Lakers show Kings how far they have to go

The Los Angeles Lakers strolled into Arco Arena Wednesday night delivered all that is real.

Clearly, it was too real for the young Sacramento Kings.

It wasn’t just the 12-point victory margin. It was the team-wide defensive intensity combined with a self-knowledge, championship confidence and swagger combined with a discipline of execution that overwhelmed the Kings’ youthful intentions and desires.

The Lakers are what every team wants to be and where every team is attempting to get.

They’ve already won back-to-back titles and nothing was apparent last night to reveal they now aren’t on a similar course.

Could they become better this season than last? Only a season’s evolution and development can lead to that determination.

Yet, as the new-and-still improving almost 31-year-old (Nov. 6) Lamar Odom said, “Better? I hope so. That’s our goal. It’s always realistic, when you strive. Being perfect is like a realistic goal for us. That’s our way of thinking, our thought process.”

Can you get to that? Other teams are attempting to get into the playoffs, perhaps get a high playoff-seed, even. Meanwhile, the Lakers have begun the season 5-0 and have yet to put 23-year-old 7-foot talent Andrew Bynum on the court.

The Lakers seek perfection. Odom sounded like Denzel Washington in “Remember the Titans”, but the sincerity in his delivery and eyes, showed the versatile swingman was deadly serious.

Just as Kobe Bryant always is serious when he steps onto the floor, the Lakers carry themselves with an air of invincibility. That quotient never should be underestimated.

In some ways, Bryant’s presence and dominance manifest themselves in each of the Lakers. That goes the same for legendary coach Phil Jackson.

They don’t get shaken and there never is a situation in which they feel a loss of control.

Listen to how Odom and Derek Fisher speak of Bryant, who had off-season surgery on his right knee for the third time.

Said Odom, “Kobe is coming off surgery. He’s going to will the basketball game to kind of go his way. So, this is nothing different than what I’ve seen since I’ve been playing with him.”

Fisher and Bryant joined the Lakers together in 1996.

“I thought he might start off struggling to find some rhythm,” Fisher said of Bryant, “and he might build some rhythm as things went. But to see him playing this well, this early, he’s on my team, so that’s good for me. But that’s not good for everybody else when he’s playing this good this early.

“It’s not surprising. Nothing that he does surprises me. I’ve just seen too much, too many times. He’s capable of doing pretty much anything and everything.”

That’s the sound of reverence, of ultimate respect and confidence. The Lakers are a finished product that somehow still has an upside.

Meanwhile, the Kings are attempting to find their way with games such as the Lakers contest serving as monitoring levels. Sacramento’s leader on the floor is 21-year-old second-year guard Tyreke Evans.

Evans couldn’t stay on the floor against the Lakers and much of it was his own doing. He picked up his third foul with 1:08 left in the first half while defending Bryant’s shot attempt.

Evans’ fourth foul came with 8:42 left in the third quarter. He was caught reaching 20 feet from the basket as Bryant attempted to catch a pass. He was replaced 34 seconds later and sat the rest of the third.

It was no coincidence the Lakers quickly raced to an 82-62 lead as the Kings offense went ka-put.

Kings coach Paul Westphal didn’t mention Evans by name, but it was apparent the guard’s absence during the third quarter’s final minutes was a crucial factor.

“I thought it was an offensive breakdown in the third quarter,” the coach said. “I thought we were missing a lot of shots in the third quarter and let them get out. They’re too good of a team to let them get (into) transition and just miss, miss, miss over and over.”

Westphal knows how much the Kings (3-2) collectively have to improve to even approach the neighborhood in which the Lakers reside.

“The Lakers don’t even know who we are right now,” he said. “We would like to build a rivalry with the best team in the world, but to answer that question as if there’s a rivalry, that’d be an insult to them.

“We’ve got to win some games before there’s a rivalry. They are where we want to be.”

Beware prognosticators - most know nothing

One of the problems we sports nuts deal with is listening to or reading the predictions of those who don't know a blessed thing of which they spew.

It's NBA draft time, so that means there are more folk than normal talking loud and saying nothing.

Around these parts in Sacramento, the hot talk pertains to the Kings' possession of the No. 5 pick in next Wednesday's draft.

People all over the country predict or guess whom the Kings will select. However, these prognosticators truly have no idea, so why pretend to know or even have a legitimate clue.

Clearly, the Kings would love to get a physical big man to play in the middle and that description has Kentucky's DeMarcus Cousins written all over it. Cousins is a 19-year-old talent with the skill to perform around the basket and on the perimeter.

Cousins, though, is described by many as a young man who has been difficult to deal with. He carries a label as having, "red flags."

