The laughable complacency of many LAL fans that the LAL are automatically superior to all the contenders West (especially) or East is unfounded. Lakers have survived some tough series such as the one with the Thunder where Pao Gasol had a heady putback or Fisher or Artest hitting shots and right now all three of those are struggling.
Lakers have primed themselves for three opponents this year - Boston, Spurs and Celtics and left each game with their asses handed to them and a lot of excuses - the excuses have to stop soon even your GM/former part owner and your coach are already talking trades!
The Lakers are still very talented and deep 1-7 (if you include Barnes or perhaps Shannon Brown) but then they absolutely stink after that and unless Artest improves and Fisher - 2 of those 7 are slow and slipping and Gasol is in a serious funk and Bynum is injury prone. Odom has been extremely good in the past two seasons in the playoffs but can you really rely on him?
Without home court they will not get the favorable calls that all but LAL fans believe the LAL fans get time and time again, or at least as frequently.
Lakers also lack speed, and more importantly, cohesion; and if Kobe tries to win too many games by himself in a series if LAL falls behind - it could get ugly real fast.
More and more analysts including Rosen today see the Spurs as a real threat (has Spurs at better odds than the LAL - see thread on Spurs page) and as Stein said this week 6/7 teams with 40 wins by game 47 won the NBA championship. (see ESPN.com NBA stein rankings) Meanwhile, the Mavs IMO still cannot be counted out and a team like the Hornets or Thunder will play their hearts out if they even sense blood against the complacent LAL.
Rest on your past laurels and your complacency as unless the LAL get going soon with their tougher (finally) schedule they may finish a dissapointing reg season in the mid 50s and could conceivably open their first playoff series on the road and be passed in the standings by the Mavs/Thunder/and NOH.
Then although LAL could certainly still win it - it would not be an easy road at all.
Yet time and time again the LOL complacent and over-confident (some but not all - some are realistic to be fair) Lakers fans just seem so in line with the thought that this team can definetely turn it on when they want to and will in the playoffs! Are you sure? Are not your GM, coach, and Magic seemingly panicking????
By every measure Spurs led by their big three core with 10 championships between them are playing as well as the LAL after facing a more brutal schedule:
http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/powerrankings
Spurs 1 - Lakers right behind them after benefit from a cupcake schedule
Offense: LAL and Spurs tied right now in 2nd spot offensively:http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats
Spurs slightly ahead of Lakers defensively in 7th and 8th:
http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/tea...ff/order/false
Most imporantly Spurs resting stars in minutes a game while Jackson due to LAL's lack of depth (especially in their vaunted front line) only limiting minutes of Kobe and the injury prone Bynum.
Any honest opinion would put the Spurs and the LAL on a collision course and right now Spurs fans can rightfully be very confident in their team's legit chance to come out of the West. Sure be confident in the LAL they have earned respect and Pop and the deeper and more cohesive Spurs will not trash the champion Lakers yet; but mark my words THEY ARE NOT AFRAID A BIT OF THE LAL.
Last edited by Rummpd; 02-01-2011 at 11:02 PM.
Lakers are the defending 2-time NBA champions, while their main compe ors in the West(Spurs, maybe Mavs) have been eliminated relatively early in the last 2 playoffs..even though they're struggling and have serious flaws, they deserve the benefit of the doubt, to some extent..
Of course they do but to not recognize that a championship proven core like the SAS could also reload or that the Mavs or another Wester team can play a series with them and win -is not being realistic. The LAL remain an extremely talented but enigmatic team that could of course win it all; and may also pull out a stunner type trade to improve even their (on paper) still extremely strong squad - but all I am asking for is some realism that past performance just means other teams will be gunning for them if they even smell blood in the water.
Right now, the sharks are beginning to swim around the LAL and it could get ugly out in glamorland this Spring and Summer.
Steamrolled the West three straight seasons.
Show the Lakers something before you present your delusions. Nobody gives a (outside of Spursdom) about some Nov-Feb preseason.
da Lakers have complacency while its more of arrogance fo most lakers fans imho
Fixed.
Lol at taking 7 games to beat a Yao-less Rockets.
The Lakers haven't beaten one great team enroute to their last two les. And no, a 67 year old 50 win Boston team who lost their starting center doesn't count.
Lakers simply snuck in a couple while the West was at its weakest since the 70s.
http://espn.go.com/nba/bracket
What is shaping up this year above right now:
2009 the Lakers were taken to 7 games won at home vs. the vaunted and weak
Rockets:http://www.nba.com/history/playoffs/20082009.html
2008 the NOH took the Lakers to 7 games and LAL won again at home:
http://www.nba.com/history/playoffs/20072008.html
2010 in the West the LAL got by with 2 six game series but then won in 7 games.
In 2 of 3 years the LAL have survived at least one Western 7 game series and in their championship last year the LAL were most tested in the first round by the Thunder when if it had not been for a put back by Gasol they may have gone down 3 to 2 going home.
Sure LAL is a very strong and championship team but to say they have NOT been tested in the playoffs is an illusion.
