It's been eight long years since the Lakers achieved such a feat.

That was the 1999-2000 season. We remember what happened then.

You can call it wishful thinking, or you can call it forecasting, but I am awfully giddy. I haven't been this giddy since the Pau trade back in the beginning of February.

The Lakers just took down the Kings by a score of 124-101 in the 82nd and final game of the regular season, to clinch the #1 spot in the Western Conference. I had my doubts about this game. Heck, my last post was addressing the potential that the Kings had to pull a little bit of an upset to make the #1 race a little more interesting.

Well... Kobe, Pau, and Lamar proved my speculation wrong. The Lakers never had a huge run, but the gap was comfortable the entire time. This was the game fans needed before nervous time starts this weekend. It was a nice reflection on a terrific 57-25 season.

One thing came to me tonight.

I know I'm no authority on the matter, but Lamar proved himself to me tonight. My dislike for Lamar in previous seasons was leading me to turn my head to the numbers he's been putting up lately. Lamar has the third most double-doubles in the league since the All-Star break. Granted, a lot of them haven't been much above 10 and 10, Lamar has shown a ton of improvement in his new role as the third option. People have been saying it all season long. Lamar Odom is contributor, not a leader. The removal of the Lamar from the spotlight of being a second scoring option has been the best possible elixir for his previous lack of production. There's no telling if he'll be re-signed in the off-season, but, pending his performance in the playoffs, we might see Lamar sticking around.

The Lakers played proficiently tonight, Sunday, and Friday. It was nothing short of a dream conclusion to the regular season. Hopefully these final few games have satisfied the fans with the current line-up. I spent the afternoon trolling some Lakers chat rooms and forums. People are still hung up on the Bynum and Ariza situation. It's been said around here by a few people (notably in LF19II's post), including myself; Bynum and Ariza won't make a huge impact on the post-season picture. This team is solid as is. Sure, Bynum will be a body, but the subluxation is a serious injury. If Bynum comes back not fully-recovered, the patella has the potential to do the exact same thing as it did on January 13. All I'm trying to say is that Bynum is a guy to build the franchise around once Kobe is past his prime. Let's not mess that up.

Finally, the Lakers' round one matchup is still in the balance. Their opponent will be Denver unless the Nuggs can swing a win against Memphis paired with Dallas losing to New Orleans. It's really a toss-up right now. We'll see what happens.

Oh yeah, Is this the final validation for the Kobe for MVP camp? I believe the votes go in on Thursday, and the results are released Friday.