Published: April 28, 2009
Championships are not won in April, but they can certainly be lost there.
In that respect, the Los Angeles Lakers should be pleased with themselves after having dispatched the Utah Jazz in five games thanks to a 107-96 win Monday night.
But let us not confuse the actuality of a series win with signs that they are meeting their great expectations. Far from it.
The Lakers have a wide selection of excuses for why they never fully dominated Utah, never truly went full boar and committed themselves to the task at hand.
They might say they wanted to rest, though this is flawed given their bench’s inability to hold a 15+ point lead in every win and the resulting return to the court of the starters.
They might say that Utah was not a traditional eight seed given how many total games they won and the talent throughout their roster, although this is unsound given the Jazz complete impotency in any game outside of Utah all season.
They might say that statistically they were very successful and hit a number of benchmarks by shooting nearly 50 percent for the series, hitting 45 from long range, and averaging over 106 points per game, however this ignores what was only a part-time commitment to playing defense with the vigor needed to win in June.
Whatever it is the coach Phil Jackson and leader Kobe Bryant wish to lead upon over the rest of the week as they lay in wait for the Houston-Portland winner, they should at least be pleased that they were able to close out at home and not waste the physical and mental energy they would have needed to summon to play another game in the unfriendly confines of Salt Lake City.
As for Game 5 itself, Bryant was his usual All-NBA self and continued his offensive onslaught from Game 4 en route to scoring a cool and deadly efficient 31 points. He was not the best Laker on the night though; that would have been Lamar Odom, who had 26 points and 15 rebounds in an all-around display of just how talented an enigma he is as a player.
For the series, Odom might have been L.A.’s most important player by virtue of his ability to step up with Andrew Bynum’s shaky play and giving Jackson 18 points and 11 rebounds per night while shooting 63 percent from the floor.
A big part of the win for the Lakers was their marksmanship from long distance, where they were 9-21 on Monday night.
It is the second straight season that the Lakers eliminated the Jazz, though last year’s six game affair was far closer, with the threat that Utah might triumph always more palpable compared to this year.
Without home court advantage there was simply no way imaginable that the Jazz would steal the series out from under the far more talented Lakers (L.A. has now won 12 straight games at home against the Jazz).
A good indication of how unimposing Utah was Monday night is that fact that Paul Millsap paced them with a meager 16 points while Andrei Kirilenko and Deron Williams could each only chip in 14.
So it is onward and upward for the Lakers, and back to the drawing board for the Jazz, who are in for what could be a very hectic and taxing offseason ripe with personnel decisions.
The Lakers won the day and the series just as most knew they would. They did get ahead of themselves and closed out Utah professionally and purposefully. Yet more will be need in the ensuing rounds if another banner is to be raised to the Staple Center rafters.
One Comment on "Lakers Mantra: Survive and Advance"
Hoops Addict Article - Lakers/Jazz Game 5 | The On Deck Circle on Tue, 28th Apr 2009 10:28 am
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