Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE
The Los Angeles Lakers are the most hyped team in the NBA going into the 2012-2013 season. The press has plagued top NBA players to get their responses to the Lakers improvements and additions. However, many players insist that the Lakers are hyped.
The Lakers added Steve Nash, and Dwight Howard through very strategic and in Howard’s case, complex trades. They improved the bench via the free agent market, adding both Antawn Jamison and Jodie Meeks.
The 2012 NBA finals came down to the Miami Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Oklahoma City lost 4-1 to Miami but they had to beat some stiff competition in order to get that far. The loss wasn’t a pretty one. When LeBron James yelled at his teammates to “play it through,” things actually got very sad. Watching Kevin Durant sit on that bench with a towel over his head, close to tears, wasn’t much fun for a lot of people.
In a recent interview with The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City forward Kendrick Perkins was asked about the Lakers:
We are the Western Conference champs, Perkins told The Oklahoman. So at the end of the day, we’re not chasing nobody except for the ring. We’re chasing Miami to get a championship. It’s no guarantee who is going to be where. But we earned the Western champs so we’re not chasing the Lakers, we’re chasing a championship and that’s what it’s about.
I just said it’s time to go to work. I knew the hype was going to be over there on that end and all that. But I’m glad the attention is off us because we’re the type that likes to put our hard hats on and do stuff and keep it under the radar. And at the end of the day, when you look at the box score, Oklahoma won. That’s the way we like to keep it.
Now we know what to expect. So it’s less talking and more playing on my end. We know what to expect and we know what it takes. We know that it takes the little things and we’ll be ready.
In realty, the Thunder barely held their own against the Heat. They did play very well against the San Antonio Spurs but if the Spurs had played the way that they did against the Los Angeles Clippers, in that series, the results of the 2012 NBA finals might have been very different.
The Lakers might not be as good as Metta World Peace thinks they are. World Peace recently set a goal for the Lakers to end the season with 73 wins. His goal is a little bit of overkill but the comments that the Lakers are a “good on paper team” are becoming kind of insulting. People have seen Pau Gasol, World Peace, Nash, Bryant and Howard play before. There is use pretending the Lakers aren’t the favorites.
