NAIR
MuscleChemistry Registered Member
By KEVIN DING
LOS ANGELES — The worst thing any playoff-qualifying team can feel is successful based on regular-season overachievement.
When it gets hard in the playoffs, as it assuredly will, that sense of satisfaction morphs into the grim reaper. The fleeting, subconscious thought: "It has been a great season," means a sigh gets exhaled when teeth absolutely need to be gritted to survive.
Maybe – just maybe – if a team is experienced enough to guard against human nature, then the damage from such a letdown can be somewhat mitigated.
Except the Oklahoma City Thunder is the NBA's youngest team.
Not the youngest playoff team. The youngest team.
So it'll be over fast, a trap door suddenly opening under the Thunder's currently happy but toddler-sized feet.
The Lakers will sweep the Thunder.
Serious basketball pundits everywhere are questioning the Lakers. Local Chicken Littles are running around and nervously glancing up at the sky. Those two worlds have collided and resulted in yolk falling on the heads of Ron Artest and DJ Mbenga.
Nevertheless, the Lakers have nothing to fear for now. Long, lean Kevin Durant will turn out to be the longest straw the Lakers could've drawn. The defending NBA champs will get plenty of time to rest their boo-boos and improve in practice before having to be truly playoff-ready in the second round.
Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant have had some very nice things to say about the Thunder, and why not? What Oklahoma City has done is impressive, wonderful and inspiring — hence the sense of satisfaction at more than doubling the victory total from last season. (Just bear in mind when considering last season, though: That's how recently the Thunder was so bad it lost 14 consecutive games. Just sayin', you don't solve this puzzle overnight.)
Jackson has mellowed some with old age. He doesn't feel the need to spew arrogance as if sprayed from an aerosol can before opening the actual can of whup-assist.
But he knows as well as he ever did that players and teams who aren't ready to win in the playoffs invariably walk away realizing they weren't ready. Despite all his recent praise of the Thunder, when asked what his directive will be entering a series against such an untested team, Jackson gave the can a little shake.
"Win as quickly as possible," he said. "Apply the pressure and take advantage."
Jackson also began hammering together his own obstacle for Durant, starting up with propaganda that questioned the basis for Durant leading the league in free throws. Durant will have enough trouble getting to his spots on the floor when Ron Artest knows what they all are and is too strong to let Durant get there.
Meanwhile, Bryant will either get to roam on defense against a poor-shooting off guard – what Bryant does best on D – or the Lakers will give Russell Westbrook, a non-shooting point guard, the Rajon Rondo treatment and see how Westbrook can get into the paint if Bryant is standing in front of him with a five-yard cushion.
Durant and Westbrook are Oklahoma City's best players, and they're both 21. The third- and fourth-leading scorers are Jeff Green and James Harden, who have a combined four years in the NBA. The Thunder has no playoff pedigree whatsoever except for scant minutes scraped together by Nick Collison, Nenad Krstic and Thabo Sefolosha.
There's simply no chance the Thunder's players show poise, and the way they wilted late in the season when home-court advantage became a real possibility to win was just a preview of coming-apart attractions.
Their finish Sunday at Golden State was a full-fledged horror flick: They blew a 20-point lead because they first failed to value possessions – so critical in playoff ball – and then flat-out choked once they sensed the pressure of needing to win to move out of eighth place in the West. They wound up all wanting so badly to throw the ball to Durant so he could save them it deteriorated into a bad game of dodgeball.
The Thunder sneaked up on teams this season and almost never went beyond the flickering spotlight of Fox Sports Oklahoma and KSBI/Channel 52. (ESPN did add the Memphis-Oklahoma City season finale Wednesday night to give the Thunder a little trial national run.) Meanwhile, the Lakers have been to the NBA Finals the past two seasons and have dealt with every regular-season opponent coming at them with full force.
What comes next is the Lakers welcoming the Thunder to their big-game world, where easy transition baskets don't just come along like wind gusts and all the friends and family in town for the playoff excitement combine with your fans to make even the home games surprisingly pressure-packed.
If you know what you're doing, it's deeply fulfilling to succeed in this world.
