Celtics and Lakers, Possible Renewal Of Rivalry
From the looks of it, the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers are on a collision course for the 2010 NBA Finals.
First, Lebron James and his souped-up Cleveland Cavaliers weren’t able to stop the rejuvenated Celtics five.
Second, after two exciting games in the Eastern Conference Finals, it appears that Orlando and its top center Dwight Howard just couldn’t find any answer against the rampaging Celtics.
With a commanding 2-0 lead in the series, Boston can finish off Orlando and make Howard’s team disappear via a sweep at the TD Banknorth in Boston where the green-and-white fans are expected to come in droves to cheer on their heroes for Games 3 and 4.
Over in the West, the Phoenix Suns are just another bunch of scorers incapable of playing tough defense. Just look over the Game 2 result, Lakers prevail again–124-112.
With Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and an injured Andrew Bynum doing much of the damage inside the paint, the Suns are just two games away from seeing their Finals hopes set.
The Lakers can sink the Suns’ dimming “lights” in Phoenix, Arizona when the series moves there for Games 3 and 4.
Boston is looking for its 18th league championship and a chance to re-establish its dominance in the NBA following its unceremonious loss to Orlando during last year’s playoffs match up.
But Los Angeles isn’t about to give up its crown that easy. Kobe Bryant, even with all his injuries in his finger and knees, remains a deadly scorer, facilitator and defender for the Lakers.
He issued his playoff-best 13 assists against the Suns in Game 2, allowing Gasol to dominate the paint and lead the Lakers in scoring as their dual efforts proved too much to overcome for Phoenix.
With two more wins to go before reaching the NBA Finals, Kobe and Co. sure have two birds to hit in one stone–defend their title successfully and avenge their 2008 Finals defeat against the Celtics–in case they meet again in the Finals.
A Celtics-Lakers Finals tussle isn’t a far-fetch idea by now. Just look at the eyes of Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant.
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West Side Story: Lakers-Suns Finale?
The Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Lakers are in command of their respective Western Conference semifinal series as of today.
And barring any serious injuries from any of these two ball clubs’ line up 
, the Suns and the Lakers could be heading to a potential Western Finals’ collision.
That would surely provide an opportunity for the Lakers to erase whatever stigma was left of the 2006 Playoffs opening round.
If you’re not aware, the Lakers were ahead, 3-1 in the series, poised to advance to the second round even though Los Angeles was relying heavily on Kobe Bryant on scoring throughout the playoffs in 2006.
But the Suns didn’t mind the deficit, played their guts out in the last three games of the series to complete a remarkable 1-3 comeback and give a nightmarish “Hollywood ending” for Kobe, coach Phil Jackson and the rest of the Laker Gang.
The final score in Game 7: 121-90.
That series actually put an end to Phil Jackson’s aura of Playoffs invincibility.
For the first time in 15 career postseasons, Jackson lost a first-round series. Jackson also lost his first Playoffs series in which his team has led, putting a blot to his once unblemished 44-0 record.
Fast forward to 2010.
The Lakers finished the regular season with a 57-25 record to and the no. 1 seed in the West.
Gained homecourt advantage throughout the Playoffs and this time, defending their NBA title behind a talented supporting cast led by Pau Gasol, much-improved Andrew Bynum, defense minister Ron Artest and solid back up roles from Lamar Odom, Shannon Brown and Jordan Farmar.
Kobe and the Lakers even hold a 3-1 regular season series sweep of the Suns.
With everything seemingly going their way, the Lakers, once they disposed of the limping Utah Jazz, can look forward to making the Suns set either in Los Angeles or Phoenix, depending on where the series will end, should they clash in the West’s Finals.
Well, that’s just my imagination. But should the Suns squeak past the veteran and experienced San Antonio Spurs in the semis, Los Angeles can have that opportunity to turn the tables against Phoenix.
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Road Tests For The Lakers
The road to a second straight NBA championship seemed easy for the Los Angeles Lakers during their first 19 games of the 2010-2011 season.
Currently owning a hot streak of nine straight wins, following their 108-88 demolition of the road-weary Phoenix Suns, the Lakers appear every bit of a champion.
