pantaloons

You cannot lose games in the playoffs when you are the better team on the day, and the Lakers have done this twice this series, as we did against Dallas last year. Aargh!!!!!!!! Season ends tomorrow, that much is absolutely guaranteed.

Thanks Macca. Phew. A generally poor performance from LA this series, but our reward for being ordinary is to have Artest back for OKC and tuned up in today's Game 7. I doubt we'll get over the top of them, but losing to OKC won't be the historic disgrace that losing today would have been. This will be the first series we enter as underdogs since the 2008 Finals against Boston. Memphis/Clippers tomorrow. Should be fantastic - two success-starved clubs going at it in a Game 7.

Absolutely furious with the team's lack of effort in Game 5, particularly Bynum. That guy has talent galore and has been heavily invested in, and yet he refused to show up for every playoff game. Disgraceful. That said, at the start of the series I picked Lakers in 7, so I'm not surprised it's gone this far. The only way Denver wins Game 7 is if LA is truly a team disunited, but I think we've been down this road many times before and will pull it out. If we're not up by double digits at quarter time tomorrow though, the nerves will start. I'm expecting a furious LA to start the game.

I think we're 42-1 in best of 7 series after leading 2-0. The one loss was in the 1969 series against a Boston team that won 11 championships in 13 years. Not to be uppity, but it would take the lightning in a bottle scenario of the greatest performance in Denver history and the worst choke in Laker history for LA to lose this series to an overmatched Nuggets team. The loss does mean that Ron Ron will only miss a maximum of one game in the second round now, which is the bonus from the loss. Personally, I'd have rested our better players for longer yesterday after we threw the game away in ten comical minutes. Oh, and NBAtv is great. I've pretty much caught every Laker game this season, and can watch the games at my own pace and see them after work or whenever is convenient. I get too nervous watching games live now anyway, so being able to speed through stages of games where we're getting flogged or the opposition is storming back is great. I'll likely make the investment again next season. It's around the $200 mark, and has been well worth it. I ended up choosing it over NHL Gamecenter mainly because you get the playoffs thrown in with NBA League Pass.

Unless you're a mavs fan, Cuban tantrums are great to watch. This one is self-inflicted though. His decision to gut a newly-crowned championship team for the hope that Deron might come as a free agent at the end of this season ended any chance they had this year. Office space is a cult classic. Vintage Gary Cole. I like the Brooklyn logo. It's very simple and old school. It looks like its been on the wall on a gym in Brooklyn for 70 years. Their excited claims of 'we're the only NBA team in black and white' is laughable though. The Spurs have sported that look, albeit with a touch of silver/grey for decades and made it their own. Big game for the Bulls tomorrow in the match of the day.

Just tragic. That's a championship gone begging for a very good, honest Bulls team. They deserved better than that.

Blues v kings Coyotes v predators Rangers v Capitals Flyers v devils A lot of fresh faces. Anyone's game!

It won't be much of a jinx. I fully expect us to not make it to the WCF, and whether we win one series or none, its not much to be celebrated, just more avoiding the humiliation of being upset in the playoffs two years running. Talk's cheap in sport, but I absoltely love Kobe's attitude. As a fan looking in at the team, I can't see any way we, or 25 other teams, can win the championship, but I love that he is confident that we can. Hopefully that belief is contagious amongst the rest of the team. The guy has won more than anyone else currently in the NBA (except Fish) so naturally they should take on board what he says. It is funny that it's a headline though. It would be a shame if any player involved in a playoff team didn't think their team could win the championship. It's a pretty clear cut first round. I can't really make a case for any upsets at this stage.

Maybe a couple games more than I thought but it could have been worse. If we take care of business in six games in the first round he'll be good to go against OKC in the second round. Clippers just lost so we'll be the #3 seed and avoid Memphis. Can't see us getting past the second round, but I sincerely hope we do as I'll be in LA in late May-June.

