just saw the end of kings/lakers game 7 (some thoughts)

all i can remember is missed free throws, peja's air balled three pointers, and robert horrys game winner.

 

The 3 pointer the Lakers scored during halftime of game 4 was pretty awesome. Lakers won that one by 2, I think. If Sac won that one, there would have been no game 6 of which to be robbed.

 

This is a good remind post for a number of reasons:

1) emphasizes how fragile championship seasons can be. The Lakers were a lucky this year. The Lakers of 2000 & 2002, Spurs of 2003, maybe Pistons of 2004--a few lucky bounces, opponents flat choking, and/or opponents injuries worked in those teams favor for them to win. Only the Lakers squad of 2001 was a truly dominant team where only a devastating major injury (Shaq/Kobe) probably could have derailed during this period.

2) it shows how close the Kings were to a ring.

corollary 2A) The Kings were a balanced team with distributed talent. Before last year (Detroit) everybody was saying "the team with the best player always wins the NBA championship", but that ignored how close many talent distributed teams were to previous titles (e.g., Sac, Blazers and Pacers of 2000). Detroit finally slammed the theory ("can't win w/o an MVP caliber player") shut, but looking back at the Kings, Blazers and Pacers--lots of great all around teams without an MVP type candidate put themselves in position to win a title--we should have seen that theory as weaker in the 1st place.

Corollary 2B) You don't have to be a defensive focused team to compete for a title. The Kings were also much better offensively than defensively. We think the era where more offensive teams could win rings was over (Boston/Lakers of the 80s), but Sac was really, really close. Phx was pretty close in the mid 90s as well, had Elie or Kerr not stuck their jumpshots in game 7 and game 6 in various series Barkley may have ad a ring. While an offensive-focused team has not won a ring, given how close the Kings and Suns teams were it would be a mistake to dismiss the current Suns team because they are not great defensively. Having great offense, and just good defense (but not elite defense), might just win a title one of these years.

 

and after the clock (edit: i guess that's why you said during halftime). one of many gifts the lakers would get that series. and part of the reason instant replay finally came along.

 

Great post. Championships sometimes are misunderstood. What if the game was 49 minutes? What if this and that? There are many subjective ways to say one team is the best, and the NBA format doesn't mean that it's the perfect method; however it's still great. Championships are so hard to get, and so many things have to go perfect in order to win one, even with or without the refs. Each championship should be cherished.