2000 Western Finals Game 7 - Blazers @ Lakers - Fullgame

JordansBulls · Post #1 » by **JordansBulls** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 4:05 am

Just uploaded

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgt4RBjyOQs]2000 Western Finals Game 7 - Blazers @ Lakers - with Introduction Pregame[/youtube]

Wolves21 · Post #2 » by **Wolves21** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 4:13 am

O Hell Ya.Thanks for the video as a Lakers fan this makes me feel a bit better and has help me get out of the funk that the Odom trade has put me into.After watch this game I going to find the video of my favorite moment in NBA history when Big Shot Bob hit the killer three against the Kings.

bty I really miss the NBA on NBC.That beat for the music is sick as hell.

Harrison Barnes · Post #3 » by **Harrison Barnes** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 4:15 am

my favorite moment of the nba is when mike brown became a laker

Roscoe Sheed · Post #4 » by **Roscoe Sheed** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 4:18 am

Total heart breaker for me. I still can't believe Portland blew that lead.

Lakersmylife · Post #5 » by **Lakersmylife** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 4:23 am

People on here are gonna come and say "LOL RIGGED!!!!"

Anyway, one of the greatest Laker games of this generation. The Kobe lob to Shaq literally defined an era!

EtchenBa · Post #6 » by **EtchenBa** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 4:33 am

Damn man...

lol couldn't you wait a little bit before posting this? Let us Blazer fans at least wipe our tears away from the last few days.

Clipsz 4 Life · Post #7 » by **Tim Lehrbach** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:38 am

I just watched the whole game, which I hadn't seen in its entirety since June 4, 2000. It still hurt watching it again.

For no good reason I'm going to give my impressions on the Blazers, mostly confirming what I already thought, but a couple new observations stood out.

-Damon Stoudamire, despite his talent and the good season he had in 1999-2000, just had no business starting for a championship team. It's not his fault, but he had little to offer in this situation and managed only one worthwhile game in the series. Greg Anthony didn't fare any better.

-Whenever the Blazers went big in this series, they exploited matchups. As hard as Kobe was working on defense, Smith and Wells (and even Stacey Augmon in one game) had it going in the post. And if they found success against Bryant, they were smoking Brian Shaw and Ron Harper.

-Following the previous two points: when the Blazers had Scottie Pippen and Steve Smith handed to them in lopsided trades the previous summer, they'd have been wise to commit to a big lineup from the start. They would later do just this when Damon got injured in 2002, and it worked well even without Steve Smith, who'd been traded for Derek Anderson by then. Stoudamire might have made a nice spark off the bench, or else he could easily have been traded for a nice return.

-Bonzi Wells: bull in a freakin' china shop. The funny thing is that Walton and Snapper are talking about him being young and out of control, but the Bonzi on display here is pretty much peak Bonzi in only his second year. Tenacious, strong, awesome scoring arsenal... and no sense whatsoever. Easy to see why the Blazers both had so much hope for Wells and also wanted to harness his talent properly, but it just wasn't to be. He did some really nice things in this series, though.

-The Blazers truly didn't know what they had in Jermaine O'Neal. We're told retrospectively how awesome he was in practice and that they understood he'd be a player but caved to the win-now pressure, yada yada. But just looking at him holding his ground and using his length to effectively defend Shaq when the Blazers desperately needed him, well, it's easy to see now that he was ready for precisely what he went on to do in Indiana. With Brian Grant so woefully overmatched by Shaq and hobbled by injuries all season anyway, the Blazers should definitely have used O'Neal more. If they really understood what Jermaine could do, he'd have had a major role.

-I've always defended Dunleavy against detractors, but I finally see where he shares in the blame. My point, and I stand by it, has always been that the Blazers entered every damn game in this series with a better gameplan for beating the Lakers than Jackson had for beating Portland. But when this game started to go to hell, he needed to make certain Smith and Wells got more touches in the post. The Lakers still had Shaw and Fox in there for much of that fourth quarter. The Blazers just stopped moving entirely. It was dump it in to Wallace or take a contested jumper almost every time. How hard is it to stick with a simple flex offense that was getting guys the ball in great position?

-Sheed gets some of the blame, rushing or just flat missing sinkable shots during the drought. Steve Smith disappeared (and incidentally, I always thought he was slightly wasted on the Blazers, yet another reason to have jettisoned Stoudamire). Pippen had no answers, just wasn't a lead dog. Sabonis was taking shots to the face, per usual. And it all infamously came crashing down.

-Choking aside, Sheed was a monster in this series. This is how I remember him best, and it is for this reason I cringe when people say he wasn't, or didn't want to be, "the man." Look, there are two respects in which he compares unfavorably with superior stars of his time. One, he didn't care about filling up the box score. He picked his spots not out of deference but because he played within himself and didn't try to force more than he should. When it was his turn to put up, he was capable of responding like this. Two, he just wasn't fit to carry quite as big a load as a Duncan or Shaq. Doesn't mean he didn't still carry a huge load for this team. He posted up as often as any other forward in the league, he played great man defense and solid help defense, and he boxed out. Those were his responsibilities, and it's odd trying to imagine giving him any others. He was hardly a perfect first option, but only one team gets to have Shaq.

-Detlef Schrempf was that dude. He had only so much left in the tank, but he was indispensable for that squad. Still got love for him and Augmon, both of whom accepted limited roles but delivered whenever their numbers were called.

-I'd comment on the Lakers, but what's the point? Kobe and Shaq. It's funny that this game features good Kobe and bad Kobe all in one, but he and Shaq were ready for their closeups when it really counted. Sheed and Steve Smith weren't. Oh well.

Wavy Q · Post #8 » by **Wavy Q** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:38 am

I was at this game! i was 10 years old at the time :lol:

ennui · Post #9 » by **ennui** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:47 am

I just remember finally getting over the hump and being overjoyed to make the finals, win or lose.

At the time, I would never have expected a threepeat.

Also, was the last year I lived in California.

JellosJigglin · Post #10 » by **JellosJigglin** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:51 am

Lakersmylife wrote:People on here are gonna come and say "LOL RIGGED!!!!"

Anyway, one of the greatest Laker games of this generation. The Kobe lob to Shaq literally defined an era!

Didn't the Blazers miss like 17 straight shots or something like that? Def rigged :lol:

I was in my girlfriends dorm by myself during this game. There were no other Laker fans in that building. I cried tears of joy after that Kobe lob to Shaq.

blocks · Post #11 » by **blocks** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:59 am

I think it's my favorite sports moment ever...I hit my head on the ceiling jumping on the bed when Kobe threw Shaq that lob...the Lakers/Celtics game 7 in 2010 would be a close second.

Keep in mind I first started watching the Lakers in the mid 90s as a 7-8 year old so I missed showtime.

edit: forgot to say thanks, this will help get my mind off the past couple of days lol

hahawhat · Post #12 » by **hahawhat** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 10:24 am

It was a great game indeed

Btw, every laker fan says they were at that game..

LascelleL · Post #13 » by **LascelleL** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 12:50 pm

I remember sitting on my couch in my Champion Shaq jersey...and when that dunk happened...I screamed so loud.

That Nicka · Post #14 » by **That Nicka** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:22 pm

I was at this game! <3

Ming Kong! · Post #15 » by **Ming Kong!** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:49 pm

I remember this game, SHOCKING. One of the best games I've ever seen.

JordansBulls · Post #16 » by **JordansBulls** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 5:51 pm

That Nicka wrote:I was at this game! <3

How much were tickets for it?