I had an entire post about the Lakers ready to go at the end of last week, bemoaning their 0-5 start to the season. But, I didn’t get it posted. In the mean time, low and behold, the Lakers go out last night and they have the nerve to win their first game of the season.
1-5, baby.
The first episode of the final season of HBO’s “The Newsroom” aired at 8PM last night, so naturally that took precedent over a winless team, so I missed the first half of the game. When I tuned in, LA was down nine to visiting Charlotte. Then, the Lakers played their best quarter of basketball all season in the third and cruised to a surprisingly easy victory. Carlos Boozer played fairly efficient basketball (which is ironic, because in the post that never was, I devoted some time to making fun of Boozer), and Jeremy Lin played by far his best and most efficient game of the season (21 points, 7 assists, 8-12 shooting). For the Lakers to be both mildly entertaining and mildly competitive, Lin is going to have to play like he played last night more often than not. I haven’t even mentioned Kobe yet, and that’s partly because he had a quiet game by his standards, but he definitely was a spark in that huge 3rd quarter that pushed LA past the Hornets.
There were still flashes of the real Lakers last night. There were defensive breakdowns, horrible offensive possessions that ended in even worse shot attempts. But, they were fun to watch last night. I need that. The team needed that. The fans in LA, I’m sure, needed that. Look, there are going to be more nights that look like the first five games of the season than the way things looked last night. But, is it too much to ask to win slightly, and I mean just slightly more than one time in every five chances? Can I get two?
Kobe went down in the third last night, briefly, after some knee to knee contact in the paint. When he was laying on the ground, I remarked to my buddy Ben that, if Kobe were to go down, 0-82 was a real possibility. Of course I was kidding, but only kind of. Thankfully, Kobe got up, knocked down a couple of free throws, and the Lakers avoided that historic fate.
1-5, baby.
Monday, November 10, 2014
Friday, October 31, 2014
Late Nights With a Bad Team: The Chronicles of my Inaugural NBA League Pass Experience
I’ve been a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers since I was in elementary school. More accurately, I’ve been a fan of Kobe Bryant since then- when he broke into the League. The Lakers as a franchise sucked me in with that first three-peat from 2000-2002. There were some epic playoff series during that run, and my cousin Brenden, my brother Oren and myself watched as many of those games as we could at my Grandparents house, when the games were on cable. We watched them wherever we could when they were on network TV.
We would also play basketball out in the driveway, trying to re-enact some of the games or moments. My brother would be Kobe, my cousin would be Shaq, and somehow, I would always get stuck playing Arvydas Sabonis, the Blazers center who developed a brief rivalry with Shaq during that 7 game Western Conference Finals in 2000 (LA actually played Portland in the playoffs each of those three years). As a side-note, I have stronger, fonder memories of those conference finals, and Western Conference playoffs in general, during that three-peat, than those finals themselves. The Portland Series and the Kings series are especially big for me.
Anyway, living in Mid-Missouri, the Lakers obviously don’t play on local TV. I can watch my St. Louis Cardinals and Blues, I can watch my Missouri Tigers, I can watch the Chiefs and the Rams. But, the Lakers? I’ve always had to catch them Sunday afternoons on ABC, or on TNT and ESPN nationally televised contests (or back in the day on NBC). With the advent of NBA League Pass, the ability to watch the Lakers home broadcasts has been within my reach, but I’ve never pulled the trigger. I've never pulled the trigger in part because of the cost, and in part, because-deep down- I knew what my buddy Caleb Barron recently said is partially true: “Too much NBA regular season basketball is bad for the soul.”
But...to heck with that. Kobe Bryant is back, he’s taking way too many shots, and moving around somewhat like Kobe of old. And I love watch Kobe "Bean" Braynt play basektball.
So, I’ve purchased NBA League Pass to watch, if I wish, every single one of those LA Lakers games. Most people question the decision, because if you follow the league at all, you know LA will be terrible this year. But, my thought process is that I don’t know how much longer Bean has, and I want to watch him as much as I can before he goes away. He is, after all, one of my all-time favorite athletes, and by miles my favorite basketball player. I’ll put up with some bad basketball to watch him. Besides, the Lakers play in the rugged, uber-deep Western Conference, so they’ll be playing quality opponents a lot.
So, my dear friends, I am going to (try to) keep you updated on my blog with how this experience is going. The series is the same as the title, “Late Nights with a Bad Team”.
