LET'S JUST SKIP THE 82ND GAME.Byline: KEVIN MODESTI I think I speak for everybody who has watched the Lakers See Lake poets this season, and quite possibly for the Lakers themselves, when I say let's start the playoffs right now. Today. This minute. Ready or not. Skip the final game of the regular season, against the Sacramento Kings at Staples Center This article has multiple issues: * Its neutrality is disputed. * It may contain original research or unverifiable claims. * It does not cite any references or sources. on Wednesday night. Phone the Kings and the NBA NBA abbr. 1. National Basketball Association 2. National Boxing Association NBA (US) n abbr (= National Basketball Association) → Basketball-Dachverband (= office and see if it would be all right if everybody kind of agrees to forget Game 82. Or maybe all dozen Lakers players could claim migraines and just not show up. That excuse worked so well for Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal (pronounced "shak-KEEL") (born March 6, 1972 in Newark, New Jersey), frequently referred to simply as Shaq, is an American professional basketball player, generally regarded as one of the most dominant in the National Basketball Association (NBA). when he missed practice last week. As for the little matter of the Western Conference's unresolved playoff seedings, flip a coin: Heads, the Lakers play Portland in the first round. Tails, the Lakers play Minnesota. Sunday is too long to wait. Don't you think that after this long, and this many frustrated frus·trate tr.v. frus·trat·ed, frus·trat·ing, frus·trates 1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: attempts to recapture their championship form, the Lakers are impatient to get the regular season behind them? ``How about right after the All-Star break?'' Lakers coach Phil Jackson
Philip Douglas "Phil" Jackson (born September 17, 1945 in Deer Lodge, Montana) is the current coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, an American professional basketball team. said with a smile before the Lakers beat Seattle 111-104 on Monday night in another game that could have been eliminated except that nobody wanted to disappoint Chick Hearn. Well, sure, they're impatient. Not because they're ready for the playoffs. Because nothing they're doing is getting them any closer to ready for the playoffs. Because this year, unlike either of the past two, it appears the only thing that's going to flip their switch is the actual arrival of the playoffs. The whole regular season has been a fruitless search for momentum. I wish I'd written it down every time a Laker lak·er n. 1. A fish, such as the lake trout, that lives in a lake. 2. A ship used on lakes. promised that this victory or that was the start of a winning streak Noun 1. winning streak - a streak of wins streak, run - an unbroken series of events; "had a streak of bad luck"; "Nicklaus had a run of birdies" that could carry them all the way to June. The team that rode an eight-game streak into the 2001 playoffs can hope for no better than a two-game streak in 2002. What stands between the Lakers and real momentum is another inexcusable defeat at Portland on Sunday. The game was big because it could help the Lakers hold onto the second-best record in the conference. The game was big because with a victory the Lakers could send a message to the Trail Blazers The Blazers (in some cases, short for Trail Blazers) is the name of several professional and collegiate sports teams:
Although the Blazers were their usual unbalanced selves, the Lakers gave the game away twice and lost in double overtime. If they couldn't turn it on, and keep it turned on, for this game, then when? ``It's not that we were standing in the middle of the freeway and we were road kill,'' Jackson said. ``We were out there in the middle of the freeway. We got ourselves in that position.'' What this tells us is that Jackson's metaphors aren't quite up to playoff quality either. If the Lakers beat Sacramento on Wednesday, they'll finish with a 58-24 record and actually will be two games better than last year. Also, this season will have produced nothing as unpleasant or embarrassing as last season's public squabble squab·ble intr.v. squab·bled, squab·bling, squab·bles To engage in a disagreeable argument, usually over a trivial matter; wrangle. See Synonyms at argue. n. A noisy quarrel, usually about a trivial matter. between O'Neal and Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant (born July 23 1978) is an American All-Star shooting guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA) who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. . Yet, this season will have been more of a disappointment than that one. Amid all their harmony, with nothing unusual to trip them up, the Lakers still couldn't put it all together. ``Eighty-two games is awfully long and we know what we're after and we're getting there,'' Jackson said. Did he really say ``getting there''? ``We're playing well enough,'' Jackson said. That's what we can't wait to find out. It's true, the Lakers did have to play 15 games without an injured or suspended O'Neal. If you take away their 7-8 record on those nights, they've won at a 62-game pace this season. It's also true, the Lakers will be tough to beat in a best-of-seven playoff series. If you look at their regular-season meetings with potential playoff qualifiers, they've never lost four times in a seven-game stretch. It's also true, O'Neal and the Lakers looked sharp for long stretches of their victory over Seattle. Let's see Let's See was a Canadian television series broadcast on CBC Television between September 6, 1952 to July 4, 1953. The segment, which had a running time of 15 minutes, was a puppet show with a character named Uncle Chichimus (voice of John Conway), which presented each , they thumped Seattle, and if they beat Sacramento, then that'll give them momentum going into ... Quit dreaming. Stop thinking about tomorrow. Bring on the playoffs right now. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion