Lakers Conquer Jazz, Now Lakers vs. Spurs - .4 anyone?

Published by lakers-fan.com on May 20th, 2008 | Tagged lakers vs spurs

As Deron Williams last desperation three bounced off the rim and the clock expired, the Lakers found themselves somewhere they haven’t been since 2004 – The Western Conference Finals. If the pattern stays the same from that year, the Lakers will again conquer the San Antonio Spurs, perhaps on another Fisher .4 shot, and into the NBA Finals against Boston or Detroit. I’d personally like to see a rematch against Detroit, who I think holds the edge over Boston based on experience and the ability to actually win a road game.

Beating the Jazz in the second round is a tremendous accomplishment after a few years of disappointing early exits out of the first round. The team has come together despite injuries to two of its best players, Andrew Bynum and Trevor Ariza. Ariza has returned to the team in the past week, and hopefully will provide the Lakers with athleticism and defensive ability against the older, slower Spurs. Phil Jackson will decide how effective Ariza can be after being out of the lineup for 4 months.

Andrew Bynum will undergo knee surgery this week, obviously a frustrating end to the failed rehabilitation program. Sometimes I wonder if we still would have acquired Gasol if Bynum had not been injured. I heard from several sources that we had been trying to land Gasol for over a year, but almost no one knew about it. It is ironic that the game Bynum got injured the Lakers were playing the Memphis Grizzilies - the team Pau Gasol was playing for. He was then traded for the underachieving-can’t catch passes-can’t shoot free throws-can’t jump-king size butterfingers- Kwame Brown. Brown actually MADE the game winning free throw in that game, as the Lakers finished 100-99 to beat Memphis. I’ll take that as a last minute gift for a lovely farewell.

The Lakers need to protect their home court advantage against the Spurs, something they have done in the first two rounds, going 5-0. Ultimately it will not be the deciding factor, as the Spurs came back from down 0-2 against the New Orleans Hornets to win the series on the road. The Lakers did the same thing against the Spurs in 2004, losing the first two games on the road, and then winning four straight. In that series, Payton could not guard Parker in the first two games, and the Lakers lost badly. Jackson made adjustments to constantly double team or send help defense in Parker’s path so that he never could penetrate. The result proved the difference in the series. I believe it’s the key in this series, as Gasol and Duncan will match up evenly. Farmar will not be able to defend Parker, so it will be the responsibility of Fisher and Kobe (and hopefully Ariza) to slow him down.

I have a ticket to attend game 5 at the Staples Center next Thursday, but if they win the series in 4 games I definitely won’t complain.

- Garrett Lynn

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