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The Jazz have been playing well as the playoffs draw near and they have won 2 straight. They have 4 games left and they lead the Lakers by 1/2 game for the 8th and final playoff spot in the West. The Jazz hold the tie-breaker over the Lakers.
If you bought tickets for this game a long time ago, well you and your entourage are the losers here. Because other than providing an opportunity for players to pad their stats, this game doesn’t mean a heck of a lot.
Late last May it looked like the Indiana Pacers were really on to something. They had the Miami Heat in a bit of a box, up 2-1 in their second-round playoff series, with Game 4 at home.
Can this marriage be saved?
Can Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard actually pull things together over the final two weeks to get the Lakers into the playoffs and make things interesting for either the Spurs or Thunder in the first round?
Signs are pointing toward the affirmative.
Memphis Grizzlies (51-24) at Los Angeles Lakers (39-36)
Staples Center, Los Angeles
10:30 p.m. EST
Bryant has shaken off the effects of that sprained ankle and has been playing huge minutes in the Lakers’ push to hold off Utah for the 8th and final Western Conferece playoff slot. Mike D’Antoni kept KB on the court for all but 23 seconds in a win over Sacramento, and Bryant logged more than 47 in Tuesday’s victory over Dallas.
And Howard has stopped goofing off and now has double-digits in rebounds 21 straight games – and 14 consecutive double-doubles.
Has the drama which dominated the Lakers’ season through February finally ended at the Staples Center? Has LA finally figured out that the way to win games is to actually play hard and put aside petty jealousies?
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Looks like it.
But even if the Lakers have their waste product together for the final push, there are no guarantees. Bryant points out that while the remainder of the schedule includes 6 of the final 7 at the Staples Center, there are some toughies in there – including tonight’s game against a Memphis Grizzlies club that has its own fight on its hands and is trying to finish strong enough to steal the No. 3 playoff seed in the Western Conference.
Besides the Grizzlies, LA has home games against the Clippers, Hornets, Warriors, Spurs and Rockets. Utah’s schedule is a bit softer, but the Jazz (a half-game behind the Lakers) have a 3-3 home/road split, starting with the Hornets tonight in Salt Lake City.
“We have a tougher schedule but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Bryant said when asked about Jazz. “If you want to get to the playoffs and expect to make some noise, you have to beat playoff teams.”
And that would start tonight against the Grizzlies in a game which could turn on the play of point guards Steve Nash and Mike Conley.
Nash is expected to return after missing one game with a hamstring issue, and will be put to the test.
Did beating Miami and ending the Heat’s 27-game winning streak take too much out of the Chicago Bulls?
The NBA is no country for old men. All around the league 30-plus veterans are limping as they approach the finish line and a playoff season that provides decent rest between games (thanks, TV).
Eight games left in the regular season and the Denver Nuggets are pretty much fat and happy as they ready for the playoffs.
It doesn’t have to be a standing O. You can remain seated, at least until his Knicks win a few playoff series. But doesn’t Mike Woodson deserve at least a polite golf-crowd round of applause for what he’s done with the Knicks this season?
By all rights the Utah Jazz should be deader than a lizard buried in the Utah desert.
Are the Memphis Grizzlies the most ignored good team in the NBA? The Grizz this season are on a pace to win 54 games, and to put that in perspective, if a major league baseball team won at the same pace, it would finish the season with 107 wins.
Three into one. That’s what it has come down to in the Western Conference’s battle for the last playoff spot.
Step right up, Chicago Bulls. You’re next. Twenty-seven straight and counting for the Miami Heat, who publically claim that they are not all that interested in breaking the NBA record of 33 (set by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers).
The New Orleans Hornets/Pelicans? Giants-killers? New Orleans destroyed the Nuggets off the boards Sunday night and put an end to Denver’s winning streak which had hit 15 games, the younger brother to Miami’s 27-game run.
The theory being floated in Boston goes like this. Since you have to beat Miami to get to The Finals, do it this way:
1. Forget about seeding and rest your top players.
A dozen games left and here’s what the Los Angeles Clippers have:
1. No worse than a 4 seed in the Western Conference playoffs (division winners can’t be seeded lower than 4th, and the Clippers have an 8-game lead in the Pacific.
Mike D’Antoni is mad. Mad at his players, mad at himself, mad at his assistant coaches. Just plain, seeing-red mad.
