3. The Los Angeles Lakers can benefit from momentum
Along with good habits and confidence, momentum is one of those intangibles that some think isn’t all that important.
Yes, the Lakers played like crap in the eight seeding games just prior to last year’s playoffs, but examples like that tend to be the exception rather than the rule.
Remember the 2001 Lakers? For much of the regular season, they couldn’t really put together any momentum or winning streaks due to injuries and the so-called feud between Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.
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But once the team got healthy, both physically and mentally, it ended the regular season with an eight-game winning streak, and for the first time that season, it felt like things were right.
That momentum got even heavier, as it went 15-1 in the playoffs en route to its second straight world championship.
On the other hand, the 2011 Lakers were hot in February and March, then went on a five-game losing streak just before the end of the regular season. That squad then struggled in the first round of the playoffs against an inferior New Orleans Hornets squad before getting swept by the Dallas Mavericks.
When momentum is going against you, it becomes a lot harder to reverse it and start succeeding again.