Fears of a Lakers revival in the NBA playoffs justified
So much for readjustment, timing, chemistry and all the other entries from the Coach’s Thesaurus.
It’s as simple as it ever was. If you’re playing with
LeBron James and he gets a rebound, run downcourt like an escaping prisoner. If he gets double-teamed, sprint to the vacated area. Or, if it’s the end of the game, go to the corner and make sure your trigger-finger is engaged. The ball, and your chance for a hero shot, is coming.
The Lakers’ muscles have retained all
those memories. Remembering how to play with James is about as difficult as remembering how to make a smoothie.
True, the Lakers are out on the ledge somewhat. Because they are a No. 7 seed they play Golden State and Steph Curry, the league’s leading scorer, on Wednesday night. But if they win, they’re in the normal playoff structure, where everyone is 0-0 and the home-court advantage will mean less than it ever has, even if a Game 7 in Phoenix or Utah looms.
The Lakers coughed up a 14-point fourth-quarter lead to Golden State in November, but won the other two meetings by 31 and 26 games and held Curry under 30 points in all three, and Anthony Davis played in neither Laker victory.
A win Wednesday would give the Lakers another time cushion before the real playoffs begin next week. A loss Wednesday would necessitate a true win-or-choke scenario against the Memphis-San Antonio winner Friday.
Fretting Laker fans should observe how the rest of the league cowers before the reassembled monster.
The Clippers played their scrubs (including Jay Scrubb) against Houston and lost when they could have challenged Denver for the No. 3 seed.
Then they played everyone but Ken “The Animal” Bannister on Sunday and lost to Oklahoma City, which has a GLeague contingent that would have difficulty beating Oklahoma State.
The strategy, clearly, was to dodge the Lakers at all costs, even if it meant falling to the No. 4 seed and playing Luka Doncic and Dallas, which has an NBA-best record of 12-3 in its past 15 games.
If the Lakers beat Golden State, the Clippers couldn’t face them in an all-Staples series until the Western Conference finals, a place the Clippers never have been.
That’s a lot of assumptions being made by a team that hasn’t beaten a healthy team with a winning record since April 21. Perhaps they should have used that final trip to solidify their rotations and develop some timing of their own. No Clipper has played 60 games and also averaged 30 minutes this season.
Denver would have met the Lakers in a 3-6 first-round rematch of last year’s Western finals. It made sure that didn’t happen when it turned its regular-season finale at Portland into a “friendly.”
A No. 7 seed never has won the NBA championship, although the Knicks were No. 8 when they got to the 1999 Finals. Only one No. 6 seed has held a parade. That was Houston in 1995, like these Lakers a defending champ.
The Rockets traded Otis Thorpe to Portland for Clyde Drexler, a future Hall of Famer to play alongside Hakeem Olajuwon. Still, they were 18-19 going into the playoffs and 4735 overall.
Then Olajuwon was named third-team All-NBA, and San Antonio’s David Robinson got the MVP trophy before Game 2 of the Spurs-Rockets Western final. Olajuwon went out and laid 41 points and 16 rebounds on Robinson. The torture continued throughout the series, and when it was over Olajuwon told Kenny Smith, “I’m going over to his house and get my trophy.”
The final step was a sweep of Orlando in the Finals, with Olajuwon surpassing Shaquille O’Neal.
At some point in these playoffs, either Nikola Jokic or Chris Paul will get this MVP trophy, and James will be nodding grimly somewhere, and the consequences might not be pretty.
But if the Lakers actually go from play-in to shoo-in, they will fondly remember what Davis and the “others” did when James and Dennis Schröder were out.
Instead of flailing in the water, they lost a close, passionate game to Portland on May 7, then beat Phoenix and New York. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Talen Horton-Tucker, Alex Caruso and the rest kept hope afloat. Andre Drummond has found traction. It all gave James a more solid re-entry.
On Feb. 12, the Lakers were 21-6. They have been built back better. By next week the perils of the play-in will be forgotten, and the predictability and truth of a seven-game series will return.
As for the rest of the tenpins that stand in the way of this bowling ball, be careful of what you didn’t wish for.