Failure = Fuel

"LA will be burning cop cars." That's what my good buddy Max said. I bet him $5 it wouldn't happen. We've tasted victory before. The LAPD won't let 2000's violent fandom take place again. It's post 9/11. And it's a recession. The city won't pay for a championship parade (update: they'll split it 50/50 with the team), much less let a few unruly wastrels molotov LA's Navi's.

I won the bet, though I got about as much pleasure out of that little victory as I did out of last night's Lakers victory. OK, a tad less - winning a bet vs. Max is like beating a small child at Scrabble. Winning an NBA championship is a much bigger deal, but for some reason I'm not as energized by the 08-09 title as I should be. It's almost as if I saw Kobe hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy, Pau, Lamar, Mbenga and friends in the background, before he actually did it last night. There were no goosebumps when the team was on the podium. Maybe I was too hungover from the previous night, too sun-baked from the day, or maybe the sight of Vanessa Bryant and kids reeked too strongly of a publicity stunt on Kobe's part. Let Gary Vitti and Jordan Farmar stroke that trophy, not Sasha & Melia Natalia and Gianna, yafeelme? This championship wasn't a foregone conclusion when the finals kicked off, but after the Magic's game four implosion, it certainly seemed that way. Today is a Monday that's just slightly less lame than the last.

"You can't succeed until you've tasted defeat." I dunno who said that, but I think it's especially true of the NBA today. Failure poisons MLB players forever - especially relief pitchers. Failure in the NFL regularly turns highly touted college QB's into Division II QB coaches. Failure destroys skiers and racecar drivers - especially failures that occur at speeds over 50 MPH. But in the NBA, failure is fuel. Nobody on ORL had really failed before this series. David Robinson was PWND by the '90s before Jordan retired and the greatest power forward of all-time helped get him atop the heap. KG's career was defined by failure before the Celts took the title last year. If you're a Lakers fan, you know the failures of the past seven years, on and off the court, are too numerous to count. The team is stronger for them. Kobe knows what doesn't work. Luke Walton and Jordan Farmar store those failures in their fat and burn them when they're called off the bench. Lamar knew that nothing less than a title could alter his cringe-worthy destiny. Last night he did it, and today we think of him in a totally different light than we did two months ago.

More powerful than any of that might be the lingering thought in Magic players' minds that they couldn't win. Especially after Courtney Lee missed the alley-oop, especially after Dwight missed those two free throws, especially after they gave up that 12-point lead in the first quarter of last night's game. The Magic hadn't failed BEFORE. They were in the midst of failing NOW. Shots don't fall when you don't believe, and more driven opponents thrive on that lack of faith. That's what you saw in the second and third quarter last night when the Lakers played some of the best high-octane basketball of the season. They kicked ass, and for a minute made me think they could beat last year's Celtics.

Now, two questions remain. First, will the Lakers want it enough next year to repeat? And will the Cavs acquire a difference maker to make LeBron's failure relevant? Coming from a basketball fan first, Lakers fan second, I hope the answer to both of those questions is Yes.

Ouch Charlie, That Really Hurt!!

Tough loss for the Lake Show last night. For about a quarter and a half, our boys played nearly flawless basketball. They were feeding the post, rebounding, forcing turnovers and moving the ball. Then, for some inexplicable reason, Phil took out Kobe with about 5 or 6 minutes to go in the 2nd quarter. Up around a dozen at the time, with a chance to extend the lead and crack the trachea of the Nug-jobs, Kobe could be found on the bench, and a small, ineffective line-up was caught on their heels. Phil sat in his chair unfazed by the surging Nuggets, and by keeping Kobe on the bench, allowed the Nugs to get back in the game and go into halftime a confident bunch. The rest is history. The second half began with the Nuggets carrying all the momentum. The Lakers were on the defensive for most of the second half, constantly struggling to catch up and tie the game. Unfortunately, the Lakers' efforts fell short and they're going back to Denver tied up 1-1. 

While I haven't given up hope on the series, winning is gonna be a challenge. As every sportswriter in the country has repeated over and over, Denver is a very tough place to win. However, record-wise, we are the best road team in the NBA and you can never dismiss a team's chances in any arena, or on any solar system, when they've got the Black Mamba. In my opinion, we need to cut Sasha (Fierce) V's minutes. The dude couldn't hit the bright side of J-Lo's butt with a basketball. We also need to play our big guys when the Nugget's go small. They're don't have the speed or quickness to run on us, even when we've got Bynum and Gasol on the court at the same time. Lastly, let Kobe go all 48. I guarantee he won't mind. 

I'm here in Denver (boooooo) after driving through Kansas for about 300 hours. Denver has more breweries in their  downtown area than any other city  I've ever seen. Driving through Kansas I found a solid R&B station that played the likes of Silk and Keith Sweat. Needless to say, I felt pretty sexy listening to it. I also found a strictly new wave college station. I heard some groovy electro-jamz of which I can't remember the names. 

Live long and party,

Doom Bizzle

Lakers vs. Rockets: Game 3 Preview

Lakerland is nervous. The team isn't what you thought it was 2 months ago, huh? Thankfully, Stu Jackson is of the same mind. Kobe prob would've gotten the game suspension he deserved under the rules had the Lakers gone into Houston with a 2-0 advantage. But the Lakers need him. The NBA needs Kobe. This is a business first, an entertainment medium second, and a fair competitive platform 141st.

