Saturday, April 12, 2008
I Like The Fear
I do declare, that was quite a lovely evening of basketball.
First, I get home in time to see the Suns game out of reach early in the 4th, which meant that a win by the Lakers would clinch the Division. Nooooiice.
Second, as I'm getting ready to leave, Sony calls and convinces me to watch that hilarious hockey check by VladRad on Tyson Chandler. Great to see him fired up, but the adrenaline didn't seem to do much for his outside shot.
Third, I played a very entertaining 3 hours of basketball down in the Mont. With 16 guys we played rotating winners/losers court 4-on-4, and my team never lost despite having a 10-year-old as our fourth. There is some pretty decent talent there mind you -- mostly in the 21-29 age group, including a few guys that play on the Ohlone college squad. In the fifth game the one loudmouth hick in a gym full of otherwise classy, no-argue players, rolls his ankle untouched on some ridiculous fading 3-point turnaround jumper. It wasn't too bad, but he threw a hissy fit and basically challenged my teammate to a fight, claiming he was pushed. The best part: the remaining 15 of us all told him to go home an not come back. Oh yeah, then we ran full with subs and my team won a 20-min. timed game by 2. Nooooiice.
Was there something else? Oh yeah, Fourth: I get home well after midnight, sore but satisfied (no homo), and get to watch that great Laker win over the Big Easy CP3s. Someone 'ruined' the outcome for me, so that 3rd quarter only stung a little. But a salve was at hand: that dunk (above) by Kobe was incredible -- the slo-mo really does it justice. And speaking of justice, that clinches the division and moves the Lakers to the #2 spot and a potential 1st-round match-up with our bitches the Mavs. What do you think, Stu? Nooooiice.
So did the MVP race just turn back in our favor? I'm still not buying it. If the players or coaches or GMs voted, Kobe would win in a landslide. And yes I know that a couple LA Times 'informal poll of voters' has him winning, but the 'journalists' that vote are lard-ass haters extraordinaire (this not an opinion, but a verifiable fact). And as we've seen in the difference in Obama vote totals in open caucuses vs. balloting, there is something about the privacy of a voting booth that clarifies the mind and allows the voter to proceed with complete irrationality and unfettered bias. Also, most of the writers are white, and white people do love assists.
Never mind that CP3 is sort of a defensive liability -- sure he gets some nice steals, but so does Baron Davis, and so did Smush Parker. Can anyone seriously watch last night's game and think, wow those two superstars really battled it out? You mean Kobe and Pargo? And since stats can't tell the whole story, it should come down to the intangibles of Leadership, Indomitable Will, and, I don't know, how about Which Player Strikes The Most Fear Into The Hearts Of His Opponents? (Answer: Kobe, Kobe, Kobe. And KG second.)
If it comes down to this "who is most valuable to his team" nonsense, I might have to go with Lebron James. That Cavs team wouldn't win 20 games without Lebron. But is anyone worried about them on the playoffs? Or the Hornets? It is to laugh. There are three and only three contenders for the championship right now: Celtics, Spurs, and Your Los Angeles Lakers. You feel that fear? It's because we're close.
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4 comments:
epic post. btw, the apocalypse-now.jpg was broken. anyways, i also think detroit is in the big picture, you can't discount their experience. my sleeper (the jazz) aren't as scarey w/out home court advantage...just don't drop a game at home and you're good.
i have to love the laker hate, ESPN owns that role. what's new?
Second half barely starts and Gundy has already said Fisher doesn't deserve foul calls since he fouls every play. Anyone who acts like a revolving door to almost every point guard in the league could hardly be labled a hack. That's an insult to Bruce Bowen. It also gives Fish too much credit. Still, the guy hits big shots in big games. Sweet pickup.
7:32 left in the 3rd and the Spurs have Duncan on the left block isolated against Kobe. No help comes, no help needed. Kobe defends and contests the PF/C position like it was in the game plan. No flop, no hacks, just played D. This leads to Fisher (the hack) hiting a big shot again. He Hate Spurs.
5:22 in the 3rd. Kobe throws (blocks) some Lamar deflected shot. "i think Lamar may have deflected the initial attempt"... the response, "that should have been a goaltend, no doubt about it". No replay. bleh, shut up.
4:13 in the 3rd, some guy named Udoka hits a 3, sits on the floor and gets a 4 pt play. Fortunately Sam Lemons was WIRED: "That was like some Big Shot Robert Horry shit, except about 16 minutes too early. And he was about as fouled as Larry Johnson...bleh"
Anyways....I completly dug the LAL team rebounding. It was apparent when our lineup was undersized we had areas we would tip rebounds towards. Great to see an effort, a plan, and a board.
And after rewatching that game, I was amazed that holding the defending champs to 32 points in the second half in a game tied at the break was hardly mentioned.
Let the sheep sleep, I'm not misssing a beat.
Until I get posting rights again I'll have to chime in on the comments.
OMFG We just won the monkey fargin; West!
I'm a little too emotional and caught up to even speak about the post season. It's hard to believe we have home court through the WCF if we're that blessed to play through the first three rounds.
We can talk details later, but congrats to Phil, Kobe, Mitch, Dr. Buss, and all the the fans!
LAL4Life!
It'll all taste like ash soon enough.
LAL8tr4Life!
"I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad."
Life4LAL8aters
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