2008 Lakers = Fluke

[Oh, Gee!!]

lots of "ifs" and "buts" in this thread. Lakers beat us plain and simple; they deserved to rep the West in the Finals. Get over it already, and look forward to next season.

[SpurOutofTownFan]

lots of "ifs" and "buts" in this thread. Lakers beat us plain and simple; they deserved to rep the West in the Finals. Get over it already, and look forward to next season.

I'm all for "getting over it" and I've done it weeks ago but you have to think at least about the horrible schedule from the NBA. That has to change not only for the Spurs but for everyone else. The league is not in a position right now to behave like thugs - they have people on court right now testifying against lots of things and cutting deals with prosecutors.

Yes, last night was a wet dream come true but they need to handle business better.

You could see the bad sings when they decided to strip Bowen of his record.

[Kori Ellis]

lots of "ifs" and "buts" in this thread. Lakers beat us plain and simple; they deserved to rep the West in the Finals. Get over it already, and look forward to next season.

I don't get Spurs fans bashing the Lakers. If the Lakers suck so badly, that means the Spurs suck even worse. And the "WAA WAA, but Manu was hurt excuse" is old.

[bresilhac]

Why bash the Lakers for taking advantage of their #1 seed? This is why you play hard in the regular season, so you can have an easy path to the Finals. You think the Celtics would be NBA champs if they didn't have HCA all the way through?

The Lakers were the victim of serious over-hyping by the media. They were good, but definitely not a complete team by any means. Weak perimeter defense, weak interior defense, and poor rebounding. I can't tell you the last time I saw a team this weak defensively make it all the way to the NBA Finals. If anything we should give credit to Phil and Kobe for patching up the holes and keeping the ship afloat all the way to the Finals. They got as much out of THIS squad as you could reasonably expect.

If they flame out like this next season with a healthy Bynum manning the paint and hopefully an additional wing defender alongside Kobe then you can trash them all you want. But this season they definitely exceeded any reasonable expectations you could have had for a team that wasn't even projected to make the playoffs.

Sounds like one big, sorry excuse for not showing up to me. I thought the Gasol collusion was supposed to put the Lakers over top. I guess not. I suppose if you'd have had a healthy Bynum for the Celtic series you'd be making other excuses for getting manhandled. As a matter of fact I know you would be. That's what Laker apologists do.

[小小轩]

now i do think it is a plot of David Stern..heck, now,the only thing i want is manu rewins the Olympics champion..I'll go to Beijing to hail manu

[hater]

Congrats to Lakers. Played an injured Spurs team and injured Celtics team and all they got to show is WC Championship

[Supergirl]

I agree...

and you know, it happens, in professional sports. As bitter as I was about the Spurs loss, the Lakers being exposed as the frauds they are restores my faith in the NBA just a little bit.

It happened in 2006, too. Spurs were one suspect foul call on Manu away from returning to the NBA Finals, yet the Mavs got there instead...and were exposed as the frauds they were. I remain convinced that the Spurs would have handled the Heat and the Celtics a lot better had a few small things gone differently - we have won 4 NBA championships but could easily have won 6. Ah well. 4 is pretty darn good.

I'm hoping for the KG vs. Duncan matchup in next year's Finals...that would be an epic showdown.

[bresilhac]

I don't get Spurs fans bashing the Lakers. If the Lakers suck so badly, that means the Spurs suck even worse. And the "WAA WAA, but Manu was hurt excuse" is old.

The Spurs didn't "suck". They got jobbed by tough scheduling and a having to play with a hobbled Manu and role players who wouldn't produce. That's why they have to upgrade the lineup this offseason. And you may be tired of hearing about a Manu that wasn't 100% but that was the case. And it probably cost us a trip to the Finals.

[Kori Ellis]

Sounds like one big, sorry excuse for not showing up to me. I thought the Gasol collusion was supposed to put the Lakers over top. I guess not. I suppose if you'd have had a healthy Bynum for the Celtic series you'd be making other excuses for getting manhandled. As a matter of fact I know you would be. That's what Laker apologists do.

The Spurs didn't "suck". They got jobbed by tough scheduling and a having to play with a hobbled Manu and role players who wouldn't produce. That's why they have to upgrade the lineup this offseason. And you may be tired of hearing about a Manu that wasn't 100% but that was the case. And it probably cost us a trip to the Finals.

[degenerate_gambler]

Sorry people...in a 7 game series there are no excuses. The better team wins.

[PHXSpursFan]

Sorry people...in a 7 game series there are no excuses. The better team wins.

That and the fact that they got the benefit of playing us in an even numbered year.

