I am not seeing anything in LA to inspire a lot of confidence right now. Granted, Houston creates matchup problems LA doesn't typically see, but LA's collapse last night was scary, Malone put them on his back and proved that, despite the less than glowing feelings people on this board have for him, my respect for his effort increased last night.
San Antonio beat a team they should beat just the way they should have, by pounding them into the floor. To me it is not indictative of what the second round will look like because Memphis was the deer caught in the headlights, they froze. They were supposed to, no experience at all and the first time ever in the playoffs for the franchise. Props to them for making it but this is what was supposed to happen.
LA is a different story, tons of experience, tons of talent, and no fear. The problem is, with the schizophrenic nature of this team, you do not know on any given night which team will show up, the lackluster going through the motions team that could lose to a decent college team, or the team that could absolutely destroy any team that would even dare step onto the same court with them. LA's terrible habit of playing down to the level of their competition has burned them more than once, and their letting up on people when they get the lead, (like last night) and thean doing just enough to win will burn them bad if they try it against the Spurs.
I short, I don't know what to think, if LA plays to their potential, they cannot lose to anybody on earth, period, end of story, but that is why they play the series, potential doesn't equal success.
