Trouble in LA LA Land
Laker Nation was awfully quiet Wednesday night.
My Twitter feed was devoid of Kobe supporters, and my normally active Facebook friends were eerily silent. There was no need to check the box score; It was clear L.A. had lost. As an avid Jazz fan, I was filled with about as much remorse as the freshmen who crowded Pennsylvania Avenue Sunday night.
This is not to say, however, that I think the Lakers are completely "dead in the water" (a terrible pun, I know.) In fact, I am completely confident that they can turn this playoff series around and win four of the next five games. But they are going to have to show me, the Mavericks, and - more importantly - themselves a lot more than they did Wednesday night.
During Wednesday's game against the Mavericks, the Lakers looked sloppy. They looked sluggish. They looked sorry. They looked like team that had already lost the series. But as history will show, there is no need to hit the panic button just yet.
In fact, one has only to look back a few years to be reminded that the Dallas Mavericks are, in fact, totally capable of beating themselves. In the 2006 NBA Finals, Dirk and the Mavericks gave up a 2-0 series lead to the Miami Heat, losing the next four straight games and the NBA Title. This epic meltdown was the first chapter in Dwayne Wade's now storied career (Source NBA.com.)
Perhaps they will also allow Kobe to write one of his last chapters.
The truth is that neither team has been spectacular in this series. The Mavericks have played well enough to take two games from the Lakers at the Staples Center (no small feat, especially in the playoffs,) but I am still convinced that the Lakers at their best are good enough to beat the Mavericks at theirs. The question is, will the Lakers get back to playing their best ball at some point in these next few games? Laker great Magic Johnson seems to have his concerns.
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