Just to reiterate, the main reason I feel the Lakers are vulnerable is not because they are that much worse--though I think they are slightly (see below). My primary reason is because the Kings are better than any team the Lakers have faced. With Peja becoming an additional star, and Bibby being more solid at the 1, that team is just solid all over. Peja and Webber will kill their counterparts for the Lakers, Shaq and Kobe will kill their counterparts even worse, but I think the rest of the Kings can make up the difference. The Kings are a little bit like the Blazers team that gave the Lakers all they could handle two years ago, except Webber and Peja are better go to guys than the Blazers had. I admit it is a gut feeling. However, Mavs, Spurs, please. They have no chance against the Lakers. The Spurs create one major mismatch, but the Lakers are better everywhere else. Duncan can average 40 and they will still lose because Shaq and Kobe go for 30+ each, and guys like Fox, Horry, and Fisher are better all around players than the Spurs non-stars. It is just a terrible, a terrible, match-up for the Spurs. On the Mavs. They are a little like the Kings with 1 major distinction. When the Kings want to play a little interior defense, with Webber, Vlade and Pollard they can play a little interior D. The Mavs cannot do this. The lights always eventually get turned out on teams like that (no interior D) in the playoffs. So to sum it all up, I think the only team with a chance against the Lakers is the Kings. Just watching the whole Laker roll players, they just look worse than the previous two years. Maybe Fox and Horry are getting old, or getting complacent, but they just look weaker than before. And anyone who things those guys all around play plus Fisher's shot streaks haven't been critical compliments to the great play of Shaq and Kobe on the Lakers runs I think missed some of the bigger picture. It is just a hunch, and I don't like the Kings, but I really think they might do it. I think the are the only team the Lakers have even a little concern over, and the Lakers would prefer the Spurs, Mavs or Wolves knock them out just as it was nice Seattle got knocked out for us in 94. It is all about match-ups.
You have to be a fool if you think the Lakers are really "struggling" because they lack talent or just aren't good enough to be the best. They proved last year that they don't give a rat's ass about the regular season. I would think that Phil Jackson knows how to prepare a team for a title run. The Lakers will probably continue to "suck" until April or so. And like last year, there will be those people who predict wannabes like Dal or Sac to knock them off. The fact that their role players haven't done jack crap, and the Lakers still have a solid record provides more evidence that LA will roll in the playoffs. Really, none of their key role players did much in the regular season last year either. The law of averages tells you that if 10 other players aren't playing up to par, that eventually they will, and it evens out in the end. The only difference is that the Lakers role palyers will come through when needed, while the other teams will hit a wall come May and June. The NBA season plus the playoffs are a marathon, not a sprint. Does it really matter who leads after the 13th mile, if there are 13 more to go?
People forget how close they came to not winning the title 2 years ago. The easy call is to say the Lakers will roll, the easy call said the same thing about the Rams too. If I were betting I would be putting money on the Kings if I got decent odds (like 7-1 against) on winning the title. Of course I could be wrong--and Vinitarie (sp?) could have missed that field goal as well, but I like my chances.
