All Ball: Lakers, Nicholson Turn Back the Clock
by Paul Teetor
Jack’s back.
That’s all you had to see Friday night to understand what was about to happen: the Lakers were poised to win their biggest home game in more than three years.
The first thing anyone with a pulse and a working pair of eyes noticed – whether in person or on TV – was that Lakers superfan Jack Nicholson was back in his courtside seat for the first time in more than two years.
Fresh off the publication of a New York Post story that said a depressed, obese, 86-year-old Nicholson had become a recluse in the same Hollywood Hills mansion that a fat, depressed, 80-year-old Marlon Brando had died in back in 2004, a defiant Nicholson showed up to support his beloved Lakers, and prove that you can’t believe everything you read in the papers — and certainly not in the New York Post.
As soon as LeBron James walked onto the floor for warmups, he made a bee-line for Nicholson and gave him a great big bear hug while telling him how great it was to see him in his customary seat, the same one he occupied for more than 30 years during the Lakers Showtime run of the 1980’s and the Kobe-Shaq three-peat 20 years ago.
Talk about an omen.
And what a great omen it turned out to be: the Lakers destroyed the Memphis Grizzlies 125-85 in game six of their first-round series, to win the series four games to two. It was one of the rare times in NBA history that a seventh-seeded team upset a second-seeded team, and it catapulted the Lakers into the Western Conference semifinals against the Golden State Warriors starting Tuesday night.
That’s going to be one helluva series – SoCal vs. NorCal, LeBron vs. Steph Curry. But before focusing on what promises to be an epic showdown Lakers fans were still celebrating the upset of the Grizzlies long into the weekend.
And they will continue to celebrate right up until tip-off Tuesday night on Golden State’s home floor at the Chase Center. That’s how big a deal this first round victory was for a team that started the season 2-10 and for a long time looked like it wasn’t going to make the playoffs at all.
While advancing to the second round of the playoffs was a major accomplishment for LeBron and the Lakers, there was something more important going on both on, and off the court.
The bond between LeBron and the Lakers fans, for the first time, seemed real, authentic and destined to last a long time, perhaps right up until the day he retires, hopefully in a purple and gold uniform many years from now.
After all, at age 38 he’s still one of the five best players in the league. It’s not crazy to think he could continue to play at a very high level for another five years, or more. Remember, he spends more than $1 million a year on maintaining his body in super shape. We’re seeing the payoff on that fitness investment in these playoffs.
That new-found bond, that genuine connection between LeBron and Lakers fans, has been a long time coming. From the moment that LeBron signed with the Lakers as a free agent in the summer of 2018, there was a wide-spread feeling among the fans and the local media that, as he joined his fourth team after starring for Cleveland, Miami and then Cleveland again, he was just a basketball mercenary coming to LA for selfish reasons – mainly to build a Hollywood entertainment empire – without any real allegiance to the Lakers or their fans.
There was none of the fan connection and identification with the player himself, as there had been with Magic and Kareem in the ‘80s and Kobe and Shaq in the ‘90s, and the first decade of this century. That spiritual connection can only come from watching a player grow and mature right in front of your eyes over a span of many years, from shared experiences and shared adventures.
But when the Grizzlies self-appointed villain, loud mouth braggart Dillon Brooks, attacked LeBron as an old man who was only a shadow of the great player he once was, well, something magical, something mystical happened in the aftermath of those rash comments.
Not only did Lakers fans embrace LeBron even as they defended him, but for the first time he gave them iconic moments in a Lakers uniform. Those special moments will live in the fan’s collective memories forever, just as Shaq dunking on the Portland Trail Blazers to win game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals and Kobe willing his team to a title over the Boston Celtics in game seven of the 2010 Finals have taken up permanent residence.
The first two such iconic moments came in game four, when the Grizz appeared to be on track to tie the series at 2-2. With six seconds to go, the Grizz had a two-point lead but the Lakers had the ball and one last chance coming out of a timeout.
The Lakers smartly got the ball to LeBron, who had Brooks hanging on his every move. Like the LeBron of old, he powered right through Brooks, bulled his way to the hoop, and saw Grizz center Jaren Jackson closing in on him, ready to block his shot. The 6-foot-11 Jackson had just been named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year, so LeBron knew he had to do something extra special to score. With arms and hands clawing at him from every side, he lofted a right-handed scoop shot that went up, up and over Jackson’s lunging arms, kissed off the top of the backboard and fell through the net to send the game to overtime.
