Magic Johnson probably isn't sleeping well tonight. The former Laker great and Hall of Famer turned broadcaster makes no bones about it. He's still a huge Laker fan, but after what happened in Game 1 against the Okla City Thunder, Magic might be tossing and turning a bit right about now.
That's because the Lakers, who still possess formidable talent, looked hopelessly inept in the first game against the Thunder. To be sure, the Okies are an extremely talented young team, and probably on the fast track to an NBA title one year soon, if not this year, but what LA came with in Game 1 was just pitiful.
Consider:
Okla City, leading by over 30 points, sent in the B team for "garbage time" -- with a full quarter of the game still remaining. They had also put almost 100 points on the board (98) after just 3 quarters of action. Yes, the Thunder made a high percentage of their shots, and perhaps that's an anomaly, but maybe not. They seemed to get whatever "looks" they wanted, WHEN they wanted. The Lakers' defense was being shredded.
When the Lakers are seriously challenged, there's two things that seem to always happen. Kobe Bryant will attempt to be a one man show. We can always count on the "black mamba" to find a way to shoot the ball. Bryant might do a pivot, a reverse pivot, fake left, fake right, pivot yet again, a double-gainer with a 2 and a half twist while triple teamed and falling away off-balance from the basket 35 feet away -- but dammit -- he's going to shoot -- while totally ignoring wide open teammates waiting on a pass for an easy shot.
And somewhere during the course of the game, Ron Artest, aka Metta World Peace, will find a way to "goon it up". It's actually a shame, because Artest is a terrific player, particularly defensively, and he doesn't need to do that stuff -- but he does.
In the first game against the Thunder, the Lakers didn't look anything like a highly successful NBA franchise with a proud, storied history. Rather, they more resembled a bunch of guys from the "hood" getting together on a public "court", complete with weeds growing up through cracked concrete, netless rims, and no rules. Magic Johnson was a part of the "showtime" Lakers. They put on quite a show as a team. The current Lakers seem to be every man for himself trying to put on a show. It won't work.
That falls on coaching, particularly head coach Mike Brown, who I always thought was a terrible hire by owner Jerry Buss and the Lakers in the first place. While Brown may indeed possess a wealth of knowledge regarding the intricacies of professional basketball, he doesn't seem to be able to get a team to play as a team. Granted, Phil Jackson, the Zen Master, was a tough act to follow, but Brown apparently doesn't have a clue about how to make a mix of highly paid, highly talented, and highly egotistic athletes come together. The inmates appear to be running the asylum.
Magic Johnson also said "on the air" that if the Lakers got eliminated by the Denver Nuggets in the first round, he expected Mike Brown to be fired. That raised a few eyebrows. The heavily underdog Nuggets took LA to 7 games before falling just short. Now they're facing the Okla City Thunder, a huge jump in the level of competition. If Mike Brown and his LA-LA boys don't get their act together pretty quick, they might just find themselves on the wrong end of a broom, while being humiliated.
Would Ervin Johnson lose sleep over that? Hmm. Probably not. He's got millions, lives in a mansion with a gorgeous wife, is as popular as ever on the airwaves, and is now a part owner of the LA Dodgers, which will rake in even more money.
I think he'll be just fine.
Mike Brown? We'll see about that. Shortly.
No comments:
Post a Comment