One wonders how many of those labeling him also would have fit that category as a 19-year-old. I've had major problems finding out definitively finding out what these red flags are other than the kid has a little attitude.

He argued with John Calipari? Yeah? And? If that gives you a red flag, then the people distributing those flags probably are out of them.

Cousins has a weight problem as in he can't wait to eat. That's a red flag?

Certainly, it's something to be considered and worked with, but if the cat loves to play basketball (as I've heard he does) and is intelligent (as I've heard he is), then that's why teams have organizations - to help young talented guys become better players and people.

No doubt Cousins has issues. So do I and so do most humans. From what my sources say, Cousins needs most to increase his endurance.

Talent wins in the NBA and the Kings need it, especially with this kid's characteristics. If he's there at No. 5, the Kings need to grab him and begin the process of helping him maximize his abilities.

Of course, there is the possibility the Kings decide to trade their pick and move down. Those decisions most often are made during the draft when players are selected and teams believe they can get a player they like with a lower pick.

If the Kings opt to choose Cousins, they have a coach in Leonard (Truck) Robinson, who is tailor-made for this project. Robinson doesn't play, as in take any stuff.

Game 7 - it's on

Seeing Kendrick Perkins go down with a knee injury in Game 6 of the 2010 NBA Finals was heartbreaking. He's in one of the biggest games of his young career and a freak accident like that occurs.

All Perkins does is play hard and egolessly, yet life dealt him that card. I thought I was one of the few who ran into dealers like that.

Yeah, he complains about nearly every foul, but the young man plays hard. Here's hoping his long-term career isn't stunted by torn knee ligaments.

On the other side of the ledger there's Andrew Bynum. Now this kid has jeopardized his career by continuing to play with torn meniscus in right knee. Bynum, whom Kobe Bryant suggested as trade bait a couple of seasons ago, has shown nothing but heart while limping through the playoffs.

Bynum has been courageous playing through obvious pain and putting the team ahead of his personal future. Regardless of what doctors say, there is no way to know if he's doing irreparable damage to his knee.

Only time will tell.

However, we do know the young man is showing large gumption every night Boston's talented and physical front line.

What cracks me up is hearing and reading folks talk about trading him to bring in Chris Bosh. The only way the Los Angeles Lakers should do that is if they believe Bynum never will be healthy again. In five seasons, Bynum has played all 82 games just once. In his past three seasons, he's played 35, 50 and 65 games, respectively.

He won turn 23 until October. It's a little too early to give up on a guy who goes to the house strong even on a gimpy knee.

Moreover, Bosh is a talent, but when I've seen him, he's been a 6-11 jump shooter. Now, his shot is nice, but tell me we haven't reached the age when big men no longer even try to play like big men.

As for Game Seven, once again, the team for which the most players perform closest to their peak level will win. That's nothing new. Barring a truly dominating one or two-player performance, that's usually the way games, playoffs or regular-season, work.

It's not rocket science, folks.

Perhaps as important as anything will be the performances of the officiating crew. The guess here is we'll see Joey Crawford and Danny Crawford. As for the third referee, Eddie F. Rush is another likely choice.

The officiating, particularly early in the Finals was inconsistent and difficult for both teams to figure.

However, the NBA has been hamstrung by its current low quality of officials and injuries to Steve Javie and Mark Wunderlich. Wow! Javie used to be a veritable technical machine, but definitely has become one of the league's best.

The Celtics will not go down easily. They have too many seasoned and clutch veterans, but I like the Lakers in a close game.

After all, I picked the Lakers in six or seven. Ride or die.

Don't fall for okey-doke

One of the more interesting phenomena during any sports series is how so-called experts (we prefer observers) react to one game. Most become waver masters.

Certainly, see Boston in the NBA Finals after watching Cleveland blow out the Celtics at home in Game Three of the Eastern Conference semifinals should be a lesson to us all.

Those needing more history should think back or look up the 1984 Lakers-Celtics Finals matchup. Larry Bird's Celtics were spanked 137-104 in Game Three in Los Angeles and the Birdman said his team played like sissies. The Celtics won Game Four 129-125 in overtime and went on to win the series in seven games.

Don't get it twisted. We'd rather be with the Los Angeles Lakers, in this instance, ahead 1-0 in this best-of-seven series with the homecourt advantage.

Simply put, every game won is a huge feather in the Kangol. You need four to win.

Yet, the Boston Celtics will be ecstatic if they can heist Game Two Sunday and go home for Games Three, Four and Five with the series tied 1-1.

That, quietly, was their realistic goal when they came to L.A.