If you're just happy to be there, you won't be for long.
LOS ANGELES — The worst thing any playoff-qualifying team can feel is successful based on regular-season overachievement.
When it gets hard in the playoffs, as it assuredly will, that sense of satisfaction morphs into the grim reaper. The fleeting, subconscious thought: "It has been a great season," means a sigh gets exhaled when teeth absolutely need to be gritted to survive.
Maybe – just maybe – if a team is experienced enough to guard against human nature, then the damage from such a letdown can be somewhat mitigated.
Except the Oklahoma City Thunder is the NBA's youngest team.
Not the youngest playoff team. The youngest team.
So it'll be over fast, a trap door suddenly opening under the Thunder's currently happy but toddler-sized feet.
The Lakers will sweep the Thunder.
Serious basketball pundits everywhere are questioning the Lakers. Local Chicken Littles are running around and nervously glancing up at the sky. Those two worlds have collided and resulted in yolk falling on the heads of Ron Artest and DJ Mbenga.
Nevertheless, the Lakers have nothing to fear for now. Long, lean Kevin Durant will turn out to be the longest straw the Lakers could've drawn. The defending NBA champs will get plenty of time to rest their boo-boos and improve in practice before having to be truly playoff-ready in the second round.
Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant have had some very nice things to say about the Thunder, and why not? What Oklahoma City has done is impressive, wonderful and inspiring — hence the sense of satisfaction at more than doubling the victory total from last season. (Just bear in mind when considering last season, though: That's how recently the Thunder was so bad it lost 14 consecutive games. Just sayin', you don't solve this puzzle overnight.)
Jackson has mellowed some with old age. He doesn't feel the need to spew arrogance as if sprayed from an aerosol can before opening the actual can of whup-assist.
But he knows as well as he ever did that players and teams who aren't ready to win in the playoffs invariably walk away realizing they weren't ready. Despite all his recent praise of the Thunder, when asked what his directive will be entering a series against such an untested team, Jackson gave the can a little shake.
"Win as quickly as possible," he said. "Apply the pressure and take advantage."
Jackson also began hammering together his own obstacle for Durant, starting up with propaganda that questioned the basis for Durant leading the league in free throws. Durant will have enough trouble getting to his spots on the floor when Ron Artest knows what they all are and is too strong to let Durant get there.
Meanwhile, Bryant will either get to roam on defense against a poor-shooting off guard – what Bryant does best on D – or the Lakers will give Russell Westbrook, a non-shooting point guard, the Rajon Rondo treatment and see how Westbrook can get into the paint if Bryant is standing in front of him with a five-yard cushion.
Durant and Westbrook are Oklahoma City's best players, and they're both 21. The third- and fourth-leading scorers are Jeff Green and James Harden, who have a combined four years in the NBA. The Thunder has no playoff pedigree whatsoever except for scant minutes scraped together by Nick Collison, Nenad Krstic and Thabo Sefolosha.
There's simply no chance the Thunder's players show poise, and the way they wilted late in the season when home-court advantage became a real possibility to win was just a preview of coming-apart attractions.
Their finish Sunday at Golden State was a full-fledged horror flick: They blew a 20-point lead because they first failed to value possessions – so critical in playoff ball – and then flat-out choked once they sensed the pressure of needing to win to move out of eighth place in the West. They wound up all wanting so badly to throw the ball to Durant so he could save them it deteriorated into a bad game of dodgeball.
The Thunder sneaked up on teams this season and almost never went beyond the flickering spotlight of Fox Sports Oklahoma and KSBI/Channel 52. (ESPN did add the Memphis-Oklahoma City season finale Wednesday night to give the Thunder a little trial national run.) Meanwhile, the Lakers have been to the NBA Finals the past two seasons and have dealt with every regular-season opponent coming at them with full force.
What comes next is the Lakers welcoming the Thunder to their big-game world, where easy transition baskets don't just come along like wind gusts and all the friends and family in town for the playoff excitement combine with your fans to make even the home games surprisingly pressure-packed.
If you know what you're doing, it's deeply fulfilling to succeed in this world.
If you're just happy to be there, you won't be for long.