Very sad stuff from metta world war III. Thankfully we pulled out our best win since game 7 in 2010, but this was just brainless. I think Rudy T summed it up best yesterday when he said that the reason his incident, where he was punched square in the face by Kermit Washington, is still so famous, is that none of the many punches since thrown in the NBA have connected. It's dangerous to try to get inside artest's head, but I imagine he was full of adrenalin after the dunk, and when harden bumped him he swung an elbow without considering the potential consequences or fully believing he would connect in such a vicious manner. He certainly knew he was there- harden got in his way and had his forearms into Ron, so he must have felt him, which pretty much blows his case that it was an accidental part of his celebration. I hate suspensions in general, but I'd suspend him for 5 games, taking into account prior history, lack of premeditation, and the fact that we've seen some horrid incidents receive much less than 5 recently, such as wade intentionally smacking Kobe in the face and breaking his nose, and love stepping on scola's face. Horrible incident whatever happens, and his absence will hurt the team.

Thanks DD. I used to have foxtel and was tempted with the footy, but can't justify the expense at the moment. I bought NBA league pass as my Christmas extravagance and that's been well worth it.

Vale season 2011-12. Beaten by a better team. Good luck to the rest of you.

Seriously, that just sums it all up - crushing loss in overtime, own goal, Nabokov stinking it up when it counted most. His blatant choking cost us at least one cup. Thankfully we won the next three games against Colorado to take the series in question.

I don't have much confidence. We blew numerous chances over the last eight seasons unfortunately.

You're kidding! Yep, same game - January 15 v Calgary. A friend of mine from Toronto is pretty well connected and hooked myself, my wife and another friend up with tickets two rows from the glass pretty much on the goalline at the end Toronto scored their one and only goal. I wore my Dees scarf - pity we missed each other! Great night.

Nice one, Macca. Plenty of time for the Canucks to turn it around. I've seen a few Kings games at Staples, albeit regular season games. While it's easily the best indoor stadium I've ever been to, it wasn't an intimidating environment at the games I saw there. Good luck. You're right about getting hot at the right time. Especially in net. If you've got a goaltender in insane form you can go a long way. Early days as we're only one game into each series, except the yet to commence Devils-Panthers series, but plenty of wins by road teams thus far. Obviously a great result for the Sharks today. We traded Heatley for Havlat in the offseason for the very reason that Havlat was a much better playoff performer, and he's gone and scored two goals for us today including the double overtime winner.

You must be a happy boy today. What a great start to the playoffs (unless you follow one of today's three losers). I've been a Sharks fan since the club's opening season (bought a hat, Sharks is about as Australian a mascot as you're going to get), and have followed them passionately since. It's been a frustrating but enjoyable journey. I've managed to get to a couple of games at the Shark Tank and seen us play in LA as well. (As a side story for Good Times Grimes I managed to get to a couple of Leafs games in Toronto and it's a magic experience - one of them was a game in January 2011 when Toronto scored with 12 seconds to go to bring the game into OT and the ACC erupted. Brilliant.) Anyway, the Sharks have given me good value in the sense that we've made the playoffs 14 of the last 15 seasons and have piled up the regular season wins. That has been tempered though with some soul-crushing playoff exits since 2004, and I think we've outshot our opponents in every series we've lost since then. Upset by low-seed Calgary in the 2004 WCF as our former goaltender Kiprusoff outplayed Nabokov in a year we really should have won the cup, ousted by 8th seeded Edmonton in the second round 2006 after leading the series 2-0 before losing game 3 in triple OT and blowing a 2-goal lead in game 4, upset by Dallas in the second round in 2008 and losing the deciding game 6 in quadruple OT, winning the Presidents Trophy in 2009 only to lose to Anaheim in the first round, and then falling in the WCF the last 2 seasons (game 5 against Vancouver was particularly brutal). That said, I shouldn't put forward a "woe is me" story - we've been a well-run club and a very honest team. Stanley Cups are incredibly tough to win and for whatever reason - poor goaltending, our best players not performing to their optimum when it counts, insufficient facial hair - we just haven't gotten it done. I'm struggling to contain my nervousness/excitement about tomorrow's series opener in St. Louis, and while we're rightly underdogs, I'm hoping that like a teal and black-clad AFL club who copied our questionable colour scheme did in 2004, we can go all the way with a team slightly past our best after years of regular season dominance marred by postseason failure. Bring it on.

