RealGM

Yeah, I know, this thread has been beaten up like a dead horse in the past, but I haven't had anything to cheer for regarding the play of the Lakers in 5 yrs or so, I'm bored to death by the 'player' threads in which everyone bitches on a game to game basis about a certain player, wanting him traded, and then pegging him as a god the very next game when he happens to play well, like their memory only has a 2-3 day span.

**** that, I want something different for a change. I want to know what are the biggest 'what if's' in our franchise' history, based on actual game play and not the things behind the curtains. So trades that happened and shouldn't have happened, trades that didn't happen but should have happened, same with signings etc., don't count.

I don't want to hear about the Chris Paul trade debacle on here, that is not the point of this thread. That could have worked or not, a lot of things could have happened during that season if the trade did go through. A deep run was certainly not guaranteed.

Single game moments...that's it.

I'm gonna start with the first one, for which I was alive and witnessed it firsthand. I was only like 15 at that time, and as a foreigner, I started watching basketball while being a little bit older than you american dudes. So I didn't understand the magnitude of the moment at that time, took it as a loss and moved on for the moment. As I grew older and started grasping the basketball phenomenon better, that moment became more hurtful, because to this day I'm convinced and nobody can argue against this with me, I'm still gonna keep my opinion, we would've made at least the NBA Finals if not winning the Championship if the certain moment DIDN'T happen.
With Kwame Brown and Smush Parker as our starters. Yes, you read that well.

Everyone should know what's coming at this point, it's the **** Tim Thomas shot.



****, that still hurts.


That play has so many variables and mistakes it gives me headaches to this day:
-if Odom had boxed out Marion better we would have won the series.
-if Odom had fouled Marion and send him to the FT line, not allowing the Suns to get a 3 point look we'd still probably won the series.
-if Kwame dogs*it Brown would have stayed on his feet, not biting on that pumpfake like a dumbnut, with a hand on his face, Thomas would have probably missed and we would have won the series.

Assuming only one of the above would have happened, we'd be in the 2nd round.

There the Clippers would have been our opponents. They actually played the Suns to Game 7, since the Suns didn't know the concept of defense at all.

Elton Brand had 31/10/4/3 on 60% FG during the series. Sam Cassell had 20/4.7/6 on 46%.
Rest of the team consisted of Maggette and Mobley as the more experienced guys, and a bunch of young guys who had no experience
in that kind of an environment.

I don't care what are you smoking, those two would have NEVER had that kind of an impact against the Lakers. Never...

During the regular season, we split the series 2-2. Brand was still solid, it was his best year as an NBA player afterall, but he didn't dominate nowhere near as much as he did against the Suns in the playoffs. He had 27/11/3 on 49% FG, we defended him better.

Don't get me started on Sam Cassell....he had 14/4.5/6 on 40% against us.
Meanwhile Kobe had 41/5.3/6.5 against the Clippers in the four games of the RS....Yeah, I'll leave it at that.

We would have beaten the Clippers, I have no doubt about it...

Our next opponents were going to be the Mavs. Yes, those Mavs who couldn't defend the perimeter stars at all, who were outscored in 62-61 in 3 quarters by Kobe in one of the RS games, and who Wade molested in the finals.

We won the season matchup 2-1, Kobe averaged 43/6/2. Better record doesn't matter one bit at this point, back then the teams were waaaay more close in value than our present times, there weren't any superteams.
It was all about matchups. Only one year later, the Mavs, with a 67-15 record, were upset by the 8th seeded Warriors, who happened to win all 3 RS games against them by a total margin of 50.

They had no answer for Kobe. None.

Series win....easily.


Then comes the NBA Finals.

I'm not going to act like I know for a fact we would've won, since the Heat had HCA.....but anything could have happened if we got there. Anything.

We split the season series 1-1, Wade was nowhere near as dominant as he was against the Mavs, Kobe could have contained him better.

Wade vs the Mavs in the Finals 35/8/4 47% FG
Wade vs the Lakers in the RS 26/3/6 41% FG

Kobe vs the Heat in the RS 37/5.5/5


And for ****' sake, who wouldn't have wanted to see a Kobe vs Shaq NBA Finals? That would have been a priceless memory.
What if?



I'm waiting for other moments, remember, only game based moments.

For me it’s probably that same moment. That one hurt the most because Kobe carried us that whole season, we had no depth and made it to the playoffs on sheer will.

I agree with you that if we made it passed the suns, we would have taken it from the clips. The laker mystique and Kobe’s will would have had the clips shaking in their boots. The mavs were scared of us too. It wouldn’t have been a guarantee, but I honestly think we make the finals that year and go down as the most over achieving team of all time.

That team should have been closer to the lottery than the finals.

As a laker fan I think about that loss over pretty much any other one I can remember. And I was at the game we’re we blew a 20+ lead to the Celtics in the finals in 2008

Nice post. That Tim Thomas 3 was the toughest moment I've ever lived as a Laker fan.

Worst Laker moment in my 40+ years as a fan by FAR..... We had never beaten "those guys" in the finals. We had beaten them in game one on their floor. Magic had a very bad 4th quarter to this point then Worthy gave it away. We failed to score on the last 4 possessions of the game. All 4 were turnovers. 3 by Magic and that one by Worthy.

Shortly after the C's tied the game Magic dribbled the time out at the top of the key...... completely unaware of the clock and we didn't even get a final shot off.

Instead of going home up 2-0 we went home 1-1 and eventually lost in 7.

I was in a funk for the entire summer after this one. I have a hard time looking at Worthy even today and not yell at the TV.

Landsberger wrote:

Watch on YouTube

Worst Laker moment in my 40+ years as a fan by FAR..... We had never beaten "those guys" in the finals. We had beaten them in game one on their floor. Magic had a very bad 4th quarter to this point then Worthy gave it away. We failed to score on the last 4 possessions of the game. All 4 were turnovers. 3 by Magic and that one by Worthy.

Shortly after the C's tied the game Magic dribbled the time out at the top of the key...... completely unaware of the clock and we didn't even get a final shot off.

Instead of going home up 2-0 we went home 1-1 and eventually lost in 7.

I was in a funk for the entire summer after this one. I have a hard time looking at Worthy even today and not yell at the TV.

You will not see many playoff series that should have had one team winning by sweep, and instead losing in seven.

If Karl Malone didn't get hurt we could've gone on to defeat Detroit (perhaps) and this would have altered all of nba history

Sampson hitting that *****ng hail Mary shot.