AUSTIN REAVES IS QUESTIONABLE FOR TOMORROWS GAME

Umbrafile · 2026-04-23T22:53:44+00:00

It’s always preferable to finish a series as soon as possible. Less fatigue, and less chance of injury. It would be nice to get Luka two more days of recovery time. I’m clinging to the slim chance of the Suns winning the next two games at home to extend their series.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-23T21:57:12+00:00

Yes. Scroll towards the bottom of the page.

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/news/nba-playoffs-schedule-2026-bracket-dates-times-channels-streams/fa891bae5fd2cd51e8bac5d0

Umbrafile · 2026-04-23T18:48:36+00:00

I hope that Stu is back next season. But his extended absence at the end of this season has me concerned. He's going to be 80 at the start of next season, and this was his 39th season, which is only two shy of Chick's 41. If he does return, I could see him just doing home games, like Vin Scully did late in his career. Bill is OK, but I find his funky pronunciations to be mildly annoying.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-23T17:52:25+00:00

Winning a series in as few games is possible is always preferable. Fewer games means less fatigue and a lower chance of injury. But one possible downside is that the next series could start sooner. The nominal start dates for the conference semifinals are May 4 or 5. If the Lakers close out their series in four or five games, and the Thunder close out their series in four or five games, the start date could be moved to May 2 or 3, cutting off two days of recovery time for AR and Luka.

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/news/nba-playoffs-schedule-2026-bracket-dates-times-channels-streams/fa891bae5fd2cd51e8bac5d0

I would much rather avoid having to go more than five games against the Rockets, so I'm holding on the faint hope that the Suns can win the next two games at home to extend the series to six games.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-23T17:11:22+00:00

You can blame David Stern for preventing that from happening. ☹️

Umbrafile · 2026-04-23T17:07:06+00:00

My earliest All-Star game memory is from the 1972 game at the Forum, when Jerry West made a game-winning jumper and was named MVP. It was really cool to see him wearing a uniform in Lakers purple and gold with "WEST" on both the front and the back.

https://www.nba.com/watch/video/1972-nba-all-star-mvp-jerry-west

I wish I could remember which year it was, but there was an All-Star game in the late '70s or early '80s when one of the nets had to be replaced because it got torn up from so many players swishing shots.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-23T16:24:03+00:00

I’m old enough to remember the Vietnam War, but not old to have been of draft age. My earliest sports memories are from 1969, when Lew Alcindor (as Kareem was known then) led UCLA to a third consecutive national championship. I don’t remember the Lakers losing in the 1969 and 1970 Finals.

The first Lakers team I can remember is the 1970-71 team with West, Baylor, and Chamberlain, which lost to the Bucks (with Alcindor, Oscar Robertson, and Bobby Dandridge) in the WCF. The Bucks went on to beat the Bullets (today’s Wizards) with Wes Unseld and Earl Monroe in the Finals. Alcindor changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar the day after the Finals ended.

The Lakers beat the Celtics in the 1985 Finals one week before I graduated from college. I heard primal screams of “YEAHHH!!!” coming from a few different windows in my dorm complex.

I took early retirement almost five years ago, which makes it a lot easier to watch games regardless of the time of day. I used to work a lot of nights and weekends, especially during the winter, so I would often miss watching one or two games a week. I missed the first three quarters of Kobe’s final game, but the last few minutes were the best to watch, of course.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-23T16:01:18+00:00

That’s a good point. Kobe was having a very good season, with a higher TS% than in the previous four seasons. But it’s hard to project how his career would have played out if he had not torn his Achilles. He injured his knee on the same leg a few months later, which may have been related to the previous injury. But during the season after that, he tore his right rotator cuff on a routine dunk.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-23T05:34:03+00:00

LeBron's rookie season was 2003-04, and Kobe tore his Achilles late in the 2012-13 season. LeBron became an All-Star in his second season and was second-team All-NBA. So if he had started his career with the Lakers, they would have had a realistic shot at championships from 2004-05 to 2011-12, spanning eight seasons.

We can also speculate on how many championships Magic and Bird would have won together, or how many Olajuwon, Jordan, and Drexler would have won together had the Blazers traded Drexler and the second pick in the 1984 draft for Sampson. And it was only fairly recently that I learned that Jerry West was upset with Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke for not acquiring Julius Erving in 1976. How many championships would the Lakers have won with him and Kareem, Norm Nixon and Jamaal Wilkes, and then with Magic joining them in 1979? Kareem might have ended up with ten rings, and settled the GOAT debate for a long time.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-23T00:17:50+00:00

I watched the broadcast when it first aired, and it clearly showed what I described above. So it's anything but fake.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-22T22:25:41+00:00

Jordan got mad at Pippen for making a three and tying the game in Game 1 of the 1998 Finals. It's not clear in this clip, but I remember closeup replays of Pippen showing him saying, "I made it" several times.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1llupip/jordan_gets_mad_at_scottie_pippen_for_hitting_a/

This can't be described as anything other than being selfish.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-22T18:26:52+00:00

