October 27th is the day you can mark on your calendar. The first day of the regular season kicks off with the battle of Los Angeles on the line.
The Los Angeles Lakers (15 time champions) will take on the Los Angeles Clippers (never made it to Western Conference Finals) in a Lakers home game in the very Center of Staples.
The newly crowned champs will receive their long awaited rings. Finally, Kobe Bryant will be able to put another ring on his wife, and this one is for freeeeeeeeeeeee!
In all seriousness though, the Clippers should be improved over last season with number one overall pick Blake Griffin. I can't stop comparing his explosiveness to Amare Stoudmire, and the Clippers are hoping he has that kind of impact with the team.Griffin alongside rising star Erik Gordon, who averaged 16.1 ppg and shot 46% in his rookie year, and the improving Al Thornton comprise some of the best and youngest talent in the league. If the Clippers can only find a way to tune out Mike Dunleavy and light a fire under Baron Davis and lolly gagger Chris Kaman, they might find themselves fighting for a playoff spot.
Anyways, after the Lakers mop the floor with the Clippers, the next game to look forward to on their schedule is the Christmas showdown between Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. This will be the fourth time in five years in which the ex-Lakers will compete against one another.
This will be a much bigger test to the champs than the other team from L.A. LeBron is going to make this upcoming season a revenge tale of epic proportions. The Cavaliers are stacked. They bring nearly eveybody back from last year, excluding the bums they traded for in Wally Sczerbiak, Ben Wallace, and Sasha Pavlovic. They brought in a championship caliber role player in Anthony Parker, and a great athlete in Jamario Moon.Who will be the first to five rings? Shaq or Kobe?
On January 5th, Trevor Ariza will make his triumphant return back to the purple and gold universe. Seeing him in a Rockets uniform will be weird for everybody involved, but it will be nice to see a nice guy rewarded as he was critical to the 2009 championship.
On January 8th, the Lakers will try to end their four-year losing streak at the Rose Garden in Portland. Will Brandon Roy stopper Ron Artest be the key ingredient needed to take down their rivals up north?
March 7th, the Lake Show goes back to Orlando, the scene of their latest championship crime. The Magic have retooled as much as anybody this offseason and they are coming off an NBA Finals appearance they choked away. They lose Rafer Alston and Courtney Lee but add Vince Carter, Ryan Anderson, Brandon Bass, and Matt Barnes.
I don't know about you guys, but I'm already excited looking forward to these matchups. They say the hardest thing to do in sports is repeating, and the last team to do that was the three-peat Lakers at the turn of the millenium.
We'll see if this Kobe led squad has enough fire to take every team's best shot next year.
Why am I here?
2 comments:
Ariza looks good in a Rocket uniform.I think he is going to do a lot of things for the Rockets, but without Yao they have their hands full.The Lakers are loaded with talent and the key to repeating is going to be the play of Lamar , Bynum and the bench as a whole.It is not going to be easy to win the west with a lot of the top teams making key off season acquisitions.The east only has three teams Orlando , Boston and Cleveland.It dosen't seem fair for all the other teams in the east.I am excited to see the matchups you mentioned especially the Cavs on Christmas day.
I agree with you George that Trevor Ariza will do some things with the Rockets. He'll have a career year, because there are no clear go-to guys on the team. They'll play hard all year and might find themselves fighting for a playoff spot with the Clippers. The East has those elite teams you mentioned, but don't forget about Toronto, which adds Hedo Turkoglu and Jarrett Jack. Also, a healthy Gilbert Arenas can lead a revamped Washington team to the playoffs with additions like Mike Miller and Randy Foye. Other teams in the East will have their hands full with these teams though.
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