After a brief hiatus, I’m glad to be back writing about the Lakers…and apparently the Lakers are also glad to be back and playing basketball after inexplicably (and inexcusably) taking a few games off in a playoff series. I don’t think I’ve ever been more ashamed to call myself a Laker fan than when we let a team that is without their two best players dominate us on both ends of the floor for 48 minutes at a time. There are a million things to complain about for Lakers fans in this series, but ultimately the end result is what most people expected…the Lakers pulled out a hard-fought series.

There is something that bothers me about those NBA commercials during time-outs. When I watch the TV cut from a nostalgic and historic clip of Kobe doing something amazing, and “Where amazing happens” flashes across the screen, and then it cuts back to a game in which he is shooting 30% or less and essentially the entire team has given up on the defensive end. That’s not amazing, but what the Lakers did today was my kind of amazing…at least for a game.

What separated the Jazz and the Rockets from the Lakers in the games they won in their respective series was effort, plain and simple. A team’s size will do less to determine their ability succed than their amount of hustle and the amount of effort they are willing to expend on a consistent basis. Games 4 and 6 of the Houston series serve as excellent examples of this statement, and I seriously don’t want to see any more in this year’s playoff run.

Mark Jackson made a great comment during today’s game, one in which the effort of the Lakers was exemplary. He said that it was completely unacceptable for a team of professional NBA players to show up to a playoff game without any intensity whatsoever, and it is even moreso for a so-called championship contender to act this way. It is one thing to get beat on superior talent or perhaps an incredible performance out of the blue from an unexpected source, but to get beat on pure effort and hustle in the playoff is unfathomable for anyone with competitive spirit. I have to agree with Mark Jackson’s assessment and specifically as it pertains to the Lakers. I love ‘em, but to put in Mr. Jackson’s parlance…they’re better than that!

Now to look towards the Nuggets and our path to the Finals. Chauncey Billups is a Lakers killer, one of those players in the league that is entirely not intimidated by the purple and gold and relishes beating us every chance he gets. Guarding him will be difficult, but Fisher’s excellent position defense should help him stay with Chauncey better than he has been able to stay with the point guards in their first two opponents. On the wing, JR Smith can be ridiculous, and of course Melo, Nene and Chris Anderson will all give the Lakers interesting match-up issues. Kenyon Martin is also an X-factor, although I think Andrew Bynum’s rising comfort level will work to the detriment of basically whoever Denver sends into the paint. There’s also the Lakers X-factor of Lamar, who is looking more like a consistent positive than a negative in these playoffs. Throw in a continually emerging Ariza, a newly emerging Shanon Brown and a (thankfully) re-emerging Jordan Farmar and I think that the Lakers will have a chance to close out the series in 5 (although 6 is probably more likely).