Surely, winning both games would have been greatness personified. However, that was such an unlikely occurrence, realism suggested getting one for the Green would be all good.

The Celtics have made their way to this point by handling what is in front of them. Sunday, the only remainders of Game One will be motivation from how they lost and increased intensity because of necessity.

Boston would rather drink spoiled milk than go east trailing 0-2. That is a larger deficit for Boston than a 2-0 advantage for the Lakers, if possible.

That deficit eliminates any margin of error for the Celtics, not to mention giving the Lakers three shots to win their third game and return to L.A. for two games, needing just one to win.

Game One was viewed as ugly by many observers, Lakers coach Phil Jackson included.

Well, wait until Game Two. It promises to be uglier.

Boston will play with a sense of urgency bordering on desperation. Every movement on each end of the court will be challenged. Every thing that can be gotten away with will be used.

It'll be the two old-head squads playing on Sunday morning at the park and only the strong will survive. That will be strength of mind as well as physical.

Boston appears to need a rejuvenated Kevin Garnett. As he moves about the court, the question is whether he's physically capable of using his quickness and length even in the neighborhood of where he once could play.

Garnett's movements appeared unsteady during the season's second half and it could be the length of playoffs have taken away leg strength. There are movements he can make without thought, but many more he cannot.

In many ways, the limited mobility of Garnett and Laker center Andrew Bynum appear similar. They can be productive still, but fluidity in their current physical states is only a dream.

The Celtics more likely will get amped production from Ray Allen, who received at least two bogus foul calls from the uptight and inconsistent officiating crew of Joe DeRosa, Derrick Stafford and Joey Crawford.

Allen still has the NBA's prettiest jumpers and lethal as well. Boston coach Doc Rivers preaches playing together and Allen suffers most when the Celtics fall short.

As poorly as Boston played, Rivers was accurate when noted there were opportunities for the Celtics to get into the game.

If those openings arise again, both teams could head east tied at the hip with a great, albeit ugly season awaiting us all.

Gasol leads Lakers not named Kobe

Pau Gasol's 23 points, 14 rebounds (eight offensive), three assists and three blocks during a game-high 47 minutes helped provide a base for Lakers coach Phil Jackson.

Gasol produced without having the ball pounded into him. Ron Artest, Derek Fisher and Bynum did the same as Jordan Farmar, Lamar Odom and Shannon Brown off the bench.

The Lakers ultimately put the outcome in the ice box in the middle of the fourth with Bryant on the bench.

Kobe is the man, but Gasol is key to series

Los Angeles Lakers forward Pau Gasol likely is the NBA's largest enigma.

However, he's also a major key to how well the Lakers fare in these NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics.

Gasol may be the league's most offensively-skilled big man. He can score inside with either hand. He sees the floor well and passes well. Gasol makes 15-footers and can be a force on the offensive boards.

He's listed at 7-feet, 250 pounds and has nights when he's virtually unstoppable at the offensive end.

On this Lakers squad, it's his teammates who most often stop him by failing to deliver the ball. Granted, Gasol will have to work hard against Boston's defensively-oriented squad to get good position.

During two regular-season meetings, Gasol scored 11 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and had four turnovers in 41 minutes of a 90-89 Lakers victory Jan. 31 in Boston. He had just nine field-goal attempts as Kobe Bryant took 20 shots, Andrew Bynum had 13 and Ron Artest got 12 shots.

Bryant (ankle injury) didn't play in an 87-86 loss Feb. 18 in Los Angeles. Gasol scored 22 on seven of 12 shooting and eight of eight from the line. Gasol needs to get in the vicinity of 15 field-goal attempts in order for the Lakers to be effective around the basket.

And it will take mere minutes, if not seconds, for Boston's Kevin Garnett, Kendrick Perkins to lay wood on Gasol. Then Rasheed Wallace and Glen (Big Baby) Davis come off the bench with more physicality.

The Celtics will test Gasol with physical play, frankly, because that's the Spaniard's weakness. This is his opportunity to erase that tag forever. Can he do so? That's a question I can't answer.

I'll always remember Gasol, then with Memphis, signing a max contract then telling Commercial-Appeal beat writer Ron Tillery how the team needed to find someone to defend and rebound. I remember reading the quote and calling Tillery because I just knew the editing process had failed him.

I couldn't believe Gasol said that. Tillery, however, acknowledged those were Gasol's words.

And he said them immediately after signing a max contract. The dude is 7-feet, 250 and looking for someone else to defend and rebound. Something is wrong with that picture.

Basically Gasol said he didn't want to be the man, but getting paid as if he were 'the man' was all good. He can't be criticized for accepting the money offered, but he should have been spanked for shirking responsibility.

