Sports Illustrated has a regular "Who's Hot, Who's Not" feature. This week, Phoenix was among the hot, and Los Angeles was among the not. The reasons for dropping L.A. into the "not" category included the recent Angels losing streak, so I assume they include Orange County in the broader definition of L.A. sports. If so, Sports Illustrated spoke too soon.
Since that page went to print, the Anaheim Ducks opened up a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference Semi-Finals, with their goaltender putting together the second-longest scoreless streak in NHL playoff history, and their right winger scoring four goals in one game, including a sudden-death overtime shot. That is exciting even if you have to find the Outdoor Life Network in order to watch the game.
Sure, the Suns came back and closed out the Lakers, but this Laker team is talentless once you get past their top two players, and arguably even Odom is worthless. They found their starting point guard on a freaking playground, for crying out loud. When you consider that, taking Phoenix to seven games was a serious overachievement. Nonetheless, for the first time since Cedric Ceballos was on the cover of the Lakers media guide, I went a whole season without attending a game.
Besides, L.A. still has an NBA team in the playoffs, and they had a pretty impressive win tonight over the Suns. Many of us in Southern California are so excited about the Clippers that we actually spend time reading about the game the following morning. Sometimes, we even read about it the night of the game.
If the Clippers win another game, we might actually start watching them on TV. And if they advance to the conference finals, maybe we'll take a ticket to a home game off some sucker's hands. We won't be buying any Clipper attire, however, unless they win the NBA championship.
www.opasdei.com
Posted by: www.opasdei.com | May 11, 2006 at 22:06