BITS AND PIECES

There's only 7 games left in our regular season and it’s hard to fathom.  The season's gone by faster than any I can remember and that’s a lot.  It may have something to do with keeping this online journal of sorts - Searching for Slava’s not your traditional sports blog but I’ve had fun doing it - sections of basketball lumped together with other bits and pieces. Then again, the ever quickening passage of time may be just that.

I wrote about the distractions back in January and they can work the same with lowly mortals as with NBA stars - forces of everyday life seemed destined to keep me from scrolling every blog, devouring articles and games in whole.  It's come in odd parts as of late but this final stretch drive will push it all to the side. The Lakers have been on an epic tear since the All-Star break - 17 wins and 1 loss as of this typing and the rest of the games come fast and furious - plenty of back-to-backs, away and at home.

It would have been absurd only a week ago, to contemplate taking the top seed in the west. That was before a six-game skid from the Spurs - their worst in 15 years. It’s still a Silky Sullivan longshot - the Spurs magic number is 5 - any combination of their wins and our losses. Still, at the Lakers current win streak pace, that could mean 5 out of 6 wins for the Spurs and it’s certainly not how they’ve been playing lately.  Someone please correct me if my math is corrupt - I keep puzzling it and it's giving me a headache.

The brouhaha Thursday night was entertaining - many saying Dallas was punked but it's also worth noting that they were simply outmatched.  Our bigs are bigger than  their bigs and they play even larger.  Andrew's been a monster as of late, Pau's scoring at will and Lamar's making an unbreakable case for 6th man of the year.  I can't believe I just wrote that tripe - as if L.O. hasn't already strip-mined his unisex flower juice to death.  Phil Jackson chided Dallas’s Terry Stotts for his bear-hug of Barnes. He’s right of course - if an opposing coach had done that to Phil back in the day, there would have been a backwards elbow and a broken nose.  Stotts got off easy, Barnes merely dumped him onto the bench - a one-game suspension followed.

The Lakers sallied forth to Utah on a Friday night back-to-back.  The Jazz are decimated by injuries right now but still jumped out to a sizable lead - the Lakers didn't bother to flip the switch until late in the 2nd quarter. Kirlenko was out and we weren't treated to the usual display of  his shimmery locks solidarity with Martin Short  Gordan Hayward.  Fesenko started for the first time all season - he's a real big kid and laid some serious hits on Kobe.  Jerry Sloan would have been proud .  Utah battled back periodically in the second half but the Lakers machine took over - they won by 11 but it felt like more.

Sunday brings a 12:30 game against Denver and it'll be a challenge - the ink-squad's been impressive since shedding Melo and the early hour interferes with brunch.  Then again, the playoffs are in sight and surprisingly, so is San Antonio.   My laptop's been a black hole all night, I'm posting this while I still can.