You Better Read This All
Allow me to play a bit of FreeDarko here
I don't know when, I don't know how, but I know why. I'm on the Lakers' bandwagon. I know, I know - I'd sworn them off, hated them with as much vitriol as anyone - but the change they've showed has caused me to turn a kinder eye on this group of ne'er-do-wells and their prima donna leader. A year ago I wouldn't even have been generous enough to call Bryant that, because leading was the last thing on his mind. But playing against the Suns has highlighted some exciting and exceptional points in the Lakers' game, which can be summarized in a name: Luke Walton.
That's right. Son of Bill Walton's long, strange trip and now exemplar of new Hollyweird basketball: let's call it "spread the glitter." There's just as much pizzazz for the indoor sunglasses set, only the spotlight's grown bigger and the show's gotten better. L-Dub (does he have a nickname?), keep in mind, is still a clown - he'll probably never escape that. Only now we're laughing at him for the right reasons, not because of the botched stunts and foolheadedness. He's improved in the most endearing of ways: still awkward, still goofy and same hands, but now he's throwing elbows, starting games, playing 40. Taking 19 shots, scoring 17. Ten rips. Still white, still son of Bill. The point is, who woulda thought? We all love when players exceed expectations, however low we placed them, and now there's a team featuring Walton, a kid who couldn't care less (but now he does!) in Kwame, and a guy named Smush in the playoffs. Leading their series, no less.
I didn't see this happening against the Suns. My Suns, the original group of outcasts-turned-contenders. D'Antoni's done a bang-up job getting them here using unorthodox yet remarkably efficient schemes. Take stick-figure Boris Diaw in the paint, collecting triple-doubles against Yaos and Shaqs, all while listed as a two-guard. Run n gun taken to its limits, orchestrated by a wily Canadian. So why is Phoenix so obviously scrambling to gather its wits against LA? Because the Lakers have beaten them at their own game. The Suns' game is a bit of a gimmick, and it's their collective large heart and smiles which have fueled them this far. Now their confidence has been passed on to their opponents (who previously relied on 81-point heroics to get their Ws), and they're shaken.
The Lakers, or perhaps more accurately Phil Jackson, chose the right part of the Suns' game to ape coming into this contest. It's also the part nobody expected. Phoenix runs its competition out of the building, relying on young legs and relentlessness to tire bigger, slower opponents. Logically, LA being a young, quick team, the Lakers would try to keep up. It wouldn't matter if they couldn't quite match the pace, because they've got a wunderkind in Bryant who could more than make up for it. Yes, this seemed the right way to go - it definitely gave them a sporting chance at stealing the series.
But instead the Zenmeister told them to do the unimaginable starting in Game 1: share the ball. Kobe was to take few shots and let his goofy bunch build their confidence, a plan that worked for two reasons. First, they've got more talent than they're given credit for. Odom can be a monster, if he's paying attention. Kwame was picked first, after all. And Walton, well, he's the son of Walton. Second, this would catch the Suns, and indeed the rest of the world, off guard. There was much talk of a record-shattering Kobe spectacle to come in Game 1, something not altogether unlike armageddon. So when the supporting cast turned in an impassioned performance, Nash & co. weren't prepared. There's no point in trapping a (mostly) harmless animal, but it was the only cage they had. Suns won, but it was the Lakers grinning wide after that game.
The next two, as expected, went the other way. They weren't, however, the delayed second-coming, as was also expected. It seems Kobe and friends (see? friends!) saw something they liked in Game 1's baby-steps, and hit the ground running in the next two. The big surprise, of course, being no. 8's willingness to play along. I won't re-hash the myriad points against Kobe's egotistic work ethics, but let me voice my delight in seeing him buy into this new system. I said "play along" before - that's not the case. That suggests he was only humoring Jackson, and while that may have been true in the first game, it's certainly not anymore. As Marc Stein pointed out, Kobe didn't look this happy on the night he scored 81. Kobe didn't look this happy, and his team didn't look this alive, this enthused. It's true, there's nothing LA shouldn't be happy about right now, and there's nothing not to like about LA. Good team ball is a pleasure to watch, especially when it's fun. There's something more to it, though, when it comes from the least expected place: LA's one-man-show-turned-ensemble.
I was going to continue and write about Sacramento beating San Antone, but I'm through. I'll leave it at "YEAH!!!"
