LAKERS OF THE LOST ARC

Blockbuster Hollywood Comeback is af-Forded to L.A. by the long-awaited return of whip-cracking Second Unit Director Indiana Farmar, who isn’t too Shia to keep Jonesing for doing his own stunts

“Truck?  What truck?” 

Who needs Terry Leonard when you’ve got Jordan Farmar?  Today is Opening Day for the highly-anticipated 4th Installment of the Indiana Jones series, and Bruin-Laker Jordan Farmar celebrated by becoming the locator of his lost arc.  Farmar went 3-for-23 in the 6-game Utah series, and was averaging only 3 points a game, but hit his first three-point attempt on Wednesday night, and played much better all around, as the Lakers attempted to rebound from getting hit by a Texas truck.

The Reigning World Champion San Antonio Spurs rolled into town after having to spend Monday night trying to sleep on a plane, but THEY were the team with more horsepower and torque than the rusty Lakers.  The Spurs led the game from the outset, slowly but surely building the lead while Kobe Bryant watched.  Kobe didn’t score until right before Halftime, taking his 2 points and an 8-point deficit into the locker room.  It would have been much worse, if not for Farmar’s 8-point eruption, along with strong contributions from Pau Gasol and Vlad Radmanovic.

After the break, with Farmar back on the bench behind a struggling Derek Fisher, it DID get worse, as the Spurs took a 20-point lead 6 minutes into the 3rd Quarter.  But that’s when Kobe and the Lakers’ Reserves turned it around.  Bryant started getting aggressive on the offensive end, and Farmar, Ronny Turiaf, and Sasha Vujacic turned up the Defensive pressure, and the team’s overall intensity.

With Farmar running the Point, the Lakers went on a 14-0 tear, to make it a game again.  The understandably-tiring Spurs went stone cold late in the game, as the Laker Defense stayed taut, forcing repeated Turnovers on passes through traffic.

Kobe scored 25 points in the 2nd Half, including the game-winning shot in the lane, on which Bruce Bowen decided to try a flop.  The Spurs still had a chance in the final minute, but the key shot was taken and bricked by the cold-all-night Manu Ginobili.

The Lakers were fortunate to pull out the Home game, and it’s a damn good thing that they did, since they will be hard-pressed to turn around a game like this IN San Antone.  Gasol could not handle Tim Duncan one-on-one, and the double-teams left the Spurs lots of wide-open looks.  In Game 1, they missed those shots, but they won’t have such a hard time finding the hole in the Alamodome.  The way that the Home Court Advantage has been doing this postseason, the first team to “break service” (to use a Riza term) will most likely take the Series.

And the most promising stat:  Phil Jackson teams are FORTY-and-Oh, in Series where they win Game 1.  Not to look ahead, because the Spurs are far from dead, but it’s too bad that Arron Afflalo has lost his spot in the Detroit Piston rotation, because now he has to watch from the bench as his team gives it up to Boston, and prevents a Farmar-Afflalo Reunion.

———–

And one piece of NON-News masquerading as News:  usc has issued a Press Release denying any wrongdoing, or any KNOWLEDGE of wrongdoing, in the O.J. Mayo payola case.  As Hobson says in “Arthur,” “I’ll alert the Media.”  Oh, wait, they just did.  But why?  And why is this News?  Did ANYONE really expect them to admit what every single person NOT wearing Cardinal and Gold already understands?  Why would anyone be surprised that the whole Athletic Program is pulling an O.J. Simpson (I didn’t do it) in regards to the O.J. (Mayo) SCandal?

Do you think that they are aware of what a National joke they have become?  Do you think that they are relishing that reputation of being highly-decorated cheaters who just can’t be caught?  There seems to be a whole lot of denying going on, but no one is refuting the hard copies of receipts of cash wire-transfers to O.J.’s friends, and the Daily News is still insisting that “convicted” sanction-causer Rodney Guillory was constantly hanging around the usc Basketball Offices and the Galen Center like he owned the place.  sc says that they pulled his access to tickets, but doesn’t that mean that they KNEW he was a VIOLATOR, yet they continued to grant him VIP access to all things usc, EXCEPT tickets?

There are two possible outcomes from all these investigations:  Either sc gets slammed for their utterly blatant Lack of Institutional Control, or the NCAA gets disbanded as a worthless shell of an Organization controlled by sc money moreso than oil money runs D.C.  We vote for the former, but fully expect the latter (right up to the disbanding).

By the way, Terry Leonard is the legendary Stuntman/Stunt Coordinator who actually performed the famous “under-the-truck” stunt as Indy in “Raiders.”  There — Now you don’t have to Google or “IMDb” him.