Sources: Stern ordered the Lakers to lose that game.

Exactly why those teams must advance (in Stern's eyes), and therefore should not meet in the first round if at all possible.

 

I am hearing that Kobe is going to rape someone again.

But that's just what I am hearing.

 

He says that after every loss; why do you think Stern lets them win so much? He's just doing the world a favor.

 

About both teams tanking--I got a couple more things to get off my tremendously muscular, hairy chest. Why have the Lakers lost 6 of their last 9 games? And just to ice the cake to ensure more losses in their remaining 2 games, Kobe will sit out against the Kings and the Clippers. In 17 days, they have dropped from 53-18 (.746) to 56-24 (.700) and will drop to 56-26 (.683) after this week's tough back-to-back.

Similarly, look at the Blazers horrible streak lately. How can a team as good as us have played only .500 ball for so long? That's right, we've been .500 since way back after the Clippers game. Does anyone remember the Clippers game? If you can't place it you're in good company, showing how long our .500 play has gone. If this draft had an Oden I'd be suspicious.

 

To throw the game. Kobe laughed with Phil drew up the play. Pau admits to never shooting threes in practice. Kobe had just hit a clutch three. Why wouldn't Phil have gone back to him? The game was thrown, plain anfd simple. There's no way this shit would've happened in a playoff game.

 

To let the public know that a Lakers-Blazers series will be exciting and worth watching.

 

It WAS strange that Kobe was laughing about the loss throughout the press conference. If a coach wanted to lose a game without directly telling his players to do so (he wouldn't tell them directly because at least one would talk, maybe years later when he wrote his memoir) then the coach would do it the way Jackson did--by inventing a weird play that was bound to fail because they had never practiced it.

Why is no one talking about how we were behind the entire 1st half, then it was announced at halftime that Roy wouldn't return, so it looked like curtains for us, then early in the 3rd we promptly took the lead and never gave it up? During this time Kobe was passing it instead of shooting it. Pretty strange how the Lakers sucked without our star in the game. Our bench of Webster and Rudy, who have sucked for so long, suddenly looked good. Hmm...

The obvious motive is staring us in the face--the Lakers don't want us in the 1st round because they keep losing to us. We wanted to lose the game so we could face them, so suddenly Roy gets an injury that no one saw. How convenient, the loss of Roy loses us tonight's OKC game, too, still trying to play the Lakers after we blew the Sunday game by winning it.

 

Nothing says NBA excitement like missing 3 of 4 free throws down the stretch.

Americans won't be able to contain themselves.

 

Stern is going to get involved in this huge conspiracy paln so he can get some hype going between a #8 and a #1 seed?

 

I heard all of this before I read Lakersground.

 

I don't know maybe because he knew he'd be double and tripled team??

Also after he told Kobe to miss the foul shots I guess he should have told the team not to rebound the ball too?

 

Yes. Most people would take a Lakers first round win for granted. Now, the world will be tuned in. I hope we overcome the refs tonight, though. I want 50 wins.

 

And I sure also that Phil didn't care that they drop a game behind the Cavs for home court which they will probably lose now but if they had won and finish out would have had the tie breaker. Ya, that doesn't matter.

 

They would rather laugh and make light of the loss rather than face how bad they are playing. They don't want it to be real, they still think they can just turn it on.

Hopefully it wasn't just them playing bad, the Blazers had something to do with it.

 

The Cavs clinched homecourt over a week ago. And no, the Lakers don't have the tiebreaker over Cleveland. Cleveland swept the Lakers this season.

 

Well if Stern can fix a weekend game on ABC, then fixing a game on Monday night that isn't televised nationally should be a piece of cake. Right? Especially if Stern went through all the trouble of fixing a nationally televise game the day before.

 

My mistake, I meant Orlando for 2nd place.

 

Ah, yes. Clearly, the Lakers didn't care about that. That's why the play was drawn up for a guy who hasn't made a three all season.