LA Teams Keep Rolling

A few weeks back, I talked about the Los Angeles teams and their fine play. Now their play might be termed incredible. It also poses scheduling problems, but that is a small burden, one would think, for the Kings, Lakers and yes the long maligned Clippers, all of whom play at Staples Center in Los Angeles. All three teams are into their next round and all three open or opened on the road in consecutive days. All three will play Games 3 and 4 at home at about the same time. Arrangements have been made for 2 game days on Saturday and Sunday at Staples Center.

The Los Angeles Kings are the most impressive team in the NHL or NBA playoffs thus far. The Kings are(9-1) and(6-0) on the road. They doubled phoenix (4-2) in their semi-finals opener at Phoenix and are big favorites to reach just their 2nd Stanley Cup Final in this their 44th season. Goaltender Jonathan Quick has been brilliant while Dustin Brown has scored a number of big goals.

The Los Angeles Clippers had a 3 games to 1 series lead vs the Memphis Grizzlies but needed to win game 7 at Memphis. The lords of television dictated a noon start in Memphis and 10 am Los Angeles time. The Clippers coming from hotel beds were fresher than the Grizzlies, who slept in their own beds, and won just their 2nd series as the Clippers. Los Angeles won by 10 points as 8 point underdogs. The Grizzlies are (1-5) in playoff series and lost their last two in a noon start. The Clippers franchise in its 42nd season began as the Buffalo Braves in 1970-1971. The Braves’ lone playoff series win was a best of 3 prelim vs the Philadelphia 76ers in 1976.

The Los Angeles Lakers are accustomed to success having won 11 NBA championships in Los Angeles, the first one 40 years and one week ago today. They were favored to beat the Denver Nuggets and struggled to do it. As was the case with the Clippers, the Lakers were forced to win a game 7 after having a (3-1) series lead. Unlike the Clippers, the Lakers were home for game 7 and for the 11th straight time the Lakers prevailed in a home game 7.

Last and perhaps least (after all it is only 34 games into a 162 game season that allows 5 teams from each league into its post season), the Los Angeles Dodgers are off to a rather impressive (23-11) start and lead their division by six games. They have the reigning Cy Young Award winner in Clayton Kershaw and also last year’s MVP in Matt Kemp.

So where will all this lead for the hot Los Angeles teams? The Kings, who have never won the Stanley Cup need to win it this season. Their(9-1) record notwithstanding, Los Angeles has a ways to go. They will likely be slight underdogs vs either the New York Rangers or the New Jersey Devils if they get to the Stanley Cup Finals. Both the Lakers and Clippers opening on the road are big underdogs in their quarterfinal series vs the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs respectively. One never knows but I think the Spurs will prevail vs the Clippers. I think the Lakers have a decent shot vs the Thunder as I see the Lakers winning one of the first two at Oklahoma City. Easy to say now, but I did see the Dodgers being a contender this season thus I will stick with them.