It appears to be the theme (apart from 1st Round knee destructions) in these year’s Playoffs. Early in the series, one team goes into the cusp of winning a game, lets it slip away & has people think “There’s no way they’re winning the series after blowing that game.”

Dallas had it happen twice in Games 1&2. First this…

I was too lazy couldn’t find the sequence that had Dirk being the reigning NBA Finals MVP & coaxing the young Thunder into a foul before that play to put the Mavs up by one that would’ve been game. But as it turns out, Marion plays good defense, not allowing KD to go where he originally wanted to, forces him to make that spin and take a tough jumper/floater over his and 7’0 Ian Mahinmi’s outstretched arms. With about 14 feet of arms challenging the shot, it kindly bounces in. That was big, since it would’ve been an entirely different series had the Mavs stolen Game 1 (Plus the stat that have almost 80% of the teams winning Game 1 going on to win the series). But the Mavs were right there again in Game 2 in a back & forth during the final minutes of the game. Down one with less than 30 seconds left, Dirk had his go to one-legged fade tease the rim before bouncing off. So if losing Game 1 wasn’t the series yet, this one did the job. Instead of going back home up 2-0, they’re in a hole teams hardly ever get out off. And really, they never came as close as they did in the first two games again. And that was that, a 1st Round playoff exit for a defending champ. Dunno when that happened last, but it sure feels like a long ass time.

In case you wanna see how close that Dirk fade was to bouncing in, skip to 2:22..

Memphis had home court and came out looking like a really bad matchup for Lob City. Everything was clicking, and they were stifling everything from the other L.A. team. You know what happened next---a college student bets $25 on the Clippers when they were down by 27 (he would’ve won $15,000 right then if the Clips were to come back), the Clippers hit a three to ‘trim’ it down to 24, his friend bets $50 more, and they go on to win $41,000 after an improbable Clipper comeback to steal Game 1. And while the series would go on the full route, in a series that goes the full seven games, you always look back to the one were you let a 27-point lead slip away.

With the Bulls up 12 with just over a minute left, Tom Thibodeau felt like he wanted to let reigning MVP Derrick Rose get valuable end game feel after coming off an injury riddled season. So what happens next?     

Pop. Season over. The three-team Eastern Conference race just lost a contender.

This would’ve been more painful had I realized earlier that the Spurs were a basketball cyborg sent back through time to make fans realize how the game should be played. So knowing what I know now, the loss of my beloved Lakers in Games 2 & 4 in their series against Oklahoma no longer elicits tears.

You know what happened. After getting ass-rammed by the Thunder with a gigantic black dildo in Game 1, the Lakers came into Game 2 looking old & overmatched. So what do they do, they get World Peace in retro defensive form, they control the pace with the play of their two bigs, and they force the flying Thunder into a dog fight. In a game where you seemingly needed three possessions to overcome a three-point lead, the Lakers had a 7-point lead with just over two minutes left. My insides were smiling. After the Game 1 embarrassment, we were going back home with the series tied and with home court advantage. Wrong.

Heart broken. Dreams shattered. But whatever, we had a veteran team & a series don’t start ‘til a team wins on the round. I was doing everything I can to keep believing. You know like a true fan & not some yearly (or worse, ‘roundly’) bandwagoner would.

So the Lakers come into Game 3 learning a few things that worked on defense & knowing what they had to do to have a chance to beat this superior team. Eventually they take Game 3 & had fans thinking, shit---we should’ve been up 2-1. The sentiment went from “Shit, this Thunder team might be too good” to “Shit, we actually stand a chance and should be up in the series right now.” I suppose the Lakers knew as well that they had to drag this team to a dogfight every single time to win. And that’s exactly what they did in Game 4’ controlling the pace, and eventually building a double digit lead halfway into the fourth.

As I was watching this live, I was like “Fuck yea, we’re about to tie the series & have this Oklahoma team coming back home feeling vulnerable even though the series is only tied but we should’ve been up 3-1.” But for the second time in three games, heart broken, dreams shattered. I found myself shaking my head for a full 15 minutes before actually saying a word. That was our season & “another year wasted in Kobe’s life.”

So yea---that’s the “Coulda-Woulda-Shoulda” theme of this year’s Playoffs. As in—The Lakers could’ve had Chris Paul & Dwight Howard playing alongside Kobe. The Black Mamba would’ve had seven rings by now (on the verge of an eighth if the first coulda was real) if Malone wasn’t injured in 2002, and Gasol wasn’t such a gigantic flapping vagina in 2008. The Lakers should’ve beaten the Thunder in the second round for the right to have their asses handed to them by the Spurs in a surgeon’s plate. But no—Duncan & LeBron will meet again in the Finals after 5 years. The Heat will lose back to back Finals. And Duncan will win his 5th ring after winning his first 13 years ago. Damn you, Mayans! 

To help distract from the pain, I’m gonna’ have to take off my purple & gold cloak and try to objective for the first part of this. Look, that was exactly the kind of game (at least for the first 46 minutes) that the Lakers needed and hoped for coming into the series & more so coming off the unleashed floodgates of Game 1. The pace, the defensive rotations, the team pick & roll defense, World Peace imposing his defensive will on the game, Westbrook being virtually non-existent. There were a lot of things that went the Lakers way in Game 2 for 46 minutes, and yet the Thunder still found a way to win. When OKC had things going for them in the series opener, it was a 29-point smack down. That should tell you all you need to know about this matchup.

