The Spurs delusion of a dynasty creation just fell down atop the Staples Center’s rafters and the Lakeshow was the more superior squad in the West Finals series.  They have subjugated San Antonio this series at 4-1 and LA will be facing the victor of the Eastern Finals series. 

Kobe Bryant scored 17 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter; Kobe showed why he is the reigning MVP, t'was a class act he did by pushing his team mates to be more aggressive as they wipe out a 17 points SA lead going to the second half.  In the second half he went to business as usual thus inspiring the younger Lakers’ players to do their piece (offensively and defensively) and which they did.  They have contributed very well giving Kobe his needed support at crunch time.

Quoting Spurs coach Gregg Popovich; he pointed to his team's offense - and the Lakers' defense - the keys to the series.  ''I thought we did a fine job,'' he said. ''We just didn't muster the offense, for a variety of reasons. The fact that we didn't come through offensively is a disappointment, but part of that is a credit to the Lakers.  ‘‘(The Spurs) just played a team that was better. That's why the Lakers won. The better team won. You get a seven-game series, you win four games, you're the best team.''

Lakers coach Phil Jackson who had won nine championships said after the game, ''I like not to get involved personally in this and think of this as a team effort.’’ Undeniably it was a team effort by throwing themselves into that game, provided the hustle wholeheartedly and raised their defensive intensity dramatically.  Pau’s support was the more glaring one since at times he was perceived a little bit too soft, but in this game he proves himself to be a biggie in this critical game getting 4 blocks & 19 huge playoffs boards, topping that category of the game.

 

The Lakers team have arrived and they will be here to stay!

San Antonio Spurs as those basketball experts wanted to induce us to believe, they are the more seasoned team and would not make stupid and silly moves down the stretch.  As expected Duncan routed every single coverage defense thrown at him, he’s like a machine doing every fundamental move in the book of basketball.  Parker was too quick in the lane and Ginobili was getting his slashing move at any time he wanted.  Their defensive execution was great as their offense was effective too.  Kobe was just watching them and his team continue to splutter in the first two quarters.  SA Spurs took the 1st half by a seven point margin.

 

At the break, the Spurs team displaying very charming smiles and were too contented with their accomplishment in the first half.  The Lakers team seems not troubled by those grins, continues the shoot around before the third. 

 

In the first half Kobe tried his very best to let his young Lakers team mates feel the game in the 1st two quarter and they were down 20 in the middle of the third canto, however Kobe was now fully agitated; and a different Kobe was in the game, the very aggressive one knowing fully well that his team needed him now.  He took every available shot given to him, slashed in the paint and dished to team mates inside and rattled the whole Spurs team including those in the sidelines.  He was deliberate in his moves but was intense and the Lakers team slowly inched their way to the match.  He ignited a 12-0 run eating the almost insurmountable lead of SA.  In the fourth a fold up of the Spurs was very evident and the Lakers continue the onslaught and the dominations of the board.   At this juncture you can see the real MVP stands up, does his thing and was completely dictating the tempo of the game as what was expected of him. 

 

The well oiled machine of the city of San Antonio just broke down in the middle of the heavy traffic in the busy  Hollywood Avenue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The New Orleans played very hard, they did the most out of what they have in their franchise.  CP3 was a little bit off, as usual DWest played his best and Chandler did his chore in the rebounds, but no one beside the three steps up to help in their cause.

The Spurs played deliberately and milked every available situation that suits them best.  They were very patient in their offense and systematic in their defense.  In short they played the best of what could be expected from them. 

New Orleans is a young team and they have achieved what others have not.  Next season will be their year.  However the Lakeshow is young too!

 

Is Robert “Big Shot Rob” Horry a dirty player or just an extreme defender?  Remember the hip shot on Nash, where suspension was ruled by the NBA on Amare and Diaw.

 

“West, who played with backside soreness in Game 5, fell to the floorboards after being picked from behind by Spurs forward Robert Horry, who was called for an offensive foul. Laying face down on the floor, West put his left arm behind him and rested it on his lower back before going to the locker room.”   Associated Press

“I’m not real OK with it,” Scott told Yahoo! Sports. “But if I didn’t know Robert on a personal level, I’d say that was a dirty shot. Yeah, if I didn’t know him the way I know him, I’d say it was a cheap shot.”  “I also think he understood what he was doing,” Scott said.

 

If I will be a voter for the MVP race… I guess I'd be casting my vote for Chris Paul after piling A-1 stats.  

