Thanks to their 89-70 victory over the Houston Rockets today, the Los Angeles Lakers will face the Denver Nuggets in this year’s Western Conference Finals. If you didn’t see the game, know that it was truly an easy win; the Lakers won by 19 despite Houston closing the game on a 12-0 run.
The schedule is now set for the next series as well. Game One is Tuesday night at 7 Mountain (ESPN), and the Nuggets and Lakers will play every other day until the series is over. Actually, the schedule’s been set for a few days, a fact I wish I’d known when I was looking for but not getting any tickets on Friday. (Did any of you have any luck on that front?)
Does today’s first Game Seven give anyone pause heading into the series? I say it’s about time the Lakers step up, because they haven’t done much to this point. But then, all we’ve done is beat a bunch of quitters, and then a one-Germensional team. I am excited to see the games, but would feel a lot better with the warm blanket of homecourt advantage nearby. Does anyone think we have to win the series in six?
One thing I did notice in today’s game that Kobe wasn’t the first guy off the bench congratulating his teammates, even though he totally was the night before when I watched Kobe Doin’ Work. Huh. That’s weird. Could the Lakers’ star be hiding some kind of injury? I mean, gosh, I can’t think of any reason for him to act differently during the movie like that…
8 comments:
Seriously are there people out there who actually like Kobe? Not in this state.
I think we'd better suprize them in Game one with some real competition, agression, and use our extra "rest" to beat them down. Then I think we can take them in 6.
I will enjoy this series thanks to my love hate relationship with these teams. Love the Nuggs, Hate the Lakes. Wish I could have been there give Kobe the ol "BOO" from the stands.
LT
One more thing. I hope we keep this a short series, Pau is just not a beautiful man, the less I have to see this guy the better.
I agree, how we come out in Game One is key. I don't doubt we'll start well, but I'm sure Phil knows how important it is to us to grab the homecourt edge in the series. Just two more days!
It would have been nice to have homecourt against the depleted Houston Rockets, but I'm kind of glad the Lakers won. It will be so much more satisfying if the Nuggets beat the Lakers. I don't think we necessarily have to win the first game, but we do need to compete. I think we need to win one of two and neutralize the Lakers' homecourt advantage.
Do you think Karl will put K-Mart on Kobe like last year, or will he try Jones on him?
Well, yeah, we don't need to win Game One necessarily, but I hope we at least have a real lead at some point. I mean the Lakers annihilated us last year. We were a different team, yes, but I still think a good start is huge.
I'm interested to see how we guard Kobe...I'm afraid he'll take Dahntay to the post early and often. I want to see if Carmelo will pick him up at times, too.
I agree that Game 1 is critical - we need to take advantage of our extra rest and set a physical tone early.
As for the series, I think the play of our big men will be crucial because we will need to dictate a slower pace and avoid a shootout, and because Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, and Andrew Bynum are softer than tissue paper when pushed around.
I think our bigs are important because Gasol had such a huge series against us last year (esp. in Game One) but I think we'd do fine in an up-tempo game, even on the road. The Lakers traditionally have a bunch of guys who can hit the three-ball but I'm not impressed with their shooters this season.
You are right about their shooters being less impressive this year, but they still have some guys who can score in a hurry. Plus, I love how we obviously intimidated the Mavs and their cross-eyed owner into submission, and wouldn't mind a repeat with the Lakers.
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