[ad_1]
After Game 2 of the 2009 NBA Finals, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers had just won their second straight game over Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic, giving them a 2-0 lead and putting them on track to capture Bryant. fourth NBA championship.
The point was, Bryant didn’t seem very happy. Noticing this, a reporter at the post-game press conference asked him why he wasn’t smiling. Hadn’t he simply protected the home court and given his team a significant advantage in the NBA Finals?
Bryant responded with a now iconic line.
“What is there to be happy about?” Bryant said. “The work is not done. Completed work? I do not think so.”
Our own Christian Rivas recently recalled that moment, and it was hard not to think about it again as he listened to Howard, Bryant’s opponent in that series and a teammate he clashed endlessly during their time together, now with the Lakers back in the West. Conference Finals: Speak after Lakers practice on Friday.
Like Bryant that night, Howard wasn’t smiling, and he didn’t during the entire interview. He didn’t seem like he really wanted to be there, and his head seemed to be elsewhere, thinking of something more important. It wasn’t difficult to guess why after a particular question.
“Obviously, you know the history of Denver with the 3-1 leads and how dangerous they have been in that position.” a reporter asked Howard during the session. “What’s your mindset and how do you think the team mindset is approaching this Game 5?”
“Simple,” Howard said. “The work is not finished.”
Is not wrong. While there may have been too much talked about Denver’s near-mystical ability to overcome 3-1 deficits, what is definitely true is that they are not a quitting team. They do not lie down. They don’t stop fighting. The Lakers are going to have to do something no other team has done on Saturday this postseason and finish them off.
If they can, they’ll put themselves in the same position Kobe Bryant’s Lakers were when he delivered the legendary line that Howard paraphrased: Looking down on a real shot at winning a banner for purple and gold in Orlando. For Howard, it would complete the full circle transformation of the player and the person he was in that series to who he is today.
But he still can’t afford to think about all that.
The work is not finished.
Notes and updates
- The Lakers have a fairly extensive injury report for this game, in particular Anthony Davis comes up as questionable with a sprained ankle:
This may sound like cause for concern, but for what it’s worth, both Davis and Lakers head coach Frank Vogel said it should be ready on Saturday. We will see if that is true.
The Lakers and Nuggets will begin at 6:00 pm PT. Like the rest of this series, Game 5 will be televised on TNT.
For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast at iTunes, Spotify, Stapler or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.
[ad_2]
