2016 record: 9-2
How often do we see these going away parties for all-time greats. Further, how often do we see them and not see that team make the playoffs?
It happened with Jeter in 2014. An all-time great leaves the field of play and the league serenades him the entire year as he legitimately fades away. Then as those last games approach, glimpses of the greatness comes back.
Jeter left the last game at Yankee stadium with the game winning hit.
Now onto Kobe? Do we need him to hit a game-winner? No. We're getting 6 points. That's a nice cushion even for a loss. But just like Jeter, he dropped 35 two games ago against the Rockets. The star fades but the will is strong.
So why do I think the Lakers will cover?
1. The Kings will set the table
There are 4 teams I'd be deathly afraid of my opponent competing for the playoffs playing for the last playoff spot: Sixers, Nets, Lakers and...the Kings.
All 4 are committed to losing and have absolutely no heart. I'd say the Nets are the worst of the 4 at this point shutting down Brook and Thaddeus, the Lakers are second and the Kings are a close third. At least the Sixers, with their meager talent bust hump on certain nights.
Here's what will happen tomorrow night: the Rockets are not going to lose the Kings especially on the road without Cousins. That is a given. The ML and spread hold no value to fool around with.
Just as that game is ending, the Jazz then have to take the court having been knocked out of the playoffs due to shooting themselves in the foot: losing to the Clippers bench and the Mavericks at home which is fairly insane given how many solid teams they've beaten this year.
Talk about demoralizing.
Worse, the Staples Center is going to have wall to wall media and fans there to support Kobe. It will be one of the biggest going away parties Staples has ever seen.
Did you see the last home game ever at Sleep Train arena for the Kings? A terrible Kings team took out an excellent OKC team that, like the Jazz (soon will), had nothing to play for. The Kings wanted to send that arena out in style and reward the fans who were loyal to it with attendance and they did just that. And that is a team with zero heart.
The Lakers are of course, a team with no heart as well.
But like the Kings in their last home game, the Lakers have everything to play for. Arenas get closed once every 2 or three decades. All time greats leave the league every 1.5 to 2 decades. Duncan is next but he won't allow the league to give him all this attention. Kobe will and does.
And it will result in the game that had a red hot spotlight on the Lakers who at a bare minimum should send him out with a win.
Almost all the Lakers players except a few young draft picks will be on the chopping block at the end of the year as the team gets overhauled at the end of the year.
One game does not a free agency signing make for the fringe players who will leave, but what player in his right mind wouldn't want to turn heads with all that attention? In my opinion, it is a given everyone along with Kobe will come to play, even with this team fracturing.
Can they send them out with a win?
It's debatable. But we do get +6. We also get:
2. Revenge for tying the worst Lakers loss in their history and Kobe's worst loss ever
But there is something else that needs to be noted about that Jazz Lakers game on March 28th of last month:
That was the fallout game after the Nick Young/D'Angelo Russell debacle. The team was totally fractured/preoccupied/disoriented. I won't say they would have beaten the Jazz, but the way they were beaten was due to a team in total shambles mentally and for all intents and purposes, it wasn't even a team that night. And the Jazz had no problem taking them behind the woodshed and scoring every possible point on them.
That will be on the minds of these players, for what it's worth, tonight.
That is worth something.
3. Durant admitted he wanted to drill Kobe last game.
"I remember when Michael Jordan was on his way out and Kobe didn't take it easy on him," Durant said.
"That's all I was thinking. I was trying to destroy him every chance I got. Every time I got the ball, he was 'Come on. Let's see what you got.' That shows what type of player, what type of competitor he is. I just wanted to play against him one last time."
Again, this is a strong psychological motivator for Kobe who we need to have at the top of his game to cover.
Even if these players do not like Kobe (and it is very possible most don't), there will be too much WORLD-wide media glare to play like a dog tomorrow (and that goes for one of the biggest dogs in Roy Hibbert too).
To recap:
1. We are home.
2. We are getting +6.
3. An all-time great is leaving his sport on that night. The world-wide media glare will be all over this game for the Lakers to at a minimum, make a showing.
4. The Lakers are on a 6 game losing streak and have lost 10 of 11 (Good, I love fading losing streaks in right spot).
5. The Jazz will have nothing to play for at 10:30pm EST after Houston locks up the final spot, a demoralizing result to a fine season, and this will be felt in full effect right at the opening tip as Houston locks it up. It is ultra-convenient for us to have such timing for this spot! This angle is not the same if the Lakers are playing at 8pm EST along with the Rockets!
6. The Lakers have pretty significant revenge, that is, avenging a history making loss and Kobe's worst loss ever.
I know the Jazz are better from top to bottom BUT as a bonus, Rudy Gobert who is a monster in the paint and had 19!! rebounds last time out vs. the Lakers, sprained his ankle Monday vs. the Mavericks. If the Jazz are out of it, and they should be by 10:30, he really shouldn't play a meaningless game if the training staff is smart.
Yes you could wait for the Rockets to definitely win but as they approach the win, this line will drop. I'll take the 6 while it's on the table.
The pick:
LAKERS +6 over JAZZ
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