http://lakeshowlife.com/2012/05/17/there-are-no-moral-victories-in-nba-playoffs/ A Los Angeles Lakers Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More Fri, 14 Dec 2012 07:45:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 http://lakeshowlife.com/2012/05/17/there-are-no-moral-victories-in-nba-playoffs/comment-page-1/#comment-7677 carlosatUCLA Thu, 17 May 2012 22:38:15 +0000 http://lakeshowlife.com/?p=5781#comment-7677 We definitely left them on the hook, and even then, this wasn't a moral victory. A moral victory would have been if we were trailing the entire time and somehow managed to have a bad game WHILE still losing narrowly. This was a morale crusher and a total meltdown. It still stings.    I want to see how this team comes out in L.A. If we manage to win one of two and keep the loss very close and competitive, I have no doubt in my mind that it has an impact on what the front office will want to do. Losing by a combined 50 points in those two games almost certainly means Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum are getting shipped out. Winning one and losing the other by 8 points or less might make the FO can Gasol but build around Bynum and find faster talent.    Although, it should be noted that centers are starting to mean less and less. Back in the 90s and early 00s, having a legitimate center meant you were a title team regardless. Now we see how we've floundered, as has Orlando. I saw a Yahoo! Sports blog post on that, and the dude made sense.    Oh well. I'll cry for joy if we can take both in L.A., but the way this series is going, we can expect a full-blown sweep with back-to-back blowouts. When L.A. loses, it's always something dramatic and/or disgusting.  We definitely left them on the hook, and even then, this wasn’t a moral victory. A moral victory would have been if we were trailing the entire time and somehow managed to have a bad game WHILE still losing narrowly. This was a morale crusher and a total meltdown. It still stings. 
 
I want to see how this team comes out in L.A. If we manage to win one of two and keep the loss very close and competitive, I have no doubt in my mind that it has an impact on what the front office will want to do. Losing by a combined 50 points in those two games almost certainly means Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum are getting shipped out. Winning one and losing the other by 8 points or less might make the FO can Gasol but build around Bynum and find faster talent. 
 
Although, it should be noted that centers are starting to mean less and less. Back in the 90s and early 00s, having a legitimate center meant you were a title team regardless. Now we see how we’ve floundered, as has Orlando. I saw a Yahoo! Sports blog post on that, and the dude made sense. 
 
Oh well. I’ll cry for joy if we can take both in L.A., but the way this series is going, we can expect a full-blown sweep with back-to-back blowouts. When L.A. loses, it’s always something dramatic and/or disgusting. 

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