In each year they survived a game 7 and believe me LAL and its fans would rather have game 7 there in their pocket as this year the teams they will play will all be more experienced and potentially several will have HCA.
21_ rings is just trolling.
He'd claim the Lakers steamrolled even if the Lakers won all their rounds in Game 7s by last second shots.
He's the ultimate homer.
They were tested in the NBA Finals. The West has been a joke to the Lakers for years.
Calling me delusional when most of your fanbase was digging the back to back champs grave in January?
Tbh, their complaceny is meaningless. They have zero control over the team. It's typical bandwagon protocol. It appears to be complacency but in reality most of it's apathy. They only care about winning teams, because only then can they talk . When the Lakers aren't winning, they don't even care about basketball. Someone calls them and says "dude, the Lakers are in the Finals" and they suddenly buy hats and shirts and create new troll accounts or resurrect old ones, and the talking starts.
It's really easy. Just change your username, say you are a Laker fan and just like that YOU have all those les, because you become a "we" and you have instant right to talk as much as you like, because you claim to be a Laker fan.
Still & all:::
Kobe: 5
Duncan: 4
Damn, even your fellow Laker fan called you out blessings, I personally think your delusional for overhyping Bynum, so delusional it is.They were tested in the NBA Finals. The West has been a joke to the Lakers for years.
Calling me delusional when most of your fanbase was digging the back to back champs grave in January?
Well, jj, Howard & Perkins thought likewise about Bynum, and he turned both 'em out on consecutive Junes.
Just like that.
And for every bandwagoner there are just as many that have been Laker fans longer that the Spurs have been in the NBA. Bandwagoners come with winning in all sports. You act as though its singularly Laker. Personally I could care less... the more the merrier!
Genius, the Lakers never played the hornets in 2008 we swept Denver, beat Utah in 6 and the sperms in 5 ...Wasnt it YOUR team that needed 7 games to eliminate the Bugs? Ifyou goona bother posting stuff you should check it ...
When i make a mistake (Kobe's draft position) at least it was from memory ... LOL
But who cares anyway? We lost our last game in 2008 ...
The Spurs are not a glamourous organization, so they don't attract hangers on as much as the Lakers. That should be evident by the number of Laker fans posting on a Spurs forum.
There are some fans who've been riding that leg since Magic, or even before that, but the typical experience on a basketball forum is to encounter a ton of new Laker fan users right after a championship. Just look at the registration dates for some of the people here, and notice how they just happen to fall during a championship year, right after the Finals.
There's always an urge to talk , to be part of something. There are very few in the NBA who want to be Spurs fans. Sure they might respect the organization, but they don't think it's cool to be a fan of the team.
Props to killakobe for actually reading the OP.
Op using too many big words for ya?
NB
Why is their status constantly repeated and shoved down people's throats? Everyone knows what they are. Funny, when the Gasol "trade" occurred, I don't remember anyone holding off proclaiming the Lakers co-favorites. Two weeks later, they were the favorites. So, now that the situations are reversed (and standings wise, the gap is much larger now than it ever was then), why should they continue to receive the amount of respect they're receiving? Why should people hold off demoting them to at least co-favorites status in the West?
Let's face it, they're not just getting the amount of respect they're getting because of their status, they're getting it because they're the Lakers. If they had had the same season they've had to this point, but were the Spurs, few would consider them contenders at this point and even less would consider them the favorites.
Big reason for that though: The Spurs don't have a history of righting the ship midseason (road trip aside) by trades. The Lakers wholesale the farm and start over with their king and queen (Kobe and Pau now, Shaq and Kobe prior), adding pieces they think will get them there, at the tune of about 100 million more than the Spurs spend.
With that type of pocketbook, you know they are going to contend. They are like the Yankees in that regard. The best player from the WS ends up on the Yankees the following season, and the Yankees are always contenders, but they pay a hefty price. The Spurs don't have the market to justify that expenditure. They could win 6 in a row and not increase their income enough to justify it. Just the nature of the beast.
That's why the 4 rings by SA in the past decade or so are so impressive. It's like the Browns winning the Superbowl 4 times.
The "respect" is actually just expectations. There's probably not a more respected player in the game than Duncan, and not a more respected franchise in sports than the Spurs.
There's no doubt the Lakers are gonna be a tough team to beat in the postseason. They still have good chances, especially in the playoffs where they will zero in on one team at a time. They shouldn't be too worried, they're one of 3 teams that are gonna win it this year.
This is a pretty odd and inaccurate comparison considering NBA teams can't do what the Yankees can do in the MLB. It doesn't matter if the Lakers are willing to spend an unlimited amount of money on players when they still have restrictions on spending it. The Yankees can acquire CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, and AJ Burnett all in the same off season. That would be like the Lakers acquiring Chris Paul, Amare Stoudemire, and Danny Granger in the same off season. The Lakers can't do that.
That's not to say the Lakers haven't benefited from some lopsided deals or from free agents that are willing to go to the Lakers for a little bit less than other places, because that much is true. But with the NBA CBA restrictions on the salary cap and spending, there really isn't anyway you should compare the Lakers to the Yankees in regards to having more money to spend.
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