Lakers Rebound from an 0-3 Road Trip

Yeah, that’s right, LA is back in the win column. Real impressive. A Kobe Bryant buzzer-beating home win against a barely over .500 middle-of-the-pack Eastern Conference mediocrity, the Toronto Raptors. The Raptors are now 32-30 in the much, much weaker East, visiting arguably the most talented team in the NBA at arguably one of the most difficult places to win in the NBA. This game should have been a 15+ point Laker victory. Yes, I understand Kobe’s Boys see the best game from everyone every night, but this was supposed to be a “statement game” after such the enduring worst Laker losing streak in over 2 years. LA is going to get everyone’s best game all the way through the playoffs, so they need to get used to it. Like I’ve said before, I’m not too concerned about the regular season, it doesn’t mean much. But I’m starting to get concerned about the playoffs.

With the talent in place and the team in position, there’s only one thing stopping the Lakers from closing out a repeat: attitude. They need more of it. We’ve all seen glimpses of it. The aggressive game against Denver last week and even going back Derek Fisher’s obliteration of Luis Scola (aka: The Neanderthal) in last year’s playoffs. The most obvious place where this will be seen is in a more consistent defense, and Kobe knows it. USA Today’s game recap article covers Kobe’s post-game press conference comments on his final shot and the overall game. "They didn't come early at me and I got the shot off. That's part of my responsibility, to close teams out. Our defense tonight was garbage. We have to focus on execution." Amen brother. Simply put, Bynum needs to get big, Gasol needs to get bloody, and if there’s a ball on the floor or in the air, there’d better be five men in purple and gold saying “that ball’s mine.”

As far as getting to the Finals is concerned, I still think it’d take a disaster of epic proportions (or a miracle, depending on you point of view) to keep the Lakers from getting there, even though their lead in the West is now only down to 3 over the Dallas Mavericks. Last year I predicted that that it would be a Laker/Celtic final. I think it’s pretty apparent that that’s not going to happen. Boston is on their last leg with these current players. Unfortunately, 36 is like 90 in NBA years, and there’s no way the green machine has enough gas left to make a final push, even if they’re playing possum now. It’ll be Cleveland, Orlando, or even possibly Atlanta (but they’re a bit of a long-shot) to face the champs, and now any final series would look like a 6-7 gamer. It’s going to be a great June. In order to defend the Championship and try and get Coach Phil Jackson’s fourth three-peat, the Lakers need to put all of their instruments together and get comfortable playing them.

The Lakers have got to get hungry like they were last year after being embarrassed by Boston in game 6 in the 2008 Finals. It’s impossible to try and recreate the intensity from last year. Not just because they looked like they would’ve run through a brick wall to get the ring, but because it’s impossible to try and regenerate something that happened naturally before. It’s not real. They have to find something new to get mad at, and start playing like they aren’t just going to sit on their rings with contentment. They don’t necessarily need to have it all figured out by tomorrow, but time is running out to flip the switch and the playoffs won’t wait.

Help Me Ron-Ron! Help, Help Me Ron-Ron!

Help me Ron-Ron Yea! Get Ariza out of my heart! Last year at the end of the NBA Season I said that if you can only keep one Laker, Lamar Odom or Trevor Ariza, you’ve got to keep Ariza. Boy was I wrong. In the beginning, I wasn’t really a fan of the Ariza-Ron Artest trade. I felt it was kind of a wash defensively (with a slight advantage to Artest), but that Ariza had a youthful fire that this sometimes lackadaisical LA Laker team needed. Boy was I wrong. I still think Trevor is a great asset (and a lot of Houston Rocket fans now agree with me), but recently Ron-Ron has really started to find his groove here in the Entertainment Capitol of the World: Defensive Monster.

In the last 4 games, Artest has proven that he’s worth every penny he earns. He recently dropped 10 pounds, not fat mind you, just weight. The dude is cut (as we saw recently on Jimmy Kimmel. Got to know him pretty well in his underwear). He dropped the weight to be just a little quicker, and boy has it paid off. His defensive intensity really started shining last week with the 76ers, but it was his performance against Carmello Anthony and the Denver Nuggets that really made heads turn. Artest had a sickening 6 steals and 8 forced turnovers from Anthony, holding him to only 21 points and 1 assist. Ron-Ron spent the evening constantly disrupting Mello with tenaciously aggressive 1-on-1 play. If he was any more up on Mello, they’d be doing something inappropriate. Since that game, he has single-handedly proven that Lakers aren’t just Cupcakes, but can be a Rough-and-Tumble team when they need to be, making them a much more dangerous team in the West. By the way, he’s the first Laker to have at least 5 steals in 3 consecutive games since Magic Johnson did it in ’91. Sure he’s a bit of a Wack-a-doo, but in this system, Artest has actually been able to get comfortable in his role and act relatively normal.