Ron Artest has been fitting well in the Lakers’ triangle offense, averaging modest numbers of 12.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.1 steals during his first 19 games in the purple-and-gold uniform.
Andrew Bynum, meantime, has up the ante of his game thus far this year. Avearging 18 points and just above 10 boards per night and two blocks, the young seven-foot Laker slotman has improved further in his post plays, posting match up problems against opponents.
One thing, however, the Lakers will have to be prepared for is the coming road games.
Considering that in their first 19 games, LA only played four road games, the most recent of which, (prior to the 9-0 streak) was a 26-point humiliation at the Pepsi Center against Carmelo Anthony and the Denver Nuggets.
As the Lakers end their six-game home stand versus Minnesota this week, LA will be away from the Staples Center 19 of the 28 times where they are expected to play against more hostile crowd, teams out to beat them, different time zones plus a lot of traveling.
The coming road games will surely test the mettle and readiness of the Lakers to defend their title, which they won at the expense of the Orlando Magic last June.
The good thing though for LA this season is the difficulty of opposing teams to decide which player to guard defensively.
Kobe Bryant, considered the NBA’s premiere player now, has added a repertoire to his growing offensive arsenal—the low-post, which he improved on during the off season after his one-on-one sessions with NBA great center Hakeem Olajuwon.
Bynum also has a healthy Pau Gasol to lean on in the shaded lane for defense, rebounding and dunks, while Artest supplies the needed defensive presence against any opposing scorer.
Coming off the bench and expected to produce anytime is Lamar Odom, who has willingly stepped back and play the supporting role in the star-studded LA rotation.
With a host of scorers, defensive players and role players, the Lakers must translate these into Ws that would carry them on to the best record and the home court advantage going into the Playoffs.
Adversity Brought The Best Out Of The Lakers This Year
The Los Angeles Lakers finally nailed their 15th NBA championship following their masterful 99-86 victory against the Orlando Magic to clinch the Finals series, 4-1 before a silent Amway Arena crowd just today.
For Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, there is definitely no "I" in the team.
And there are so many lessons we can derive from the Lakers chase for the championship.
Beaten up badly by Boston (39 points in Game 6) last season in the Finals, Los Angeles, led by this year’s Finals MVP Kobe Bryant, believed that had to be the turning point of their 2009 campaign as they vowed to win it all this year.
And the Lakers didn’t disappoint.
Several players were criticized for their performance in last year’s Finals.
Pau Gasol was labeled as “too soft” for a frontline man of LA. Lamar Odom, the subject of numerous trade talks in the past, has had his own struggles offensively and defensively, while Derek Fisher was said to be “aging fast that his three-point shooting wouldn’t drop anymore”.
But the seven-foot Gasol worked hard after that Finals debacle in 2008, upping his inside game, rebounding and defense several notches, more. Odom, meantime, learned to come out strong off the bench throughout this season to provide the energy LA needed.
Fisher, on the other hand, reserved his best game of the season with his heroic effort in Game 4, nailing a game-tying triple to send the game into overtime. Before hitting the go-ahead three-point shot in the extra five-minute session to cement his place among the NBA clutch shooters, while pushing LA to a 3-1 series lead.
And of course, Kobe Bryant has the biggest smile among these Laker players.
Long dismissed to be just a good player following the disintegration of his partnership with All-Star center Shaquille O’Neal at the end of the 2004 Finals defeat against Detroit, Bryant worked his way back to the top.
He sure, had his down moments during the post-O’Neal era of the Lakers.
But LA coach Phil Jackson gave a “capsulized” description of the Lakers 2009 edition.
“This (Laker) team is a learned team. They have learned from last year’s Finals (against the Celtics),” said Jackson, who is now the winningest coach with 10 NBA titles, surpassing Hall of Fame coach Red Auerbach’s achievement.
And here’s O’Neal’s twitter message to Kobe.
“When you’re together, you can withstand adversity. Congratualtions Kobe, u deserve it. You played great. Enjoy it my man enjoy it.
The Laker land ain’t a Kobe show anymore because Bryant spells Los Angeles as TEAM.
