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-------------------- March 15, 2001 La la land woes
by Chad Ridgeway of The NBA underground I have to beef with what you said about the Lakers on the front page of (Hoops Corner). I have to cuz I'ma Lakers fan... I watch all the games, I know the players by heart. (ed- they have no heart this season) The Lakers ARE putting something together. Hitting their stride. They've had three close games recently. An OT loss to the Spurs, which they deserved to lose. It came down to three things; 1) TD missing FT's, coulda put the game away, 2) A defensive collapse on the Lakers part. Shaq didn't switch off a screen and Avery Johnson nailed a wide open J, and 3) A missed 3 pointer by Kobe. I mean, when a game comes down to one last second shot, it could've gone either way (ed- last year it went their way). The Spurs have been playing REAL good (8 game win streak with OT win over T-Wolves), and the Lakers coulda got it. It just came down to that ONE shot, no big deal. The Sonics win was retared. Mason had an offensive goal tending not get called. Penberthy thought he was Kobe and tried to create his own shots. Without Shaq (who fouled out because of *ridiculous* offensive calls) and Kobe, and without Rider, Harper, and Fisher, none of the 2nd and 3rd unit players knew who to give the ball to in OT. The Lakers have been under manned. George dropped the ball out of bounds on a wide open dunk attempt (WIDE open, Brian Shaw stole the ball and passed it up court to [him]) (ed- Spalding says the ball is only slip free for Kobe, Devan George is not fit to dunk it). It was retarded, but will have no bearing on their playoff performance. They also got worked by Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker, but thanks to the INCREDIBLE play of Fisher (back after 7 months of injury) the Lakers pulled it out. They miss Kobe, they miss Rider, and they miss Harper (the Lakers best on ball defender). So that's what I say about the Lakers. They ARE putting something together, and are starting a 5 game eastern road swing tomorrow... if they go 5-0 on the trip, you know they're for real. If they go 4-1 then they have some fine tuning. Anything lower and the Lakers really need to get their act together. Next: 2001 HoopsCorner awards Previous: Notorious MVP Articles main Back to top
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