It began two nights ago, the Lakers second game of the season (they played on TNT night one, so League Pass wasn’t necessary). The Lakers were playing for the second straight night, in Phoenix, on opening night for the Suns. After trailing the entire first half, the Lakers closed the gap, cutting the lead to 9 at the break. They got to within 6 twice, early in the 3rd quarter, and that’s when the wheels came off. It wasn’t close to competitive after that. Kobe ended up with 31 point on 25 shots, so he’s doing his thing, but the rest of this team is abominable. Unless Carlos Boozer and Jeremy Lin suddenly learn what defense is, and unless Wesley Johnson starts playing Pippen to Kobe’s Jordan, it won’t get any better from a team perspective this season. At least when Nick “Swaggy P” Young gets back, that’ll provide an extra jolt of entertainment. It won't make them better, really, just more fun.
Kobe didn’t play the 4th quarter, so I didn’t watch the 4th quarter. The Lakers were down 25 points to boot, so I wasn’t going to stay up the extra time to watch a team that’s a dumpster fire two days into the season.
Stay tuned, though! We’ve got the Clippers tonight! Halloween, baby.
We would also play basketball out in the driveway, trying to re-enact some of the games or moments. My brother would be Kobe, my cousin would be Shaq, and somehow, I would always get stuck playing Arvydas Sabonis, the Blazers center who developed a brief rivalry with Shaq during that 7 game Western Conference Finals in 2000 (LA actually played Portland in the playoffs each of those three years). As a side-note, I have stronger, fonder memories of those conference finals, and Western Conference playoffs in general, during that three-peat, than those finals themselves. The Portland Series and the Kings series are especially big for me.
Anyway, living in Mid-Missouri, the Lakers obviously don’t play on local TV. I can watch my St. Louis Cardinals and Blues, I can watch my Missouri Tigers, I can watch the Chiefs and the Rams. But, the Lakers? I’ve always had to catch them Sunday afternoons on ABC, or on TNT and ESPN nationally televised contests (or back in the day on NBC). With the advent of NBA League Pass, the ability to watch the Lakers home broadcasts has been within my reach, but I’ve never pulled the trigger. I've never pulled the trigger in part because of the cost, and in part, because-deep down- I knew what my buddy Caleb Barron recently said is partially true: “Too much NBA regular season basketball is bad for the soul.”
But...to heck with that. Kobe Bryant is back, he’s taking way too many shots, and moving around somewhat like Kobe of old. And I love watch Kobe "Bean" Braynt play basektball.
So, I’ve purchased NBA League Pass to watch, if I wish, every single one of those LA Lakers games. Most people question the decision, because if you follow the league at all, you know LA will be terrible this year. But, my thought process is that I don’t know how much longer Bean has, and I want to watch him as much as I can before he goes away. He is, after all, one of my all-time favorite athletes, and by miles my favorite basketball player. I’ll put up with some bad basketball to watch him. Besides, the Lakers play in the rugged, uber-deep Western Conference, so they’ll be playing quality opponents a lot.
So, my dear friends, I am going to (try to) keep you updated on my blog with how this experience is going. The series is the same as the title, “Late Nights with a Bad Team”.
It began two nights ago, the Lakers second game of the season (they played on TNT night one, so League Pass wasn’t necessary). The Lakers were playing for the second straight night, in Phoenix, on opening night for the Suns. After trailing the entire first half, the Lakers closed the gap, cutting the lead to 9 at the break. They got to within 6 twice, early in the 3rd quarter, and that’s when the wheels came off. It wasn’t close to competitive after that. Kobe ended up with 31 point on 25 shots, so he’s doing his thing, but the rest of this team is abominable. Unless Carlos Boozer and Jeremy Lin suddenly learn what defense is, and unless Wesley Johnson starts playing Pippen to Kobe’s Jordan, it won’t get any better from a team perspective this season. At least when Nick “Swaggy P” Young gets back, that’ll provide an extra jolt of entertainment. It won't make them better, really, just more fun.
Kobe didn’t play the 4th quarter, so I didn’t watch the 4th quarter. The Lakers were down 25 points to boot, so I wasn’t going to stay up the extra time to watch a team that’s a dumpster fire two days into the season.
Stay tuned, though! We’ve got the Clippers tonight! Halloween, baby.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)