I bet you've heard this before, but it's worth uttering again. The Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs have owned the National Basketball Association since 1999, winning the championship nine of the next 12 years. It's about to be nine of 13 years with the No. 2-seeded Lakers trailing the No. 3 seed Dallas Mavericks three games to none.
No NBA Team Has Ever Come Back From 3-0 in a Best-of-Seven Playoff Series
In possibly Phil Jackson's final year, the Los Angeles Lakers, known for the innate ability to flip on the light switch and step up their play when needed, are flickering at best in the 2011 NBA Playoffs.
People who said LA would bounce back against the undersized, undermanned No. 7 New Orleans Hornets were right. The Lakers looked like a team playing a regular-season game in Game 1 at the Staples Center. Chris Paul was doing whatever he wanted on LA's defense while Pau Gasol played like he was made of putty, getting pushed around and outplayed by smaller Hornet front-court players.
The Lakers flipped the switch following the 109-100 loss to New Orleans in Game 1. Turning up the defensive intensity, LA allowed a mere 85.4 points per game the rest of the series to win in six, so when the Lakers fell 96-94 at home to the Dallas Mavericks in the next series, people (Laker fans) expected the two-time champs to turn on the overhead lamp again.
Instead Dirk Nowitzki and Co. buried LA 93-81 to take a commanding 2-0 lead heading to Dallas for two games. Maverick fans were jacked up for Game 3 as both teams were deadlocked in a tight game throughout.
The Lakers' biggest problem might be the biggest reason the dynasty won't end after this season. Andrew Bynum is arguably playing the best and hardest while Kobe Bryant's and Gasol's games are declining. LA's big man has been a valuable commodity in the Dallas series. In Game 3 on the road Bynum had 21 points, 10 rebounds and one steal that would have been remembered in Laker lore had LA won the game.
Bynum knocked Nowitzki to the floor and stole an errant Jason Kidd pass. The 7-foot-and-then-some Laker big man waltzed 50 feet ahead of the pack and threw down a two-handed slam to put LA ahead 48-45 with 1:27 remaining in the first half. The Lakers jumped ahead by six at the end of the third and even led by led eight twice in the fourth quarter before the home team made a late surge to put LA in a precarious position.
The 98-92 loss was marred by Derek Fisher and Lamar Odom booboos in critical situations. All season long I've heard analysts say when LA is backed into a corner they play their best basketball. They can't get more desperate than down 3-0, on the verge of being swept out of the playoffs.
The San Antonio Spurs' Last Rodeo: 12 50-Win Seasons In Danger Next Year?
The four-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs figured to be in the title conversation this year. Gregg Popovich's club coasted to a 61-win season, which could have been even better had he not rested players at times during the end of the regular season. However, with Popovich's stars Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobli and Tony Parker stocking up the minutes over deep runs in the playoffs in the past, the Spurs coach took precaution.
It would cost them the best record, but more disconcerting to San Antonio fans in the regular-season finale against the Phoenix Suns, a night after playing the Los Angeles Lakers, Popovich played his three stars who had rested in LA. And the Spurs' worst nightmare happened. Ginobli in the opening minutes of the game got caught up with Grant Hill and had to leave the game with a sprained right elbow.
Top-seeded San Antonio lost the game and the war as it turned out the Suns, the team that swept them out of the playoffs a season ago, helped the West's eighth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies immensely. Although the Spurs' first-round opponent showed they perhaps didn't need any help winning three of five games with Ginobli on the floor. Even without Rudy Gay, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Memphis, as a rejuvenated Zach Randolph was the new first option in the Grizzlies' scheme.
Wear and tear on Antonio McDyess and Tim Duncan proved to be too much for them to stop the crafty Randolph who saw an inspired but outmatched Matt Bonner several times try to guard him. Nothing seemed to work as Popovich, trying to find the right mix of players. shelved DeJuan Blair a few games in for Tiago Splitter.
Losing the series seemed inevitable after Memphis was able to hang on in Game 3 and then rout the Spurs in Game 4, 104-86. Without their stars performing to top grade, an unlikely hero would need to emerge to keep their season alive
Gary Neal's crossover three-point shot with 1.7 seconds delayed the inevitable for a game until the Grizzlies won 99-91 in Memphis to take the series in six games. Despite Parker's best efforts in scoring 23 points, San Antonio rode out in the sunset.
We'll never know how it would have turned out with a healthy Ginobli or at least with an unhealthy Ginobli in Game 1. Without their Argentine acrobat, the Spurs fought until the end of Game 1 before conceding victory 89-84.
Only time will tell if the Spurs' and Lakers' reigns on a championship are over. After all it's been 13 years since two NBA seasons have passed without either winning the title, so we'll see if LA (likely without Phil Jackson) and San Antonio (likely with Gregg Popovich) can continue their remarkable runs. Or whether at last both franchises return to normalcy with no championship banner hung to the rafters next season.
Tyrone Bowman - I'm 25, a recent Journalism graduate of Sacramento State, love the outdoors and am ultra-competitive. I thrive for perfection even though ...
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