However, can I just reject Kobe and his right to be crowned MVP since the Lakers may wrap up a game or two or even three behind the Cinderella Hornets in the nine-team event of the century?  I remain looking at Bryant's season and peeking at Paul's and, yes; I'm bound to give the upper hand to Kobe.  Bryant has seen from opposing teams extra defensive strategies, was doubled and tripled teams but refused to be cowed by these defenses. He played in a Lakers team which had suffered and continue to suffer a worse overall team health; Bigboy Bynum will wind up playing fewer than half of the season and Pau Gasol has equally skipped 11 games from the time of his Feb. 1 appearance at Staples and defense specialist Trevor Ariza remains no where to be seen. 

The MVP race considerations in each NBA season are so diverse and we cannot by any means use them on a regular basis.  If you’re rooting for CP3, utilizing the Nash parameters won’t help, simply because Steve Nash earned his 2-MVPs for turning a below .500 Phoenix team into a .700 playoff bound squad that had posted the league's top record in a ragged conference of the West... and then lead Phoenix to a 54-win rank subsequent to trading away Joe Johnson (now an Atlanta Hawk stalwart) and lost PF Stoudemire to injury for most part of the following season.  Utilizing Steve Nash into this doesn't in actual fact resolve anything since Paul season doesn't exactly correspond to each outlines of Nash factor.  Paul has 2-allstar (Chandler & West) players helping him, apart from a reliable shooter in Stojakovic , back-up all around guard in Pargo and the dependable Bonzi Wells.

Dragging the little Canadian into this will in fact prop ups Garnett's MVP drive over Paul's MVP hope.

As Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic have written in his column last March 8, “The Suns awful defense was covered when Phoenix made 66 points in the first half and while leading by nine markers going through the final canto versus the Jazz on Friday night.  However, as Phoenix yet again losing to a different potential playoff opponent, and yields more than 120 points for a second consecutive game and permits an adversary to let off better than 50 percent for the fourth time in five games, the mask comes off, and hideous defense is exposed”.  Phoenix franchise is caught in a bind, they have had expressed their trust in Kerr, D’antoni and his coaching staff, unfortunately for them the whole Suns community is up in arms against those persons and even the much liked Steve Nash have been vilified publicly. Here are some cases in point of how the Sun crowd feels:

 

• “Stick a fork in this team. They've been sticking it up for weeks now, and they obviously do not care about winning. D'Antoni needs to go... he plays only 8 guys, AGAIN! You need to play at least 10 consistently to succeed in the playoffs, and he has not figured that out in almost 4 seasons.” 
• "The entire Suns team needs to spend time in the D-league"
• “every move this #### kerr made backfired on the suns. thomas to sonic now the spurs have him, james jones to portland made them better. shaq trade ruined the season and the suns will not make the playoffs.”
• “I say trade Dantoni, Kerr and Sarver. For Popovich, Popovich and....Popovich.” 
• “Deron Williams OWNed Steve Nash!!!
  Sorry Suns fanzz but our reign is over! The suns will be luck to even make the payoffs this year!” 
• “We can probably lay most of the blame on D'antoni's mustache.”
• “Kerr should fire THE COACH, and trade Nash for Marbury and sign Issah Thomas as head coach. The Suns then would have every #### in the league plus the old folk’s home and still play no defense. This team has turned 3 bags ugly and old at the same time.”

At this point in time the Sun organization must do somewhat severe actions to stay away from this developing fans uprising in the midst.  It is a pity that this great franchise is in these circumstances; they have started in the right foot at the beginning of the regular season.  The brewing ember must be put out to avoid a raging fire. They must mollify the fans and patrons to demonstrate to them that they mean business before it will be too late. 

 

 

 

LA downed by a dozen points and one in the third canto and in no way had the advantage before Kobe Bryant made his move and brought the whole band there in the concluding minutes of the game ahead for good.

KB24 tallied 34 points, half of those were in the fourth quarter, and Gasol made some good adjustments from a small number of lackluster performances to make 31markers as the Hollywood team prevail for the 12th time in 13 games to remain at minute distance with the Spurs ahead of the Western Conference fight for primacy.

Bryant as always, assumed responsibility when needed the most, thrust his Lakers to a critical fourth quarter uprising in which they outscored the Sacramento, 36-18 (Bryant nearly matched the total 18 pts. output of the entire Kings in the 4th Q). Kobe Bryant time and again proves his passion and intensity, his desires alone can move heaven and earth in order to attain primacy for his ball club.  I hate to pronounce it but this clutch thing is for KB24 alone and not those pretenders out there.

