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Friday May 23 6:00PM
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at San Antonio Spurs
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Lakers Standings
57-25, First, Pacific |
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| Kobe Bryant |  |
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My O My How The Lakers Have Grown
Posted by: Lakers4Kobe on Mar 22, 2008 - 12:51 AM
lakers-blog
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Last year the Los Angeles Lakers finished the season with a 42-40 record, finishing seventh in the west, and were bounced out of the first round of the playoffs by Phoenix in 5 games. In the off season Kobe Bryant expressed his disappointment with the team and demanded to be traded which he later backed off of. However, his outrage at the team must have sparked something in this team that have taken them from nothing but a first round exit to a championship contender and, when healthy, the scariest team in the West, if not the league. This team has grown tremendously in under a year and with 13 games left in the season the Lakers are 48-21, good enough to hold the number 1 record in the ultra-competitive Western Conference. So what had lead to this amazing turn around? There are two major factors that account to this teams success. First of all is each players will to win and dedication to the team which means they put in the extra hours of shooting, running and dribbling practice, all of which lead to an improvement in their game which shows on the court. The two players that have improved the most since last year are easily Andrew Bynum and Jordan Farmar. These two players have worked their behinds off all of the off season and it has shown this season. All the rest of the team has also stepped up especially Ronny Turiaf, Sasha Vujacic and Vladimir Radmanovich. The only player who had declined has been Luke Walton but his decline is nothing compared to the overall improvement of the team.
Secondly, the improved leadership of Kobe Bryant. Kobe has gone from the best player in the league but not a leader to both. He has lead this team through the season and he has helped each player improve beyond recognition. Add this to the comeback of Derek Fisher who is a proven leader and it is not surprise how this team has such a great record. Last year people questioned Kobe’s dedication to the team this year but there is no question that he is the key reason this team has been so successful. That’s an MVP in my books.
The Lakers have also shown that they can roll with the big boys. The Lakers are the 4th youngest team in the league and they have the ability to beat any of the major contenders such as San Antonio, Detroit, New Orleans and even Boston. This is not because Kobe erupts in these games but it is because the team plays together and works hard the whole game and they never give up no matter what the score. I saw several games last year where the Lakers were down and they just gave up and lost a game which could have been won had they continued to play hard. However, I do not see that in the team this year and it shows. There have been games this year where the Lakers have been down and come back to win and there are games where they have lost big leads but still hang on for the win. Truly, this shows just how much this team has grown.
Another key factor to the Lakers success is their road record where they are 24-13. The best example of the Lakers success on the road would be the 9 game road trip in February where the Lakers went 7-2 with the two losses coming in games decided by less than three points. More recently is the Lakers four game road trip against New Orleans, Houston, Dallas and Utah where the Lakers went 2-2. But the record does not reveal the whole story. The Lakers lost Pau Gasol to an injury in the first quarter of the game against New Orleans which was a lost. The Lakers then became the 22nd and the last victim of the Rockets amazing winning streak. After the loss to Houston it is fair to say that the Lakers would have had low moral but somehow, someway they found a way to come back and beat the two teams with the best home records in the Western Conference, when many punters were writing in the Lakers for a 0-4 road trip, which leads me to my next point.
Despite what everyone has said about how this team could not win this year they have proven them wrong. The media saw the Lakers as a team that would not even make the playoffs. Now the Lakers are first in the West and have proven every single critic wrong. This team has been able to overcome the adversity they were face with and have been able to show the media and the league that they are not a team to be messed with. Each player on this team looks out for one another and I have seen more than a few examples of that on the court, most of them coming from Kobe Bryant which shows just how close this team is.
Finally, this team has become one of the most entertaining teams in the league and the best Laker team in recent history. They could even become better then the Laker team of 2000-2002 which one three straight titles and whose games and plays are all embedded into our minds. Who knows, when it is all said and done, this team might even be considered the greatest Laker team to play.
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