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Originally Posted by AlphaBean
And if you guys think it's a good thing that they've been there before and have no reason to be excited, you are missing the point of the game. Basketball is not a job. It's a sport. And if you can't even SMILE after winning a very important game, then basketball has lost its spirit. It's not even a case of underdogs, it's just the Lakers coasting through the playoffs. I'm assuming the next three (or four) games are going to have piss-poor ratings.
My only solace is that the Lakers will be torn apart next season.  |
Actually, it is a job. It's their job.
This is a veteran group. Look at the roster..outside of Rush, Walton, and Cook, every single person on the Lakers roster has either won a title or been to the Finals before. I don't remember the 80's Celtics and Lakers, the 90's Bulls, or even the Spurs from last year ever celebrating until after the NBA title. If they did, people would call them 'unprofessional' and you'd see all these analysts saying things like "why are they celebrating? they haven't won yet." The Yankes don't do a jig after the first round of the playoffs, do they?
They won Game 1; they still have to win three more in this series and four in the next. This team was put together to win a title; this is what they're
supposed to do.
So they will stay calm, play hard, and beat a T-Wolves team that really has no shot as long as the Lakers play a complete game. And I'm sure, come June, that these guys will lose their minds. Karl Malone and Gary Payton are going to go bonkers once they have a ring....just not now.
Those kind of emotional outpourings after every game are for the NCAA's. This is pro-basketball.
As for next year...Phil is probably gone. Karl, too. Fox will retire. But no wway in hell they let Derek Fisher walk after these playoffs. And that still leaves a Laker team with Shaq, Kobe, Gary, an improved bench, and a veteran exemption slot on the cap that will let them pick-up a guy like Keon Clark or Theo Ratliff. Outside of the Spurs and Wolves, there's not a team in the West that's going to compete.