Reasons Why the Lakers Favor Playing the Spurs Over NOLA

By Craig Kwasniewski

Yesterday I was called out by frequent commenter and Spurs fan Dave why as a Lakers fan I was favoring a Spurs match-up over New Orleans:

I've always wanted to know. What's it like to be so stupid?

I've given it some thought and I realize I was too harsh, you're not that stupid. I've actually been surprised lately by the heaping of praise you've ladled on the Spurs organization. I just don't understand why you, as a Lakers fan would favor a match up with the defending world champion San Antonio Spurs.

Why you ask? Well allow me to explain...

1. Maybe the reason why I'm heaping more praise on the Spurs is because I see them near then end of their brilliant run. So I'm more or less paying homage to their ability to stay relevant for so long.

2. Despite being very soft compared to other bigs in the NBA, Pau Gasol helps in the fact that he takes pressure of the Lakers real difference-maker, Lamar Odom. LO was never comfortable in the No. 2 role. Now with defenses appropriately focusing on Kobe and Pau, Odom can "sneak in" for his now-typical 18 and 14. He's by far the Lakers best rebounder and very good on defense. His quickness and length will be a problem for Ducan. Not to the point of shutting him down, but to the comfort level where I see the Lakers passing on doubling him.

3. Lost in the NOLA and Celtics love-fest during the playoffs has been the exceptional play of the Lakers. How many times have they been blown out in losses? Ummm ZERO! They're a difficult team to beat simply because of Kobe's competitive nature. Also, the Lakers offense is more explosive and efficient than the Three-Peat era. How can you explain them constantly dropping 100+ on the defensive-oriented call-every-play-on-offense-to-slow-it-down Utah Jazz? Gone are the days of slowing down the game and watching Kobe carry the Lakers.

4. As I've said before, they just beat Spurs-lite in the Utah Jazz. What new wrinkle will they see that they didn't just face in the last 10-days?

5. Spurs fans can claim Manu Ginobili as their postseason savior but as he's continually proven in his playoff career, he's still very inconsistent. He'll kill the Lakers for a few W's, but not for an entire 7-game series.

6. The Spurs are old! How do you explain those three very embarrassing blow-out losses? Granted, Duncan was ill for Game 1, but how can a championship caliber team roll over so easily? So bring on Horry's corpse, Finley's corpse, Barry corpse... the Hornets go six deep and they exposed the Spurs lack of depth.

7. Looking at the Lakers weakness X's and O's wise... The Lakers had problems against the zone defense, but they found the proper countermeasure against Utah. They put someone in the mid-range post and slipped a weakside offensive player under the basket. This causes the middle defender to choose between double-teaming Pau, Kobe or Odom in the post or rotating over to guard the weakside player. Pau got a lot one-on-one looks on Friday.

On defense, the Spurs backbreaker against the Lakers has been the corner three. The Laker chose to close out the lane on penetrations from Parker and Ginobili leaving the corner exposed. In the past BOTH Finley and Bowen have killed the Lakers by hitting those WIDE OPEN shots. They haven't shown me that they're consistent from those spots this year.

8. The way I see it, this series really comes down to the Lakers defense versus the Spurs offense. The Lakers are easily the worst defensive team left in the playoffs but the Spurs offense has been very Jeff Van Gundy-esque. Since the Gasol trade/steal, the Lakers have been an offensive machine so it's not their scoring ability that worries me. The Lakers need to continue the same defensive effort as they did against the Jazz.

Will the Lakers win? I suck at predicting outcomes this postseason so I'll pass on any predictions. But it's great to see the REAL rivalry out west renewed... Bring on the Spurs!

Comments

[dave]

should i just cut and paste my comments up here, or just direct everyone to read them on the previous article?

oh, and although i appreciate chad's support, i do not know him and i am definitely not paying him.

[Craig]

You can post them twice. (I realized my original response needed its own post.) It seems like Chad's the assistant to the regional manager for you.

[dave]

so, what your saying is, i inspire you to post more. i make you want to be a better sports blogger. that's sweet.

let me just address one point you made that i see as a backhanded compliment. and i quote, "the reason why I'm heaping more praise on the Spurs is because I see them near then end of their brilliant run." not so fast, craigers.

i'm going to let you in on a big spurs organizational secret. inside r.c. buford's office is a portal that leads to a gym somewhere in europe. the exact whereabouts are a closely guarded secret. whenever the spurs have a roster vacancy, r.c. just pulls out a "ginobili" and the problem is solved. this nifty piece of technology coupled with their cybernetic device research (which they plan on installing in tim duncan in a few years) and i see the spurs being relevant for a long time. oh, and they are david stern's favorite team, right?

seriously, if the lakers can stay relevant post-shaq why can't the spurs? maybe ian mahinmi will turn into a monster.

[chris]

Thank God Kobe took over the game.

And Lakers match up sooo much better with NO. NO has thin bench where as SA has guys that can come in and hit bunch of 3's in a hurry. Not to mention Duncan, who will bully Gasol inside all series.

But hey, I'm still picking the Lakers in 6. It's very hard to see the Lakers playing worse than they have today. Spurs' trio will get theirs. We just need to clamp down on their bench.

[val]

cus the spurs are a good team and playing a good team makes them better

Val
http://www.classyselection.com