Sometimes, it's a blessing to go to sleep early and have to work early mornings--especially when the Los Angeles Lakers are in the playoffs. Nothing against the Lakers, but I get very tired of their celebrity pseudo-fans. Not Jack Nicholson, of course, who attends every game and probably knows as much about the game of basketball as Phil Jackson does. Years ago, John McEnroe was at a Lakers playoff game. Yes, the New York-born McEnroe who's supposedly a New York Knicks fan. I suppose some celebrities go there to be seen, as if they're hoping a television monitor will spot them and their agent, watching from home, will say, "Huh? Oh yeah! They're a client of mine! Maybe I should see if I can get them a cameo in an upcoming indie film!"
Ah, I feel much better, thanks.
Rant aside, there are some positives and negatives for the San Antonio Spurs in their 89-85 loss to the Lakers in Game 1 of the best-of-seven Western Conference finals:
Positives: they barely lost a game in which they had very little time to recover from their marathon seven-game semi-final against the New Orleans Hornets; as usual, the Spurs took their medicine like men. I'm sure Spurs fans will complain about some of the calls, but coach Gregg Popovich was classy as ever. After the game, the coach said: "We had a great opportunity and didn’t take advantage of it. It hurts like hell.”
No, he's not talking about the extra G at the end of his first name.
Negatives: They lost in a game in which they had a 20-point third-quarter lead. Their bench failed to produce. And now, Kobe Bryant is feeling as confident about his game. Kobe has his issues, but when he's confident, he's dangerous. What must've been very tough for the Spurs is that Kobe's go-ahead short jumper was shot over Spurs defensive wizard Bruce Bowen. You know, the guy normally assigned to cover Bryant because he usually neutralizes Bryan. What's more, 25 of Bryant's 27 game points came in the second half.
In a losing effort, Tim Duncan scored 30 points and had 18 rebounds. Ouch. What really hurt the Spurs is this disburbing stat: in the final 7:19 of the game, they made only one basket.
Bowen led the Spurs with five personal fouls. Bryant, who played the most minutes of anyone on either team with 43:34, had only one personal foul. Hmmm....
Game 2 is Friday night in Los Angeles.
Keywords: Bruce Bowen, Kobe Bryant, Lakers, Spurs, Tim Duncan
