What Can You Say?

I really don't want to talk about it but I will... once... just because I should wrap up the season. So, this is my final Laker post of the 2007-08 season.

What can you say?

They stunk up the joint. On offense, on defense, on rebounding, on hustle, on... well, pretty much any aspect of the game you can think of. They didn't look sharp. They didn't look hungry. And they didn't look like they wanted it bad enough.

I was furious last night - I won't lie. It was one of the most disappointing series I've ever seen. You can "what if" yourself to death being a sports fan at times but there are a lot of "What ifs" in this series that could've wrapped it up the other way. It didn't - but it could have.

I'm not mad about the loss. I'm disappointed by the loss.

What I'm mad about is the lack of intensity, heart, and pride from the team.

There was a point in Game 5 when I saw a Laker pass get deflected by a diving James Posey and my immediate thought was there were probably three or four players on the Lakers who would even think of doing something like that. That sums up the whole series in a nutshell, I think. They just got outexecuted and outhustled over and over.

I was upset that the Laker stood around all series and watched people drive to the rim freely - and no one ever thought to deliver a hard foul to make the Celtics think twice about it. I was upset that while the Celtics continued to rain down threes, running up the score in garbage time, that no Laker even looked slightly offended by it. I was upset that the Celtics spent about four minutes of the game celebrating on the sidelines, hugging, posing for pictures, throwing Gatorade on the floor, etc... basically everything short of a circle jerk... and no Laker looked upset at all.

There was a serious lack of pride and intensity throughout the series - something the Lakers will need to drastically change if they intend to be back in the Finals next year.

Now, for the good news...

Like my Laker fan brethren who came before me, I can now claim a strong hatred for the Boston Celtics.

I hate Doc Rivers and his "rah rah rah" speeches filled with cliches and statements that mean absolutely nothing. I hate people claiming he's a better coach than Phil Jackson based off six games.

I hate Kevin Garnett and his chest pounding and his screaming at the ceiling like an idiot.

I hate Ray Allen. After all the shit he's talked about Kobe in the past, it makes me sick that he got a ring at our expense.

I hate Paul Pierce and his "I heard a pop" theatrics that made him into some kind of a superhero in the media.

I hate Sam Cassell - always have - and the thought of him getting a ring off of u makes me physically ill.

I could go on but I won't. Suffice to say that if the Lakers are even slightly as pissed as I am at the memory of the entire Celtics team spending half the fourth quarter on the sideline celebrating while the game was still going on, the next time the teams meet should be very interesting.

So, where do the Lakers go from here?

I'm guessing trades will be explored for Vlad, Walton, Odom. I don't think Walton will be movable. Vlad might be a possibility but it'll be tough unless we take someone's bad salary back in exchange. Odom's the big trade chip - big expiring salary, solid player. A lot of teams should be interested in him. Farmar is probably a trading chip as well.

I'm pretty confident that they'll be able to re-sign Sasha and Ronny. Everyone else [Mihm, Mbenga, Newble] is probably gone. Ariza will probably stick as well.

The early chatter is about Ron Artest possibly opting out and pursuing a midlevel deal somewhere. Obviously, the Lakers will be very interested if that happens. James Posey will also be looking for a midlevel deal that I'm sure the Lakers will be interested in after getting burned by him in the Finals.

After seeing their young bench falter in the clutch, you have to imagine they might be looking for some vets to add. Could Robert Horry do one more year in purple and gold?

There's a lot of questions to be answered. It's going to be an interesting few months.

Let me wrap this up by saying that I'm very proud of what the Lakers accomplished this season. Obviously, I'm not happy with the last two weeks but I'm very happy with what happened the rest of the season. When the season started, most people assumed they would barely make the playoffs. Many thought they'd be a lottery team after trading Kove. But they pulled together and won the Western Conference in a shocker.

As Dante Hicks would say, "They weren't even supposed to be there."

So, I'm proud of what they accomplished - I'm disappointed with how it ended.

And that's that.

Did you see that the Dodgers won last night? Second place and climbing!

Ain't no thang, bitches.

You gotta believe, baby. You gotta believe.