Lakers, Spurs Fight for Decade of Dominance

It will be a battle between the two most successful teams in the NBA over the last 10 years to decide which squad will have the chance to add another ring to its decade of dominance.

The Lakers, owners of three straight championships from 2000-02, will have homecourt advantage against the Spurs, owners of four rings in the last nine years (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007).

It wasn't an easy road to the Conference Finals for the defending champs, as it faced perennial foe Phoenix in the First Round and was forced to win a Game 7 on the road in the Conference Semifinals to advance after falling down 2-0 to start its series with New Orleans.

Los Angeles, meanwhile, is 8-2 in the playoffs so far - the best record of any team still standing - following a regular season when it earned the No. 1 seed in the West by having the best record, 57-25, out of any other team in its conference during the 82-game slate.

The Spurs are led by the same triumvirate that they captured their last three rings with - Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker - while the Lakers feature a different cast of players from its threepeat at the turn of the century.

Well, a different cast besides Kobe Bryant.

Fresh off being named the league's MVP for the first time in his career, Bryant has been nothing less than dominant in the postseason with averages of 33.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists.

While the Spurs have their "Big Three," Bryant has three very good starting teammates who he relies on. Kobe's post-Shaq running mate, Lamar Odom (15.6 points, 10.7 rebounds in the playoffs); reacquired friend, Derek Fisher (11.9 points, 2.7 steals); and midseason Godsend, Pau Gasol (20.0 points, 8.6 rebounds, 4.5 assists) make Los Angeles a balanced team.

In the two teams' four regular season meetings they split 2-2, with the home team winning all of the matchups by an average of 13.3 points.

However, the last of those four meetings occurred in the last week of the regular season with both teams vying for the best record in the West and was the only time the Lakers had Gasol in the fold. On that day, L.A. won by 21.

The best of seven games to decide the best team of the last 10 years tips off on Wednesday in Los Angeles at 9 p.m. ET on TNT.

 http://www.nba.com/playoffs2008/series/series_w3s1.html

the spurs are a very respectable team imo and since we are modeled after them i gotta root for them. That and the fact that i don't want to hear about the lakers for a whole year on espn. That being said the lakers are winning this in 5 maybe 6

Lakers in 7.

I'm actually rooting for the Spurs =/

Mixed feelings here as they're the team that swept us last year but I hate the media whoring Celtics and Lakers.

 

Amazing comeback by the Lakers.  I turned it off when they went down by 20 late in the 3rd, then a half hour later I check SportsCenter and see that  they won...

It will be interesting to see if Kobe can turn it on anytime he wants....at anytime again in this series. I would expect them to be smothering him from here on out, but we'll see.

Amazing comeback by the Lakers.

well put future

Spurs are winning this series.

Spurs have a tough road now to get back in this series now down 0-2.
Being at home will help, but now I think even that might not save them...it might still go 5 or 6 games....but I dunno.
The Lake show is rolling for now, let's see how it plays on the road.

Pretty good Game 3 so far. Spurs up 49-39 at the half.
Lakers went cold there mid 2nd qtr, otherwise it was really back and forth.
Not alot of turnovers it seems, nice shooting.

Ginobli with 22 at the half, 5 or 6 three's I think.
Duncan with about 12 boards.

Kobe has 14, he's on, Parker seems on....hopefully it's a great second half.
I'm cheering for the Lakers, I can see Kobe getting 40 tonight for sure, but it may not be enough with Parker, Duncan, and Ginobli on fire.



Spurs win game 3, now down 2-1 in the Series.
Ginobli 30 pts
Kobe 30 pts


The difference tonight was the supporting cast/benches.
Spurs had many contributions throughout, Lakers not so much as it turned out.