Peace Wilson's Los Angeles Lakers fan blog

A long road of grit, talent, ups and downs has come to a magnificent end with the Lakers 15th championship.

Well tested by the Houston Rockets in the Western semis, and the Denver Nuggets in the conference finals, they entered the big show the favorite, and showed they worked out their inconsistencies by defeating a tenacious Orlando Magic team 4 games to 1.

The signature of this team's character emerged in Games 5 and 6 of the Western Conference finals, when they emerged from the shadows of an uncertain 2-2 tie against the talented Nuggets with dominating wins.

The championship signature was not only the team backbone play of Finals MVP Kobe Bryant, but the big-time clutch shots of Derek Fisher, the 3-pt. dagger to take Orlando to OT, and another 3-pt. shot in OT, off a great feed from Bryant to help seal the deal, and open up a 3-1 series lead in Game 4.

Continue reading "Congratulations, Los Angeles Lakers, 2009 NBA Champions!"

You never hear the term "Final 4" applied to the NBA conference finalists. That marketing marker is applied to collegiate March Madness.

But this exhilarating post-season, the L.A. Nuggets are in a dead heat with the Denver Lakers, as of midway of Game 3, Western Conference final.

And the Cleveland Magic are in a dead heat with the Orlando Cavaliers, on the strength of King James's miracle 3-pointer with 1 sec. left.

The switch of brand names with the respective cities well illustrates the nonpareil level of neck-in-neck competition.

But soft, a front-runner slowly emergeth.

Denver Nuggets 52, Los Angeles Lakers 48 at halftime.

Lakers are lookin' like a team in transition again, as in finding themselves, not game phase only. Hinges a lot on getting Bynum un-sulky and effective again, particularly being a stalwart defensive presence with blocks and rebounds.

Continue reading "NBA Final 4 Rock Equally Hard -- Lakers Step Out First"

95-80, Houston. These effin' (s)La(c)kers are getting on my nerves. 40 pt. winning landslide followed by Kobe and the Anemia Drips. As the coach noted, Jekyll-Hyde. Question: Who's the winner, Killer Hyde, or Mild Doc Jekyll? One of those bad means good, good means bad conundrums.

A quick glance at the box score and you see those other fellers besides Kobester (32 pts.) apparently thought their previous efforts counted in this game. Only Farmar's 13 pts. in 21 mins. off bench sparked. No wonder Kobe was sober and cautionary after Game 5, noting they weren't playing "chumps," like he knew it was gonna swing the other damn way again. They closed gap some in 3rd, fell back again in the 4th.

Now, the Celtics last year had at least two 7-game battles on their hands, and it didn't hurt them. This year, Garnett-less, they're heading into second 7th game,

Continue reading "Round 2, Game 6, Lakers Fail to Seal the Deal; Orlando Wins"

Lakers fans got the present they wanted for Christmas, a strong play-off intensity caliber performance from the home team vs. born-again nemesis, the defending champs Boston Celtics riding an all-time NBA best 27-2 record into L.A.

Hard-fought throughout, the Lakers exhibited the required mental and physical toughness down the stretch, a close-out defense that was rewarded with a 92-83 victory. The clamp-down was highlighted by stand-out blocks and scoring from Pau Gasol. 7 of his 20 pts. came in the final three minutes.

As usual, Kobe Bryant led all scorers with 27 pts., w/9 rebounds and 5 assists.

Lamar Odom surprised with back-to-back 3-pt. shots in the final quarter.

Andrew Bynum contributed key blocked shots in the game and 9 pts., making his presence felt, especially on D, making it clear he was a key missing factor in last year's Finals meltdown.

Continue reading "Christmas Gift: Lakers 92, Celtics 83"

After struggling against lesser teams to stop a two-game slide, the Lakers looked like the defending Western Conference champs they are in winning handily against last year's and possibly this year's #2 seed, the New Orleans Hornets.

As perennial prime pistol Kobe Bryant noted, the Lakers match up especially well against the Hornets.

Team D was key as it will have to be to defeat upper echelon teams, and especially if they meet their born-again nemesis the Celtics in the Finals -- admittedly quite a was off. Those Celtics are cruisin' along at a monster 27-2, while the Lakers improved their West-leading record to 23-5.

The Lakers got on top early against the Hornets and stayed ahead, weathering a late surge to win handily.

Continued staunch D is all they need, particularly in the wake of a recent knee injury to Jordan Farmar, necessitating an 8-wk. surgery sidelining.

Continue reading "Lakers Sting Hornets 100-87"

Nobody expected another blow-out over Spain, but the Spanish team did hang around and push the United States to the limit, perhaps more than anticipated.

