Currently the Denver Tattoos are on track to meet the Champs in the Conference Finals, unless they stumble on a skid the remaining 4 games and fall all the way to fourth seed, then they'll be meeting in the second round, intriguing. The West map is a mess, with everyone but the Lakers being affected with a single game's outcome, playoff atmosphere is awesome. With the Lakers only needing one game to secure the west, ol' Mamba took the day off yesterday and joined 'Drew on the injured bunch. Zan Master started the "Machine" in his place, WTF, hey he's got 10 titles, I reckon he knows a thing or two about winning, so if Sasha is starting so be it. How that work? On the plus side Lakers bench scored 25 points, best production in a while, of course super sub J.R. scored 26 all by his lonesome. As soon as I head Bryant wasn't playing I thought Phak! a blowout, but then LA had a kind of body language, that made me feel otherwise, alas I was wrong, it was no ass whupping and I was very pleased with the effort but the Champs still came out short. Combined with missed opportunities, both Gasol and Farmar(twice) missed chippies, and bad decisions, Brown stripped JR and threw the ball away in a controversial decision that probably decided the final outcome. It was a bad call by Shannon Brown though, he should of hung on to the ball, the replay showed the refs made the right call, I think so at least. As much as I questioned Fish's bone head decision, keep in mind that before the did go to Gasol and he turned it over. Last but not least, versatile Lamar got his boards but only contributed 5 points on 1/5 shooting. I was glad they didn't give up though and wonder if they scored a mind game victory against the Tattoos in hanging with them without two of their vital components.
Player of the Game: Melo, 31 pts on 20 shots, stayed aggressive and answered Ron Ron's challenge and stuffed Fisher's shot to secure the win.
X-Factor: Denver's 3 point shooting. Nuggets made 11/25 treys including 5 from JR and 1 huge one by Melo to tie in the 4th.
Should Have Been Benched: While Lamar rebounds help, his lack of offense hurt the Lakers, the team needs him to be aggressive can't count how many time this is addressed each season, it is the key factor that has kept him from being a perennial All-Star, his inconsistency. Lackluster performance by LO.
Laker Hater: Yes, JR can score in bunches and he and Jamal Crawford are the clear front runners for 6th man of the year honors. Even so he had not scored over 25 pts in 8 games and reached only 1 time in over a month, plus the fact the he has made it clear he don't think too high of the Lakers earns him the Hater tag this day.
Overtime: JR Smith became the Nuggets all-time 3 point bomber passing small guard Michael Adams, he did it 14 games less that Adams and 179 less attempts, not bad, as mentioned, JR Smith can flat out shoot the three.
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