 

Chicago Bulls have their 6 NBA titles for almost a decade and the Los Angeles Lakers for 3 and all because they have PJ and Tex in the sideline.

 For years now and some years to come, the duo of Phil Jackson and Tex Winter had been with the simple triangle offense and all of its deviations and it appears that it is effective on every team that they’re working.  They’ve churn out half a dozen ring for MJ and 3 for Kobe and it looks like that they are in for another Lakers NBA title.  Some league experts says that this will only work on MJ and Pippen or the vaunted arsenal of Kobe and Shaq, but as I look deeper in to it, I can only surmise that teams with above average players can also follow it to the letter and can win games as long as it is made in harmony with flow of the offense.  Winter doesn't stake claim as the Triangle Offense's "inventor," but takes tremendous pride in being the Triangle's greatest innovator. In 60 years with the offense, he has developed and modified it to fit many different coaching challenges.  Pau Gasol learned it fast enough and became productive instantly in spite of his being neophyte to the Lakers team.  This offense has turn out near great players like Fish, Horry and many others which I forget to commit to my memory. 

It is for this reason that I often ask myself, is the triangle offense much superior to other variety of offensive strategy?

 

 

Twenty four hours subsequent to being designated Eastern Conference Player of the Week the Lebron James gets dethrone and thrown-out of his kingdom.  Some NBA experts say he should not because of the superb statistics he had acquired, but unfortunately stats is not that all and victories are much better to reckon with. Regardless of the off-the-chart individual statistic numbers, the King’s Cavaliers have failed enough to rally around him and fend off Kobe Bryant or surpass the winning record of the Hollywood team. 

 

The combination of KB24 and Gasol has produced much better result than everybody in LA might have anticipated and it is a little bit chilling to imagine how Los Angeles is capable of when young center Andrew Bynum comes back from injury.  Kobe ought to be commended for executing an above level performance even on a severely injured pinky.  Many basketball pundits have come noting how KB24 had made so much effort to involve his young team play to an above par level game when most needed and LA win-loss record could provide evidence to that pronouncement.  In the NBA good statistics are the reference for choosing where to award the MVP plum, but unfortunately and lot of times it was flushed down the drain for a basic reason that most of persons engage in the selection working group look the other way and have a preference to bestow the coveted title to the player that have done so much and have help his team to the Championship trophy. 

 

The way to the Crown is still long and winding but at this point in time, KB and Lebron are neck and neck in their fight to the MVP.

 

Kobe Bryant is now being spoken of as the season's presumptive MVP. Curiously enough, the Maurice Podoloff Trophy remains about the only individual prize not in Bryant's custody. As his physical gifts exceed those of anyone not named LeBron James, it would be a long time coming. What's more, as far as the Lakers are concerned, winning the MVP should be considered the least he could do.

The Lakers have given Bryant everything he wanted, though more than he dared to have imagined during his infamously comic series of trade-me-I'm-a-Laker-for-life tantrums. He got his favorite point guard. He got a center. He has an All-Star big man. As presently constituted, still awaiting the return of their starting center, the Lakers are talented enough to call Lamar Odom their third option. Looking back, the Lakers did a great job in protecting their star from himself. How do you think Kobe Bryant would be enjoying winter in Chicago right about now? It should surprise no one that Bryant has yet to officially rescind his trade demands. Nor has he apologized, to the fans or those who suffered his most egregious insults, including Jerry Buss — the guy who traded Shaquille O'Neal so that Bryant might have a franchise to call his very own; Mitch Kupchak, who had the foresight not to trade Andrew Bynum; and Bynum himself, who at 20, is that rarest of NBA commodities, a true center who will be good for years to come. Of course, this being Hollywood, no apologies are necessary. Stars have no need of good manners until they are something less than stars.

Still, the real test begins next month when Bynum returns from his knee injury. It's Bryant's team. It's on him to make sure it remains a team. This isn't about the MVP. Rather, it's what the award signifies. In his 12th NBA season, Bryant has won three championships (though never without O'Neal). He has led the league in scoring twice. He's a perennial member of the all-defensive team. He once scored 81 points in a game, more than anyone not named Wilt Chamberlain. But he has never made his teammates better. Now, if Bryant is what he has long fancied himself to be — an authentic successor to Michael Jordan — that time has come.