So are we going to win tonight? Vegas thinks so. Lakers are -1.5 on Bookmaker. I'm not quite so sure. There are too many questions about this team, not enough answers. For the first time in a long time, Phil doesn't seem to have them. He's been mum on who's gonna take D-Fish's spot in the starting lineup. Does he know? Farmar's seniority and experience vs. former Pac-10 rival Aaron Brooks makes him the frontrunner, and you know how we feel on that issue here at this very pro-Farmar blog (btw dave, we need to change this blog's name). Do the Lakers stand a chance against this team if he doesn't step up? Do we stand a chance against the Nuggets without him? No. I don't think there's a better candidate to match up with Houston's littles, and to provide that spark off the bench we'll need to combat a barrage of points from J.R. Smith. With Lamar in the starting lineup, Sasha looking nothing like The Machine, and.... shit our bench is weak! Farmar needs to play hot tonight, and work up some confidence in himself and in Phil for the next few weeks.

Besides the PG situation, the key to tonight's game will be limiting Yao's effectiveness. That means putting him in foul trouble. That means taking it to the rim. But who's going to get into the paint? You've probably heard all about how Kobe just isn't the slasher he used to be. Via Bill Simmons' game 1 diary:

Kobe has attempted a total of 44 FTs in six playoff games (7.2 per game). Last spring, he attempted 194 FTs in 22 playoff games (8.8 per game). For the regular season, his FT attempts dropped from 10.2 (2005-06) to 10.0 ('06-07) to 9.0 ('07-08) to 6.9 ('08-09). So, no, Kobe doesn't go to the hole as much. Let the record show MJ averaged 10.6 FTA in the '98 playoffs and Wade averaged 10.9 FTA in the '06 playoffs. I'm just sayin'.

It's Lamar time. We've heard so much about how Lamar is the man when it comes to creating mismatches, but where is it this series? I haven't seen it. LO is a combined 6-15 in the first two games here. WTF is up with that? Who's been guarding him? Scola? Landry? Whatever. The point is his effectiveness has been severely limited by the mere presence of Yao. We can't win on jump shots. No team can. It's time to take it to the rim.

WE WANT TACOS

Seriously, if we can't hold Ron Ron, Yao and the Rockets' pupu taquito platter under 100, we're in trouble.

Lakers Blow Lead, Win Series, Fans Cry

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.

Lakers vs. Jazz: Game 3

Energy Solutions Arena smelled like the Delta Center last night. Stockton was in the stands, fresh off his induction into the basketball HOF. Malone was too busy hauling a stand of conifers across country to make the game, but he was present in spirit, summoned by Charlie Boozer before the game and manifest in the man's 20-20. '90s Jazz stalwart Ty Corbin - who's now an asst coach on the team - whispered words of encouragement into the ears of CJ Miles and Ronnie Brewer Jr. whose combined defensive efforts forced Kobe into shooting an abominable 5-24.

Did the Jazz beat the Lakers last night or did the Lakers beat themselves? The Lake Show scuttled its overwhelming height advantage when Bynum got himself fouled out in the 3rd (Or at least Marv, Reggie and I thought he fouled out, the box score says otherwise). In any case, he played only 8 minutes in a game where his interior D was needed to thwart the pick-n-roll. Kobe did his best frustrated toddler impression last night, hoisting up more contested fallaways than Dejuan Wagner in a game of 1-on-1 with Loren Woods. Ronnie Brewer Sr. might have been correct when he said the difference between Kobe and Jordan is consistency. Is that what he said? I don't remember. I just know he looked cool in that Kangol and he played on that post-Walton Blazers team documented by Halberstam in Breaks of the Game.

Fact is, Kobe's gotta pass. Every time he drove and dumped down low to Pau, good things happened. The Jazz don't have the size to contain our bigs. They've got a couple very good defenders on the wings, and unless we're moving the ball and forcing double teams, Kobe isn't gonna find too many open looks. D-Will is gonna get his, and the altitude is gonna give the Lakers some wind problems, but as I see it, those are the only givens when it comes to this Jazz team. Boozer should be contained on every play except a few of those pick-n-rolls when help D on D-Will will be necessary. No more open elbow shots, and no more 22 rebound games.

Game 4 will be different. The Lakers won't shoot 37% from the field and 62% from the line. At least not unless the Jazz can figure out some way to get Tyrone Corbin on the floor.

Notes on last night's Laker win

1) Trevor Ariza will be the difference if the Lakers win an NBA Championship....Phil is finally comfortable playing Ariza in crunch time and had him in the starting lineup last night. Ariza can match up with the likes of Lebron, Paul Pierce, Artest, and Josh Howard keeping Kobe out of foul trouble and Luke Walton on the bench. His athleticism and length make him an incredibly effective defender, not to mention the dude can score.

2) Shannon Brown is pretty decent. Last night was the first time I've really been exposed to his game and the dude can ball. He's an athletic point guard who can shoot the three and jump through the roof. DFish is older and slower so who knows, maybe SB will be the guy to match up against the young PGs in the West if Fish gets in foul trouble or breaks a hip.

3) Bynum looks really good. Putting up 17 and 6 in his first night back and dunking effortlessly on his bum knee; very, very good signs.

4) I feel bad for Josh Powell. This dude is gonna have a place in the league for a long time. He's got a solid mid range jumper and he can rebound. With Bynum coming back his minutes are gonna go down, but I think of him as Ronny Turiaf without the silliness. Give the dude more than 2 minutes Phil, we've already got the 1 seed.

5) Chauncy Billups is the man. Love his game.