Kobe and LeBron were in early foul trouble, and D Wade was the most conspicuous spark for our U.S. team in the 1st half.

Chris Bosh made some key free-throws in the 2nd half, even as Dwight Howard was throwin' up bricks at the charity stripe.

Spain is a wily team and repeatedly broke down the U.S.A. defense, behind the Gasol brothers, Pau and Marc. Fernandez was another stand-out.

It took the whole dang game, but the U.S. all-stars did prevail, as Kobe stepped-up with key defense and shots, the exclamation point coming with a 3-point shot on which he was fouled, his subsequent free-throw making it a 4-point play, spelling the beginning of the end for the Spanish Nationals.

Continue reading "USA Guts Out Gold, Beats Spain 118-107, Behind Wade & Bryant"

I didn't tune in Game 5 till midway through the 3rd quarter, in fan protest of schizoid nature of Game 4 loss.

It was 62-62, when I tuned in. When I found out the Lakers had been ahead by 19 pts., and had again blown a big early lead, I was doubly glad I tuned in when I did.

Home boyz survived this time though. Finally won a 3rd quarter to lead by 9 going into 4th.

Pushing back when they were caught by Celtics, and balanced scoring was the key. That, and a huge Kobe Bryant steal with time running out.

103-98 Lakers, at the buzzer.

Now, still trailing 3-2 in series, L.A. still faces a history-defying challenge in Boston to win Game 6, then 7.

Phil Jackson says his team is "young and dumb enough" to beat the odds.

Tune in Tuesday to see how it plays out.

Continue reading "Oddly Redundant Lakers Survive Game 5"

Odom-eter: Aggressive to the hoop, excellent passes, rebounds, even jumpers. Welcome back, Lamar!

Kobe facilitating like crazy, grinning early.

35-14 lead after 1st quarter is biggest early Finals lead ever.

Trevor Arriza big off the bench, offensive and defensive effort.

58-40 Lakers over Celtics, halftime.

Then Lamar and the home boyz went home but left their golem bodies on the floor to host a surreal debacle.

I don't specifically remember the floor crumbling to the center of the earth, or effort per se ceasing, but some sort of timequake resulted in Phil Jackson talking to Ms. Tacoya re L.A.'s lead being trimmed to 2 to start the 4th quarter, sayin' dry-jokingly that he's not sure what happened either. Then he said they'd get their groove back. Well, not really. And I'm starting to wonder if Phil's vaunted Zen equanimity has turned to senility.

Continue reading "Wealthy Attention-Deficit-Disordered Jocks Blow Biggest Early Lead in NBA Finals History"

It wasn't pretty, but SuperKobe (36 pts.), young gun Vujacic (20 pts.), and a tougher Gasol (only 9 pts., but 5 down the stretch, and 12 rebounds)  produced an 87-81 Lakers victory over the visiting Celtics. The Lakers were only 21-34 at the charity stripe, or the winning margin would have been greater.

Odom-eter reads: early foul trouble, broodingly M.I.A., and lacking the subtle touch even when he did manage to drive well to the hole. Finish, Lamar!

And Radmanovic had similar woes, re foul trouble and scoring.

D-Fish had a few key moments, but only scored 6.

Ray Allen was the Celtics offense, while Pierce and Garnett struggled, but there's little doubt they'll produce more in Game 4 -- ditto Odom, D-Fish, Radmanovic for the home boyz, though.

Look for the Lakers to tie the series 2-2 Thursday.

Continue reading "Lakers Pull Out Ragged Game 3 of Finals"

OK, Lakers, doin' good -- just don't spot the Spurs 20 pts. next outing, and you'll be fine. Those tough cowpokes may be old, but don't tempt fate with a 1st half rope-a-dope again.

Get yer young guns blazin' earlier, and take care of this classic Western Conference Finals business at the OK (as in Odom/Kobe, w/plenty of Pau power) Corral. This is the match-up I predicted, though New Orleans made it interesting.

Over in the East, I was wrong about Orlando, who looked stronger in the 1st round, but still right about Boston lookin' a bit vulnerable for all their exalted won-loss record. Goin' 7 with Atlanta still seems preposterous. Goin' 7 again with Cleveland a lot more understandable, since they are defending Eastern Conference champs. Now, the Pistons have finally knocked 'em off their invincible-at-home perch, so they'd better shake out of their can't-win-on-the-road play-off rut, if they expect to prevail over the Pistons.

Continue reading "SMOKIN' AT THE OK CORRAL"