Lakers’ “Nightmare” Season Now Over
The Los Angeles Lakers were finally put out of their misery on Sunday afternoon, losing a clean sweep series to the San Antonio Spurs. They lost the elimination game 103-82. The Lake Show was absolutely devastated with injuries, and never really stood a chance against an infinitely more coherent Spurs squad.
“Obviously, it wasn’t a fair fight,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “When you’re a competitor, you want to compete on an even basis, and the Lakers weren’t able to do that. … Even though it wasn’t a fair fight, we still want to win the series, and I’m glad we did. Our focus was great.”
“I’m proud of them, because they fought,” Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni said. “It was kind of a year that was all upside-down, but I appreciate the effort to get us into the playoffs. We just didn’t have it.”
The game was marred by Dwight Howard being ejected early in the third quarter for arguing with an official.
“He takes a pounding and after a while I guess his nerves are shot or whatever, but obviously we were in a deep hole anyways so I felt bad for him,” D’Antoni said. “Understand it’s easy when you sit there like us and just watch, but when you’re playing you’ve got a lot of adrenaline going so it’s a hard situation and obviously that wouldn’t have happened if the series was a little bit different.”
“It’s over with now,” Howard said of his ejection. “I just got to do a better job of trying to keep my cool. It’s very tough to be out there playing. It’s an emotional game, you don’t want to lose, and sometimes when things don’t go your way, sometimes you react the wrong way. I just got to keep my cool.”
All in all, the Lakers season could not have gone any worse. Before the year began, they were favored to march into the Western Conference finals. Now, with Kobe’s potentially career-ending Achilles injury and Howard’s impending free agency, the super team could be dismantled before they even achieved a first round playoff victory.
“It’s like a nightmare, it’s like a bad dream and we couldn’t wake up out of it,” Howard said. “That’s what it felt like. It seemed like nothing could go right from the start, injuries and all that stuff, but we can get an opportunity to get some rest for guys who are injured, coming off injuries. A chance to rehab and think about what we can all do to better ourselves.”
It was a rocky year,” he continued. “A lot of things happened that I didn’t have any control over. I think I handled some situations good and I think I handled some situations bad, but it’s a growing process. You keep growing, you keep learning. That’s why we have the offseason, to get an opportunity to reflect on the good and bad things that happened during the season and try to make it better for the next year.”
In the elimination game yesterday, the Lakers were 8.5-point underdogs, and after witnessing their tepid performance, it’s remarkable the Spurs weren’t favored by twice that amount. Here were some other betting trends for both teams heading into yesterday’s match, courtesy of OddsShark.com:
San Antonio Spurs Trends:
When playing on Sunday are 9-1
Before playing LA Lakers are 7-3
After playing LA Lakers are 6-4
After a win are 5-5
Los Angeles Lakers Trends:
When playing on Sunday are 4-6
Before playing San Antonio are 6-4
After playing San Antonio are 7-3
After a loss are 6-4
A few Spurs at Lakers trends to consider:
San Antonio is 7-1 SU in their last 8 games when playing LA Lakers
The total has gone OVER in 4 of San Antonio’s last 5 games
The total has gone UNDER in 8 of San Antonio’s last 10 games on the road
San Antonio is 5-2 SU in their last 7 games when playing on the road against LA Lakers
LA Lakers are 13-2 SU in their last 15 games at home
The total has gone UNDER in 12 of the LA Lakers last 17 games when playing San Antonio
The total has gone OVER in 11 of the LA Lakers last 16 games
The total has gone UNDER in 6 of the LA Lakers last 9 games when playing at home against San Antonio
