By the end of the third overtime against the Suns on Tuesday, it was almost exactly 11:00 pm PST. The game had lasted 3.5 hours. Being 2:00 am on the east coast, it made me wonder how many people, if any, actually stayed awake to see the end of the game.
In all honesty, the game should have never have reached even the first overtime. The Lakers lead by as much as 21 points in the 3rd quarter, but by the middle of the 4th quarter the Lakers found themselves in the middle of a legitimate contest. The Lakers left the door open for Phoenix in regulation and it caught up with them in the end. Lamar Odom’s three-point foul kept that door open, allowing Channing Frye to tie the game and extend it into more overtime. Poor offensive possessions and shot clock management by the Lakers seemed to give Phoenix as much opportunity as possible to stay in the game.
While the Lakers will need to address those details between now and the playoffs, last night’s triple overtime victory was the best thing that could’ve happened to the Lakers at this point in the season.
Phoenix is in a dog fight for the last and final playoff spot in the West. Every possessions matters to them right now. Every win in crucial. They are giving each of their opponents their very best effort right now. This shouldn’t be anything new to a team like the Lakers, the two-time defending champions. They get every team’s best effort on a nightly basis because teams like to see how they stack up against the NBA’s reigning champion and favorite to three-peat.
But Phoenix wasn’t playing to see how they measured up. They played on Tuesday for mere survival. They played out of complete desperation. They played as if that was their elimination game from a playoff series. While it seemed to me the Lakers were in large part to blame for letting the game go on that long, it was important for them to come out on top of a dog fight before the big dogs come to play in April and May.
The Lakers are 13-1 as of late. Their average margin of victory during that span is 9.6 points Their largest margin of victory among those games was 24 points, and their smallest margin was Tuesday night against Phoenix at two points. On average, the Lakers have been cruising by their opponents during this stretch, with only moments of challenge here or there at any given point in a game. Tuesday night’s marathon should serve as a healthy reminder that while their are practically playing on autopilot right now, opponents are about to start grinding again real soon.
The Lakers play the Clippers tonight which, like any good college rivalry, records go out the window and you can expect things to get grimy at Staples. After that, the Lakers play only Western Conference opponents, 7 of them being current playoff teams, including the Thunder, Spurs and Mavericks.
Games like Tuesday night’s win will pay dividends come playoff time. During this regular season, the Lakers are 12-7 in games decided by five points or fewer. Yes, a winning record under that circumstance, but nothing dominant or convincing. In their current 13-1 run, five of those wins have come by five points or fewer. And of those five games, one was against Oklahoma (at Oklahoma) and the other was against Dallas (in Dallas). Two of those five wins were also against Portland, who always seem to give the Lakers headaches.
So how does this affect April, May and June?
As we look back over the 2008, 2009 and 2010 playoff runs made by the Lakers it is interesting to note the number of key games within a series that was decided by five points or fewer. In the 2008 Conference Finals against the Spurs, Game 4 was a two-point Lakers win in San Antonio. The Lakers were able to finish the job at home in LA in five games without having to return to Texas.
In the 2009 Conference Finals against Denver, the Lakers lost Game 1 at Staples Center by two points. They only won Game 2 by three points. The point differential in the first two games was five points total, and it came at the expense of a home loss to start the series. Game 3 was actually decided by six points, but necessary to restore home court advantage.
It’s hard to slice up a series that ended 4-1, but it’s interesting to note that Game 2 of the Finals against Orlando was only a five point victory in Los Angeles, and the Lakers only loss of the series was by four points. A bucket here or a steal there and maybe that series goes six or seven games.
In 2010 things got very interesting for the Lakers in each playoff series. Beginning with Oklahoma City in the 1st round, Games 2 and 3 were both decided by five points or fewer, and almost cost LA home court advantage before heading back to Oklahoma. Game 6 was the infamous one-point victory on Pau Gasol’s putback at the buzzer. That series ended 4-2 and never returned to LA, allowing the Lakers to rest for the next round after facing a young and energetic Thunder squad.
Again, it’s hard to dissect a series that ended in a 4-0 sweep, but Games 1 and 3 of the Conference Semi-finals against the Jazz were decided by five points or less, again almost costing them home court advantage from the get-go and eventually closing the door on enemy soil as Game 3 was a one point victory. In fact, Game 3 turned sloppy at the end when Ron Artest missed Derek Fisher on the inbound pass with six seconds left, giving the Jazz the ball and an opportunity to win at the buzzer. It almost happened when Deron Williams got a good look at the basket, but missed from long range. Wesley Matthews also missed a point-blank put-back at the buzzer. It’s hard for any team to climb out of a 0-3 hole, and the Lakers finished their business the next game in Utah.
The pivotal moment in the Conference Finals last year came when Artest had a put-back at the buzzer in Game 5 against the Suns. That game was in LA, and might have meant going back to Phoenix down 3-2 and being forced to win just to bring the series back to Staples. The Lakers won Game 5 by two points.
The first six games of the Finals against Boston were somewhat decisive in nature. No real nail-biters that ended on the last play of the game. However, Game 7 resulted in only a four point Lakers win, which came down to ball possession and clock management.
Speaking of Boston, as I was watching the extra sessions on Tuesday night, it reminded me of Boston’s first round series against Chicago in 2009. Boston lost home court advantage in Game 1 by two points in overtime. Game 2 was a three-point Boston win in regulation. Game 4 was a three-point Chicago win in double overtime. Game 5 was a two-point Boston win in overtime, and Game 6 was a one-point Chicago win in triple overtime. A possession here or turnover there and that series could have turned out a lot different.
I believe it’s true that over the course of a seven-game series the better team will find a way to win four games before the other team. But as we’ve seen with the Lakers over the past few years, close games that end on the difference of a basket or two can come at a pivotal moment in any series. I don’t know if this Lakers team would’ve willed themselves a win a month or two like they did on Tuesday night, so it was great to see them scratch and claw when they had to.