Rise Above

One thing we’ve learned over the years watching NBA hoops is that you never throw dirt on the champion before there are 4 notches in their loss column and this applies double to the San Antonio Spurs. Yeah, that 30 point romp last night was fun but man, call us paranoid but we can’t help but think the San Antonio Spurs got the Lakers right where they want them.

This is their gig… this is what they do. They buck the odds, they defy conventional wisdom. It’s a statistical reality that a team that goes down 0-2 in a seven game series wins that series only about 7% of the time but those seemingly insurmountable odds did not keep the Spurs from doing just that in their last series against the Hornets including a Game 7 win on the Hornets’ home floor.

Of course, these Lakers are different. They have been playing the best basketball of any team in the league now for the past 2 months and they certainly seem to be peaking at the right time. Also, they have shown a cold-blooded killer instinct that appeared to be lacking even earlier in these playoffs.

We go back to last Friday night when a more immature team lacking that fire in the belly could’ve mailed in that Game 6 in hostile territory knowing they had Game 7 at home in their back pocket. Instead, they went out and beat the pants off the Utah Jazz and aside from taking the first 2-1/2 quarters off in this series to knock off the rust from a 4 day lay-off, they have outscored the Spurs by 57 points over the last 5-1/2 quarters. They certainly aren’t playing like they want this thing to go 6 or 7 games.

Two soundbytes we heard that made us ponder. After the Game 1 on Wednesday, Kobe was asked at the press conference why he waited so long to assert himself offensively (the appalling double standard in this line of questioning may be addressed later). Kobe kind of shrugged his shoulders and said he was just checking out the flow of the game and then stated a plain matter-of-fact that he could “go off any time I want”… and he’s exactly right.

Kobe’s playing at a different level right now from everybody else in the league – he’s playing with a chip on his shoulder and like Wilt Chamberlain once leading the league in assists just to silence the he-doesn’t-make-his-teammates-better critics, Kobe is doing pretty much whatever he wants right now and really is looking and playing like you-know-who.

Also, Lamar is talking about “perfection”. Lamar, after last night’s game, sounded like he was reading up on some John Wooden, saying that though the Lakers were playing very well right now, their goal was to “play the perfect game”. When you hear a guy like Odom, who has been one of the most frustrating and enigmatic on-court players in the league, start talking like this, its as if a light has come on or that something has finally clicked to where he is for the first time in his career in a comfort zone where he can maximize all that amazing physical potential.

Again, nothing has yet been decided but to paraphrase Tiger Woods… the Lakers are defending well, they’re shooting well, they’re rebounding well…. we like their chances.

P.S. Trevor Ariza got some garbage-time minutes for the 1st time since January as he was out with a broken bone in his foot. Its probably too soon off his injury and too late in the season to expect any significant minutes from him but his long athletic 6-8 frame allows him to guard 4 positions, rebound and get out on the break. We look forward to seeing more of him next year. Welcome back, Trev!