It was a very strange game, but LA led almost the entire game and ended up putting the TWolves away 96-90 tonight, and avanced to the NBA Finals for the 4th time in 5 years. 
The Lakers await the winner of the Detroit-Indiana series, with Detroit being ahead in that 3-2 and having Game 6 in Detroit. If Detroit wins tomorrow night, they will advance to face LA, with Games 1 and 2 here in Los Angeles, with Game 1 beginning on Sunday. If the Pistons (Detroit) loses the next two games, then LA will face the Pacers in Game 1 of the Finals in Indianapolis on Sunday. Either way, the Lakers have the rest of this week off to rest up. I would assume that Detroit will win tomorrow, since they are looking better than Indiana right now (who has some key injuries), and because tomorrow night's game is at home for the Pistons.
I personally am hoping the Pistons do advance to the Finals 
(although I'd like to see them have to go to a Game 7 to do it), because I would love to see the Lakers avenge the defeat they suffered at the hands of the Pistons back in 1989 when I was watching in frustration as an 8th grader. See, that year LA was looking to 3-peat, having won the previous two years (nobody had won 3 in a row since the Celtics had done it some 20 years earlier), and LA had not lost a game in the playoffs heading into the Finals. Because the Lakers swept the Western Conference Finals that year while Detroit battled it out in the East, LA had around 10 days off before the Finals started. In those days, Pat Riley was coaching the Lakers, and he is notorious for being a coach who pushes his players very hard. Because he was afraid they would get too loose being off for so long, he pushed the Lakers very hard, doing 2-a-day practices to keep them ready. As a result, Byron Scott (the Lakers starting 2 guard) pulled his hamstring and wasn't able to play at all. Then in Game 2 Magic Johson pulled his hamstring as well, thus depriving the Lakers of their entire starting backcourt. As a result, the Lakers were swept out of the Finals, and Detroit's "Bad Boys" (as the Pistons were known back then) celebrated their first of two NBA championships. At that time the Pistons were hands down my least favorite team in the league, and to this day I've never hated another team as much as I hated those Pistons (they were called the "Bad Boys" because they were basically all assholes, and because they played a particularly dirty brand of basketball). They were generally reviled by the fans of just about every team in the league, except of course those of the Pistons. In any event, if Detroit advances to the Finals, it will be their first trip there since the Bad Boys were there last in 1990, and I for one would love to see the Lakers avenge their last loss in the Finals by kicking the shit out of Detroit :grin
Comments (3)
I am just wondering, are the NBA officials always this bipolar? Their mood swings are unbelievable. I don't watch many other games during the season other than the Lakers games, so i don't get too familiar with the officials and their characteristics. But GAWD DAMN, they put the most psychotic refs on this game. First couple minutes the fouls are flying, and the first half the technicals were all over the place. Then something happened at half time... the guys on AM radio made the comment that somebody from the NBA head office had a little talk with the refs. Thats because the 3rd quarter was completely different. So suddenly you think that the refs are calling the game differently. Suddenly they are giving warnings, or saying something to a player, instead of giving a technical. So the players settled into that mode. Then the refs just switch everything back in the 4th and start to call things hard again. The players have to deal with playing hard basketball. They should not always have to be guessing how the refs are going to call a game. Usually when refs are making bad calls it balances out, but this... when they're just downright inconsistent. It makes the game a bitch for the players on both sides.
Posted by riggs | June 1, 2004 9:38 AM
Posted on June 1, 2004 09:38
You're absolutely right, the reffing in the NBA is really atrocious, and Joel Myers (the guy on 570 who calls the game for the Lakers) makes a lot of good points about it. In baseball players and coaches are allowed to talk and even yell at the umpires if they have a problem with a call, and they won't get penalized for it unless they get personal with the ump. In the NBA the refs seem to have this desire to leave their own mark on the game and really become as big a part of the show as the players. The refs should be part of the background, you should not be so aware of them, and they should not make such a point of trying to become the centers of attention. Players should get technicals when talking to the refs only if they get personal about what they say to them. Giving guys techincal fouls for looking exasperated or for vehemently demonstrating that they are upset is nonsense. The refs need to have thicker skins than that and not worry that they are being "shown up" by the players. That's just one issue with the refs. I won't even get started on the inconsistency of the calls you see in NBA games, that's a whole nother entry right there...
Posted by Yams | June 1, 2004 10:26 AM
Posted on June 1, 2004 10:26
FUK EM. Lets kill em all.:evil
Posted by kino | June 1, 2004 4:44 PM
Posted on June 1, 2004 16:44