<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Two teams seemingly headed in opposite directions meet in the next- to-last game of the season at the Arena in Oakland tonight, but, to the surprise of almost everyone, it's the Warriors who appear on the upswing and the Lakers on a downward slide. Even Derek Fisher, who played eight years for the Lakers, including the chaotic 2003-2004 season that was a soap opera starring Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson, didn't see it coming. "I knew I wanted to get out of L. A. after the season because it just wasn't a good situation for me, with no coach, Shaq gone and nobody knowing what Kobe was going to do," said Fisher, who signed with the Warriors as a free agent in July. "But I didn't have great expectations when I came here. I thought it would eventually be good, because I had faith in Chris Mullin as a general manager and Mike Montgomery as a coach, but I knew it would take a while. "Early in the season, we were working hard, but we weren't winning, so it's nice that we're being rewarded now with some wins. "I think we are starting to build something here. People don't know how hard it is to build a championship team in the NBA. They look at what the Lakers did, but they forget the years before that when we didn't win a championship. "We still need some pieces to get to that championship level, but we've made a lot of progress this season." Meanwhile, the Lakers are going downhill. Though they still have a slightly better record than the Warriors, 34-46 compared to 32-48, the Lakers have lost 17 of their last 19, while the Warriors have won 12 of their last 16. </div> Source
That game was just horrible. Down by 40, kobe went 9 for 27... I'm just glad the season's over. Give the lakers the off-season to work on their game and make good with the draft. With kupcakes at the helm though I don't know what good will come but still... As for the warrios on the rise... unlike the Lakers the Warriors still have a long way to go on building up as far as a team goes.
