With the conference finals in full swing and 26 other teams already into their offseason, there’s plenty to talk about in the NBA. So, lets get right to it… While I’m not counting out the Thunder or the Celtics, the Spurs and the Heat have the inside track to meet in the Finals as both […]
Archives for May 2012
Wednesday Storylines
We’re at that place again, the one that most of the league occupies this time of the year – watching the other guys play. I had a full week of funk but I’ve been able to get into the Spurs/OKC series. It’s good basketball is what it is, the Spurs are making a convincing run […]
Past, Present and Future of the 2011-12 Lakers
With the Lakers season now over and the wounds from the elimination at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder slowly healing, we look back on the season that was and look forward to what will be for the present day Los Angeles Lakers by going 3-on-3 with the Forum Blue & Gold staff. 1. […]
Can Past Experience Guide The Lakers?
Every Memorial Day my thoughts drift back to the 1985 Finals. The Lakers were playing the hated Celtics, trying to defeat them for the first time of what would become the Showtime Era. The previous year the Lakers had been defeated in 7 games by those same Celtics, a series that spawned the nickname Tragic […]
There Are No Easy Choices
Mitch Kupchak has a difficult road ahead of him. For the second straight season, his team fell short of their ultimate goal. He understands that the Lakers are judged on their ability to hang banners in the rafters and by “only” reaching the 2nd round in back to back seasons he, his coaches, and his […]
Friday Forum
The Lakers are now a team in transition. Transitioning from playoffs to off-season; transitioning from their current roster to one that will look different the next time they take the floor. That will require some difficult decisions to be made, where variables beyond player performance will matter. The Lakers will have luxury tax payments, revenue […]
On Ron Artest’s Exit Interview
Of the exit interviews I watched yesterday, I felt Ron’s was the most intriguing. It definitely wasn’t necessarily the most profound or the most eloquent of the interviews, but it may have been the most eye-opening and showed his ever-growing maturity as a man, basketball player and teammate. When I watched Ron’s interview, I saw […]
Wednesday Storylines
I freely admit that I haven’t been reading a ton of basketball over the past few days. I’m just not ready yet. It was a season born under a bad sign, with bumps and roadblocks and departures, but the team made some runs at it and there was reason to believe that it could win […]
Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow
There was a point in yesterday’s game that, to me, fully encapsulated what this Lakers’ season was about. The 4th quarter had just started and Kobe Bryant was getting his normal rest, sitting on the bench with an anxious look on his face. Mike Brown was in an uncomfortable bind here, his team sitting on […]
Lakers/Thunder (Game 5): The End
Box Score: Lakers 90, Thunder 106 Offensive Efficiency: Lakers 94.7, Thunder 111.6 True Shooting %: Lakers 55.7%, Thunder 55.5% Ya know… I don’t even know how to start this as I have the unenviable task of writing this Game 5 recap. I’m going to be all over the place (I’m probably not even going to […]