CHAMPS!

We were just getting back from sea trials in time for Thursday's game 7 match up between our beloved Lakers and the hated Boston Celtics. Attendant responsibilities at work have prevented us from commenting on it until now.

After the game, Ron Artest thanked, among others, his psychiatrist. In the history of post-game shout-outs we can't recall a player calling out his shrink. Such was this season where the Lakers put it on cruise control the last few weeks of the season only to turn it back on for the playoffs and their rematch with the Celtics, which for such a storied rivalry has been pretty one-sided in favor of the Celtics.

Game 7 was no oil painting as the late great Chick Hearn would say but it was the glamour boys from Tinsel Town who absolutely gutted-out a first-ever Game 7 win against the Celtics, overcoming horrible shooting and a 13 point deficit to take the championship. It was a role reversal of perceived stereo-types between the two teams that made the victory all the sweeter.

We thought of Pops after this victory who moved out to the West Coast the same year the Lakers did in the early 60s. More and more of the ghosts, curses, bad memories and bad history are being cast aside as these Lakers lay claim to being the most successful franchise in team sports history.

B-Daddy has some thoughts on the victory and how it stands against the backdrop of the Celtic-Laker rivalry, here.


(pictured above is the unspoken MVP of the team, forward/center, Pau Gasol without whom these two-straight championships would not have been possible.)

Long View and Short View

Just a little over a year ago, Kobe was on the radio demanding a trade from the Lakers while also bashing the Laker organization and players on a fan’s video camera phone, the footage of which found its way to the internet. The Lakers made no significant roster moves other than bringing back Derek Fisher which looked to be merely window dressing so going into this season it looked to be a continuation of high drama off the court and mediocrity on it like the 3 previous ones since the Shaq/Kobe crack-up.

And even two months into the season, if we were to be told that the Lakers would be playing in the NBA Finals absent Andrew Bynum who had asserted himself as a front-line NBA center from the beginning of the season, we would’ve been forced to ask what calamity had befallen the cities of San Antonio, Salt Lake City and Phoenix… and New Orleans… and Oakland… and Denver…

Of course, it was the trade that brought Pau Gasol to the Lakers from the Grizzlies that changed the complexion of the entire season and also changed expectations. No longer was this a team that may hang on to a 7 or 8 seed but one that was expected to challenge for the Western Conference title and possibly the NBA championship.

That they did indeed make it to the Finals is cause for celebration and optimism for the future (trusting a full recovery by Bynum), but the manner in which they did “challenge” for the title is equally as troubling. Yes, having Bynum back will help the “physicality” of the Lakers and allow Gasol to move back to his natural power forward position but often times physicality and allowing yourself to get pushed around as the Lakers did all series and in disastrous fashion last night is not a mere physical thing but a matter of heart.

We suppose that we could chalk a lot of it up to inexperience and immaturity but the Laker young guns responded well in the Western Conference playoff rounds against two of the most punishing and grinding teams in the NBA in Utah and San Antonio. On the exponentially grander stage of the NBA Finals, though, it was obvious the Lakers weren’t ready and got beat not only by a better team but a team that understood the mental toughness that would be required to win the title.

As we said, we’re optimistic but also wary. There is an adage in sports, particularly applicable to the NBA and NFL that you have to lose before you can win. If the degree by which you lose or the manner in which you lose can be informative, the Lakers have themselves an entire off-season’s worth of excellent reading material. We’ll just call it the Lakers’ Beach Books series. And the book we hope they pay closest attention to would be: “The NBA Finals: Knowing What the Hell to Do When You Get There” by Magic Johnson, foreword by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Props Department: We got to hand it to ESPN analyst, Jon Barry, who shortly after acquiring Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett last summer predicted a championship for the Celtics. Further, after the Lakers struggled to win Game 5, Barry sensed the Lakers were in “big trouble” and predicted a “blow-out” loss for Game 6.

Not yet Ready for Prime Time Pt. II

"One, Two, Three... CAN-CUN'"

About the Other Night

We were dreading this series match-up for precisely what went down Thursday night in Boston and it had nothing to do with the final score, though that obviously stung.

With about 5-1/2 minutes left in the 3rd period, the Celtics’ Paul Pierce goes down in a heap underneath the Celtics’ basket. Unable to walk off under his own power, he is carried back to the locker room by his teammates only to return a few minutes later to knock down two 3-pointers at the end of the 3rd sparking the Celtics to their eventual victory over the Lakers, 98-88. Diagnosis: slight knee sprain.

Maybe they applied some of that magic spray that they give to soccer’s Euro-floppers that has them miraculously revived after writhing on the ground like one whose right leg has just been amputated. Maybe Pierce did hear something “pop” and wasn’t taking any chances. Only Paul Pierce knows. But what has transpired in the aftermath should’ve have been embarrassingly shameful if the participants had any shame.

Back in the 1970 NBA Finals, New York Knick center, Willis Reed played Game 7 against the Lakers with a torn muscle in this thigh. Reed, who tore the muscle in Game 5, missed Game 6 and was all but scratched for Game 7 when he emerged from the tunnel of Madison Square Garden to join his team for warm-ups amid raucous cheering of the Knick faithful. Reed knocked down two jumpers for the first points of the game and was not to score again but that lift from their team captain was enough inspiration to get the Knicks past the Lakers for the title.