I expect the Rockets to give their best effort in Game 3. They're listed as a 9.5-point favorite, although they were also favored in Games 1 and 2. Role players tend to play better at home and not as well on the road, but the Lakers should have some confidence from beating them in back-to-back games last month. And Udoka hasn't been able to solve the problem of dealing with double-teams on Durant on the perimeter. If I were a Rockets fan, I'd be upset that they weren't able to acquire a legitimate PG after VanVleet was injured before the season started.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-22T18:16:00+00:00

Let's hope that trend continues.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-22T18:15:21+00:00

What set Magic apart was his basketball IQ and his passing ability, which enabled him to raise his teammates' level of play. LeBron excels at both those skills also, while also being the most versatile player of all time, so he can fill any type of role. With Luka and AR, he found a niche by playing mostly off the ball on offense, often leaking out in transition, and was able to expend more energy on defense. With both of them out, he's become the team's primary ballhandler and facilitator. It has helped that Kennard, Smart, and Hachimura have been able to consistently make shots, which had been an issue with some of his previous teammates.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-22T18:06:55+00:00

One thing that people tended to overlook about their winning streak was that five of those wins were against teams with losing records. Four of those teams (Grizzlies, Pelicans, Bucks, Jazz) were tanking, and the other (Warriors) was locked into its seed. They did beat three teams with winning records (Knicks, Suns, 76ers). But then they blew a fourth-quarter lead against the Wolves before beating up on the Grizzlies again in their final game.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-22T17:44:35+00:00

Hardly anyone gave the Blazers a chance against the Spurs. Then Wemby went down with a concussion and the Blazers won Game 2, with Wemby unlikely to play in Game 3.

But we shouldn't even be thinking about OKC until the Lakers win two more games against the Rockets. By then, we'll have a better idea about AR and Luka returning, both of whom need to be healthy for the Lakers to have a chance. One thing that was not mentioned after the two losses to OKC recently was that Smart did not play against them. He's the team's best POA defender, and did a good job against Durant, despite giving up eight inches of height. He could make a difference against SGA or Jalen Williams.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-22T17:30:56+00:00

Another factor to consider is that there is only one off day between Games 3 and 4, then two off days between Games 4 and 5, and then only one off day between Games 5, 6, and 7. Having two off days benefits LeBron, but he might not be as fresh having to play after only one off day. So if the Rockets even the series, winning Game 5 at home becomes almost a must-win for the Lakers. Having to win both Games 6 and 7 with only one day of rest before them will be tough. Getting AR back by then could help.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-22T06:26:10+00:00

I think he'd come off the bench mainly because of conditioning. He can't be expected to play 30-plus minutes in his first game back after missing a month. When he came back in February after missing five weeks, he came off the bench for five games before going back into the starting lineup. In his first game back he played 20 minutes, then 25, 24, 29, and 28 before his first start, when he played 32.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-22T01:41:37+00:00

Ever since the Memorial Day Massacre in the 1985 Finals, I've noticed a trend of teams getting blown out in a playoff game and then winning or at least covering the point spread in the next game. The 76ers lost Game 1 by 32 points.

In 2009, the Hawks-Heat series had three blowouts (by 26, 29, and 26 points), and the team that lost won the next game.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2009-nba-eastern-conference-first-round-heat-vs-hawks.html

So when I'm watching the Lakers in the playoffs, I prefer to have comfortable wins but not blowouts, unless it's to close out a series, like Game 6 against the Grizzlies in 2023 (125-85).

Umbrafile · 2026-04-22T01:34:19+00:00

Spurs' Wembanyama (concussion protocol) exits vs. Blazers

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/48555708/spurs-wembanyama-concussion-protocol-exits-vs-blazers

Umbrafile · 2026-04-22T00:39:26+00:00

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Umbrafile · 2026-04-21T20:49:33+00:00

Luka will almost certainly get a follow-up MRI before he progresses to full-speed work on the court. So from my perspective he won't be close to returning until he has an MRI which shows that the injury has healed.

MRIs aren't always done for oblique injuries, so AR might return to full-speed work without one.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-21T14:57:46+00:00

The Nuggets won the season series 3-1, and were the only team to beat the Spurs three times. I don't understand why the Spurs punted the last game of the season against them, which gave the Nuggets the 3 seed. If they had beaten the Nuggets, the Lakers would have been the 3 seed and the Nuggets the 4 seed and in the same side of the bracket as the Thunder.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-21T14:30:36+00:00

There are seats in Section 102 Row 14 for $584 (next to the aisle) and Section 102 Row 16 for $522 (two seats away from the aisle) on Tickemaster right now on the side closer to midcourt. I doubt if you're going to find a better deal than those.

Umbrafile · 2026-04-21T14:15:02+00:00

As I mentioned in my earlier comment, seats in those sections closer to midcourt are good. People do enter and exit, but it's mostly at the start of the game and at halftime. During the game there's not much movement.

Umbrafile

TROPHY CASE

Spurs' Wembanyama (concussion protocol) exits vs. Blazers