Lakers' logic establishes Philadelphia as favorite
Advertiser News Services
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Lakers have been idle for so long, they seem to have lost all touch with reality.
Associated Press
How else do you explain their remarkable contention that they are playing David to the Philadelphia 76ers' Goliath in the NBA Finals that begin tomorrow at Staples Center in Los Angeles?
Kobe Bryant's defense will go a long way in deciding whether Allen Iverson scores 24 or 44 against the Lakers in Game 1 tomorrow.
"Sure, we're David," Lakers guard Brian Shaw said yesterday. "They won all the awards this year. They've got the MVP (Allen Iverson), the Coach of the Year (Larry Brown), the Defensive Player of the Year (Dikembe Mutombo) and the Sixth Man Award (Aaron McKie).
"So they're Goliath, and we're David."
For the record, David is 11-0 in these playoffs, in search of an historic 15-0 run through the postseason and, according to most experts and oddsmakers, the most prohibitive Finals favorite in years.
That's one devastating slingshot.
The Lakers' biggest (only?) weakness heading into Game 1 could be rust. They haven't lost since April 1. That's 19 consecutive victories. But they haven't played since completing a four-game sweep of the San Antonio Spurs on May 27. Tomorrow, they will be playing their first game in 10 days.
Advantage: Sixers.
"We've been off for what, 20 years?" forward Robert Horry said. "So it's going to be hard for us to get our rhythm."
The 76ers completed a seven-game series victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday and Lakers coach Phil Jackson said they'll bring momentum into the Finals.
"They're going to come in with an extraordinary amount of intensity that will carry over from the series they had," Jackson said. "That's to their advantage."
While praising Iverson and his teammates for their resilience and talent, Jackson also said that the heralded Iverson-Kobe Bryant matchup will not be the key one in this series.
In his opinion, the marquee matchup is Shaquille O'Neal vs. Dikembe Mutombo.
"Obviously Iverson vs. Kobe brings a lot of attention, but the matchup is going to be Dikembe and Shaquille, and if they choose to double-team (O'Neal) that will open up the game for us," he said.
The teams split their two meetings in the regular season, both of which took place before the 76ers acquired Mutombo from the Atlanta Hawks for Theo Ratliff, Toni Kukoc and Nazr Mohammed.
Mutombo and O'Neal did not face each other this season, although they have played each other in the past during the playoffs.
"Anybody can guard Shaq, it's a question of whether anybody can stop him," Horry said.
In 1996, O'Neal's Orlando Magic defeated Mutombo's Atlanta Hawks 4-1 in the Eastern Conference semifinals before Jackson's team at the time, the Chicago Bulls, swept the Magic in the conference finals.
Mutombo and O'Neal have faced each other 12 times in regular-season games, with O'Neal's teams going 10-2. O'Neal outscored Mutombo 22.0 to 10.9 in those games, although Mutombo averaged 12.7 rebounds to O'Neal's 10.5.
• • •
FINALS
Best of seven; Hawai'i times; x—if necessary
Philadelphia vs. L.A. Lakers
Tomorrow: at Los Angeles, 3 p.m.
Friday: at Los Angeles, 3 p.m.
Sunday: at Philadelphia, 1:30 p.m.
June 13: at Philadelphia, 3 p.m.
x-June 15: at Philadelphia, 3 p.m.
x-June 18: at Los Angeles, 3 p.m.
x-June 20: at Los Angeles, 3 p.m.
