Three cheers for Monty! I'd like to think he learned all about L*ker hatred being a moral imperative here in Portland. Great win by a terrific coach and even a better guy.
According to basketball-reference.com, all of Phil's failed series included a loss in game 1: 89-90 vs. Pistons 94-95 vs. Magic 02-03 vs. Spurs 03-04 vs. Pistons 05-06 vs. Suns 06-07 vs. Suns 07-08 vs. Celtics EDIT: Ooops -- bad search. Missed a bunch of series. Fixed post to reflect.
I'll say this for Monty: he was prepared to give minutes to Gray and M'Benga and it really paid off. I wish Nate was a bit more flexible. I'd rather see Patty play when Barea is playing than have the team obsess about posting him up. Phil Jackson always experiments with scrubs at some point and sometimes (like against Portland in the last game of the finals in '91) it pays off. Hell, give Armon Johnson a shot against Terry or Barea.
Wow. That's only with the Lakers, though. Didn't the Bulls lose the first game against the Lakers in Jordan's first championship year? Edit: DUH. It's not only with the Lakers. But I was SURE the Bulls lost their first game to Magic's Lakers before winning the next 4.
Chris Paul proving you can be great on only one meniscus. Brandon Roy proving that one is the minimum you need, though.
Kobe is an old 32. He has played heavy minutes since he was 19 years old. A total of 40,145 minutes on those knees and counting.
Ok, got it -- Phil has been an ALMOST even 7-8 in series where he lost game 1. EDIT: Apologies -- missed one more lost series. Final edit, I swear!
I think Monty has the makings of a top flight coach in this league (top 3-5). I was sorry to see him go, but you can't hide a guy that good forever.
Kobe has also been VERY lucky that he's never had any kind of serious injury. How many other players (Brandon Roy) would have had the kind of career Kobe has had if not for injuries.
I think he'll make it 8-7 but the damage will have been done. What the Lakers thought was the perfect series for them to ease into the playoffs won't be so easy after all. They're going to have to fight to beat this SCRAPPY!! Hornets team. Their old legs aren't going to hold up this time. 4 deep runs into the playoffs is just asking for too much. Speaking of that, who here had the stat that no team has ever made it to the conference finals 4 years in a row? It was something like that anyways. Yeah the Lakers are shooting for a 3pt, but they've already been to the finals 3 years in a row. It adds up.
Losing Aaron Gray is going to kill New Orleans, if he hadn't gotten injured I would give hornets are pretty good chance of pulling the upset.
Are you kidding? The best thing we did last night was post up Barea and Terry. That is when we made our run. They didn't come back until Kidd came back in the game. We have effectively taken Barea and Terrry out of the series. If they are in the game, we will punish them every time. That is actually the key to us winning the series.
