Tex Winter paused to gather his thoughts before offering his analysis of how the Lakers are playing. Winter, the Lakers ' basketball consultant, had come to watch them play the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night, to see for himself in what direction they were headed.
The Lakers came in with the best record in the NBA, 50-12, but Winter still saw troubling signs. And that was before the Trail Blazers routed them, 111-94. "I feel like our record is a whole lot better than how we've played," Winter, who lives in Portland with his wife, Nancy, said before the game. "I don't think we're playing nearly as good as our record indicates."
Tex is thinking like a fan. Fans want everything to be perfect. They want to gift wrap the entire regular season and playoffs so that they can later pull it down from the shelf to admire. Look! 66-16! Look! 131-92! Look! A world championship!
But having lived through the 1980s, the NBA season isn't always neat and clean. The Lakers were rampaging their way to the 1988 championship when the wheels came off. They still managed to repeat, but they limped to the finish line.
As a basketball fan, I hear what Tex is saying. Everything is not perfect in La La Land. As a Laker hater though, I have to give them their props. They swept both the Celts and the Cavs this season. This tells me that they can rise to the occasion when they want to.
So let's see how they do in their next two games (at Houston, at San Antonio) before we downgrade the purple too far. San Antonio is a work in progress. Drew Gooden isn’t expected to play until next week. So if the Spurs can win without Gooden, all of a sudden that makes the playoffs a little more interesting, especially if the L’s meet the Blazers in round 2, as a prelude to meeting the Spurs in the WCFs.
4 comments:
I'm not giving Lakers that much credit for beating the Celtics by 1 I believe with KG out the deciding minutes on a bogus call. And they have yet to prove when it counts, in the finals that they can get it done.
I'm still hoping they can't prove it in the Western Conference playoffs!
The Lakers are definitely not as good as their record. They have had a cream puff schedule and when they have faced the top teams it seems as though every time it is when one of their better players is out. In the game in LA, they purposely whacked Perk on the shoulder so he was 50% most of the game. In Boston the refs were horrible and pretty much gave the game to the Lakers and if KG didn't foul out on a bogus call, no way they win.
Now, when they do get beat, they get frustrated and resort to injuring players. I really hate the Lakers. I'd love to see them taken out in the first round.
I really hope we get another shot at them. Second best, they get eliminated and we play someone else for the title!
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