The fans went crazy, realizing they had just seen LeBron at his championship best.
But somehow, he topped that in the overtime period. With the Lakers clinging to a one-point lead in the final half minute of overtime, LeBron got the ball on the left side of the court, 12 feet from the basket.
Again, fittingly, Brooks was guarding him. And Brooks was doing what he always does, hacking away at LeBron with both arms, knowing that the refs were unlikely to call a foul at this crucial moment, preferring to let the players decide the game on their own.
This time, instead of driving to the middle of the lane, LeBron switched it up, drove left, and threw up a five-foot bank shot, off the wrong foot and with the wrong hand, that banked right in and assured a Lakers win.
The crowd was on their feet, of course, but this time it was LeBron who went crazy. Scrunching up his face in a ferocious scowl, he howled at the crowd in triumph, a year’s worth of doubt and frustration and failure released in a cathartic roar as he flexed and strutted in front of his adoring fans.
“It was a special moment,” LeBron said. “It may not have closed the door completely on them coming back, but after that shot I felt sure that we were going to win it.”
And of course they did, taking a 3-1 lead to Memphis for game 5 Wednesday night. Drained by his overtime heroics, LeBron had little energy left for game 5, Anthony Davis was limping around the court as he sometimes does, and the Lakers lost by 17 points as the series resumed with game 6 Friday night in LA.
Everybody, including LeBron and Jack Nicholson, knew that this was their best chance to win the series and finish off Brooks and the Grizz. No one, especially LeBron, wanted to go back to Memphis for a game 7, where the Grizz home crowd would be going crazy and the younger, more athletic Memphis players would have the clear advantage after playing six intense, physically taxing games in 10 days.
So the stage was set for the climactic game six in front of a frenzied crowd that included Jack Nicholson. And this time it was the Grizzlies who couldn’t handle the truth: the older, more experienced team led by the second-oldest player in the NBA is better than one of the youngest, most athletic teams who finished with the second-best record in the entire Western Conference.
Now it’s time to bring on the Warriors.
LeBron – and Jack – are ready for their next challenge.
Prediction: Lakers win it 4 games to 3. In game 7 LeBron dunks on Curry for the game winning bucket in overtime.
Clippers at a Crossroads
Late in the week, after the Clippers had been eliminated in the first round 4 games to 1 by the Phoenix Suns, star forward Paul George posted an enigmatic tweet that had fans scratching their heads: “At some point we’re going to get this shit right.”
The collective response: when, exactly, are you going to get it right?
Four years after signing PG and fellow superstar Kawhi Leonard, the Clippers have exactly one trip to the Western Conference Finals to show for the king’s ransom they traded away to get the two players.
This season it got worse, not better: both players missed more than half the team’s games with injuries,and when the playoffs finally got here, they were both out with sprained knees. PG didn’t play at all, and Kawhi played the first two games – when he scored 38 points in a win and then 31 points in a loss – before the team suddenly announced he wouldn’t play again due to “knee soreness.”
When the fans and media let out a roar of frustration over the latest mysterious injury to Kawhi, the Clippers hustled to spread the news that he had been diagnosed with a torn meniscus in his right knee.
So now the Clippers have two choices for next season, the last season before they move to their brand spanking new arena in Inglewood.
The first is to tear the roster down, sell off Kawhi and PG to the highest bidders for as many draft choices as they can get, and start all over with young players who may or may not develop into stars.
The second option is to keep it going with the same roster and hope Kawhi and PG get healthy enough to play a full season, including the playoffs, even as they get a year older.
The Clips have both stars under contract next season for $45 million apiece, and since owner Steve Ballmer has more money than he could ever spend, the odds are that he will continue to pay these crazy salaries on the off chance that both stars will return to full health, lead the team to the NBA Finals, and justify all the frustration and lost opportunities over the last five years.
But if that doesn’t work – and it probably won’t – look for Ballmer to stop digging his hole and figure out a new path forward.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. Follow: @paulteetor. ER