OK, it wasn't the prettiest 1 vs. 8 matchup the NBA playoffs have ever seen. But you know what, the Lakers got the job done against a very legit opponent. Are you convinced the Jazz aren't the second best team in the East? Me neither, you could probably talk me into it. And meanwhile every Lakers fan I've talked to over the past week says, "We've gotta stop giving up these leads." It's the first thing that comes out of anyone's mouth who's been watching this series. OK, that and "I feel bad for Farmar."This is what I've gotta say about those of you who can't get over our fourth quarter near-collapses. Deal with it. You should be happy we can put together 20 point leads as it is. Never mind our penchant for letting them dissolve late in games. Complain instead about Bynum's first round no-shows. Complain about Sasha's all too frequent frantic TO's. Complain about Pau's inability to dominate a team lacking a legit 7 footer. Don't complain about going up big only to win by a few. Those games were W's, after all. (OK, not game three, in which the Lakers were up 8 going into the final quarter. But that game would have been ours if Kobe shot 24% from the field instead of 21%.)
Basically, I feel pretty good about the Lakers right now. Yeah, next to the decimation of the Tehachapi Salamander, and the closing of Duttons, the saddest thing in SoCal, maybe the world, is seeing Farmar wrapped in warmups all game long. I keep telling myself he's still young by PG standards and he'll be something in this league before long. But things are good in Laker Land. In fact, they might be better than good. We've identified our weakness, and I think, we're ready to move on.
No comments:
Post a Comment