Having reached the championship round of the NBA season, I’m clearly salivating at the prospect of a Boston-LA match-up. And I’m not alone. While another comprehensive preview will follow shortly, it’s important to preface that with a few musings on a few other things related to how the two teams got to where they sit now. Lest my preview end up being a 10,000 word thesis.
The Lakers managed to squeeze by the Suns in 6 games thanks to a man by the name of Kobe Bryant. He has been ridiculously good in this year’s playoff run, scoring 30+ in 10 of his last 11 games while averaging 5 rebounds and 6 assists as well. He’s conveniently remembered the art of getting his team mates involved, which as you may remember from my playoff preview, was cited as a potential downfall of the Lakers. Nevertheless, he’s lived up to his billing as not only the best player but the best closer in the NBA.
His performance in game 6 in Phoenix, where LA had lost their last 11 playoff games, was ethereal. His 37 points, including 9 points in the last 4 minutes of the game, anchored the Lakers. He hit shot after shot in the face of some suffocating defence – not just by Phoenix’ standards – in the process sucking the life out of the Suns. Steve Nash was excellent in the last 2 games of the series, but even he was powerless to stop their season ending early. For the record, Kobe’s numbers in the conference finals were 33 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds.
In the end, the Suns’ season will be ultimately remembered as exceeding expectations. If they can retain Amare Stoudemire and Grant Hill, and get Steve Nash’s twilight years to be extended, they will be that much better for it. That said, this season’s Western Conference felt a little underdone come playoff time, and the Suns capitalised. For example, the Denver Nuggets coach battled cancer for half the season including the playoffs, the Portland Trailblazers were without Brandon Roy and their two first choice centres entering the playoffs, the Utah Jazz were without 2 of their key cogs for the majority of their run, while the Dallas Mavericks changed half of their roster at the trade deadline. Add the fact that the Oklahoma City Thunder will be better next year with some playoff experience while the Houston Rockets will be retooled and Yao will be healthy again (maybe), and the West becomes stacked again. And that doesn’t even take into account the San Antonio Spurs.
Where does all this lead? This was the best chance the Suns had to get to the finals again – when the expectations were low and the competition was in flux – and they still couldn’t do it. If the window wasn’t closed before, it must be barely ajar right now. That said, expectations may be considerably lowered again next season; exactly how they like it.
