Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

But think about it, 9 times, his teams were not good enough to even make the finals!! This is why I argue that Magic deserves more respect. He made the finals 9 out of 10 years and won it 5. My argument for Jordan is he played 15 years, and did not succeed at the highest level for 9 of those years!! People tend to ignore that.

 

For all the welter of stats and reasons why we went from 5 games below .500 at the break to being on the brink of the WCF, I'd like to dedicate ALL of those facts to one man, and his name rhymes with "Mussel Restcook."

There are some of us who pay attention, Brick. (Oh and BTW: I'm glad the Clippers think you're worth signing and playing A LOT next year. Or at least they're saying that to the press these days. Makes my job as a Laker fan that much easier.)

 

As a Laker fan, this season? It's really nuts. Can't remember anything like it, and I'm olde as dirt, ladies 'n germs.

Terrible team at the All Star break...the Pelinka Miracle...some of us - including myself - took awhile to really believe we were suddenly a very good team... the race to make the play-in...happy to have made the play-in after what we'd been through...won the play-in game...took 7th seed which seemed like a freak thing after the Brick Debacle.

Won the first round against the #2 seed. Closed it out by beating them by 40.

At some point you go from, "Man, I'm just glad we made the playoffs," then "it would be a good thing going into next season to have gotten out of the first round," to...

Hell: I'm all in now. All EFFING In. Don't know about you guys, but I want to celebrate ending GSW's dynasty. I want to beat PHO or DEN (probably DEN, after Malone had his guys double Booker and he fizzled); I want to play the Heat, the 76ers, but esp. the effing C-Bags...and win it all, and get another O'Brien and go one up on the Bags!

I'm out of the "it's nice to have made the playoffs" closet. I want to win it all. You do, too. Admit it! It's what being a Laker fan was always about.

Meanwhile, since 1984, when the playoffs expanded to 16 teams, no #7 seed has ever won the title. That feels daunting. But just imagine if we play #8 MIA for it.

First things first: play a good game in San Francisco, maybe take it. If not, annihilate their a**** in Game 6 in LA.

 

Even going into the playoffs, I had zero expectations that we could actually make a run. It HAS been the weirdest season in Lakers history. And honestly, there is NOT a single player from the trade that I would have thought could truly make much of a difference. It's is simply the accumulation of contrasting talents that did this. Pelinka has just earned a 5 year window from me. I don't think we have a true third star in this group of newer players, put now we can see what solid role players can do. Anyway, I agree with you, I am all in and think we have a shot at going all the way. As long as AD can stay healthy and remain locked in on defense. The team that scares me the most is Denver, possibly Philly. It is hard to believe that Ham was able to figure out enough to make the right calls during games. Seems like that would take a solid offseason of work with these guys, the fact that he did it ON THE FLY and got us to this point is also awesome, He has earned his contract and if can in fact get this team even more together next year, likely earn an extension. We haven't had that since Phil was our coach.

Everything is pointing up, I will have much higher expectations next year. We have already exceeded my expectations this year and feel we have a shot at a ring. I know both Lebron and AD are playing with injuries, so I hope they can play in 9 more wins this season!

 

Lebron and AD are special players, and together they are a formidable duo. It's really a shame, that the injuries robbed us of having those two together on the court a lot, since the bubble. I'm going to thoroughly enjoy this moment though, it's not a given that they can both stay healthy enough next season, but we are absolutely capable of getting that chip this season.

 

Hopefully Crypto is loud in game 6. I think the expensive tickets are keeping the die hards out cause it's much quieter than it was vs Memphis. The team will need that energy

 

i think we can and will play better in game 6, and no way draymond gets away with this crap in la.

 

They need ticket buyers to pass a decibel screaming test before they can buy a ticket.

Let's win this tomorrow boys! Home cookin' we can blow them out by 40 like we did Memphis. Jk, a win is a win is a win; let's get it done!!!

 

no matter what happens tomorrow or in a game 7, don't forget we went from dead in the water to:



yeah, they're just d****** models, but those same models said we were done for a long time ago. and we're still playing.

 

These models underrate the Lakers drastically. That's not just homerism, it's bc most models are built on season-long data, and the Lakers are a radically different team post-trade than pre-trade. I'd like to see a model based on the Lakers performance post-trade.

 

THe models dont account for the fact every "injured" player does this when they see the Lakers coming - this is an underrated reason this team has been resilient they take the other teams best shot night and after night.

 

You're right. Even models that incorporate SoS don't adjust for quality of the team/game at that time. The Lakers definitely take opponents' best shots more than other teams do. Plus famously getting screwed on calls this year, with results that could flip a few games or more.

 

i've said before that i think we consistently overperform in the playoffs because our regular season games are more difficult than everyone else's. every road game, every nationally televised game, we get playoff intensity and guys trying to show out. i know the laker haters are like "you just think you're special, that doesn't happen" but listen to interviews with players--they most definitely circle certain games, and we're always there, man.

klay thompson before this series said he's been waiting his whole career for a crack at us in the playoffs. i mean...why? and how is this not a factor?

 

philly's doomed, just like we will be if we don't win tonight.

 

I hope not, but all of these series went 3-2, so there are no gimmies in the bunch left IMHO.

 

Beating the Warriors is even more satisfying than I thought it would be.

great team effort tonight and we dominated another team I don’t really like.

 

Dominated a "Dynasty" with size, athleticism, experience, coaching & shooting.
DEN is a different beast, but we can play with anyone.

 

Denver will be a tall task. At this point we’re playing with house money. They’ve exceeded my expectations.