Welp, any intrigue in these playoffs is long gone now.
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Is Kawhi going to demand more load management next year so he can play better in these games?
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Absolutely.

The lane has opened up so much for him. The Nuggets don't match up well against the Lakers, IMO so if they fail to get past Denver that's a massive failure.

And if they get to the finals its either Lakers - Celtics or LeBron vs. the team he left. Lose either of those and LeBron permanently carries it with him.

Yeah - it's title or bust for LeBron right now.
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:-) at permanently carries it with him. I hate to break it to you guys but it's title or bust for LeBron every year. He's gotten destroyed (sometimes fairly, but mostly unfairly) for just about every playoff series loss in his career (or at least every one for the last 12-13 years now). That's just the nature of being who he is. Can you imagine the reaction if he laid an egg like Kawhi did last night in a game 7(the guy many here and elsewhere ridiculously said was better than him)?

Nothing has changed this year other than the fact that we just received confirmation that he's still far and away the best player in the world (even nearly at age 36) and the road to the finals just got easier. Nothing is guaranteed, though.
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Dude - you really think losing a Lakers/Celtics series OR a series vs. the Heat wouldn't carry a disproportionate amount of weight on his historical resume?

I get it - guys like him are always playing to a different standard, but this sure seems like something where a loss would mean a hell of a lot more than losing to a stacked Warriors squad or even that Maverick's series that has largely been lost to history.

I think you're whistling past the graveyard a bit if you don't believe the stakes are a tick higher here.
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Every loss gets shit on endlessly until he wins again. That's just the nature of the beast when you are LeBron James. He's learned to bear that weight and he's been doing it for almost 15 years now.

A loss to the Celtics (who are quite good actually and remind me a bit of the young Thunder team a decade ago that LeBron also beat) would most certainly not be good, but assuming he plays well, it would hardly be on Mavericks level (one of the few playoff series in his career where LeBron wasn't very good at all).
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It matters though HOW LeBron losses (if he does).

If he goes off in a series, the Lakers just aren’t losing to anyone.

He’s going to have to disappear for them to lose, so that’s why I think anything but a title this year is a blemish. Probably not to the extent of the Mavs series, because that also had the Big 3 hype behind it too.
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If he played for any other team but the Lakers, I'd agree with you.

It's the 'Lakers vs. Celtics' aspect of it, for a guy who hand-selected the Lakers. He managed to insert himself into the NBA's marquee rivalry and if he comes up short, that will resonate in perpetuity for Lakers fans and for many 'old school' NBA fans.

It will literally be ONLY because of the color of the jerseys involved. Yes, the Celtics are a good team and if he played for the Clippers there'd be no shame in losing to them. But since he plays for the Lakers it means something different.

As a Lakers fan and a HUGE Kobe fan, had the 2010 series not happened, the 2008 one would've been a black mark on Kobe's entire Lakers career to me. Specifically what happened in game 4 was something that made me question a decade of unqualified adoration I had for Bean. I think I said it on this board at the time - any attempts to put him in the same breath as Jordan died right then because as far as I was concerned, that's nothing that Jordan would've ever let happen.

Now I don't know if that was fair or accurate - but it was passion from a massive Kobe fan - THAT'S what the Lakers/Celtics rivalry means. And had Ron Artest not happened in Game 7 of 2010, Kobe's 6-24 night goes down in infamy. Fortunately they won it and a lot of 2008 was wiped away.

But yes, it means something different because of the teams involved. This isn't about LeBron as a player at this point - it's now about his presence as the focal point in this rivalry.
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These last two series have been huge for Jamal Murray. He's been playing so well. It's a good bit of vindication for him after last year.
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So regarding Artest - has history decided the deal with that guy yet?

Violent, short-tempered shithead with impulse control and mental health problems? Or good natured idiot...with mental health problems.

Or both? There does seem to be two distinctly different phases of his life both on and off the court. Even after The Palace he wasn't the guy he ended up as in the last few years of his career. Sacramento Artest was not the same guy as Lakers Artest.

I thought he ended up really easy to root for by the end.
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I agree that at some point he seemed to transition to a good natured idiot but not sure when that was. I didn’t see all that much of him earlier on in his Bulls and Pacers days since I don’t watch as much of the eastern conference.

Also he is apparently going by Metta Sandiford-Artest now.
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I think he had legitimate impulse control problems that he learned to control with therapy and maturity. Stephen Jackson's story about Artest's response in the immediate aftermath of the Malice was extremely telling-- the guy didn't understand the consequences of his actions in a truly childlike fashion.

Artest to Jackson: Do you think we'll get in trouble?
Jackson: Ron, we're probably going to get kicked out of the league.
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Yeah, I forgot about that interview.

Jackson's got some stories, man. That was a great interview (had some good back-story w/ Ben Wallace as well; mom had just died or something).
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The Heat just playing great team basketball. Celtics had 2 huge leads in both but shit them away.
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Fuck all things Boston. Those cocksuckers in that city should never have anything nice again.
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