.... and man, for all the complaining about Sheed not being aggressive in his career, he was incredibly aggressive in this game. Going down low on every possession, posting up on every possession and calling for the ball. And in the 4th quarter, he got good looks and some of them went in and out. Bonzi had a three that went in and out too. It's just unfortunate. We probably should've gone to Smith a bit more in the 4th because he was owning the Lakers in the 3rd. Sheed's major downfall, though, was missing the two freethrows, but even then, he eventually got a score down low and then hit the three to keep us in it. And then the refs screwed us when Smith was fouled and they didn't call it. Sure, it sucks we lost, but it was two of the great teams of all time, I believe, and one of them had to lose. Sadly, it was us.
I wonder how that series would've turned out if we'd had Larry Brown as our coach. What people tend to forget, given the Blazers' horrific 4th quarter meltdown, is how bad of a meltdown the Lakers had had to get to that point. They were 3-1 up and we were supposed to be dead in the water. Then the Blazers brought it to 3-3, and 15 points up in the last quarter... If we could've pulled it off, they would've been the biggest chokers. Instead...
Exactly. THEY were the one's that were having the meltdown. They escaped the meltdown thanks to a couple threes by Brian Shaw and won a series that they, at 67-15 with the league's MVP and HCA, were favored to win. You gotta give us credit for fighting our way back into the series.
Why would anyone choose to watch that debacle a second time? I'd rather jump off the roof of my office building.
I loved how exciting and meaningful that game was. We haven't had a game that exciting and meaningful since Game 7 vs Dallas in 2003.
+1. I only watched that game once (I was on a flight...boarded with 3 minutes left in the game) and it was a trick by some Laker fan friends of mine to get me to watch it.
I have no desire to ever watch that again. I remember it vividly. It's burned in to my brain. Watching it again could be suicidal.
The toughest part for me is that I had tickets to two of the NBA Finals games in Portland, if the Blazers had won. Argh.
It still hurts too much to watch. Once we win a playof series maybe I'll be able to go back and look at it. I sure wonder how that offseason would have gone if we won. Would Brian Grant have left? Would we have traded anybody? Maybe we would've won a title the next year and the Lakers would have been the franchise to implode. Or maybe ultimately very little would have been different.
The reason, I think, that the 2000 Game 7 collapse was so painful for long-time Blazer fans, other than the obvious, is that, up 15 with 10 minutes to go, us long-suffering Blazer fans who lived through the '78 injury disaster, the mediocre 80s, the oh-so-close but no cigar seasons of '90 and '92, Cliff's dropped pass in '91, the white-hot finishes in the late 90s only to first-round flame-out... we actually dropped our cynicism and let ourselves BELIEVE that the Blazers were going to win it all. Because let's face it... Indiana wasn't shit that year. The Blazers would have snotfucked them just like the Lakers did. But... just when we let our guard down... they ripped our hearts out. Again. I remember just walking around in a fog for the next few days after that.
Exactly. At one point early in the 4th, I was literally celebrating the NBA Championship. All we had to do was swap baskets in the 4th quarter which we were dominating, and the trophy was ours. It seemed so inevitable. Easily the most painful sports experience of my life.
After that game I had to go to my girlfriends birthday party here in LA. All night everyone was going on and on about how lucky they were, couldn't believe they won it, we dominated them etc etc etc. It just made me more depressed. I would have rather they take the piss out of me all night. Kingspeed why the FUCK did you start this thread?
