 | jy826
(11)
03/28/2008 |  This Laker squad had struggled during the season (by Laker standards) finishing with a and had barely won the Pacific Division, holding off the Phoenix Suns and Kareem, now 42, who had come into camp out of shape, and it showed in his play. Magic Johnson carried the team, winning his second MVP award, and hitting several clutch shots during the regular season to eke out victories. However the Lakers went on a roll in the playoffs, sweeping Portland, Seattle and Phoenix to take an 11-0 record into the NBA Finals. The Phoenix sweep was especially impressive because during three regular season games at Phoenix, they were blown out all three times. However because of the win streak, the Lakers had a week off before the Finals as the Detroit Pistons were locked up in a tough battle with the Chicago Bulls which they won in six games. Because of the layoff, Riley decided to keep his team fresh by running hard practices during their week off, which people in Detroit could not belive Riley was doing. And before game one of the Finals with the Pistons, Bryon Scott was injured during a rebounding drill and was lost for the series and a in game one, perhaps shaken by the injury to Scott and/or the long layoff and/or the just playing a poor game, the Lakers lost to the Pistons 109-97. In Game two, a fired up Lakers squad came out ready to play and took a 62-56 lead at half time, the 62 point outburst was the most the Pistons, the NBA's best defensive team that year, had given up in a half all season. However in the third quarter disaster struck, with the Pistons making a comeback Magic Johnson's suffered his own hamstring injury and was unable to return to the game. I remember Magic mouthing the words "f..." because he knew this injury was serious and he had suffered a similar injury during the regular season. The Lakers managed to stay in the game without their best player but lost, 108-105. In game three Magic attempted to play as he was in the starting lineup but had to leave the game after five minutes as it was clear his hamstring injury was still bothering him. He would not play for the rest of the series. But despite losing its starting guards, the Lakers hang tough but lost game three,114-110 (Kareem played the best game of the year with 23 points and 14 rebounds) and game four 105-97 (despite 40 points from James Worthy). Not to take anything away from Detroit, they were a great team, I truly believe if Magic had not been hurt (Bryon's injury hurt too, but the Lakers could survive of his injury because the team had Michael Cooper and Tony Campbell to play his position) the Lakers could have and would have won the series--but perhaps Detroit still would have won the series even if he had played, unfortuantely we'll never know-- and his injury in game two and this entire series was one of the most painful moments I've ever experienced as a Laker fan.
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