However, he lucked into the trade to the Lakers and now can ride side-saddle with Bryant.

Kobe Bean will do his thing and now it's up to Gasol to carry his weight against guys who look him eye-to-eye.

What to look for

The Celtics are the league's best at making scorers do work in crowds. No team surrenders fewer unchallenged shots.

Rajon Rondo scored 21 and 14 points, respectively, during the two regular-season games and also contributed 12 and 11 assists. He had five steals in Boston's 87-86 victory.

Boston's Tony Allen was not nearly as effective or active in the conference finals against Orlando as he was in the semifinals against Cleveland. He suffered from a right ankle injury and his ability to function normally will be a major key.

Allen may be the league's most athletic player to return from a major injury. Allen, you may remember tore two ligaments in his left knee in Jan 2007 dunking after a whistle in a game. You also may remember him dunking on top of Cleveland forward Antawn Jamison's cranium last month in the East's semifinals.

Watch Kevin Garnett jump to knock down shots after the whistle. One only can hope he never injures himself with that stupidity.

In Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, the Celtics have two of the game's best clutch shooters.

The Celtics are 9-2 in NBA Finals matchups against the L.A. Lakers. That stat won't mean a thing in this series.

The Lakers will back off Rondo and make the sometime reluctant shooter beat them from the perimeter. The Celtics will challenge Artest and everyone else not named Bryant beat them from the outside.

Question of the day

Is the Lakers-Celtics matchup the best rivalry in sports?

Lies, lies and more lies

We're entering a period of NBA life during which there possibly will be more lies, lies and more lies told than ever before.

There are so many lies out here right now, even before I can get started on this topic, I just heard another one.

Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson Wednesday afternoon on being tied 2-2 in the Western Conference Finals with the Phoenix Suns after losing back-to-back games in the Valley, "There's absolutely no doubt that we love this. This is what champions are made of. We had this situation with Oklahoma. We had it with Denver last year in the (Conference) finals. It should be like this."

Yeah, Phil. Really?

Why do people feed us this garbage like we're disposals? I mean, you can't just put anything even in a disposal.

He's got a center in Andrew Bynum, who currently because of a knee injury has the mobility of former mountainous Utah center Mark Eaton.

The Suns have used a 2-3 matchup zone of sorts to lure the Lakers into make shooting from the perimeter in the past two games and they've been incapable of handling the responsibility.

The Lakers went to Phoenix with a 2-0 lead and left tied 2-2 and Jackson wants us, somebody, anybody to believe he'd rather be in this position than ahead 3-1 with a chance to move to Finals Thursday night.

Imagine this concept Phil, you wouldn't rather have won both of those game and have clinched a Finals berth?

Yeah, Phil. Let's just say I've got some land in Montana I need to sell. Oh, that's right, you've already got a spread up there.

Jackson's impending contract situation actually was one of the motivations behind this subject. ESPN.com's Mark Stein, whom I hold in high regard, reported the New Jersey Nets indirectly have inquired about Jackson's potential interest in coaching their squad next season.

Jackson's contract is up after this season and word is Lakers owner Jerry Buss wants the zenmaestro to return, albeit with a drastically reduced salary. He made $12 million and it's been reported Buss wants that dropped by roughly half.

Now I have doubts about that. Could Buss be crazy/senile enough to think Jackson, whose lady friend Jeanne happens to be Jerry's daughter and a Lakers exectutive, would take such a deal. For goodness sakes the man could be coming off back-to-back championships.

Jackson says he nor none of his people have discussed potential coaching gigs with New Jersey or Chicago or Cleveland.

So some one or somebody or some people are lying.

Each side can't be telling the truth.

We're told LeBron James had nothing to do with the firing of coach Mike Brown. Yeah, right.

That we've not heard James told the Cavs he'd come back if they retained Brown means the young star had something to do with Brown's release.

Coaches come and go because teams eventually stop wanting to hear their message and the grass always is greener.

Shoot, I loved my late father, but there were days I'd have traded his butt for two slices of Valentino pizza at the bus terminal on 165th street in Queens. No doubt, there are nights my son would make the cheesesteak for dad trade, too.

After having covered the Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks and Sacramento Kings, being lied to comes with putting on socks in the morning. Executives and coaches lie to beat writers regularly. It's part of their job and as long as we accept that, it's a free world.

There are times the truth can destroy impending or possible transactions. That's understood.

However, can we keep a little sanity about these untruths. At least work on the falsehood. It's not like you come home and tell the wife just anything. Can we as fans and writers get similar respect, please?