These are exactly some of the words of Kriegel as written in his column at Foxsport.com/NBA and reading this would appear to signify that he acquire the right understanding about Kobe and the Lakers franchise like the palm of his hand. I wonder if this journalist as he call himself distinguish Kobe or maybe pretend to be one or maybe possess the extreme dislike inside him just for the man Kobe and nothing more.

He avowed that Kobe was the man to fault for the trade of the Big Diesel to Miami but fail to remember that it is the owner of the franchise, had previously owned the move, but unfortunately Kriegel still offer this unworthy argument. Even Shaq had accepted that it is not Kobe but he himself requested the trade to be carried out for the reason that Lakers franchise cannot shell out huge amount of what he is asking. I cannot imagine Kriegel words that connote malice in all actions pertaining to Kobe and even putting clouds of uncertainty regarding the return of the young center Andrew Bynum. How can Kriegel ever pronounce that Kobe was not making his team mates better when the statistics belied him? Look at how the Lamar Odom is playing, always averaging a double-double in his outings even on first rate teams; peep at Vujacic productions, even Farmar is enjoying his new found rhythm inside the playing court. Now if those facts will not give you the light Kriegel then you’re a hopeless case and nothing but an established Kobe hater.

The Suns completed one of the prime shows in the trade market thus far, the deal for Miami Heat center and ex-Lakers O’Neal some weeks back. A few years earlier, this desert team has been the archetype of a run and gun small ball basketball, an aspect of their play that will more or less be weakened to some extent by the dawdling Big Cactus. On the other hand, O’Neal deficiency in velocity compensated it up with his huge existence in the shaded lane. Shaq and the current biggie Amare Stoudemire congesting the middle, opposing teams encroachment in the lane at will against the Suns will decrease and in addition, the Desert Diesel carries a number of much-needed NBA title competition experience to the Phoenix roster.

While it is true that this Phoenix team need to execute this transaction is far much less necessitated in view of the fact that they have won majority of their games albeit their defeat at the hands of the significantly improved Lakers, O’Neal’s championship veteran knowledge will be essential against other Western Conference opponents. Phoenix has persistently struggled vis-à-vis the conference’s superior squads, and this was manifested by their defeats to Spurs and the young Hornets team in recent weeks. The Lakers trouncing of the Sun’s does not signal the inferiority of this team but the necessity of improving their defense to compliment their superior up tempo offense and not adding a slow and aging superstar.

The Lakers are tied the Suns for third place in the West standings after winning 6 consecutive games and seven of 8 ever since the Spanish power forward appearance in Staples Center. The importance of the latest Lakers-Suns game was that, it proves once and for all the emergence of LA as a dominant team in the West and a playoff contender once the young Bynum re-enter the scene. The strength of the Lakers lies on the filling up missing pieces in their line up and many thanks should be given to Mitch Kupchack and Phil Jacson. Hey Mitch, I am ready for the paddle!!!

Okay, we fans booed Kwame… we a bit forget that jeering the man was akin to cheering for the Suns.  It may also sound like carrying the torch for Nash and his team of underachieving Phoenix Suns.  But can you censure us LA team enthusiast in our action?  Lest you forget it is you players of the great Lakers team who encourage us to turn up into the Staple Center promising us an honest to goodness games in any given night.  It is this Management of the Lakers team who guarantee us that they are doing their very best to offer us breathing space from a hard days work with an excellent Lakers game.  It is Coach Jackson who guarantees a defensive oriented Kwame and requires the team to facilitate touches into Kwame to give him opportunity to feel his offensive game. 

 

Did the Lakers team, gave us an honest to goodness good game?  Did Buss, Jackson and Kupchack do their best to provide us a respite from our hard days work?  Did Jackson prove Kwame was not a defensive and offensive liability and do the touches made to Kwame prove that when opportunity occurs Kwame could provide some good plays in both ends of the court?  THE ANSWER IS A DEFINITE NO!

  

We have compensated the Staples Center with our hard earned dollar to see a first-rate basketball game, but you gave us Kwame’s 7TOs, miss dunk, a rim offensive interference (2 point less to the score) and three long years of injuries and embarrassing career.  You also give us Kwame’s spectator’s attention to the game and not his own concentration to the play at hand.  We are not booing him because we love Phoenix more but we expect a good game from him considering LA is paying him a hefty 9M USD to play hard that would commiserate the amount that is spent for him.  We are booing him because he’s not Bynum but professional basketball players so should play the game with so much intensity and lots of fire and did he play that way?