not sure if this has been posted already, but yahoo sports headlines this story by wojnarowski. sure this was written before the playoffs started and most of the game 1's had already passed. still: aren't the jazz more of a threat to the lakers than the trail blazers? give me a break dude... Kobe-LeBron Finals would align NBA’s stars By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports Apr 17, 10:35 pm EDT "These are playoffs where the biggest threat to the Lakers in the Western Conference could come from the emboldened young Portland Trail Blazers. The Celtics are simply a shell of themselves in the Eastern Conference with KG’s gimpy knee. LeBron and Kobe are thundering down the tracks, threatening to topple those Celtics-Lakers television ratings of a year ago."
oops, probably doesn't belong in this section of the forums unless i change it to the rockets are the lakers biggest threat. so sorry!
Blazers don't have that killer instinct look in their faces, they looked like they were in shock, the writer is an idiot
Since drafting Roy the Blazers haven't lost a game to the Lakers at home. In the same period they've managed to win one game against the Lakers in LA.
Since Portland was the only one to run them out of their building I would have to agree. Not counting the first game since it was like a fluke, we were swept by the Lakers 3-0. Maybe we will still see a different Yao and a different team, but I don't see us going beyond round 2. Also I'm sure the league will hand out fouls like handing out candy to Yao if the Lakers are in trouble. The league is definitely pushing for a Kobe/Lebron finals.
Even though we were swept, all but one of the games were very close (hell the blowout win they had against us we were owning them at halftime ) I remember taking the season series from them last year when they had nearly an identical team (minus injured Bynum I think).
its all about matchups.. much like a lot of people say the jazz have our number.. and we have the blazers (hope it continues) the blazers kinda has the lakers number.. they just match up well against the lakers and some how keep winning at home and even blowing them out.
The Lakers always seem to have trouble winning in Portland, but I don't think that any team is a real threat to them at this point. They are just a lot better than the rest of the West.
And didn't have Ron Artest. That's bs, Lakers are really playing really good lately but that doesn't mean they're unbeatable. In my eyes they're not so good as the media wants you to believe in them.
Exactly. I'm not going to buy into this crap that the Lakers and Cavs are unbeatable. Are they favorites to win? Sure that is what comes with the #1 seed, but it's silly to think they are not going to find themselves in a tough series on their way to the playoffs. But I agree, the Blazers before the playoffs started looked like they were the only team to give the Lakers problems in the regular season.
The problem is in the playoffs in the NBA the better team almost always wins (with the Mavs being an outlier losing to both GSW and Miami). I'm not that sold on the Cavs, but I think the only team that can beat the Lakers are themselves. They are just too talented/stacked to lose to any other team out there in a 7 game series barring mental collapses by the players and coach. Their starting 5 alone is crazy- a savvy veteran in Fisher, one of the best in the biz in KB24, solid player in Ariza, and two of the best big men in the league today in Bynum and Gasol, and that's not even counting Lamar Odom who heads the second unit lol. Coaches typically only go 8 deep in the playoffs so add Farmar and Vujacic in their and you have the best 8 man lineup in the entire league. On paper we have some chance of beating them, but in reality Artest is too undisciplined and RA is too passive for us to have a chance of upsetting them.
And that's why I said that we've smoothed the way for the Lakers. Good job in Dallas. The Lakers should have met the Blazers in the 2nd round, and we should have had an open path to the WCF at least. Can you imagine, if the Blazers had taken out the Lakers? We'd probably have the championship in the bag. That one game made all the difference. Even more than we could be sure of at the time. Lots of ifs but all we'd need is to drop Dallas and the Blazers and Lakers meet. I like Houston's chances against everybody in the way
They have been on Portland's tip ever since the playoffs started..especially the NBA TV announcers I would rather hear what Drexler has to say instead.. Maybe after we finish Portland they'll show us some love..
I also think Portland is the best threat to the Lakers in the West. But if we can hold serve at home the next 2 we should be able to take them out and it will be up to us to embarass the Lakers. I think we are probably the next best threat to the Lakers but it is a long, long shot. We would need to keep our TOs way down and shoot a high % from the perimeter in 4 of the games--be very offensively efficient because as solid is our D we are not going to fully shut their offense down The Blazers can score with the Lakers, so it can be a matter of who is hotter and hits more of the same quality shots. We have to fundamentally change the pace and the quality of shots--and the Lakers are a hard team to control tempo of for most of the game because they are deep and have a lot of efficient offensive players.
