If they keep playing like this, they won’t even get to the Finals again. By bill Plaschke
March 10, 2010 | 8:10 p.m.
the shot sailed through the basket, the brightly colored strips of paper fell from the rafters, the fans stood and screamed.
The only thing quicker than Kobe Bryant’s game-winning basket against the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night was the celebration afterward.
The fans hustled out of Staples Center as if leaving a bad movie. the Lakers hustled off the floor as if leaving a messy house.
They all know. the NBA knows. If we’re going to be honest with ourselves, all of Los Angeles should know.
Based on their current attitude and work ethic, the Lakers are not a championship team. If they can’t summon the consistent urgency of last season, they are not even a Finals team.
Can they beat a Cleveland team that just keeps getting better? not without home-court advantage, they can’t.
Can they beat a Denver or Dallas team that finally, truly believes it is better than the Lakers? not without an effort adjustment, they can’t.
All these thoughts were running through my head as I watched the Lakers slog to that 109-107 victory over Toronto. yet having spent the last month only watching this team from afar while covering the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics, I wondered if I wasn’t just being an alarmist.
Turns out, the most alarming thing is that afterward, the Lakers agreed with me.
When I asked Coach Phil Jackson whether this team had the same consistent urgency of last season, he said, “I don’t think so We don’t have that not that we can’t reclaim it at some point That’s what we’re trying to do.”
Jackson later added, simply, “The urgency of playing well has not struck us yet.”
In an ominously quiet winning locker room, several players agreed.
Said Pau Gasol: “We have to face reality. We have to make a conscious effort to get that sense of urgency We have to do a better job figuring out what we do.”
Said Lamar Odom: “This was about ground we’re not supposed to be giving.”
There is the argument that the two repeating championship Lakers teams from 2001 and 2002 also cruised to the regular-season finish line under similarly shaky ground, and indeed this can be proved in the records.
After 65 games, the current team has exactly matched the 47-18 record of the 2002 title team, and is actually three games better than the 2001 title team.
But there are two big differences. neither of those teams lost three in a row after February. And both of those teams had the ultimate equalizer in Shaquille O’Neal.
Need to turn up the heat? O’Neal would knock somebody on their butt in the first few minutes of a game and it would be done. need to start the playoffs with a shout? O’Neal would rattle the rim on an alley-oop and everyone would know it was time for business.
This team doesn’t work like that. last season this team won not with a knockout punch, but consistent jabs, a Trevor Ariza steal, a Derek Fisher jumper, a Kobe Bryant grimace.