Of course, immediately after the game on Thursday, the Willis Reed comparisons were flying and we have scarcely been able to turn on the radio or T.V. without hearing them. The Reed comparisons were predictable and predictably lame. But an East Coast-centric press corps aided and abetted by gauzy-eyed New England fans were more than willing to buy-in to this latest Gospel.

We don’t understand this near-pathological need for New England fans to create Messiahs of their sports heros – to fashion these resurrection moments for them to take place in the great pantheon of New England sports lore. Whether its Bird returning after being face-planted in the ’92 playoffs or Curt Schilling’s bloody sock performance in the baseball playoffs a few years ago or this latest witness to Glory, New England fans want desperately to believe that these moments wash away the sins of years and years of disappointment they’ve endured until recently with the Red Sox, the general pathetic condition of their football franchise until 7-8 years ago and the tragic and abysmal fortunes of the Celtics over the past 15-20 years. We don’t recall even 4-time Super Bowl winner, Joe Montana receiving the worshipful prostrations by Niner fans that Patriot fans reserve for Tom Brady.

Its unhealthy and downright creepy.

And trust us – as sure as the Sun rises in the East, would this ever have happened to Kobe, it would not be “Willis Reed”, it would be “Drama Queen”.

To hell with Paul Pierce and Willis Reed, though. All you need to know about this series is 46-33, the margin by which the Lakers got their heads handed to them on the boards.

UPDATE #1: Proving our point, read here about some of the feedback L.A. Times Sports Columnist Bill Plaschke received from Celtic fans regarding his column on Friday which suggested that L'Affaire Pierce was somewhat less than genuine. You stay classy, Boston.

UPDATE #2: We're laying 3-1 odds that before this series is over, James Posey goes McHale on Kobe.

Renewing some old Aquaintances

(Laker fans, allow your memory to drift back in time to just over a year ago when Kobe Bryant embarked on one of the more quixotic and bizarre days in the history of sports talk radio. Last May, Bryant made three separate appearances on ESPN Radio starting with Steven A. Smith in the morning stating unequivocally that he wanted to be traded. He followed that up with appearances on the Dan Patrick Show and later still on the local L.A. affiliate ESPN 710 where he appeared to back down from his firm desire to not ever appear again in Laker Forum Blue and Gold. And now this, a year later: an opportunity to play for the NBA championship.)

We’ve hesitated writing anything on this subject as it is one in which we have yet to fully come to grips: Lakers v. Celtics for the Lawrence O’Brien trophy. Without delving into all the gory details it basically boils down to a throwback to high school/adolescent dread that we lived through during the 80s when these two Association flagship franchises hooked up 3 times for the NBA title. At the core is an emotion that the 2 titles the Lakers did win in ’85 and ’87 did not make up for the colossal disappointment of that 4-0 sweep the Lakers managed to choke away in seven games in the first 80s matchup in ’84 (curse you, Gerald Henderson).

And now we’re here. Well, almost here as the series doesn’t get underway until Thursday and which epitomizes the NBA’s inflexibility in scheduling resulting in a failure to take advantage of the momentum of the not-so-recently concluded Conference Finals. We imagine this is the result of existing in the cloistered bubble of the league offices in New York where its NBA 24/7 and where league officials reside in the assumption that their product matters… really, really matters.

With this long layoff, rust will be an issue for both teams but the advantage goes to the older Celtics who have looked positively listless at times during the playoffs.

We’re cautiously optimistic on the Lakers’ chances which is based on the matchup problems we believe the Lakers will have on offense vs. the Celtic D.

If the Celts start Kendrick Perkins instead of James Posey that means Paul Pierce will matchup against Kobe. We don’t care how much summer ball Pierce played against Kobe or how much Pierce made a commitment to defense this year, its still Paul Pierce, an average defender throughout his career against the game’s ultimate weapon.

Now, Boston has had success on defense by funneling everything into the middle and Kevin Garnett. Pau Gasol’s ability to step away from the basket to knock down mid-range jumpers will be key in getting Garnett away from the bucket creating an open flight lane for Kobe and Lamar. Lamar has to take advantage of his probable match-up against Perkins who does not possess Odom’s length, skill or athleticism.

We like Derrick Fisher matched-up against the young Celtic point guard, Rajon Rando. D-Fish has played admirably against two of the premier point guards in the game thus far in the playoffs in Deron Williams and Tony Parker and though both Williams and Parker may have accumulated some impressive stats at times, Fisher never let those two get into a flow or rhythm to where they were controlling or dictating the flow of the game for any length of time.

The L.A. Times thinks that Radmanovich will match up against Paul Pierce. We don’t like this. Vlade tries but his Euro-soul is not one that will be committed to keeping down the Celts' most versatile offensive threat. We like the length of Odom on Pierce and we’ll take our chances with Radmanovich on the bulk of Kendrick Perkins and Gasol on Garnett. Kobe will then match-up against Ray Allen’s corpse.

Since we don’t like the Lakers winning a Game 7 in Boston, its gotta be Lakers in 6.

By the way, we were wondering why it seemed FreeDarko simply refused to acknowledge the Lakers’ existence during the Western Conference Finals. Did they have something against them…? Were they also Kobe haters….? No, it turns out on both accounts. Bethlehem Shoals' offering on the strange mystery of these Lakers.