I couldn’t help but laugh about your comment regarding “The Blazer style of play”. If you think that the Blazers are a team of hard-fouling punks in the mold of the Bad Boys, then you know precious little about the Blazers. Aside from Pryzbilla, we’re softer than Ho-Hos in the noonday sun, and we get killed in the paint and on the boards accordingly. We’re among the bottom (top?) five teams in the league in T’s against, so it’s not like we’re dropping ‘bows and talking trash all the time…in fact, Kobe alone has twice as many technicals this year as the Blazers team combined.

I agree with you that if the playoffs were on the line, the L*kers probably would have won. The L*kers are a better team than the Blazers right now, with more gears to utilize, and I doubt they were in in fifth gear from the outset. But you sound pretentious when you complain about the Blazers not playing a aesthetically pleasing “complex switching defense”, running isos instead of the Vaunted Triangle Offense, or whining that our athletes don’t know how to play basketball. The team that plays lousy defense and ugly offense with athletes who don’t know how to play just won the game — if your assessment of the Blazers is accurate, what does that say about the L*kers? Come on man.

(P.S. I am very pleasantly surprised by the lack of bandwagon homerism and evenhanded basketball analysis on this site, L*kers fans. Keep up the good work).

Live by the sword–die by the sword. The Blazers have already experienced the type of injuries associated with a “take no prisoners” style of play. When the Blazer style of play forces other players to risk their careers every time they come up against Blazer players, it goes both ways.

Why not teach your players to play a complex switching defense, instead of playing a “zone and grab.” Why not teach them some offense beyond “isolate.”

Your team has some athletes–how about teaching them to play basketball?

I believe that the Lakers would have won the game in the Rose Garden if the playoffs were on the line. The Lakers have a great deal to lose. The Blazers have nothing to lose.

If it were us, I probably wouldn’t be a Laker fan.

Dirty may be how Detroit Bad Boys occasionally won championships, but the Lakers win championships by being competitive, athletic, team players, and having a complete package of basketball skill.

Another case of overrating athleticism and potential over raw skill.

It’s ironic that Tyson Chandler is what Paxson wished Tyrus Thomas would become.

Though I do think that he and Gordon are going to be very good players…on other teams.