Return to Reality
With only a little more than thirty games remaining in the regular season. The question now becomes more pertinent: are they going to make number two?
And it is in these times that things are more doubtful. The Lakers have given up the lead to the Cavaliers, with whom they lost all games already. The schedule will strike the other end of the scale, as they will be going on various eight-to-ten day road trips. Kobe still isn't playing a hundred percent, and we can't say that everything will be alright, because, obviously, the team is on the verge of facing its own demons and rebuilding itself as a team. Those are the true woes of the Lakers for this part of the story.
And we need not answer with statistical probabilities, as these are still mere abstracted potencies that do not really show us anything about a genuinely good Lakers game. What we need now are things that are REALLY needed, things that should be evident by now and consistently seen in the following games. And maybe, they could teach us a lesson or two in life.
1.Passion is a must, and it seems that the Lakers have lost this save for Kobe Bryant. They need to keep the flame alive and the constant hunger for the trophy more intense than before. The problem with the Lakers is that they slack off and refuse to squarely handle pressure. They must be aware that all of them play a significant role in the Lakers offense, and once one goes soft, the team would eventually break down. They have to seize all scoring opportunities, shoot less and attack the basket more. Furthermore, the bench should either try keeping the lead or increasing it. A face-down defeat is a huge win, and they must bring it on. Basketball is just about bringing the ball from one side of the court to the other, and making a basket with much intimidation brings out the difference.
2.Maximizing each and every one's skills and capabilities would be important in clinching the crown. The big men should assert their presence in the paint on both sides of the court. For this Lakers team, efficient scoring and tight defense would be the simple key to a huge victory. Never should there be a moment that those in the court should take lightly. Penetrating and drawing fouls have been, I think, what the Lakers missed for the past games this month. And they should already mark the paint with "No Trespassing" by playing inside defense, while focusing sights on the snipers that could shoot the ball from beyond the "arc d'trey." Awareness of skills and situations is a primary concern if they really want to reach the light at the end of this dark tunnel.
3.The right combinations make the right game, and yes, there is such a thing as putting the right people in the court. This calls for the bench to step up and play like the starters do most of the time. Once everyone is able to get the rhythm of the game, shooting and defending would never be a problem. Passes, strong side zones, and the ability to initiate the triangle with varying and switching roles that lead to an easy basket become our own measuring sticks of team chemistry, and if in
4.Give Kobe Bryant some air to breathe. He keeps the team alive in tight situations, but his teammates should, too. Pau and L.O. are the ones that lead the forefront in these times. Once they fall or go soft, then everything is bound to fall apart. They must keep their heads up and learn to play as real big men. Honestly, Drew can't be fully trusted, but now is the time to earn the trust of his teammates on both sides of the court. Ron Artest needs to step up more in terms of offense, and the bench duo of Brown and Farmar should make the most out of their minutes. Remember that the team is as strong as its weakest player (and I mean Ammo and Sasha, but they don't really matter that much… or until Kobe will be out for a few games), so there is a need to go together, to work problems out together, to act as if Kobe Bryant is not the superstar, to go with each other's flow. Once this is done, once each one as a team member achieved the Ubermensch status, this Laker team will not make it in the Finals.
The Lakers still have time left, and these remaining games are not about "just" winning. It is winning… with an attitude, an attitude that kills, devours, and reduces opponents to nothing, a kind of attitude that becomes a part of their very own character that they will bring to the 2010 NBA Finals. And if they were able to end the decade with their second straight trophy, then the basketball prophets who try to make sense of what it means to be a legend might just have succeeded in doing so.
Postscript: Life Is A Laker Game. Play It.
I admit that this is a discussion that is out of the boxes of basketball analysis, but then, my continuous encounter with the current Lakers team brings about a double-binding, towards a synthetic view of two realities that occur to me from within and without. In watching a Lakers game, seeing the box score, or just reading about how the network of Lakers fans comment about the win (with some dissing those who diss the Lakers or Kobe), it seems that this basketball team does not only present itself as a product of history. More than that, it presents itself as a hermeneutical key, that which could be used to interpret and make sense of existence as a whole. It brings together history and existence, and this insight could not just be left alone in the corner of the mind. It must be shared, expressed, and given meaning.
See life as a regular season game, where in every morning that I wake up and start my day, it's just like every regular season game taken seriously. I carry with the present me the past that I have been, the present world I am immersed in, the present circumstances that present themselves to me, and the future that I hope that achieve, a future that might just be as promising as I expect it to be. In each day I find myself living, I find myself preparing for the jump ball, for the ball to be in my hands, and attack my way towards the basket.
In every day I live, I am always situated in the court, like I could never get out of it. And, as complicated as being in the court one can be, life is, as always. I go there with a certain attitude, a kind of mentality in playing my game. I have my own style, my own flow, my own moves. It is up to me to execute one of the three options: shoot, pass, or dribble. I may choose to dribble past life, to overcome the many hands , feet, and faces of the brick walls of problems, to have the courage to drive through them. I may choose to pass, to decenter attention from my self and ask help from my teammates in order to reach my objective. Or I may shoot, to go for the basket, carrying all my strength and determination to covert a score. Whatever I do, it is towards one end: to convert opportunities into achievements, to bring together individual moments and integrate it to this whole called life.
Eventually, I have to get to the other side of the court, to play D, to not let opponents get past me. In me requires strength, toughness, and determination. With all the storms that faze life, one can only do is to prepare and be on guard. And if the opportunity to make something out of it comes up, then come and grab the board, and take another chance of seizing life, to bring the ball to the basket once again.
In the end, it boils down to playing the game. Sometimes, we win and celebrate, but there are times that we lose and feel the need to get over it. But then, what is important is the way one played the game, that each win and loss was a great game from the very start. Ultimately, it is passion that sets everything, much like what would set the Lakers this year. It is that which will bring us to the Finals, and ultimately, to the everyday glories that we long for.
And if we fail? We learn to let be. Learn from the lessons. Move on. Strive to live a better life, never denying it from any opportunity to prove oneself. After all, it is in doing such that defeats become parts of our success after all.
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