Nice. Hey - feel free to hate us! Having teams to loathe adds to it all. It's my birthright as a Laker fan to hate the Celtics, and vice versa for Boston fans. At least Sacramento is less than a couple of hours from San Francisco so if you ever wanted to catch a game while on holidays its a quick car ride from a popular destination. I chose LA because in Grade 5, someone brought a Lakers basketball to school, so I decided that would be my team!! Had no idea at the time what they were like or where Los Angeles was! Thankfully given LA's location I've been able to get over there a few times and catch a few games. Bandwagoners are the bane of genuine fans of a team. If Melbourne ever make a Grand Final again, watch as most Demonlanders can't get a ticket due to bandwagoners and corporates lapping them up. Shannon Brown unfortunately left as a free agent. He and LA were good for each other - he got to make a name for himself, win two rings and establish a career, while his energy and athleticism were very useful for the Lakers, particularly in the second championship run. I don't grudge him going for a little bit more money one bit.

Punch Vlade Divac for swatting the ball out to the most clutch player in NBA history in Game 4. Look, as a Melbourne supporter, I can sympathise. The Lakers have had our fair share of heartbreaking defeats - a string of them against Boston in the 60s, Willis Reed in the 70s, the clothesline series in 1984, losing as favourites in 2004, Boston's record comeback in 08 - but because we've been making the Finals on average every second year, there are always chances to redeem ourselves, and I've seen us win plenty so the memory of some genuinely heartbreaking defeats don't sting as much. With Melbourne and Sacramento on the other hand, the chances for glory have been few and far between over the last 40+ years, making the close defeats that much more scrutinised. Had we beaten Hawthorn in 1988, I wouldn't look back at 1987 with the same desire to go into the foetal position every time I think about it. So yes, we got the benefit of a lot of calls in Game 6 in 2002 (though we certainly didn't get the best of it when we lost by a point in Game 5). This was a series when we had the best of the refereeing in a tight series, and in the end that was one facet that helped make the difference (as did Game 4's crazy finish and LA's experience at the end of Game 7). Again, we've had some favourable games from officials, and some ones where we've copped the opposite (stretches of the 04 Finals, Game 2 of the 08 Finals off the top of my head), but if you're up there long enough it usually evens out. Unfortunately, the rivalry with Sacramento didn't last long enough. The Kings just needed to hold on a little longer as our days of dominance with that particular team ended that season. What made you pick the Kings, Tankey?

I was being a bit facetious with the Aussies - it was a hypothetical. We're not going to win anything this season. And no, losing to Patty Mills is not a win-win any more than losing to Collingwood in a final would be a win-win because Pendlebury used to go for Melbourne. Sessions should be a good pickup, but we've been rubbish since acquiring him. Losing Fisher to dump his salary was a joke. His experience and leadership were invaluable. As for the Laker nickname, yes, it is quirky. That said, it's in keeping with most relocations where the history is retained (Sydney Swans, Calgary Flames, Utah Jazz [thoroughly ironic], LA Dodgers and so on). Keeping the Lakers name brought with it the 5 championships won in Minneapolis, and a recognisable brand as the most successful team in brief history of the NBA.

No chance here. I've been a Laker since 1989 and they're the only sporting team I follow that I've seen win a championship. If we eliminated Mills, Bogut, Andersen and Jawai's carcass in the playoffs en route to the championship I couldn't be happier. It didn't take me long to fall in love with the history and tradition of the Lakers and, like with Melbourne, the origin of our players is less important than the jersey/guernsey. As for Kyrie Irving, I wondered when he made the decision what I'd do if in his shoes. My biggest concern would be figuring out which country I felt the greatest allegiance to. Obviously, then he has to decide between being a borderline selection for a country that will win the gold medal every Olympics, or the starting PG for a country that will finish 4-16. It would have been nice though!