Still holding onto hope for the best overall record, Los Angeles still leads the Dallas Mavericks in the West by 5 games, but trail the Cleveland Cavaliers by 2. Barring some unbelievable breakdown form the Cavs, there’s no way the Lakers will overcome the 2 game deficit. The Cavs play a majority of their remaining schedule at home and in the much, much weaker Eastern Conference. LA is practically on the road for the rest of the year. Only 7 home games in their last 22. But there’s really nothing to worry about if you’re a Laker fan. Only Phil Jackson and Greg Popovich really understand the importance of the regular season: besides making it into the post-season, there really isn’t any importance. The point being, the Lakers are holding out and as we’ve seen so many times before, can turn it on when they need to. After a hard fought loss in Miami last night, the Lakers are beginning to exemplify the attitude that defending champions should, that they’re going to fight until the end. And with the important help of Ron Artest, they’re doing it with much more defense than they have ever had before.

NBA 2010: Real Predictions & Excuses for Making Wrong Ones (Part II)

THE BOSTON CELTICS will make it back one last time. We talk about Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce as a bunch of old guys hanging out with the young’uns for one last pick-up game. The problem is, they’re not really that old. Ok, Ray Allen is about to turn 34, which in basketball years is getting up there, but KG is only 33 … wait… and Pierce is about to turn 32… alright you got me, they’re old for the NBA. But they can still play. Hey, Kobe Bryant is about to turn 31 and Derek Fisher is about to turn 35, and if you haven't heard, they just won the title. It may sound unimportant, but an overlooked aspect of the Celtics game is the free throw shooting of Ray Allen. He’s a CAREER 89.3% from the line. Last season (post and regular) he shot 95%. In January, he broke a Celtic record of 72 consecutive free throws. He also had several other streaks of 50 or more in the same season. If the officiating from last year's playoffs is indicative of a new trend, making free throws will be a major part of advancing in years to come. The excuse I have for the Celtics lie in the same reason they didn’t get there this year: can they stay healthy? With a fully functional KG, Celtics lose to the Lakers in 5 games this year, but they still beat Orlando and Cleveland and make it to the Finals. They’ll be the Eastern Conference Champs next year all things considered.

THE ORLANDO MAGIC is probably the least likely of the big three in the east to make it to the dance. Even though Magic Owner Rich DeVos has stated that they’ll go over the salary cap to keep Hedo Turkoglu, we’re all still going to have to wait to see what happens. If the front office follows through, the declaration will have been the defining moment when Orlando joined the big boys. Even though he practically gets away with murder, Hedo Turkoglu is the cornerstone of the Magic. Sorry Dwight Howard, but he is. I’m big on defense and Howard is the best inside defender there is, but the Magic quickly defined themselves as a scrappy team this post-season, and Turkoglu is the scrappiest of the scrappy. The front office knows it and all Magic fans should accept it. In the Laker only loss in the series, Hedo was a big part of the Magic’s first Finals win in franchise history. He had 18 points and 7 assists (most of them to Dwight Howard), and even though Howard had 21 points, he only had 2 blocks. In comparison to game four’s 9 blocks which set a finals record, two is pretty measly. Oh, and did I mention they lost game 4? Turkoglu makes things happen for the Magic. They’ve got to get him back if they want to have a chance. The only thing that will hinder them is a healthy Boston and odd coaching decisions concerning guard play. Getting to the Finals was really neato for them, and like I always say, “no neato without Hedo.”

*Wildcard

*THE CLEVELAND LEBRONS, oh sorry, I mean CAVALIERS. The Cavaliers a wildcard? Hold on, they had the best record in the NBA this last year! Yes, they had a great record in the much weaker east. Judging who gets home court advantage in the Finals by comparing the records in two completely lopsided conferences is almost as bad as giving it to the winner of the All-Star Game. Using John Hollinger’s ranking (which I agree is systematically flawed), the Atlanta Hawks were the East’s 4th best team in comparable to the West’s 4th, San Antonio. The east has three of the top four teams yes, but the next 8 in the listing are not even close, arguably giving the west 9 out of the top 12. If Lebron isn’t on the Cleveland Cavaliers, they’re not even a PLAYOFF TEAM. With Lebron, they make it to the Eastern Conference Finals where they’re outmatched by Dwight Howard in the paint. Here’s where the “wildcard” comes into play, in February of this last year, there was a proposed trade with the Phoenix Suns that never really took wings. Yep, you guessed it, it’s for Shaq. The old switcheroo would have been Shaq for the declining defensive specialist Ben Wallace and the 4.6 PPG Sasha Pavlovic. Some say Shaq is done, but he had a great last season with nearly 18 PPG, plus he’s still 325lbs at 7’1”. If Shaq goes to the Cavs, they now have the inside presence they need to contend with the likes of Boston and Orlando, having a much better shot to make it further in the playoffs. Lebron is phenomenal and won a much deserved MVP this year, but as we saw in the Eastern Conference Finals, he can’t do it alone.