I think Carlos Boozer is the most guilty of this. Not just by his body language on the court and bench during the game but in interviews leading up game 2. Some of his comments (IMO) sounded shakey and more like wishful thinking then 'we are going in there to rip the fun out of Lakers squad'
Carlos Boozer is a regular season player. Nothing wrong with that. It is what it is. Kevin Garnett said it in the most eloquent way possible, he said and I paraphrase:
"Pre-season is pre-season. Playground is playground. Regular season is what it is. And playoffs is playoffs. Maybe it sounds cliche but its a completely different thing."
Yeah its still a 94 foot court, yeah you still try and shoot an orange ball through a hoop, but the regular season and the playoffs are two COMPLETELY different things. Boozer is the type of player who does well in the regular season, at the lower intensity level. Dip him into peel-your-skin-off, boiling oil of playoff intense basketball, and he shrinks into nothing. You can't give someone a heart transplant so get used to seeing Boozer take high arching, fade away jumpers from 17 feet. And I just wish the announcers would go two freakin' seconds without mentioning "what's wrong with Boozer" before I lose my mind. Anybody with 2 brain cells to rub together should know and be able to COMMENTATE on it!
And Skandery...of all the bench players to pick on you choose Ronnie to don the 'scum' title?! I thought for sure people would pick Sasha for that long before Ronnie. Some of the coaches are bigger jerks then Ronnie is!!
koast, I used "scum" as a colloquial term for deep. Turiaf is a deep bench player (like #9 or something). Bench scum refers to your 9, 10, 11, and 12 guys on the roster. I do not truly think of Turiaf as scum, he actually seems like a nice fellow and a great teammate. Now Vujacic is scum any way you slice it but that's not his fault, Jackson will transform a couple guys into thuggish, filthy, enforcers. And I will never forgive him for what he turned Rick Fox into, but that's another story. Point is, 1 through 12, the Laker players believe themselves to be invincible and play as such. Ere go, Walton shoots at 70% clip from the field, while Fisher might as well be heaving shots into an ocean.
The Lakers did what they were suppose to do and held home court. Now they need to come out in game 3 and match the intensity of the Jazz in the first 5 minutes to deflate that crowd. If they don't it is going to be a really long game. The Lakers need to not buy into their own hype and stay focused/hungry. This team will not roll over like the Nuggets did in game 3 and I hope they realize that.
Blah blah blah blah
Skandery, don't try to use the reverse psychology, jedi-mind trick on us. That's my move!
Now I have to counter your statement to re-reverse your jinx.
Therefore, please note that the series will go 7 and the Lakers will be lucky to get by Utah let alone win a title.
No tricks, msc, honest. I calls 'em like I sees 'em.
Just relax and enjoy the ride. Mua ha ha ha ha ha