There was a lot of hype about this year's Lakers-Cavs Christmas showdown. The AP:
Lakers-Cavaliers on Friday is the ultimate Christmas showdown. That's right. Puppet Kobe Bryant and Puppet LeBron James battling for commercial dominance. Oh, and the real Bryant and James are playing at Staples Center.
John Schuhmann also had these tidbits about this matchup:
- It is the 12th Christmas Day game for both Shaq and Kobe. (The average NBA player has played in five, and the record is 13 games, held by Earl Monroe and Dolph Schayes.)
- Whether as teammates or as opponents, Shaq and Kobe have played in the same Christmas Day game nine times.
- Although Shaq is past his prime, Kobe isn't, and he is likely to break the record of Christmas Day games played as well total points scored on Christmas Day (currently held by Oscar Robertson).
- When you think Cavs-Lakers, you think LeBron-Kobe, i.e., "a matchup of the two best players in the world." In fact, if you read ESPN's 5-on-5 (5 Q&As with 5 respondents about each of the 5 Christmas Day games), two of the five Q&As about the Cavs-Lakers matchup were LeBron-vs-Kobe questions.
Quite a bit of a buildup to what was supposed to be a dream Christmas matchup. Not that everyone agreed. In August, after the regular season schedule was released by the NBA, Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy expressed that he saw this as a slight to his team, stating that the prime time Christmas Day game should feature the two teams in the previous year's NBA Finals. Nevertheless, a good majority of the basketball world saw this as a game to watch out for.
Fast-forward to after the game, and, ho-hum, not such a great one after all.
The final score was 102-87, which says enough, but really, it doesn't paint a cleat enough picture of how one-sided this game was. The Cavs led after every quarter: 23-19 after the first, 51-42 at the half, and 76-59 at the end of the third. The Cavs' bigs--Shaq, Big Z, and Varejao--limited Andrew Bynum to just four points and Pau Gasol to 11 on 4-11 shooting. Perhaps most telling were the technical fouls on the Lakers--one apiece on Bryant, Derek Fisher, and the Lakers bench, and two on Lamar Odom, who was ejected from the game--which were indicative of their frustration.
Fast-forward to after the game, and, ho-hum, not such a great one after all.
The final score was 102-87, which says enough, but really, it doesn't paint a cleat enough picture of how one-sided this game was. The Cavs led after every quarter: 23-19 after the first, 51-42 at the half, and 76-59 at the end of the third. The Cavs' bigs--Shaq, Big Z, and Varejao--limited Andrew Bynum to just four points and Pau Gasol to 11 on 4-11 shooting. Perhaps most telling were the technical fouls on the Lakers--one apiece on Bryant, Derek Fisher, and the Lakers bench, and two on Lamar Odom, who was ejected from the game--which were indicative of their frustration.
Laurel and Hardy danced their way into the Staples.
The storylines of this matchup didn't materialize either. Shaq, who had some words to say to the media about Kobe last year, was quiet this year. The two hugged before the game, but it's not like they had some sort of sentimental reconciliation or anything, so no drama there. The biggest storyline of this matchup--Kobe vs. LeBron--didn't live up to expectations. Although Kobe led the Lakers in scoring with 35 points and in rebounds with 9, Cleveland's leading scorer was not Lebron. It was Mo Williams with 28.
In fact, the most interesting thing about this game was that the fans threw foam fingers and a bottle of water onto the court in frustration. When the most interesting thing about a game involves the fans and not the players, well, that pretty much tells you everything you need to know.
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