Last night, the Warriors were seemingly in control of the game, playing their brand of basketball, when all hell broke loose. The team started overreacting to calls that any home team, especially the Lakers, are expected to get in the playoffs. Instead of playing through it, something the veteran Warriors have done countless times in the playoffs (including the Sacramento series) they completely unraveled. The Warriors, despite all their success over the years, have always struggled playing the Lakers in LA. They are 9-13 including the play in game and playoff game last night. If the Warriors were the big brothers against Sacramento, where Sacramento, facing the mystique of a championship team with pedigree, was the team that unraveled in the heat of the moment then the Lakers are the big brother in this series, which as a franchise has owned the Warriors forever.
A case in point is a game ten years ago that any Warrior fan will remember. The Lakers, with Kobe Bryant, were facing the upstart Warriors in a game they desperately needed to make the playoffs. The Warriors were 45-34 and the Lakers were 42-37. The Warriors were a shoe-in for the playoffs despite the two teams similar records and came to LA looking to knock the Lakers (big brother) out of playoff contention. Much like this year’s Laker team, that Laker team had gotten an atrocious number of free throws and foul calls in the latter part of the season, a part of league’s unabashed effort to ensure Kobe got into the playoffs. It was just as disgusting then as it is now.
Enter the upstart Warriors, coached by Mark Jackson, looking to give the Lakers a death blow and make a name for themselves by taking Kobe’s scalp. I watched that game on TV and two quarters into the game everyone, including Warriors coaches and players (Curry, Thompson, etc) knew the refs would not allow them to win that game. They just kept looking at each other, shaking their heads as if to say, “can you believe they are blatantly doing us like this, rigging the game, with everyone watching?” Phantom call after phantom call was called on the Warriors, to the point that even the tv announcers were incredulous. The Warriors got up 30 more shots than the Lakers! 97 shots to 66 for the Lakers. But the Lakers shot 50 free throws in the game to the Warriors 16!! The Lakers made 38 out of 50 and Warriors 13-16. Despite all the effort by the refs, the Warriors nearly won, that’s how good they were playing. Curry had 47 and the final score was 116-118. The Lakers final three points to win the game were all free throws, after Thompson hit a 3 to put the Warriors up 116-115.
In the irony of all ironies, that’s also the game in which Kobe tore his achilles in the 4th quarter! So even though the refs helped the Lakers make the playoffs, it was all for naught!
Who knows, maybe the basketball gods will reward this year’s Laker team, and the league backing them, in the same way. 
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