Western Conference Champions

Rolling down.... Imperial Highway...

The Lakers seem to have a mini-tradition of having dinner before the next series. Maybe we should have a similar type of gathering with the K brothers picking up the tab? In all seriousness, we can try to meet up at some joint preferably with the game showing.

12 DOWN, 4 MO' TO GO!

We gotta give it to King Pau... as soft and gooey as he plays early, there have been several times where he's recovered to be nothing short of solid and dare i say... tough.

19 rebounds, a couple tip ins and slams, then stand-up defense against Timmy in the fourth quarter.

i think we know what we're going to get from pau...but thank God we found out he's not just some pushover.

soft and gooey on the outside, tough as titanium steel on the inside... that's Pau!

LET'S GO LAKE SHOW

and oh yeah...

Jerry West = Laker for Life

as if we needed another reminder.

thanks for Pau, Jerry

p.s. Can anyone please post a link showing last night's game?

That photo looks like they just found the Holy Grail.

Just fantastic.

Just fantastic.

So, I forget. If we play Boston do they get home court advantage, but if we play Detroit, we get home court advantage... is that how it goes?

There are things I don't like about either Detroit or the Celtics game. It's ugly ball, but sometimes ugly ball is kind of hard to decode.

Time for Phil Jackson to work his magic. Get these boys ready to play!

GO LAKERS!

LOL. You know how many Buffalo Bills fans there are in the Third World?

Forum Blue and Gold has a youtube video of Kobe's highlights from last night. There's a shot or two of Farmar in there. He really stepped up last night. I've loved him since he was the last one standing in the NCAA title game.

Anyone else glad that Kobe pulled another NDW (not Dwayne Wade)? Jeez, if he played like D Wade instead of someone like MJ, we'd be heading back to San An.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha.... (burp)

Pig, thanks for the BBQ'd troll, it was quite a meal.

Nice

High Fiving in the middle of a play?!
http://tinyurl.com/5u7xrv
how very toe-jam and earl of them.

The 2-3-2 format CAN be beneficial to the road team if they split the opening pair.

I expect rust and deer in the headlight for the Lakers in Game 1. Killer Kobe takes Game 2. Then home to Staples.

If it's Boston, I expect the experts to be all over their jock straps.

Stein, Sheridan, Rose, and Thorpe all took the Spurs even though they beat the flawed Spurs and the inexperienced Hornets.

I think the Pistons win tonight. Who knows what will happen if it goes 7.

Can anyone tell me what the route for the parade will be?

-What a great day for Laker Nation! Are you not entertained? ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

-Jerry West’s speech was a thing of beauty. What a special moment for all Laker fans. I always felt Jerry West’s proudest accomplishment from his non-playing career was trading Vlade Divac for Kobe - the deal of the century. Unlike Magic, you could see how proud and happy West is for Kobe. All of the championships and special memories the Lakers have provided in my lifetime are because of this great man. All hail the Logo!

-Tim-4-Show, You are absolutely right. That was a great adjustment by Phil to go exclusively to the pic&roll, after replacing Lamar with Vlad to spread the floor. San Antonio’s strategy has been to give Lamar the outside shot, and use his man to double Kobe or guard the paint. This has been a pretty effective strategy that I’m sure Boston or Detroit will duplicate. If they do, the Lakers need to pic&roll them to death.

-Lamar looked pretty bummed out after being benched in the last four minutes. He will have to work on his outside shot this summer to prevent teams from employing this strategy next year.

-If Kobe missed a few more shots in the fourth quarter, and the Lakers lost, all we would be hearing today from the media and their Kobe-hating clones is how he played selfishly, didn’t pass to his teammates, blah, blah, blah. AK would’ve stated something about how Kobe went away from team ball to the detriment of the team. Fortunately, Kobe made those clutch shots and the Lakers won, so I guess Kobe took over “in a good way” this time.

Here's Amico's followup. I'm sure 1 or 2 (or 100) of the guys mentioned in article post here.

http://probasketballnews.com/amico_053008.html

Check out his tidbits at the bottom. Especially the part about the Lakers playing like college kids.

utzworld - THE BANNER HOLDER,

Yep, we have a huge coaching advantage over Boston or Detroit.

Doc Rivers is one of the most over-rated coaches in the game.

However, Phil's going to have to anticipate that Boston and Detroit's style is going to muck up our offense a bit. He who scores the most points wins.

Some closing thoughts...

"F-ing Pau Gasol!"

Lamar Odom = Finals MVP

Four more to go.

GO LAKERS!

It's weird how MBenga in this pic looks like Shaq:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?addata=2008_NBAES_XXX_XXX_XXX_DDX

Jerry West on Dan Patrick today. Here's the link:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/danpatrick/streamingaudio/

He doesn't think Bynum and Gasol can play together; something about not getting back on defense fast enough.

