the inbound from carter for a breakaway shortly thereafter. DESPITE phil's coaching, we were able to squeeze this one out. are you excited laker fans? hard to be this season. after the 30 point deficit to the rockets, the seven game series, this narrow escape at home to an inexperienced nuggets team - i find it hard to get excited about this bunch this season. i'm convinced that even a trip to the finals is going to end in yet another year of disappointment for a kobe and phil led team. i've never known two more contrived personalities.
i shut of the broadcast with a sense of relief rather than a sense of pride and confidence. i'm sure thousands of laker fans across the nation and at least a couple on this thread shared that same feeling.
since dr. buss clearly can absorb phil's $12 million salary, i say we fire him and use that $12 million to go $6 million over the cap [and pay the $6 million in luxury tax] next season. couple that with letting lamar walk away, we could have $18 million to #1) re-sign ariza #2) re-sign brown and #3) sign a real point guard like navarro, ramon sessions or if we can sign and trade: sergio rodriguez.