On the first day of the season, 11/1/91, the Lakers valliantly took Houston to double overtime without Magic Johnson (who missed the game due to a "viral infection"). If Magic were there, LA would've won. Fast forward to the last day of the season: Houston needed only to beat the lowly Dallas Mavs to take the 8th seed away from the Lakers. The LA media ponders aloud if the Mavs were looking forward to their vacations instead of actually trying to beat Houston. This offended Derek Harper who said that, despite the Mavs' record, they took a professional attitude into games. Dallas ended up beating Houston. If the Lakers were to lose their final game against the Clippers, Houston was still in. The Clipps took the Lakers down to the wire. The Lakes were down by 1 with 24 secs left when Sedale Threatt hit a jumper over Doc Rivers to take the lead. Rivers got the last shot in front of a tense Forum crowd (with the opportunity to knock the hated Lakers out of the playoffs with a single shot). His shot banked off the glass, spun around the rim and rolled out. Lakers win 109-108. The play of two former Rockets, Threatt and Terry Teagle ironically helped to knock Houston out of playoff contention that day. LA took on Portland in the first round thru the adversity of the Rodney King Riots. They beat Porty on the very day the riots started, but were forced to play the rest of their "home" games at UNLV due to the violence nearby the Forum. If that hadn't have happened, the Lakers would've shocked the world by taking the Blazers out. The very next year in the first round, the Lakers (again from the 8th seed) legitimately eliminated another Finalist (Phx) in regulation of Gm5. However, a ref once again made a horrific mistake against LA, single-handedly winning the game for the Suns (because Phx/Chicago was such an appealing Finals matchup for Stern, I suppose). Barkley went in for a late dunk attempt that didn't beat the shot clock. Not only was the play clearly a shot clock vio, but dunking at the shot clock buzzer is also a vio (as the ball is still in the players' hands). Never underestimate the heart of the Lakers, no matter if they're the champions or an 8th seed, or both...
Wherever pointless threads are, Carmine Capucci can't be far behind... I think calling Sedale Threatt a former Rocket is stretching it a bit...
He actually played some pretty good ball in the 97 Jazz series. God knows Maloney couldn't hold the fort.
