The blackout Lakes

(2 days after the Lakers lost game 7, 1 day after I watched them losing it)

120-91. That wasn't basketball, it was a massacre.

- To be honest, there is nothing you can do if a team is going to shoot 60% and 50% on 3 pointers. The Lakers never could match up with Barbosa or Diaw. And when Lakers couldn't counter mismatches and slow the Suns down with presence inside the paint, there's just no hope to contain the Suns' fast break points.

- But maybe Phil should have tried something other than switching on Nash/whoever pick-and-rolls after getting killed by it time after time? Shouldn't they try trapping Nash on the sideline pick-and-rolls, or having Kobe fighting over the screens? Even though it is true that Nash pick-and-rolled his way all season to an MVP, it was very un-Zenmaster-like to make no adjustments after halftime, especially after Nash was visibly slowed by his ankle injury late in the first half.

- And where was Smush? If Smush Parker cannot get in the lane being marked by Steve Nash, who couldn't guard a wheelchair basketball player even when he has two healthy ankles, he should change his name to Smush the Duche. And WHY DIDNT PHIL SEE THIS OBVIOUS MISMATCH, run sets for Parker, and make a hobbled Nash chase him?

- I'm not going to harp on Kwame and his inability to catch passes and make 2-foot jumphooks with Diaw or Thomas on his back. After missing his 3rd jumphook in the 1st quarter, he just slumped, bent his head, and did everything short of quitting and waving a white flag--no surprise Tim Thomas drained a short jumper from the baseline on the ensuing posession. Kwame just doesn't have it. He never had it and maybe he never will.

- I am, however, going to harp on Kobe and his passive play in the 2nd half. Whatever you hear about both Kobe and Phil saying that that was the gameplan, that Kobe needed to get his teammates involved, anyone who has followed Kobe's career knows different. In 2004, after the media criticized his shot selection, Bryant took one-shot in the 1st half in a game against Sacramento, and then stopped talking to reporters for like 2 weeks. Kobe is stubborn and grudge-holding, and unfortunately for us that is part of what makes him great. Unlike the water splashing media, I don't blame game 6 on Kobe. His teammates weren't making shots, Kobe scored an efficient 50 and didn't take wild unmakeable shots (by Kobe standards), and his team still would've won the game if not for a lucky bounce off of a Nash miss that became Tim Thomas' tying 3. But I'm positive, positive that Kobe's refusal to take-over/acquiescence to the (failed) team concept is probably based on something like "Okay, y'all are saying that I lost game 6 by scoring 50 and not getting my inept teammates involved--we'll see how badly we lose this one if I don't score 50." His teammates were literally begging for Kobe's help by missing all their shots, and still Kobe kept passing out of weak traps (do you think Kobe is really afraid of Barbosa/Thomas traps after screen-rolls?) to deer-in-headlight impersonators. If my supremely talented teammate did that to me as I was missing the side of the barn, that gives me the disdainful message of "Here, see if you can fuck up this one up" and not "We win or lose as a team." Kobe's got beef against the world, and we should've all seen this coming considering that he was named after a cut of steak (BTW, it's pronounced KO-BEH and someone should start a campaign to change the pronounciation of his name to just that). If Kobe really wanted to "get his teammates involved", then why wasn't he driving-and-dishing or posting up to draw double teams? I saw him swinging the ball harmlessly outside the 3-point line so many times, it looked to me that Kobe just Quitted. It also didn't help that he didn't shake any of the Suns' hands after the defeat. What a jackass.

- Nash, on the other hand, got plenty of help from his teammates, and gave them plenty of love. There were so many camera shots of some floppy haired dude hugging panting and sweaty men, the program should have been R rated. Nash trusts his teammates, he makes them believe that they can be better, that they can rise to what Nash expects from them. Doug Collins kept reiterating that Nash did not blame the ref or anyone after his two late-game turnovers in game 4, he simply stated that he needs to be better than that. Who wouldn't want to follow and play their hearts out for a guy like that? Comparing Nash to Kobe is like comparing Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan to Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry. I was mistaken: there should have been no debate between Nash or Kobe for the MVP.

- I'm not bitter. The Lakers at their best just didn't have it against the Suns at their best. The Lakers knew it, the Suns knew it, everyone knew it coming into the series. Kobe and the Lakers, with all their shortcomings, not only made us believe the impossible but they actually made us feel shocked when the impossible did not happen--what more can you ask out of your team?

- And in the end, we all knew that it would take 2 LA teams to take down Phoenix anyway. Clippers in 6.

side note re the title: At the beginning of 3rd quarter, when Suns' lead expanded to 20 from 15, Simona started getting the hiccups. She stood up straight against the wall and held a deep breath according to my grandma's home remedy, and I stood up too. A combination of seeing my team down by 20 and standing up too fast made me faint and black out for a second. My memory went from looking at Simona's face to staring at the floor and wondering how many drinks I've had (zero).