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No argument: These Lakers are special
By Mitch Lawrence
Special to ESPN.com
PHILADELPHIA -- Pat Croce had it all planned out. With a Sixers win in
the Finals, he was going to have specially made the largest Philadelphia
76er jersey ever. Then he was going to take the XXXXXXXXXXL jersey, get
a helicopter, and slip the jersey on the statue of William Penn, who
towers over this city, standing atop City Hall.
"I was thinking he could wear No. 1 or maybe No. 76," said Croce, the
Sixers' president. "But I didn't have the jersey made up."
He might have put the order in, if his team was playing anyone but the
Lakers.
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For the record
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By closing out the Sixers in five games, the Lakers ...
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... finished with the best playoff winning percentage ever (.938).
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... became only the second team to go through the playoffs with just one loss (the '83 Sixers went 12-1).
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... became the first team to win all of its postseason road games (8-for-8).
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... became only the third team to sweep the middle three games of the Finals on the road since the league went to its 2-3-2 format.
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This is a special L.A. team. By finishing off the Sixers in Game 5 on Friday, they finished with the best playoff record ever -- 15-1, with their
only blemish an OT loss in Game 1 of the Finals -- and became the first
team to ever win every postseason road game, going a perfect
eight-for-eight.
So where do they rank, all-time?
If they're not the greatest, they're certainly among them.
Kobe Bryant might be only 22, but he's a student of the game. What he
said last week when asked where the Lakers would rank was right on the
money.
"It's tough pair up teams in the past," he said.
It's a different league now. The great Lakers teams of the '80s had four
players who were drafted No.1 overall. These Lakers have
one. The previous Lakers teams, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson,
James Worthy and Mychal Thompson, never won a championship without at
least two playoff losses. But they also were playing legendary Celtics
teams -- with Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish -- or the 1983
Philadelphia team of Moses Malone and Julius Erving that went 12-1 on its way to the title.
Today's Lakers haven't played nearly the
quality of competition in the Finals, whether it was last year's Pacers
or these 76ers. So it's hard to say that the old Lakers are inferior.
So despite their postseason run, some experts will still regard the '83
Sixers as the best playoff team ever. It's difficult to argue. Besides
suffering only one loss, to the Bucks in the conference finals, they
swept a Lakers team that had won the title the previous season and is
considered better than the later Lakers teams of the '80s because
Abdul-Jabbar was still only 36. That Sixers team also won 65 regular-season games.
Numerically, these Lakers will surpass the 1986 Celtics. But back then,
the idea of running the table in the postseason was ludicrous, given
that the homecourt edge was much greater than it is today. So even after
winning 67 games, and posting a 40-1 home mark, the Celtics still had to
face some stiff competition en route to a 15-3 playoffs record,
including a 4-2 verdict against Houston in the Finals. Just because the
'96 Bulls lost three games in the postseason, including one OT decision,
does that mean that these Lakers are really better? Don't forget, that
Chicago team won 72 games -- 16 more than these Lakers -- in the
regular season, and Michael Jordan was never more dominant.
|  | | As some former greats did, Shaquille O'Nealwas a dominant force in the playoffs. |
Still, what these Lakers are doing is special, when you consider that
only two other teams, the 1990 Pistons and 1991 Bulls, are the only
teams to sweep the middle three games of the Finals on the road since
the league went to the present 2-3-2 format.
"That speaks for itself," said Ron Harper. "But this is a team that can
win four or five more championships."
Why not? Shaquille O'Neal is on the verge of matching Hakeem Olajuwon
with two rings and they have the game's best perimeter player in Bryant.
So if you want to
debate how these Lakers match up with other great teams, they do pretty
well from the standpoint of having the most dominant player on the
floor. The Bulls had Michael Jordan. The Lakers had Johnson and Kareem,
in his younger days. The Celtics had Bird.
So from that standpoint, Shaq's MVP performance in these playoffs allowed the
Lakers to be mentioned with those other all-time teams. And don't
forget, only a few weeks ago, Bryant's superlative play against the
Spurs drew comparisons to Jordan, all of them legitimate. If Harper is
correct in his prediction about a dynasty and they continue this
postseason mastery, that could even put these Lakers ahead of the other
great teams. Only time will tell.
But in this season, Shaq also moved closer to the Jordans, Johnsons
and Birds in another important category.
"His leadership has improved," Phil Jackson said. "His ability to carry
the team with the total responsibility has been really the thing that
has been the key for us."
In other words, Shaq refused to let the Lakers lose. He did whatever it
took. Every team that wants to be part of the "are they the best
ever?" debate must boast at least one of those special players. Again,
there are nights when Bryant is also that kind of player, although we
didn't see that in the Finals. But he's got a lot of playing to do,
too.
These Lakers have also picked up another quality that all teams need to
have if they're going to be part of the "best-ever" debate: a killer
instinct.
Last season, the Lakers couldn't close out any team on time. Once they
had their playoff opponent on the verge of elimination, they were only
4-6 in the next game. This season, having learned what it takes to
deliver the knockout punch, they polished off Portland and Sacramento, San Antonio and Philadelphia at the very first opportunity.
"They didn't have the killer instinct," Horace Grant said. "Now they
know what to expect. They know that once they?re on the verge of winning
a championship or a series, you can't give the other team any hope. This
year, it's totally different."
Maybe not the best, but special indeed.
Mitch Lawrence, who covers the NBA for the New York Daily News, writes a regular NBA column for ESPN.com. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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