Somewhere out there team trainers and physicians are scurrying to clean up the myriad of bumps, bruises and cuts that have been doled out lately by the guys in purple and gold.
Somewhere out there the rest of the NBA is learning that these Lakers are not those Lakers.
Somewhere out there the Boston Celtics are regretting the fact that they ever pushed and shoved and forced this once gentle giant of a team into the brutes that they now are.
Somewhere along the line these Lakers have passed their final test. They’ve won with offense and learned to win with defense. But would they ever learn to push back and to win with grit and heart and hustle, and all the things that don’t show up in the box score?
Somewhere out there Kobe Bryant is smiling.
Having apparently shed the “soft” label that was rightly deserved after being pummeled into submission by the Boston Celtics in the 2008 NBA Finals, these Lakers have proclaimed with a BOOM! and a PAU, er, that is a POW! that they are not going to take it anymore!
They didn’t get this way overnight. But slowly, with each bump, with each shove and with each accusation that they could be thrown off their game with a little physicality this team has morphed into the NBA version of the Incredible Hulk…so whatever you do, don’t make them angry; you just won’t like them when they’re angry.