Postcards From LA, Vol. 15: One Lakers Fan Tracks His Team Through the NBA Playoffs
June 9, 2008
As long as the Los Angeles Lakers survive through the 2008 NBA playoffs, Empty the Bench’s West Coast correspondent Christopher Thell will be submitting a local fan’s take on his beloved Lakers’ postseason trials, tribulations and successes. In this edition: nearly the greatest comeback in Finals history doesn’t mean a thing.
“What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.”-Charles Bukowski
Almost doesn’t mean a damn thing.
After offering up another shitty performance, aided by some equally shitty refereeing (Boston shot 38 free throws to the Lakers 10 – Leon Powe personally taking more free throws than the entire Lakers team), The Lake Show trailed 95-71 with less than 8 minutes to go.
It looked like the game was surely over, the Lakers down a whopping 24 and precious few minutes remaining. But Los Angeles finally summoned some grit and defensive intensity, Kobe finally found his groove, and Boston, well, never underestimate their ability to choke.
Behind 13 points and 2 assists from Bryant, as well as two Sasha Vujacic 3-pointers, the Lakers went on a furious 31-9 run to pull within 2, 104-102 on two free throws by Kobe with 38 seconds left. Paul Pierce, though, was fouled driving to the basket by Derek Fisher and made both free throws to make it 106-102. On the following possession, for some reason, and I can’t fathom what it would be, the ball never touched Kobe Bryant’s hands and Paul Pierce was able to block a 3-pointer by Vujacic. James Posey then made two from the charity stripe with 12 seconds left to ice it for the Celtics. It was almost the biggest comeback in Finals history.
It would be easy, and fair enough, to rant for a few paragraphs about the refereeing in the Celtics 108-102 Game 2 victory, which greatly favored Boston to the point that Phil Jackson led his postgame press conference by addressing the gross disparity in foul shots head on, calling it “Ridiculous” and going on to say he’s never witnessed anything like it in his myriad trips to the Finals.
It would also be easy, and fair enough, to spend a few paragraphs crediting the Boston Celtics for playing great team defense, forcing Kobe (30 points, 8 assists, 11-23 from the field) into taking tough shots, vastly outplaying the Lakers bench, and the primetime contributions and play of Paul Pierce (28 points, 4-4 from beyond the arc) who, whether exaggerating his Game 1 injury or not, has been the best player on the floor in the first two Finals’ contests.
But the truth is, up until those last 8 minutes of the 4th quarter, I think the Lakers were their own worst enemy, playing tight and tentative – by far their worst basketball of the postseason.
After the jump: can the Lake Show come back?
These were not the same fearless, high-flying Lakers who dispatched the Spurs in five games. Lamar Odom in particular has done a conspicuous disappearing act, scoring only 10 points and notching 8 rebounds in Game 2 while looking lost at times on the court. The Lakers’ European trio, Vujacic, Radmanovic, and Gasol, have also not played well while looking softer than warm brie on numerous occasions.
The Lakers can play better and tougher – unfortunately it took them 88 minutes to finally demonstrate that in the Finals, and now it appears it’s too late.
The team that wins the first two games takes the series over 90% of the time. As I wrote in the last volume, if the Lakers went down 2-0, this series was certainly over; this young Lakers team doesn’t have the mental fortitude to battle back.
I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong. After watching the Celtics almost choke away a second game (and given the fact that they lost 2-0 leads to Atlanta and Cleveland), if the Lakers can summon that same kind of energy and quality play that marked the finish to Game 2, it’s possible they could come back against this Boston team.
But will they?
The Lakers are truly walking through the fire now, these next three games in The City of Angels determining not only their fleeting championship hopes, but also a test of what they’re all about: do they harbor the collective cajones to force this series back to Boston?
More Postcards From LA:
Postcards From LA, Vol. 5
Postcards From LA, Vol. 6
Postcards From LA, Vol. 9
Postcards From LA, Vol. 10
Related: Postcards from LA, Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers, Lamar Odom, Paul Pierce, Boston Celtics
2 Comments »Posted by ETB Contributor on Jun. 9, 2008 at 9:26 am in NBA
