Tuesday night my beloved Los Angeles Lakers finally snapped a five-game losing streak with a win over the San Antonio Spurs, 102-93, in front of a casually enthusiastic crowd at Staples Center.
And by Spurs, I mean DeJuan Blair and four other white guys not named Manu Ginobili, as the league’s best team on paper sat its starters before the postseason.
It wasn’t pretty, far from it really, but the Lake Show took a big step toward locking up the second seed in the Western Conference playoffs. Why does this matter to all of you undying Blazer fans out there? Well, it doesn’t anymore. But for a few days, when L.A. looked as though it was falling into the depths of the third seed, I started getting excited for what could have been.
With the Blazers locked in as the sixth seed, I was legitimately hoping — praying rather — for the Lakers to slip into that third spot and draw Portland in the first round. People say L.A. wouldn’t want to have a matchup with the Blazers given its god-awful record at the Rose Garden in recent years (though Portland’s is equally bad at Staples Center), but for me, this would have been a much-appreciated way to cap the Blazers season.
You’ve undoubtedly heard this rant in one of my numerous Laker-loving columns over the years, but the amount of Portland Trail Blazer basketball games I’ve consumed (and not always against my will) reached an all-time high this season. The team is noticeably better from whatever you want to call last season, and for that I am grateful.
Yet it doesn’t take away from how much I truly despise the way Portland scraps its way through every game, with an opposing team’s comeback in the fourth quarter nothing less than a guarantee. The addition of Gerald Wallace has certainly helped, simply because it’s nice to see another elite athlete on the court, which have been in short supply with the Blazers for some time now.
But his presence doesn’t make listening to Mike and Mike’s comments for two hours any easier. Even Portland fans agree the combo is painful to listen to, so don’t take that one too personally.
Which brings me back to my original point. The Portland and L.A. matchups have become personal among my group of friends (none more evident than last weekend), and that’s why I was so desperately hoping for that first-round clash. Portland fans are a proud and confident bunch, that much is clear, but when I keep hearing, “I don’t care who we play in the first round as long as it’s not the Lakers,” I can’t help but smile.
They’re informed, I’ll give them that, and no one wants to see the two-time defending champs in the opening round, especially when the Lakers have home court advantage. That doesn’t take away from how much I wanted to see the matchup, and at the time of this writing (prior to the start of the Los Angeles at Sacramento game last night) there was still a very slim chance of that faint dream becoming a reality.
Being able to end Portland’s season in five, maybe six games tops, would have easily been worth the number of times I hear how much everyone hates the Lakers throughout the 82-game regular season. I guess it wasn’t meant to be this year — we all know Portland reaching the conference finals is a pipe dream and a bad one at that — but I suppose stranger things have happened.
Maybe in a few years when the Blazers have the talent and overall health to contend down the stretch, then we can pick back up with this conversation. But for now I sit back and think of what could have been as the Lake Show gets on track to win a third straight NBA Championship. Like it or not, Kobe will take one step closer to becoming Michael’s peer — but let’s save that for another column.
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Clark: Laker-Blazer matchup in first round would be sweet revenge
Daily Emerald
April 12, 2011
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