The Heat might lose two of those games (but they'll probably lose at least one or two unexpected ones). I think they'll destroy the Celtics this week. I'm looking forward to the Lakers game. Hopefully both teams are mostly healthy by then (I know the Heat won't have Miller yet). Last year I'm sure everyone picked the Lakers to beat the Cavs @Staples but that didn't happen. I do think the Lakers have improved mostly because Blake is really underrated and much better than floppy Fish. Also, Shannon Brown looks fantastic. However, I wouldn't read too much into Gasol & Odom because really they are feasting on mediocre competition so far. Typically players don't improve this much this late into their careers (Steve Nash is one exception), and Odom in particular has always regressed to his mean after some fantastic spurts of games.
I don't know much about Odom but he looked like a Top NBA player in FIBA World Championships and so far he's still looking like a Top 10 NBA player. If Odom regresses, they won't be as good and I'll have to reassess things. Celtics@Heat is a huge game... I think Celtics win it again. The Heat struggle with good Point Guards and good Big Men. Celtics have both.
gasol was dominant throughout the playoffs last year and really contained KG. what he is doing is not a fluke, but the fact that he knows he has to take on a bigger role since kobe can't play big minutes right now. odom will be inconsistent and might go back into a shell once bynum comes back b/c his minutes will be cut. their bench is something else. blake and brown are shooting great, esp. from 3. and barnes is a true hustler.
Odom always has these spurts where he looks like a superstar for a few days or weeks. The problem is, it never really lasts. His very first game in the NBA he had 30/13, which was probably the best game he ever had. The talent has always been there. I'm actually a huge fan of the guy but I just don't believe he'll put it together for a full season. The Heat basically outplayed the Celtics after their awful first quarter (which was really the first time the big 3 had played together since the Olympics). This game being in Miami, I think they'll come out and blitz the C's from the start and it won't be a contest. I could be wrong, though. I didn't expect them to lose the Hornets last week.
What I'm saying is that assuming the Lakers beat the Wolves, that's 8 straight wins. You could switch those 8 teams with 8 other random teams and the Lakers would still beat them easily as long as it isn't one of about 3 other legitimate teams. Other posters have illustrated how much this team has improved from last year and this is after losing their starting center. The Heat's weakness is their frontcourt and they can't matchup with the Laker bigs whatsoever. Keep in mind that team's give their best games to the defending champs and the Lakers are still killing them. Pau Gasol literally did not break a sweat to get his triple double the other night. Miami is talented but the core of the Lakers has been together for going on 4 years and they know what it takes to win.
Right, but there are going to be stretches where other teams win 10+ games in a row in part due to easy competition. I think one year Dallas started with a 17(?) game winning streak before leveling off. I'm not saying the Lakers aren't great-- if the Finals started today I'd pick them to win it all. However, they are definitely looking better than they really are because of the competition. They aren't going to beat teams by over 13ppg over the course of the season (and neither are the Heat). Also, I think the Heat will give the Lakers a lot of problems because they are extremely athletic and very tough defensively, like an extremely upgraded version of that OKC team that tested the Lakers last year (that team didn't have any bigs either). We won't really know until they play though.
I don't get the easy schedule argument. Sooner or later the lakers gonna play these teams and beat them 90% of the times. Yet to meet a tough teams on the road? Who are those tough teams? Despite the hot story this summer in Miami, most experts and analysts picked the Lakers to win it all. The only threat to the lakers are Celtics and Heat and the lakers meet them 4 times this season. Said, the lakers lost 3 of them and the threat the lakers face in the West is minimum. The only team that will beat lakers once this season in the west this season probably will be the rockets(match their size), spurs(Duncan) and Hornets(Paul). Yes even the great Bulls team lost to the crappy Raptors twice so we do expect the Lakers lost to some crappy teams this season. So the Lakers really have great chance to beat the record!
Some non-contending teams are very difficult to beat at home, even for the oh so mighty Lakers. NOH, Den, Utah, Port, SA, OKC, even Houston will all give the Lakers tough games in their stadiums. Or maybe they won't. You just can't tell until the Lakers actually face some tough competition. That's why this talk is ridiculous right now. If they are 30-3 at the end of the year, then maybe it's time to start thinking about it.
Not gonna happen, Lakers started 21-3 and 23-4 last 2 seasons and only won 65 and 57. 65-67 is a more likely target. And if Heat keep it up, maybe Lakers will have a chance to scratch 70 in order to win HCA. But 72 is beyond reach.
