Lakers vs. Suns Disappointed Last Night
Posted Friday, November 21, 2008by Zach Harper - You Can Email Zach at zharper@talkhoops.net
Kobe Vs. Shaq! Part 6! I mean – Part VI!!!! Roman numerals!!!!
Remember when this was supposed to be the match-up of the next five years? Remember when Shaquille was going to exact revenge on Kobe for getting him kicked out of Hollywood? Remember when Kobe was going to prove every time they faced off that he was the reason they won those titles? After the first Christmas Day game, we thought that we had something special. After Andrew Bynum unexpectedly stood up to Shaq, we thought we might have something epic. And now after a year and a half of both teams no longer having animosity towards each other, it just doesn’t have the same luster that it used to. On the scale of epic battles it ranges somewhere between LAPD vs. OJ (high end) and Zack Morris vs. A.C. Slater at the Sock Hop (low end, but equally as entertaining).
But you can’t really blame these two for this battle being completely meaningless anymore. Shaq got his title in Miami, broke down, and was sold off to Robert Sarver who wouldn’t spend the money to draft Luol Deng or keep Rudy Fernandez but he’ll buy a 49-year old center with bad everything and crossed eyes. And you can’t blame these two for Mike D’Antoni jumping ship and effectively taking away the identity that the Suns acquired their recent success from.
Even when Kobe was supposed to taste-test orifices of Kazaam and get back to him on how it tasted, the rivalry was still more media hype (thanks, ESPN) than substance. So when they faced off last night and we realized quickly in the second quarter that the Lakers were still the far superior team, it was another let down in this supposed great rivalry. You can’t even take anything from the Shaq vs. Kobe angle. Trust me; I’ve tried.
What you can take is the fact that Steve Nash looks completely lost on offense. He simply doesn’t know what to do. He looks like Nick Anderson at the free throw line only for a full 94-feet. He doesn’t know when to push or pull back for Terry Porter. When does he fire away? When does he dump it in to Shaq? When does he lick his fingers and when do they taste like failure? After they started 8-4 and we hypothesized that the Suns could be finding an identity and becoming more of a playoff-ready team, they faced their first test against the proclaimed new kings of the NBA (even though they don’t have the rings to prove it). The Suns allowed the Lakers to do whatever they wanted from the middle of the second period until the end of the game. Steve Nash can no longer make Amare Stoudemire look dominant against great teams. The Suns are sorely missing Shawn Marion and dressing it up with Matt Barnes and his Rhodesian ridgeback coarse hair won’t trick anybody. The Suns still don’t have a backup to Steve and it shows when they’re trotting out Goran Dragic and his bewildered look. Shaq can still be effective but when he’s getting over 20 touches in a game in 2008, you’re probably going to be down double digits. The Suns still don’t have depth and their bench was outscored by Lamar Odom, Trevor Ariza, and Jordan Farmar. Re-read that list and if you’re not a Lakers fan, explain to me how that makes sense.
I personally am no longer excited about Shaq vs. Kobe. I’m more excited about Shaq’s twitter vs. the guy who was impersonating Shaq. But that won’t stop it from building up people’s expectations and tearing them down after half an hour of watching the game.
Photos Courtesy of ESPN.com
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