I caught this game on a snowy television in a crappy little Long Beach club where a friend’s band was playing (I’ll watch the Tivo later), but my night reminded me what this team means to the city.
Early on the people and friends around me were of the same mind: I don’t follow the team as closely as I did a few years ago, I don’t know most of these players and the ones I do know suck, management sucks, etc…
But from the time of the late third quarter run on, we were all cheering (but not being heard over the opening band, which did a bunch of bad Social D covers and one horrific Beatles cover), high fiving and were drawn into the game. When it was over we were buying each other drinks and laughing in amazement.
It’s just fun to be a fan on nights like that. And there is no other team in this city people rally around, that can bring people of different ages and diverse lifestyles, as fast and as intensely as the Lakers.
John R says
I stopped watching after ‘Sheed didn’t get his 3 free throws from Devean’s foul. It was clear it was going to be Pistons vs. 8 the rest of the game.
Goo says
How about we call it even after Rasheed pushed Kwame into Devean?
kwame a. says
One thing that ive seen the last two games is less three-point field goal attempts. Our offense operates much more efficently when we shoot between 15-18 3’s.
John R: did you happen to notice Ronnie Nunn, head of all officials, go onto NBA TV and in a segment regarding the accuracy of certain calls he admitted that Kobe did not foul Paul Pierce, so all that conspiracy talk just sounds petty and foolish you actually missed a great game.
John R says
What conspiracy talk? And what does a ref admitting he was “wrong” in a completely different game have to do with anything? Bad officials are bad officials. Do you or do you not grimace when you see that a team is down 3-0 in a playoff series and you just KNOW that Dick Bavetta is reffing the next game? The Laker/Piston game was obviously going to be affected by officiating in a serious and significant way, for whatever reason.
Should Rasheed have gotten 3 shots or not? I’ve been around long enough to know a fix when I see one.
Of course, then there is another side to this. The Pistons have also lost to the Hawk’s this season. Does this mean the Lakers are now officially among the teams other teams “look past”?
More questions than answers here methinks.
kwame a. says
I too can point to one isolated play in a game that resulted in a no-call and claim the fix is in for every nba game played this year. I only referenced the Ronnie Nunn comment to illustrate that the Lakers are not the golden team they once were. No doubt, there have been countless calls involving the Lakers in favor of them over the years, but this game was not even nationally televised, there were no “corporate” interests invloved. As to your point about teams looking past the Lakers, or them just playing better than the Pistons on a given night, who cares? I just want the team to win, so if that leads to questions, id love for them to keep coming
five-man taichi says
The Lakers went on an outrageous 18-0 run to bridge the 3rd and 4th quarters, and we are talking about officiating? Let’s collectively save the officiating talk for games that are won/lost by a point or two. Like has been pointed out, we, the general populace who loves to watch sporting competion, have been around long enough to distinguish good basketball from bad and better officiating from worse. We all prefer our officiating to take a back seat to the athletes doing that thing they do so well. We all know we can’t do that…but we all think we can officiate.
Peace,
five-man taichi