cheap jordans for sale ,Last night’s game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves was many things. Entertaining. High scoring. Fast paced. Bat shit insane. These attributes were obvious to anybody watching. But, from the Lakers perspective, there are actually a great many positive takeaways that one could easily have missed if they only focused on the primary narrative. Indeed, this was actually a victory the Lakers should be proud of. Last night, they won a game in the same way that they have lost so many this season. They out-worked, out-hustled, and out-scrapped their opponents, and ended up winning a game they should have lost.
2013 jordan shoes ,We knew it couldn’t last. They knew it couldn’t last. The Wolves knew it couldn’t last. (Quick Tangent: Can we take a second to compliment the boldness of Rick Adelman? Oh, you can’t miss from the outside? In that case, we will now play a defense that dares you to shoot from the outside. How do you like them apples?) But nobody could have expected regression to the mean to be quite so brutal a mistress. At the pinnacle of their bombardment, the Lakers were 10-13 from three point range. They ended the night 12-32. For all the insanity of the opening minutes, the Lakers ended up only slightly better than their season average from distance. From the field overall, they were well below their season average. It’s weird to think about because the Lakers went supernova in the first half but, when it comes to the act of putting the ball through the basket, the Lakers were actually sub-par on the night.
2013 Jordan shoes ,When the Lakers stopped making outside shots, they started attacking the basket with a bit more regularity and getting to the free throw line. The Lakers had 25 attempts to the Wolves’ 18, and 18 of those 25 attempts came after the Lakers’ Champaign Supernova came to an end. Oh, and they also made 21 out of 25, including Pau Gasol’s vital, slump-busting, 5-5 from the line. The Lakers also took care of the ball (at least by their standards), with 12 turnovers. They did turn the ball over too much as the Wolves closed the deficit, but any game in which they are on the positive side in the turnover category has to be deemed a success. Oh, and the 27 assists on 39 made baskets didn’t hurt either.
jordans for women ,But take a second look at the box score. Forget about Three-apalooza, and forget about the collapse, and consider just the final score and the cold, hard numbers of this game. How many times this season have we seen the Lakers on the other end of that box? How many times have we seen them shoot better than their opponent, only to lose because the opponent worked harder? How many times have the Lakers been in the hole because they gave their opponents a large quantity of extra possessions, through turnovers and offensive rebounds given up? How many times have they responded to a bad spell of play by collapsing even further?The Lakers built up a 29 point lead, and let that lead shrink down to four before they clamped down and gutted out the victory. The easy narrative is to talk about that collapse, to talk about how the Lakers almost wasted 18 minutes of perfect shooting. But there is another narrative, one that has to be viewed from a distance so as to avoid being blinded by the glitz and glamour of the narrative in the marquee. In that narrative, the Lakers won a contest they probably shouldn’t have won, against an opponent who played better than they did. They won because they worked harder, because they wanted it more. In the midst of nearly losing a game that would have been so very stereotypical of a Lakers team that has frustrated us to no end this season, the Lakers team that actually showed up was one that we’ve been waiting for all season.
