Huge game today. It's a potential West Finals preview between San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers. Anytime the Lakers/Spurs play it's exciting whether it's early in the season or late. These two teams have been the class of the Western Conference and really the league for a very long time. Since 1999 the Spurs and Lakers have combined for 9 championships and 11 Finals appearances. Just absurd how successful both teams have been. Only three times in that time span of 14 years did neither of those two teams play in the Finals. That was the last two Finals and 2006. The teams met in the playoffs six times during that time span. 1999, 2001-2004, and 2008. The Lakers won four series and the Spurs won two.
The two constants in this great rivalry have been Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan. I don't think there is any doubt that they are the two best players of the post Michael Jordan era along with the now retired Shaquille O'Neal. You're talking about two players who have been so great and consistent throughout their terrific careers. Between them they have 9 championships, 5 Finals MVP awards, 3 regular season MVP awards, 27 All Star appearances, 26 All NBA Selections, and 25 All Defensive Team Selections. Alot of people take for granted of both these guys greatness and what they've done for not only their respective franchises, but also the NBA. I believe that both will retire at the same time and it would only be right. I would expect that both retire at the end of the 2013-2014 season which is obviously the end of next season.
As for the actual game you have two very good teams obviously, but the Lakers have gotten off to a very slow start at just 3-4. They're 2-0 since firing the head coach Mike Brown and now have hired a new coach in Mike D'Antoni who coincidentally has seen and been beaten by the Spurs alot over the years. Steve Nash is still out for the Lakers and his backup Steve Blake also was recently injured and is out for tonight's contest. The Lakers are gonna start second year second rounder Darius Morris. He's a guy who has played well in limited minutes, but tonight he gets the start and will face off against one of the best guards in the game in Tony Parker. He'll likely get torched. The Lakers aren't a very deep team to begin with, but especially when you take out two critical players of the rotation. Because of that I would expect San Antonio to win this game, but with Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant you would expect it to be close.
There's also a huge family rivalry between the Lakers and Spurs. They gave me so much crap when the Lakers lost to Oklahoma City and Dallas the last two playoffs and I happily returned the favor when the Spurs lost to Memphis and Oklahoma City. We both looked silly since neither of our teams won anything. If the Lakers somehow win tonight I won't talk much because I realize that while it's a big game it's only November. This game won't mean much in the grand scheme of things. I'm sure both teams will look much different and better later in the season. I'm not kidding when I say I'm the only Lakers fan in the family. It's all in good fun though.