The media’s narrative coming into Game 2 was how the Lakers appeared to be tuned in by the way everyone was communicating constantly after the Game 1 catastrophe—Bynum & Gasol having an extended talk on the bench long after the buzzer sounded, carrying on to everyone who had a significant role brainstorming right up to the Game 2 tip-off. And it seemed to have done wonders too. Bynum knew exactly when Westbrook was getting ready to pull-up after his penetrations and bothered him enough leading to a 5-17 shooting night; a far cry from his 10-15 performance the other night. World Peace played Durant about as well as I’ve seen anyone play him—making him for work for every catch, bodying him up the entire time. And in almost every extra pass attempt the Thunder made, the Lakers slid into position perfectly to either deflect the pass or outright steal them. While the Lakers didn’t shoot well themselves (they shot worse actually—38.5 % to OKC’s 42 %), it was their defense, as it has all season, that had them in perfect position to steal a game in OKC, and home court advantage.

 But as it stands now, they choked in the last two minutes—allowed an extremely easy drive by Harden off a timeout, had a careless TO by Kobe that led to a Durant dunk, committed another careless TO between Blake & Kobe, allowed another Harden layup, took bad shots when they didn’t turn the ball over (Kobe—although much props for the way Perkins overplayed and bodied Bynum out of the paint during that stretch, which was huge since it seemed like the Lakers wanted to play off Bynum in the final two minutes. Their inability to do so led to the Kobe missed jumpers with the shot clock going down.), and was victimized by Durant’s brilliant floater that turned out to be the game winner. Those were eight points allowed in a two-minute stretch when during the entire game, up until that point, a three point lead felt like it was a three possession game.

(Laker Nation cloak back on) The remaining thread of hope for the Lakers? The Thunder did what they had to do, which was hold serve at home. It’ll be the Lakers turn in a couple of days, and they go into it knowing that they don’t really need to play a perfect game (as the Thunder did in Game 1) to win, they only need to play perfect defensively to have a chance. I thought that thread would be longer, apparently, that was just wishful thinking.

What else don’t they have going for them? History. Y’all have heard about the percentage of teams winning the series after winning Game 1 (Too depressed to Google, but it can’t be lower than 70%). Sessions. Remember how announce teams constantly reminded fans that Session’s ability to have someone create through penetrations from the point guard spot was a significant addition to the Lakers (something they have never had since Nick Van Exel)? Well, I don’t think I’ve really seen it the whole playoffs, much less against OKC. For some strange reason, the NBA also decided to have the Lakers play back-to-back games at home for games 3 & 4. If you’ve ever played competitive basketball, you understand how much tougher it is to play good defense with tired legs than it is to play offense.

Before this series, Laker fans haven’t truly been an underdog since being eliminated in five games by the Suns back in ’07 (In the ’08 Finals, they came in breezing through the West before being shell-shocked by Boston. Against Dallas, true Laker fans believed that they could come back from being 3-games down. Or maybe at least I really thought it was possible until the Mavs went ape shit from three in the second quarter of Game 4). This is unfamiliar territory, albeit something Laker fans knew was coming when they eventually faced OKC. There’s a very slight glint of hope that remains, however this series turns out, there’s sure to be a lot of drinking involved—win or lose.

Looking at the dimmest of bright sides, since 2008, the Lakers have been eliminated by the eventual champs (Boston in ’08 & Dallas last year). So if logic holds for the rest of the series & the Laker eliminator trend carries on, at least LeBron’s fingers will remain free of hardware for yet another year. That counts for something in Laker nation, right?    

Midweek into the 2012 NBA Playoffs and this blog has been spot on so far in its predictions (hopes, & dreams). I wrote it would take a ton of shite to not see the Bulls, Heat and Celts in the East’s final four, and Rose going down and out with a torn ACL is about a big a shit going down as this dude. Boston’s teetering with Atlanta mainly because of Ray Allen’s glass ankles, and Rondo’s chest bump. Had The Truth not gone HAM in Game 2, they could’ve been facing an 0-2 deficit. But, with Rondo back for Game 3, my crystal bong’s predictions should hold (unless LeBron tears his scrotal ligament, which should happen between late May & June). Are you all ready to see the Pacers in the ECF?? Yea, I don’t give a shit either. Unless The Truth can keep Tebowing until late May, there’s little doubt the Heat will see the Finals for the second straight year.

West. Let’s see…spot on as well. Spurs in a cakewalk, Clips-Grizz fun as hell. Lakers too much for Nuggs, and Dallas only intriguing because they’re the defending champs. Because Durant did KD like things at the end of Game 1, and Dirk’s one legged fade rattled out in Game 2, the Mavs are now on the verge of being in the elite club of defending champions being swept out of the 1st round (I’m too lazy to Google the numbers, but feel free to chime in at the comments section).

So what do we know after close to a week of action? We know a LAL-OKC second round is inevitable (and horrifying to Laker fans). We know that the Spurs and whoever wins in the “Grit & Grind Crew” vs. “Lob City” series will really challenge, if not beat the Spurs (I’m thinking the Grizz beat them, while the Clips challenge them).

What don’t we know? We don’t know how the rest of the Grizz-Clips series will go. I mean, if you open the series with a 27-point comeback win that allows an incoming college freshman to bet $75 and win $41,000 as a result, you’re in for a whole lot of craziness. We don’t know how many games the Nuggets can win at home. As a Laker fan, I hope they win two games so that World Peace’s atomic elbow will only miss one game in the second round. Although realistically, I see them going out in five.

The East has become incredibly boring with the absence of two Adidas stars due to injuries, and the hopes and dreams of everyone hoping for a fun and competitive NYK-Heat series going up in flames, absolutely no pun intended Amare.    

The West is still as crazy as the 11-team playoff race it was leading up to the playoffs. So what does this blog want? Easy: Purple Reign, and LeBron being LeBron. Not only will those things be incredibly fun on Facebook, it will make this blog entertaining.

Good luck to us all.