Even those who bet on MLB baseball had one eye on the NBA playoffs, where the Los Angeles Lakers were looking to win their third straight championship, but their season ended in a horrible and humiliating fashion as the Lakers were swept by Dallas, culminating in an embarrassing 36-point trouncing at the hands of the Mavericks. It was a series that had many Lakers fans wondering where their team goes from here, but they know they’ll have to do it without their head coach, and that could be just the beginning of a massive upheaval in Los Angeles. All season, the Lakers have been inconsistent, but many thought that they would be able to find another gear when the playoffs started, including Kobe Bryant, whose main defense of this season has been, “wait until the postseason”. However, the Lakers struggled to get past a New Orleans team who were missing David West and led by Chris Paul and a few players who used to toil in Toronto for the lowly Raptors. Therefore, if you followed NBA scores closely, you would’ve seen that the Lakers were going to have trouble against the Mavericks. However, the Lakers let a 16-point lead slip away at home in Game 1 to lose by two, and it was all downhill from there as the Lakers were thumped by 12 in Game 2, they lost by six in Game 3, and then there was the Game 4 debacle highlighted by ejections for Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum, who hit the Mavericks with cheap shots, and Bynum in particular should expect a suspension when the next NBA season gets underway. Whenever that season starts (remember, the NBA looks headed towards a lockout), you shouldn’t need a 5dimes review to tell you that the Lakers will look different. Phil Jackson is retiring, which means the Lakers will have a new coach for the first time since 2004, when he took a year off. Most close to him, including Bryant, say this is for good….this time. The Lakers may look to split up the duo of Pau Gasol and Bynum, who has been mentioned in trade bait for Orlando’s Dwight Howard, the biggest free agent of next summer, and the Magic may be looking to get something back after seeing what Denver pulled in from New York for trading Carmelo Anthony. You could argue that no one outside of Bryant is untouchable, and the Lakers could even make a move for Chris Paul as they badly need an upgrade at point guard, where Derek Fisher can’t keep up with the top points in the league. However you slice it, the next edition of the Lakers are going to look very different from the team that has spent the last few years near the top of the list in your online sportsbook.
