King Kaufman (Salon.com) had a good write-up about this series:
The Lakers' strange demise
Boy, the Lakers are just weird, aren't they?
I admit I'm fascinated by this team because of their attempt to win a championship by loading up on future Hall of Famers, a plan that's about to come a cropper. When things are going right for them, as they have been in the third quarter of each of their two losses so far to the Spurs, they're a sight to behold. But against San Antonio in Game 1 Sunday and Game 2 Wednesday, things went wrong more than they went right, especially in the fourth quarter.
A lot of that has to do with the Spurs, who are playing like defending champions, and in fact playing better than they did last year when they won the championship. Point guard Tony Parker, the key to this series, is playing as brilliantly as everybody said he was playing a year ago, and the Lakers simply have no answer for his speed and quickness.
Devean George still has a search party out looking for his jock strap after Parker made him look ridiculous with a crossover dribble at a key moment late in the game Wednesday. Gary Payton can't keep up. What to do?
On TNT's "Inside the NBA," Kenny Smith said the Lakers have to "treat the Little Fundamental like the Big Fundamental," in other words double-team Parker as well as Tim Duncan. So let's see, that's two guys on Duncan, two on Parker. That leaves one guy to guard the other three, who are going to be some combination of Manu Ginobili, Hedo Turkoglu, Rasho Nesterovic, Robert Horry and Bruce Bowen.
It's a great plan, in the sense that the Bay of Pigs invasion was a great plan.
The Spurs are looking like champs because it seems that the Lakers were just made for them, an aging team that wilts in the fourth quarter after 40 minutes or so of relentless, hustling defensive pressure. But what's really strange has been the Lakers' poor play in the first half of both games, when they can't blame fatigue, and the way they just seem to go into whacked-out mode with the game on the line. It isn't all fatigue.
I know Phil Jackson's won nine NBA championships as a coach and I haven't won any, but I'm pretty sure I would have made this clear by the 90th game of the season: When Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone and Payton are on the floor and the game's on the line, fellas, we don't need Derek Fisher forcing up jumpers through double teams with time on the shot clock.
That happened with a little over three minutes left Wednesday and the Lakers down by eight, on the possession following Parker's undressing of George, which ignited the crowd and the Spurs bench. If ever a team needed a bucket, it was the Lakers right then, and here was Fisher driving into traffic and hoisting up a prayer. It, uh, missed. "Ballgame," I said to my TV, and my TV said yes.
It's probably premature to say this when they haven't played a home game yet, but I think the Lakers are done for. Some advice for them, all the same: Keep giving the ball to that big guy in the middle until he can't lift his arms anymore, and also to that slippery guy with the "8" on his jersey. Every time down the floor. Nothing else stands a chance.
As Joe Bob Briggs says, I'm surprised I have to explain these things.
