Phelam 1-2-3

Shapecity · Jun 11, 2009

ORLANDO They want to get their hands on that darned NBA championship trophy so badly that it’s like watching a frustrated Homer Simpson trying to wring the neck of an uncooperative Bart.

The agony of Pau Gasol and despair of Kobe Bryant after their key late-game turnover Wednesday night was such that you would’ve thought the Lakers were down, 2-0, in the series instead of up.

Lamar Odom, who couldn’t sleep the night before Game 3 because his mind kept peppering him with daydreams of winning plays, tried not to be too disappointed. Odom deflected the criticism of Bryant, saying: “He’s one guy I want to be in a foxhole with every time.”

On Thursday afternoon after practice, Derek Fisher described the stress this way: “It’s high, but it’s manageable.”

Yet Fisher’s more telling quote was what he said he’s doing during these NBA Finals: “Constantly, constantly, constantly thinking about what I can do to prepare for the game and help us win.”

Sensing something even more oppressive than the humidity in the air, Phil Jackson told his players upon returning to the hotel after practice that everyone would reconvene downstairs to catch the team bus again at 7:30 p.m. Attendance was mandatory.

And come nightfall, Jackson lifted his team out of this foxhole, freed them from the constant, constant, constant stress … and took them to the movies.

The Lakers watched “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3,” Denzel Washington’s new thriller and a mainstream flick that could serve as escapism for one and all. Without worrying about how the next ball might bounce, they bonded as a team – detaching the players from their distracting families who are allowed on this one NBA Finals trip of the season.

It was watching film, but not the type to remind Trevor Ariza to stay in Hedo Turkoglu’s face and to make sure Andrew Bynum is always attached to Dwight Howard’s body.

It wasn’t the Jackson-endorsed meditation that Bryant acknowledged Wednesday he has been using in recent years, yet it was still a mind-cleanser.

The reporters assembled from around the globe for the NBA Finals were busy Wednesday night at their own event – the NBA hosted a media party at Disney World – so Jackson didn’t have to worry about most reporters finding out about this private diversion the way many tailed Jackson’s Chicago Bulls on their 1994 playoff ride on the Staten Island Ferry.

No, it wasn’t as exciting an adventure as Jackson’s 2004 Lakers paintball game on a Honolulu military base. And given how Jackson derided Orlando years ago “a plastic city,” he couldn’t exactly do something like his 2007 bus tour of Washington, D.C., monuments.

So with Denzel’s help – and surely he is glad to help, given he has Lakers season tickets right across from the team’s bench – the Lakers at least for the moment escaped to New York, where Washington’s movie about the hijacking of a subway train is set.

The Lakers have seen movies together before. This was different.

The idea is that the team can return to reality today more refreshed to embrace its date with destiny. It was in Game 4 of the NBA Finals last year that the Lakers blew it in cataclysmic style, losing a 24-point lead to go down, 3-1, to Boston.

With this Game 4, they can push Orlando into the same subterranean hole, and they should – as long as they are ready in their minds to win and not so afraid to lose.

They have proved to be an outstanding team when coming off defeats: 6-0 this postseason the next times they take the court, including road victories in Utah and Denver to seize control of those series.

And now, the shiny Larry O’Brien Trophy is indeed there, just two steps away – except Bryant’s scowls of frustration and Gasol’s shoulder slumps of fatigue don’t actually move their feet any closer.

This confident Lakers team so obsessed with the championship since losing last June needed to take a deep breath, relax and just be the better team.

Can’t imagine Red Auerbach, whom Jackson will leave behind upon winning this 10th NBA coaching championship, would have ever dealt with a team problem by taking everyone to the movies. It’s Jackson’s unique Zen methodology, and yet again, it’s as good as gold.
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Source: OCRegister

huevonkiller · Jun 11, 2009

Works for me.

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Phelam 1-2-3

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