[jaysmooth422]

You're no Laker fan..That's a stoopid bandwagon comment. The Lakers won the right to be in the finals. The Spurs would have gotten their asses rolled up too. We came up against THE BETTER TEAM THIS YEAR, PERIOD. They've been the best team all year long. The whole world thought the Lakers would win the series because they beat the defending champs, and Boston having to go thru those 7 game series.
The Lakers have alot of young guys on that team that had to go thru that experience to learn what it takes to be champions. It was a good for them to get their asses crushed liked that. I hope this stays with them for the rest of the summer. THEY BETTER NOT EVER FORGET THIS ASS WHOOPIN'...THE LAKERS WILL BE BACK...IT'LL BE EVEN SWEETER THAN HAD THEY WON THIS YEAR!!!

Just pray that Kobe doesnt demand another trade

[spurscenter]

[703 Spurz]

Why bash the Lakers for taking advantage of their #1 seed? This is why you play hard in the regular season, so you can have an easy path to the Finals. You think the Celtics would be NBA champs if they didn't have HCA all the way through?

The Lakers were the victim of serious over-hyping by the media. They were good, but definitely not a complete team by any means. Weak perimeter defense, weak interior defense, and poor rebounding. I can't tell you the last time I saw a team this weak defensively make it all the way to the NBA Finals. If anything we should give credit to Phil and Kobe for patching up the holes and keeping the ship afloat all the way to the Finals. They got as much out of THIS squad as you could reasonably expect.

If they flame out like this next season with a healthy Bynum manning the paint and hopefully an additional wing defender alongside Kobe then you can trash them all you want. But this season they definitely exceeded any reasonable expectations you could have had for a team that wasn't even projected to make the playoffs.

You have a comment for everything don't you? The Lakers weren't projected to make the playoffs? Since when? And why are they suddenly called one of the best young teams in the league and should be in the hunt for the next few years if they weren't projected to make the playoffs?

[dbestpro]

Spurs lost to the Lakers. Manu was hurt, Pop did one of his worse jobs coaching and the bench was exposed. PJ was also missed though every one seems to forget. It happens. In fact it seems to happen every other year.

The Lakers got another notch against us and set records for futility that matches the Mavs. The teams we truly hate the most are hurting more as the Suns always finds a way to lose to us the Mav's are first round losers and the Lakers will go down with the Cav's as the two teams who should have nver been in a final in the modern era.

It's still a great day to be a Spurs fan. Now, if the would just get rid of about 4-5 refs.

[DazedAndConfused]

I don't get Spurs fans bashing the Lakers. If the Lakers suck so badly, that means the Spurs suck even worse. And the "WAA WAA, but Manu was hurt excuse" is old.

[DazedAndConfused]

Last I checked the Lakers lost 4-2. Not 4-0 like the Cavs. Game 6 was a s acking but this could have very well been a 7 game series had the Lakers not imploded in Game 4 and blown that 24 pt lead.

[hater]

the Hawks had more chance to beat the Celtics than the Lakers

[dippidy-do]

Sounds like one big, sorry excuse for not showing up to me. I thought the Gasol collusion was supposed to put the Lakers over top. I guess not. I suppose if you'd have had a healthy Bynum for the Celtic series you'd be making other excuses for getting manhandled. As a matter of fact I know you would be. That's what Laker apologists do.

The Spurs didn't "suck". They got jobbed by tough scheduling and a having to play with a hobbled Manu and role players who wouldn't produce. That's why they have to upgrade the lineup this offseason. And you may be tired of hearing about a Manu that wasn't 100% but that was the case. And it probably cost us a trip to the Finals.

I had to come out of lukerdum for this one! I've never seen someone own themselves so hard, so quickly. Great job buffoon!

[DazedAndConfused]

I had to come out of lukerdum for this one! I've never seen someone own themselves so hard, so quickly. Great job buffoon!

[J.T.]

No, what's old is the five Spurs fans on this site that turned out to be closet Laker fans during the Finals. I won't name names, but it's a perfectly natural emotion to wish the team that beat you to fail. If anyone feels differently, I seriously question their fanhood.

They Lakers got a cosmic beatdown from the Celtics last night that was straight out of a sports movie. And they deserved all 48 minutes of it.

[spurster]

lots of "ifs" and "buts" in this thread. Lakers beat us plain and simple; they deserved to rep the West in the Finals. Get over it already, and look forward to next season.

[td4mvp21]

They weren't that good. But what's that saying about the rest of the West? (including the Spurs)

[Say-Townbball]

The Lakers are not FLUKES...they just lost focus in the Finals...

Like everyone else has mentioned...#1 seed does have it's perks. We got stuck with #3 and that was the luck of the draw.

I'm sure Hornets fans are PISSED because I think if LA played the Hornets 2nd round of the playoffs...NO woulda taken LA for sure.

It is what it is...Western Conference this year was tight and the seeding happened to the very last game of the regular season.

If the Spurs were #1 seed, you know there would be haters sayin they were flukes too.

Keep it real.

[michaelwcho]

Kobe is a spectacular player. But he shot 41% for the finals. Chuckers like Iverson or Kobe who need to throw up lots of shots to get theirs do not make their team much better. He is overrated. He did play very well against us, but he doesn't seem to have the mental equipment to be a Jordan.