| | This is what we've waited for.
|  | | Brian Grant wasn't there on Feb. 29, but he's back and playing well now. |
This is the reason we sat through 1,189 regular-season games, 4,756
regular-season quarters, 57,072 regular-season minutes and 3,424,320
regular-season seconds.
The NBA Finals.
Errr, the Western Conference Finals, I meant to say.
They are essentially the same thing.
But that's another column.
This one is to tout what a tremendous series the Los Angeles Lakers vs.
the Portland Trail Blazers is going to be.
Sadly, we could have skipped that Los Angeles Clippers-Washington Wizards
tilt in mid-February, or that Cleveland Cavaliers-New Jersey Nets snoreathon
in late-March. Because anybody who knows anything about the sport told you
back in early-October that the Blazers and the Lakers were going to be
playing for the rights to sweep the Eastern Conference whipping boys in early June.
It would be easy to say, of course, that the Lakers are going to plow
right through the Blazers, given the sort of mental lashing they gave them on
Feb. 29, when the Lakers' victory in the Rose City -- why the hell do
they call it that anyway? -- sent Portland spiraling like a faulty paper
airplane.
After all, when Los Angeles won that game, the Blazers essentially
collapsed. They went 9-10 immediately thereafter, never put up a fight the rest of the
way, and basically committed themselves to the being the conference's third
seed.
Basically, the thinking goes, the Lakers stole Portland's confidence in
that game, and still holds that psychological edge over a Blazers team which
is led by Rasheed Wallace's 963 technical fouls. Hell, Baby Huey has a
psychological edge over Sheed.
But I say, Horse Hockey -- or something similar to what Sherman Potter
might spout.
I say the only way the Lakers have the psychological edge is if Phil
Jackson calls a timeout with 1.8 seconds left and doesn't call a play for
Scottie Pippen.
Oh wait, they are on different sides this time.
Then Phil doesn't have to worry about what Scottie thinks about his play calling.
But seriously, what everybody seems to overlook about that Lakers victory
at the end of February was that it coincided with Brian Grant getting injured.
Wallace may be Portland's best player, but I think Grant is its emotional
leader, a guy who gets the team going with his energy and enthusiasm, which
may sound hokey and cliche-ish, but is something that really can't be measured.
Without Grant, the Blazers began to slip some, and when they fell behind
the Lakers three or four games and it became apparent they weren't going to
catch them in the standings, well, at that point, it's just a matter of
playing out the season and waiting to see whether they face the Timberwolves,
Sonics or Kings in the first round.
But in case you hadn't noticed, the Blazers are playing probably the best
basketball of any postseason team.
They walked through the Wolves, they took a joyride over the Utah Jazz and
thankfully smacked down that smack-talker Olden Polynice -- who still owes me
$100 for a bet and refuses to pay -- and now they face a Lakers team that
struggled with the Kings.
And you think all of a sudden the Blazers are going to worry about a game
back on Feb. 29?
Please.
Look at it this way: If they want to look back at regular-season games,
they can look back at the whole thing. The teams split four games.
And they can just as easily point to a game on Jan. 15, when the Blazers
held Shaq to four second-half points and won at the Staples Center.
They can point to the fact that Arvydas Sabonis has played very well
against Shaq this entire season, and probably has the best body in the league
-- read: biggest -- to guard O'Neal.
Hell, Sabas' head is so big, Shaq might mistake IT for the basketball and
screw up.
The Blazers can point out that they have two of the game's best power
forwards -- Wallace and Grant -- at a position where the Lakers are
demonstrably weak. Robert Horry and A.C. Green? I'd rather have Robert Wagner
and AC/DC.
And the Blazers can point out that the whole reason they have cruised
through the playoffs like a Tomahawk missile is because they are playing the
type of defense that everyone expected of them all season.
The triangle defense is predicated on spacing and passing, right? The
Blazers are long enough to fill those passing lanes and disrupt the triangle.
And who knows the triangle's nuances better than Pippen, who has brought
a defensive maturity to the Blazers previously unseen.
And the best news of all: Toni Kukoc is not playing for the Blazers. He
won't get the final play called for him with 1.8 seconds left.
Frank Hughes covers the NBA for the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune. He is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. | |
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