It was always going to end like this. Somehow, even in those first moments, before Dwight Howard and Steve Nash had played a single game in purple and gold, it was always going to end like this.


Sad Lakers

A clean easy sweep.

No Kobe, no Nash, no MWP, no Blake, no Jodie Meeks, and Dwight Howard gets ejected after two quarters. In their final two games, the Laker lost by a combined 52 points. Those still walking began to envy the injured, as the Spurs rained down shot after shot against the helpless Laker defense.

A clean easy sweep.

Somehow, when the expectation was a Finals matchup with the Heat, nobody mentioned Andrew Goudelock. That didn't stop him from leading the Lakers in minutes in Game 3 (also known as the game where no Laker had a positive +/-). Nobody was talking about Andrew Goudelock, because until the penultimate game of the regular season he played for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

Goudelock didn't lead the Lakers in minutes for Game 4. That honor went to Chris Duhon. Back in the summertime, no NBA fans were having daydreams of Chris Duhon in the playoffs because he's Chris Duhon.

A clean easy sweep.


The Spurs execution made a mockery of the decrepit Laker defense. Players were falling over one another, running away from Tony Parker in confusion. Duncan was schooling Dwight at Staples Center, even smiling while he did it. The Spurs were the perfect team to break the Lakers. The same franchise that had broken the Shaq-Kobe stranglehold, once again dashing their dreams of empire. This time the dreams were just a mirage, a fever dream of Kobe and the league's apparent top center somehow turning back the clock. But you can't turn back the clock—that is, not unless you're the San Antonio Spurs.   

It was over before it even began. A clean easy sweep.

Welcome to the second round Tracy McGrady.