Allow me to play a bit of FreeDarko here
I don't know when, I don't know how, but I know why. I'm on the Lakers' bandwagon. I know, I know - I'd sworn them off, hated them with as much vitriol as anyone - but the change they've showed has caused me to turn a kinder eye on this group of ne'er-do-wells and their prima donna leader. A year ago I wouldn't even have been generous enough to call Bryant that, because leading was the last thing on his mind. But playing against the Suns has highlighted some exciting and exceptional points in the Lakers' game, which can be summarized in a name: Luke Walton.
That's right. Son of Bill Walton's long, strange trip and now exemplar of new Hollyweird basketball: let's call it "spread the glitter." There's just as much pizzazz for the indoor sunglasses set, only the spotlight's grown bigger and the show's gotten better. L-Dub (does he have a nickname?), keep in mind, is still a clown - he'll probably never escape that. Only now we're laughing at him for the right reasons, not because of the botched stunts and foolheadedness. He's improved in the most endearing of ways: still awkward, still goofy and same hands, but now he's throwing elbows, starting games, playing 40. Taking 19 shots, scoring 17. Ten rips. Still white, still son of Bill. The point is, who woulda thought? We all love when players exceed expectations, however low we placed them, and now there's a team featuring Walton, a kid who couldn't care less (but now he does!) in Kwame, and a guy named Smush in the playoffs. Leading their series, no less.
I didn't see this happening against the Suns. My Suns, the original group of outcasts-turned-contenders. D'Antoni's done a bang-up job getting them here using unorthodox yet remarkably efficient schemes. Take stick-figure Boris Diaw in the paint, collecting triple-doubles against Yaos and Shaqs, all while listed as a two-guard. Run n gun taken to its limits, orchestrated by a wily Canadian. So why is Phoenix so obviously scrambling to gather its wits against LA? Because the Lakers have beaten them at their own game. The Suns' game is a bit of a gimmick, and it's their collective large heart and smiles which have fueled them this far. Now their confidence has been passed on to their opponents (who previously relied on 81-point heroics to get their Ws), and they're shaken.The Lakers, or perhaps more accurately Phil Jackson, chose the right part of the Suns' game to ape coming into this contest. It's also the part nobody expected. Phoenix runs its competition out of the building, relying on young legs and relentlessness to tire bigger, slower opponents. Logically, LA being a young, quick team, the Lakers would try to keep up. It wouldn't matter if they couldn't quite match the pace, because they've got a wunderkind in Bryant who could more than make up for it. Yes, this seemed the right way to go - it definitely gave them a sporting chance at stealing the series.
But instead the Zenmeister told them to do the unimaginable starting in Game 1: share the ball. Kobe was to take few shots and let his goofy bunch build their confidence, a plan that worked for two reasons. First, they've got more talent than they're given credit for. Odom can be a monster, if he's paying attention. Kwame was picked first, after all. And Walton, well, he's the son of Walton. Second, this would catch the Suns, and indeed the rest of the world, off guard. There was much talk of a record-shattering Kobe spectacle to come in Game 1, something not altogether unlike armageddon. So when the supporting cast turned in an impassioned performance, Nash & co. weren't prepared. There's no point in trapping a (mostly) harmless animal, but it was the only cage they had. Suns won, but it was the Lakers grinning wide after that game.
The next two, as expected, went the other way. They weren't, however, the delayed second-coming, as was also expected. It seems Kobe and friends (see? friends!) saw something they liked in Game 1's baby-steps, and hit the ground running in the next two. The big surprise, of course, being no. 8's willingness to play along. I won't re-hash the myriad points against Kobe's egotistic work ethics, but let me voice my delight in seeing him buy into this new system. I said "play along" before - that's not the case. That suggests he was only humoring Jackson, and while that may have been true in the first game, it's certainly not anymore. As Marc Stein pointed out, Kobe didn't look this happy on the night he scored 81. Kobe didn't look this happy, and his team didn't look this alive, this enthused. It's true, there's nothing LA shouldn't be happy about right now, and there's nothing not to like about LA. Good team ball is a pleasure to watch, especially when it's fun. There's something more to it, though, when it comes from the least expected place: LA's one-man-show-turned-ensemble.
I was going to continue and write about Sacramento beating San Antone, but I'm through. I'll leave it at "YEAH!!!"
by brian at 3:39 AM
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