RIP Fellas

Today, I want to state, it’s been a great season. One filled with surprises and unexpected greatness. Yet, on this Father’s Day, my dad would have enjoyed the events which are about to unfold in the Los Angeles Staples Center in a few hours. No, this is not a salute to him, but to the hometown Lakers who are about to break the hearts of millions of fans and bring to an end a season which went well beyond anyone’s expectations. It’s the unexpected winners of the NBA Western Conference who are about to walk out on the court for the last time this year to mercifully bow down to a powerful Boston Celtics team and hand them yet another championship.

My father would love the irony. His adult son and diehard Lakers fan dealing with the angst of Lakers fans during his early to mid 20’s when each summer it seemed, the two teams would do battle. Each time, my Lakers would come out on the short end of a Bill Russell led Celtics team. He was the one he reminded me it was a long seven game series in the mid 80’s when the two basketball titans renewed their rivalry. My early celebrations or dejected looks after series openers have given way to a semi-ambivalence to early games in a series.

It’s with that, I watched this team walk into Boston and contend with fast whistles from refs and cold shooting to lose. No panic, this was not my team playing at it’s best. Game two I had hoped might be a steal, but again early whistles seemed to hamper their play early on. A fast and furious comeback allowed them to save a little face and head back to LA with some hope. Their best basketball was yet to be played.

Game 3. The announcers say it, the Analysts say it, the old man used to always tell me Game 3 is the make or break game in a series (actually he said 3&4, but I am being dramatic here). Indeed these Lakers came out and.. squeaked out a win. Then Game 4 and the real Western Conference Champs appeared… for all of the first 20 minutes of the game. With a foot on the throat of the Celtics and finally some even calls, I recall tuning out of the recording I made of the game thinking it was over and was off to bed. It was a click on to the Washington Post’s website which sent me spiraling. They f*n lost??? WHAT?? Indeed, this last four minutes of the first half I believe showed why Boston won (aside from the momentum changing fraudulent blocking foul on Bryant against Pierce in the closing minutes).

1) The G-Force : Garnett became the number one option when the Celtics went into their half court set. Guarded by either Gasol, Turiaf or Odom, KG abused his defender and got to the basket or found the open man on a slow double team by the Lakers defense. I suspect tonight will be much more of the same as the Lakers only hope to stopping this…

2) Bynum: Has FINALLY had surgery on his knee. I am not sure what the trainers/medical staff for LA has been doing the past few months, but to wait until the playoffs to diagnose the true severity of Bynum’s injury is nothing short of amazing. The ONE person this team has who is young enough, talented enough to keep KG at bay is sitting on the bench in street clothes. And…

3) Gasol: Has shrunk from being a solid number two option in the Western Conference playoffs to a matador. His lack of speed shows as he can no longer get open anymore and unable to rebound. Not sure but this sounds a lot like…

4) Odom: who like the above mentioned Gasol, has turned into a big pumpkin before our eyes. Saddled often with fouls due to his reckless ways when driving to the basket and lowered scoring production… is it just me or does the man just not want to dunk the ball?? His flipping the ball in is the most frustrating things.. noo.. I take that back… the MOST frustrating part of this team is…

5) Jumpshot-itis: against an opponent that does not give hard fouls and is consistently collapsing down on Kobe, this team finds it faaar more rewarding to settle for a 20 plus foot jump shot or unnecessary three pointer attempt than to drive in for the easy basket. Lacking the rebounding presence of the foul plagued and star struck Gasol and Odom, this team continues to shoot up miss after miss after miss. Against a slower Celtics team, these Lakers seem content to stay as far away from the basket as possible. Sure Jordan Farmar and Kobe drive to the hole with success. But others seem far more concerned with chipping a nail or getting bumped around. The more you drive, the more likely you are to get calls as you initiate contact with the defender. Also, just as the old man tried to teach and Shaq & Bynum love to show off, the closer you get, the higher you percentage of shooting is.

All I can say is… it has been quite the season. I look forward to watching KG or Pierce being named Finals MVP tonight after two very long and distinguished careers. Kobe will get his gold medal this summer completing two thirds of Michael Jordan’s league MVP, Finals Championship/MVP and gold medal season. Bynum will hopefully recover in time for the start of the season and this team will start the new season as favorites to win it all. However, tonight… the Celtics will dance.

Fellas, get your fishing hats ready.