Mr. Banner Holder--I may not agree with your mixing religion with Lakers basketball but make no mistake about the fact that I respect you as a blogger and respect your right to blog however you choose.

Go Lakers!

Wes

Jon K,

I can't stand that announcer from Detroit either. To be honest, nothing makes me more angry than any artificial noise pumped into arenas. Let the squeeks of the shoes and pounding of the ball on the hardwood be heard. Follow that with a strong dose of fans going crazy and it is just about the perfect setting for a ball game.

Cringe with Kobe bouncing the ball at the top of the key??? Never that..

I can't even see that...Hell no, never that.....Kobe?? Nah, never that..

I have been having a discussion with my friends about who is better, or at least who will be better when it's all said and done, Larry Bird or Kobe? What do you guys think?

Posted by: laker hopeful | May 30, 2008 at 10:38 AM

That's like asking who is more important to rock n roll, Elvis or Bob Dylan. Tough call. Though Dylan and Kobe brought an unbelievable poetry and an immense body of work to their disciplines, Elvis and Bird were the engineers of their respective trains; the founding fathers who laid down their tracks on the fly:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SlowTrain.jpg

You gotta give it to Bird.

Wes

Mel,

I have to agree with you on the KG point. While he was in Minny he used to be my #2 player, after Kobe of course, but ever he went over to those green mofo leprechauns my admiration fro him has tailed off. The second he got some decent players behind him (and no, Cassell and Spree don't count) he turned into a howling lunatic. I can't stand it. It makes me want to throw stuff at the tv. I'd be torn if we played the Celtics because while I wish good things for KG and I don't want him to be one of those rare players without a ring, but nothing will ever be more important than my love for the Lakers and my hate for the Celtics. So I guess I agree with you, I hope we stomp his azz into the ground.

-bozz-

Andrew Z

I posed the question a few threads back about who would you rather face in the finals.

Now I am thinking that Boston might be better. Why?

Barring our experience against Utah,

1. We have problems against Big Point Guards (Unless Billups is going to be injured.) Rhondo and House would be a much easier match up. Cassell is playing irrelevant right now. (Defensively and Health wise that is)

2. Rebounds from the 2nd unit. Milsap = Maxiel. We had problems with our 2nd unit rebounding. Adding Theo Ratliff, I believe our chances with Ronny and Luke (Pau and Lamar will be playing with them too adding fatigue for 1st unit rebounding) I'll take my chances with a slower PJ Brown and Scala-weenie...

3. The element of surprise. The Celtics have not faced us with Pau. Pau has elevated Lamars game which was not prevalent when Bynum was in the lineup. We have been criticized for being everything in the book; yet we are now in the finals. This is a different Laker team.

If we face Detroit, we should be fine. I just feel PG & Center battles are more critical for the two teams.

C's = Rhondo, House, Cassell, Perkins, Scala, Brown.

The D = Billups, Hunter, Stuckey (2 ish), Sheed, A-Mac, Ratliff, Maxiel.

Were not even mentioning the lengthy discussions about the rest of the team members from LA, Detroit, and Boston...

" used to have the utmost respect for the stoic Warrior that goes by the name KG or Big Ticket.

But after what he said about our front office and the cockiness he's displaying now that he has two big guys to back him up in a fight, I HATE him.

I want the Lakers to beat, make that crush him. Punch his Big Ticket to a summer of misery. A summer of regretting that they didn't take advantage of a Bynumless Lakers." posted by mel

I'm with Mel on this. I USED to be a fan of K.G but now, in the dark places of my heart, I want nothing more to meet and BEAT the Shamrocks in the finals. One - They beat us twice so payback is due. 2- I hate KG now and 3 If I have to hear Pistons announcer Mason during team intro's.. I'll snap and go postal.. I cant stand that pompous SOB .. STFU and say the names dude...and finally 4 I really dont wanna see "Sheed" in a cricle jerk acting like a kid thats had way too many Twinkies doin that spastic dance thing he does.... geesh

This Laker team has shown a lot; they have shown they can come from behind, they can blow people out, they can play fast or slow, the close out series at the first crack, they can win on the road and at home. In short they are looking good if not always pretty. I was of the mind that if they won it this year it would be a bonus but now if they don't win it all I will be rather disappointed. I think the Spurs and Jazz are better than either the Pistons or the Celtics. But the games are played on the floor and not on paper. I am not quite at the 100% - no chance they lose barring some catastrophe but close....

On a side note. I really like Popovich. He is classic. I love his contempt for stupid questions by reporters. I also like the no-excuse persona. Even if he does it just publicly but is privately pissed about the non-call. I just like the way the whole team carries itself.

Go Lakers. Get the Chip this year and many many more to come.

Peace, Love and Hapiness!!!!
Eagleboy