From what I gleaned last night in LA…I would say minus Austin Reaves late in the game….the Lakers are done. As in finished except for Austin. They quit and the Denver Nuggets remain the Laker’s Daddy to an even greater scale than last season when they swept the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.
A note of caution to you OKC Thunder fans who already have the young Thunder in the NBA Finals…the Nuggets are peaking just right as we hit the goal acheiving portion of the ‘real’ NBA season.
You can hand out a litany of NBA regular season awards like I did last week on my blog, but from now moving forward this is when it matters. This is when we see the real basketball souls of players and coaches alike. As in…who really wants it most, and it appears to me Denver very much wants a repeat on this group’s legacy resume.
Don’t get me wrong, I think when the Thunder keep all their white guys on the bench minus Chet they’re special. But basketball is like life in essence. That being, sometimes you need to fail and get knocked on your ass before you realize what it really takes to acheive your ultimate goal.
And in this case… that goal is simply winning the O’Brien Trophy. Nothing else matters. This is about winning from this point moving forward.
I put this video up this morning because I thout both Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter were special last night on the road. Aaron went for 29 points and 15 rebounds, while Michael hit every clutch shot while Jamal played what I would desribe as a ‘quiet’ game after Monday night’s iconic game winner in Denver.
As a fan of Western Conference basketball it would appear to me we are about to have some incredible matchups in the next round as Denver, OKC, Minnesota, and the winner of the Dallas-Clippers advance to the semi-final round. I mean…this should be must see for real NBA fans. I can’t wait. I’m now in a locked in state of mind here at the blog. Locked and loaded…so to speak. Let’s go.
If you want the white boy baby food Thunder bullshit….this ain’t the place. That place would be the Daily Thunder.
It’s supposed to rain tomorrow in Oklahoma…so I’m going go do my workout early wearing my Jamal Murray jersey and then settle for a double dip of OKC at New Orleans and Boston at Miami.
Have a phenomenal NBA Saturday as the journey continues.
MJ