As we all attempt to grok Ron Artest: Los Angeles Laker, much will (rightfully) be made of the strange relationship Kobe Bryant and our antihero Artest enjoy. Off the court, the stars claim to be best friends. On the floor, there has been some serious (and recent!) bad blood.
But in real basketball results, Pau Gasol might be the most endangered Laker in all of this. Kobe ain't giving up shots to Ron-Ron ... but someone will have to, unless you think Artest -- who has in the past placed himself in the same league as Kobe and LeBron James -- will shave half his offense to become Trevor Ariza II. I sincerely doubt our protagonist will be so generous. So the Laker attacker who requires the ball to be fed -- Pau -- figures to suffer.
OK, sure. They traded their franchise player a year and a half ago for Kwame Brown and some Skittles. And yes, with the No. 2 pick they managed to select the only basketball player available who's biggest weakness is his ability to put the little ball in the big circle with the net attached (which I hear is kind of important). But hey, they needed to rebuild, and they rebuilt. But they have tons of cap space now, so much in fact, that they're actually under the CBA limit and have to spend some.
So they've stopped torturing their fans with one terrible decision after another right? Right? Guys? Anybody?
Oh, hi Zach Randolph. What are you ... doing ... here ...?
I mean, we all know they will. You could point to several moments when this NBA season ended, but Derek Fisher draining a pull-up-jumper-in-transition three was pretty much the final nail in the coffin. You can't blow leads like the Magic did. But they did. But if the Lakers and Kobe Bryant want to cement themselves as everything we've already anointed them as, they have to win four games.
So here we are, and tonight will either be a mercy-killing as the Lakers end it and begin celebrating yet another in a long line of championships, or Orlando will kickstart the ticker and pray for a miracle. Join us for the celebration/funeral, at 8PM EST.
That's Mickael Pietrus, going with two hands in the back to Pau Gasol as he throws down a dunk near the end of the Lakers' overtime victory in Game 4. The game had already been decided by then, so there was really no reason other than frustration for the hard foul.
The play was ruled a flagrant at the time, and after review, the league has determined that no further action will be taken against Pietrus. And really, that's the correct decision.
There's a good chance that at some point during the NBA Finals -- or likely before they even start -- there will be talk of whether or not the Lakers are tough enough to win a championship.
And there should be that kind of talk. But it wasn't even an issue against the Denver Nuggets.
The Lakers are going to their second consecutive NBA Finals because their big players were more skilled and more talented than the Nuggets' big players were tough and physical.
All year long, the Lakers had a singular, simple goal: to return to the NBA Finals, and avenge last year's loss in the championship round.
They achieved the first part of that goal on Friday by closing out the Denver Nuggets in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, 119-92.
In a series where the referees were the topic of discussion over the past two games, the Lakers made sure that this one wouldn't be close enough for the officials -- or the Nuggets -- to have any say at all regarding the outcome of this game.
Darn right I want to see the Cleveland Cavaliers vs. the L.A. Lakers in the NBA Finals. And, yes, some of it has to do with the significant subplot of LeBron James vs. Kobe Bryant.
For a few reasons, that's the series I want. And I'm not going to feel guilty about it or apologize for it or pay any attention to the backlash. I know Orlando's Dwight Howard feels disrespected because everyone seems to be pulling for Cavs-Lakers and LeBron-Kobe, but he shouldn't take it personally.
DENVER -- For all the weird smack-talking from those Nike puppets, all the relentless marketing pushes by a sports-drink firm that suggests Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are on "a collision course," guess what? They might be headed for a Porsche-Hummer crash instead, which would be a colossal waste of ad-world brainpower and, when you consider the megastars excluded, our great entertainment loss in June.
No one is pondering a Denver vs. Orlando matchup, least of all ABC, which would watch in horror as a compelling postseason marked by fat cable ratings suddenly fades to black in the NBA Finals. "I'm sure the world does want Cleveland and the Lakers, the best two players in the world and the chance to see them in a seven-game series," said Nuggets star Chauncey Billups. "But I don't want to see it. And I'm trying my best to make sure it doesn't happen."
Here we are, Game 3 of the Western Conference finals between the Nuggets and Lakers. So far, the series has lived up to it's billing, with the Lakers and Nuggets each capturing one game of the two tightly contested battles.
Saturday night is a very big game for both teams. If the Lakers win, it puts the home court advantage back in their hands. If the Nuggets win Game 4 will be a must win for the Lakers, as teams hardly are able to come back from 3-1 deficits. So you can pretty much expect the same intense battle we saw in the first two games in L.A..
Throughout the series against the Boston Celtics, Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard was ridiculed for his struggles on the offensive side of the ball. His scoring average of 16.4 points per game for the series was well below his team leading 20.6 points per game during the regular season, and his 24 point per game average against the Philadelphia Sixers in the first round.
Many people pointed to Dwight's lack of an offensive game as the reasons for the his team's struggles against the Boston Celtics. But is Dwight really that bad of an offensive player?
As we all attempt to grok Ron Artest: Los Angeles Laker, much will (rightfully) be made of the strange relationship Kobe Bryant and our antihero Artest enjoy. Off the court, the stars claim to be best friends. On the floor, there has been some serious (and recent!) bad blood.
OK, sure. They traded their franchise player a year and a half ago for 
There's a good chance that at some point during the NBA Finals -- or likely before they even start -- there will be talk of whether or not the Lakers are tough enough to win a championship.
All year long, the 
Darn right I want to see the Cleveland Cavaliers vs. the L.A. Lakers in the NBA Finals. And, yes, some of it has to do with the significant subplot of 
DENVER -- For all the weird smack-talking from those Nike puppets, all the relentless marketing pushes by a sports-drink firm that suggests 
Here we are, Game 3 of the Western Conference finals between the Nuggets and Lakers. So far, the series has lived up to it's billing, with the Lakers and Nuggets each capturing one game of the two tightly contested battles. 
Throughout the series against the Boston Celtics, Orlando Magic center 
