It’s NBA playoff time, and you know what that means — Kobe, Shaq and the Los Angeles Lakers are at it again.
The three-time defending world champions are tough to beat when it counts. I tell my friends this all the time, much to their dismay, “The Lakers do what it takes to win.”
They are not going to mess up and let a team win a series when it counts, the other team will have to beat them. They may give a few games, but when it really matters, when the season is on the line, the Lakers prevail.
When the Lakers limped out to an 11-19 record to start the season, there was little doubt in my mind they would be right here, right now, doing exactly what they always do, win.
And when Shaq got injured again midway through the season, what happened? Kobe reeled off nine straight 40-point performances to keep the Lakers in the midst of things.
Just when it seemed Kevin Garnett and the T-wolves would “make history” as KG so eloquently put it before Game 4 Sunday, the Lakers marched back to their original home in Minneapolis and trounced the Timberwolves by 30 points.
The Lakers lead Minnesota 3-2 as the best of seven series travels back to the City of Angels, and it just seems destiny is on their side — for the fourth straight year.
The Lakers had fits in the postseason last year as well.
After cruising through Portland and San Antonio with a 7-1 record, the Lakers met (seemingly) their match with upstate rival Sacramento.
The Kings won two of the first three and were on their way to a 3-1 series lead when Vlade Divac slapped a rebound to Robert Horry at the 3-point line. Everybody who was watching knew the ball was going in.
He did it in Houston. He does it in L.A. He is Mr. Clutch.
The Kings gained momentum with a one-point win in Game 5, but the Lakers did what they always do.
In Game 6, Shaq and Kobe combined to shoot 14-for-18 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter as the Lakers went on to win by four, tying the series.
Game 7 was an instance where the Lakers took advantage of the other team’s mistakes.
The Kings missed 14 of their 30 free throws and Shaq, Kobe and Derek Fisher combined to shoot 8-for-8 from the stripe in overtime. The Lakers once again moved on to the NBA Finals, where they swept the Nets in four games.
The final two games of the Kings series was the first time the Lakers faced an elimination game in two postseasons.
Two seasons earlier, in Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals, the Lakers trailed Portland by 15 as the fourth quarter began.
In a freakish fourth quarter where Shaq and Kobe totally took over the game and Portland missed 13 straight shots, the Lakers outscored the Blazers, 31-13, and went on to win their first in a string of NBA Championships that could eclipse all others.
Are the Lakers the best team in NBA history? I do not know. I would venture to say no.
The Celtics of the 50s and 60s pulled off a string of eight-straight championships and won 11-of-13 and were, by far, the most dominant team in the history of the NBA.
But the Lakers have what those Red Auerbach-coached Celtics teams had, the knack of doing whatever it takes to win.
Much like the Bulls of the 90s and the Celtics, Pistons and Lakers of the 80s, this team wins when it counts.
They are such a good team that even when the T-Wolves were up by 20 points in the fourth quarter in Game 2, nobody thought the game was over. Minnesota went on to win by 28, but up until the final minutes, the thought of a loss had to be looming in the back of KG’s mind.
Do you want to know what the real scary thing is? Rumors around front offices of the NBA say t Karl Malone and Gary Payton may be changing their addresses to the L.A. area, and I’m not talking about that other team.
Could you imagine a team with Shaq, Kobe, the Mailman, the Glove, Mr. Clutch and Vanessa Williams’ husband (AKA Rick Fox), all coached by Phil Jackson? Wait, did somebody say Vanessa Williams?