Put on The Hurt

The Lakers are good. And I say this as an anti-Laker fan. They are a better team than last year despite what no one wants to say - Kobe has lost a step. But he plays smarter now - conserves energy, tries to get teammates involved early, etc. Gasol is better, Ariza is a very solid addition, they got Bynum back, and their chemistry is solid. They play better team D than last year (because of Ariza and Bynum)

But they are a beatable team. Very beatable. You can scare the Lakers. The only guys with any real toughness are Kobe and Fisher. And Kobe will get frustrated and start acting weird (as you saw glimpse last night with the technical in the final 2 minutes). All a team needs to do is put on the hurt. When they drive to the lane - put them on their ass. They'll question whether to drive the lane the next time. And for chrissake, you gotta get Gasol off his offensive game. If you let the guy put moves on you all day and get open looks, he will score 20-25 easy on any big guy in the league. But employ some thuggery on the guy and see how he responds. You can't let him get in rhythm.

Traditionally, the Jazz would be a tough match up for the Lakers. But hard as it is to believe, the Jazz are not a tough team this year. They are a finesse team. It took me awhile to realize it. Carlos Boozer looks like a thug from Training Day, but the fact is, the guy is a finesse player with good shooting touch and slashing moves for a big guy. John Stockton had more thug in him than this entire team. Can you name one guy on the team you'd be scared to see in an alley on a weekend night? That's what you need to beat the Lakers. You need to get offensive rebounds and punish them physically on defense so the offense can't get in sync.

Still, Utah had chances to win last night. But they were tired at the end. That'll happen when you need to come back from 20 down. A finesse team could beat the Lakers, but they'd need legs and Utah suffered too many injuries and I don't think are in tip top shape. They got within 3, the Lakers kept giving them chances, but they were having trouble converting and getting big baskets.

Either the Rockets or Portland will give the Lakers a tougher series - although these two teams might beat up on each other and be worn down. Rockets have the thuggery. Artest will get under the Lakers skin in a long series. But the Rockets don't have a big scoring threat or a closer. If McGrady were playing, this would be a really interesting series. Portland, on the other hand, has the legs and energy to give the Lakers a run.

We shall see.