Thanks for the reply. The coaching change is actually fantastic for KC. Not necessarily because Romeo is the head coach (though the players seem to love him and we'll be much better defensively with him at the helm) but because Haley's out. Poor relationships with the players and the front office - his firing was long overdue. Crennel's a good fit for right now - comes from within the organisation and coached the last 3 games of last season, so there's no familiarity issues. Agree with what you say on the unpredictability of the AFC West. Who could have picked Denver to win it last year or KC the year before? Not me! Maybe it will be another surprise. While I like Rivers, he wasn't great for stretches of last season, and San Diego's days of dominating the West are done for now. They've had some FA losses this offseason too. It wouldn't be staggering if they took the division though. On your QBs, I like the top 5 and I don't see many changes there. Romo has proven time and time again that he is not up to it when it counts. Highly overrated in my opinion. Big Ben's not at Brady's level (who is?), but I've grown to appreciate a QB like that who can just take a physical pounding week after week and still stand there and take a hit from defenders. Stafford-Megatron combo is gold. Knowing Detroit, they'll find ways to implode, but they have some exciting pieces. Playing in the same division as GB and Chicago gives them little room for error though, and it wouldn't take a complete failure for them to miss the playoffs. Just a quick question: do any of you buy the NFL's equivalent of the NBA League Pass or NHL Gamecenter? I've got League Pass and I can watch any game, regular season or playoffs, though I just use it to watch my team's games. OneHD's NFL coverage is excellent, though there usually aren't many Chiefs games on. Cost me just under $200. Just wondering how people have found the NFL's equivalent to be.

I'm not buying the Denver hype. Obviously as a KC fan I can be accused of bias, but I'm usually very pessimistic about the Chiefs. It would take another colossal injury barrage for KC not to take the AFC West this coming season though. The Chiefs were a botched FG away from the playoffs last year without some of their best players for the entire season. Whatever your thoughts on Tebow, he took what was generally considered a rancid team at the beginning of the season to some miraculous wins, an improbable playoff berth and a stirring playoff win. Denver has obviously added a huge piece in Manning if his neck doesn't snap in half, but KC's additions for 2012 are Charles, Berry and Moeaki back from injury, Hillis, RT Winston - top 5 at a crucial position is a massive upgrade on Richardson and will help the running game immensely, Boss and Routt - this is a downgrade after KC lost Carr, but not a disgraceful #2 option behind Flowers. Youth is on KC's side. The one thing that is not, is that it's a quarterback's league. Cassel is not an elite QB, nor in the top 16 QBs, and that's being generous. We won't be going anywhere serious until that's solved, but the team is set to be amongst the playoff action for a while, provided the front office's notorious stinginess doesn't allow for regression. Bear in mind also that KC and Denver have 12 common opponents next season, play each other twice, but then KC plays games against Indy and Miami, while Denver plays New England and Houston. Didn't want to turn this into a parochial post, but on re-reading it is a bit! Whatever happens, I don't see whoever comes out of the West reaching the AFC Championship game - that's a big step from where these teams are coming from. Bring on the next season though. Can't wait.

Great post on all fronts (except the "hate the country" bit). I've made similar arguments on "tanking" on Demonland a few times. I completely agree with you. There is a massive lack of understanding on the issue in a big, vocal section of the footy-supporting community, who treat the issue as a black and white one, which it can never be.

As is the case with a lot of my friends, I'm seeing a fair bit of interest in NFL here, and no NASCAR threads. Can someone please then explain to me why OneHD is playing live NASCAR on Monday mornings and replaying NFL in the graveyard slot almost 24 hours later?