DEEP3CL wrote:SacTownKings4Life wrote:XSnipes wrote:You never know, the Mavs may still choke the rest of the games and go down as the first team to ever lose when up 3-0. Then the forums would collapse.
I think it sad when a person has to rely on another team choking rather than their own team actually coming through. The Lakers did this to themselves and only have themselves to blame. They didn't take things seriously all year, and relied on their "we are the Los Angeles Lakers. You will bow down to us." Arrogance. Problem was, when other teams finally STOPPED bowing down to them, they act like they don't know what to do anymore. They aren't intimidating anybody anymore and now they're struggling because they lost their mental advantage over everybody else. Teams were basically psyched out before they even stepped on the court. Looking at the body language of most teams in the past, a lot of them clearly did NOT believe they could win, and that's why everything came so easy for the Lakers.
But this time, a team like the Hornets, undersized and undermanned, took them to 6 games! Why? Because they BELIEVED they could win. And whenever a team believes they can win, when they AREN'T afraid, when they AREN'T intimidated, when they AREN'T awe-struck by Kobe Bryant, guess what happens? They give the Lakers hell! They may not necessarily win the series, but they make the Lakers look very mortal. We saw it with Boston, Phoenix, and OKC. Hell, even Houston pushed them to 7 games a couple years ago.
And now we have Dallas finally putting their foot down and saying, we don't care about Kobe cause we have Dirk, and you can't stop him either. They're saying, we don't care about Gasol and Bynum because we have Chandler and Haywood to body them up. (And I've always thought Gasol was soft, btw. Somebody tell this guy to stop screaming, flailing his arms around, and falling on the floor all the time. His little brother is MUCH tougher than him.) And they're say, our bench is better than yours. (Terry, Berea, Peja) they know they are the better team and they're taking care of business. 3-0 is no fluke, and there will be no choke job. At least, not in this series. The reign is over.
Utter garbage....
Granted, it doesn't surprise me that a Laker fan would disagree with me. All I ask is that you explain yourself. I took the time to state my opinion. Why can't you do the same? WHY is what I said "utter garbage"?
The point I was trying to make is that, from my observation over the years, the Lakers feed predominantly on the intimidation of others. On paper, the Lakers are the best team. They have Kobe Bryant and a group of very skilled bigs. They are bigger than mostly every other team in the league. They know they have the advantage, on paper. The announcers and analysts all say time and time again that the Lakers have the best team, on paper. And they expect that every other team will ALSO buy into all the talk about the Lakers, on paper. And for the most part, they all do.
Every time you hear and interview from an opposing team, they are pretty much kissing the Lakers azzes and trying not to "anger" them or provide "bulletin board" material. "Oh the Lakers are such a great team." "Its gonna be tough." "We're gonna have to play a perfect game." "They have the best player in the world." Blah blah blah. But what you DON'T ever hear is a team that confidently states that they think they not only CAN win, but WILL win. Nobody playing the Lakers speaks as though they're playing to win, they speak as though they are simply trying to survive. To hopefully not lose. And that's where the Lakers already have you beat. They FEEL inferior to the Lakers, and that mentality spills over into their in-game performance. They make mistakes. They miss shots. They get completely out of their own gameplan because they're too busy structuring every ounce of energy reacting to Kobe and the Lakers rather than making Kobe and the Lakers react to them. And that all just makes the Lakers' job that much easier. They're used to coasting through everybody through intimidation. And the few times in which their intimidation factor fails to affect a team, the Lakers suddenly appear beatable.
The rest of the basketball world appears shocked. I myself am not surprised so much that they've finally met their match, but that they go down so EASILY when they do. In 2004, the "hall of fame" Lakers were expecting to yawn their way to the title. Detroit locks down and makes quick work of them in only 5 games, sweeping all 3 home games. Three years ago, the Celtics walked into the finals in their first year together, as the first REAL challenge for the Lakers, and blew them off the court by 40 points in the elimination game. The next year, they face a Magic team that, despite shocking the world and sending Lebron James home, comes into the series PETRIFIED of Kobe and the Lakers. By all rights, they should have gotten swept if not for a few uncharacteristic missed free throws from Kobe. Easy win. Next year, the Celtics are back and give the Lakers the fight of their lives before apparently running out of gas late in game 7. This year, the Mavericks come in playing THEIR game and forcing the Lakers to react to THEM rather than the other way around. And they have completely embarrassed the Lakers as a result.
Whenever a team plays proactively, rather than reactively, they give the Lakers problems. Every time. How else do you explain how Chris Paul and a bunch of 6'8" "big men" gave them such a tough battle? And of course I always go back to the Rockets, with no Yao or McGrady, still taking them 7 games. The Lakers are, for the most part, a very lazy team that feels that they are just "better" than everyone else. They rely on you believing that they are better than you, and they therefore don't have to try unless they "feel like it". And its finally backfired on them.
