Lakers Fans Are Saying...

Granted, some of us really don't care what Lakers fans think. I'm a lifelong Spurs fan, first and foremost, but I am also an NBA fan. If the Spurs weren't marching towards their fifth title, I would still be watching these playoffs. I appreciate that some other fans are just as fanatical about their team as I am about mine. So with that in mind, here are what Lakers fans are saying about the series that kicks off tonight.

Matt Moore writes a solid preview of the series at FanHouse. Here is an excerpt, but do yourself a favor and read this one in its entirety.

This is a pretty fantastic matchup between the two best teams in the league right now.

Greg Popovich (sic) has seen the triangle enough to make him throw up at the site of it. He's going to have a very nauseating series. The modified triangle the Lakers have implemented with Kobe, Gasol, and Lamar Odom, with Odom as the lynch pin is absolutely devastating unless your defense is primed for it. Luckily, the Spurs have never met an offense they weren't primed for.

Forum Blue and Gold previews the series by looking at the Spurs and Lakers regular season matches.

This series is going to be an interesting chess match, as both teams have some very powerful offensive weapons and both play impressive defense (although the Lakers tend to be more spotty on that end).

Some will say you can’t take much from the Lakers/Spurs meetings this past season (the Lakers only had Gasol for one of the games, the Spurs were without key players in both losses), but I think when you look back you see some things that will be trends in this series.

(The best thing about this post is the comments thread... it dispels the notion that Lakers fans don't really know basketball. Apparently some do.)

The Kamenetzky brothers give appropriate props to our Spurs on the LA Times Lakers blog:

After a weekend of kicking it and around 48-ish hours to debate their San Antonio Spurs opponents, tonight's Game 1 (6:00 pm PST, TNT) will finally grace roundball enthusiasts with its presence. Their WCF foes are a familiar bunch, a crew that's essentially turned itself into the NBA's version of old (but not too old) faithful. The proverbial "mix" typically has them in it, with a championship never out of the question (and lest we forget, these cats are in fact defending a title). In fact, this decade will likely be regarded as having belonged to one of these squads. In many ways, it's only fitting (if not necessarily ideal) that the purple and gold's championship dreams will require a besting of a team that can arguably be labeled the best.

Incidentally, Andrew Kamenetzky's live-in girlfriend is a Spurs fan originally from McAllen.

Varsityoptimism previews the series at TheLakersNation.com:

The crusty, wily, angry, scowling San Antonio Spurs, full of pride and gusto, exposed the young Hurrrnets and dashed their hopes of an inaugural voyage the Conference Finals and subsequently earned a trip to Los Angeles. A trip they had already packed for. The defending champion’s presumption and revelatory attitude reportedly yielded a night sleeping on the team charter plane rather than a Five Diamond Los Angeles hotel.

So bring on the bird-like face of Manu Ginobili, the blank expression of Tim Duncan, the pockmarked face of Gregg Popovich and the crazy purple arm of Ime Udoka because as my friend B-Will says “You gotta beat the champs to be the champs.” Damn. That should go on a T-Shirt.

Over at LAKERS4LIFE, restrictedfreedom is reliving Derek Fisher's 2004 Game 5 .4 second shot.

Everyone in the arena would have guaranteed that the basketball would end up in Kobe Bryant's hands for the last shot, but that was far from the truth as the Spurs defense was tight as a drum trying to avoid one of the biggest clutch shots in NBA history, as a result, Derek Fisher was able to get just enough room to make a catch and shoot fadaway about a foot or so away from the three point line and all you saw was one of the prettiest swishes in a Lakers fan's memory!

Oh how things have changed since that game 5 in 2004, the Spurs proved that they have become a dynasty by winning to more championships in 2005 and 2007 and the Lakers franchise went straight down the tubes with Shaq and Gary Payton headed to Miami, Karl Malone retiring and the whole Lakers franchise basically going to shit and everyone pointing the finger at Kobe Bryant.

I can't wait to see what Lakers fans are saying to each other after the Spurs steal one tonight at Staples.