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!

Defining

Let’s face it. This was huge. It was not the biggest game for the Lakers in the past four years. That designation is reserved for an elimination game in the coming playoff series against either the Spurs or Hornets or the NBA Finals thereafter. It was, however, the most important victory for the Laker franchise in the past 4 years. The 4 years since Shaq left and the years immediately succeeding that departure where the Lakers flirted with mediocrity.

Its not hyperbole to say these types of victories are the ones that define teams. Playing in the most hostile arena in the NBA, the Lakers were not content to rely on the home-court advantage and wait for home-cooking on Sunday back at the Staples Center. They do what all good, aspiring to be great, teams do… they took care of business, finishing off their opponent by ruthlessly ripping the heart out of the Utah Jazz last night in Salt Lake City, a place where the Jazz had lost only 4 games all season, 108-105.

The Lakers doubled, last night, the amount of victories the 2nd round road team now has in these playoffs. The record now stands at 2-22. And they accomplished what two other conference semi-finalist teams, the New Orleans Hornets and Boston Celtics, could not: Game 6 victories in the opponent’s arena. This bodes well. Again, this was huge.

With this victory, the Lakers officially put it all behind them: Eagle, Colorado, Kobe’s video cell phone rant, the supposed lack of leadership in the front office, questions about Mitch Kupchak’s competence as a GM, Kobe’s trade demands…. Stick a fork and more in all of that. Its done…over with. Living in the moment and leaning forward towards their next most important victory.

For now, the Lakers can now sit back and relax, rest and treat some of their aches and pains and watch the Hornets and Spurs beat each other up in their Game 7 on Monday night.

Like comfort food

For about as long as we can remember, if it’s a Sunday afternoon in the spring in SoCal, it means yardwork while listening to the playoffs and the Lakers on the radio. After a few years absence, it good to have them back in the 2nd round. (And though Spiro Dedes does a fine job as play-by-play guy, things have never seemed quite the same without Chick Hearn).

Just a quick assessment: the Jazz are going to run no less than 3 guys at Kobe (Matt Harpring, Ronnie Brewer and Andrei Kirilenko) and their collective 18 fouls in order to wear him down. Carlos Boozer is going to muscle-up on Gasol so the free man in this scheme now becomes Lamar Odom. No, the apocalypse is not upon us but we’ll be able to see it from here if Odom is not mentally up to the challenge.

P.S. Thanks to the Atlanta Hawks for not wasting our time today with their game 7 effort against Boston. Seriously. It was obvious from the first few minutes that they weren't up to the task so we didn't invest any time or emotional energy.