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Basketball…NBA As second half starts, keys to the title for seven hopefulsThere are, of course, no sure things. As we leave the All-Star break behind and get ready for a true sprint to the playoffs, less than two months away, there has never been more uncertainty about how a season will turn out. The lockout took away 16 regular-season games, but it took away much more, didn't it? There is almost no practice time, but more importantly, there is almost no recovery time. A sprained ankle that might keep a player out a week in previous seasons would normally mean just two or three games lost. This season, it could be four to six. And with those 16 fewer games, those four to six games can be the difference between making the playoffs or staying home. The title aspirants are, as ever, one key injury away from disaster, as the Celtics learned all-too painfully in consecutive seasons after winning it all in 2008, watching Kevin Garnett go down and never come back late in the regular season in '09, and watching Kendrick Perkins clutch his leg in the opening moments of Game 6 of The Finals the next season, with Boston up 3-2 on its most hated rival. The true contenders will be watching other criteria as well. Here, then, are seven keys to victory for the highly successful.
MIAMI HEAT The Heat have been the most impressive team the first half of the season, destroying just about everyone in their path. Defensively, offensively, Miami is clicking. But even success makes competitive people wonder. By being so good in the regular season, is there another gear the Heat have when things go wrong -- and they always go wrong -- in the playoffs? How does a team that hasn't faced any real adversity this season react when it has to raise its game even further in the postseason? "We don't know," James said. "I'm not going to sit here and lie to you. But we can continue to get better." Miami has Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller back after each missed most of last season with injuries, and Mario Chalmers is playing his best yet in the NBA. James and Dwyane Wade have moved from the 3-point line to the low post, with devastating results for the opposition. But is there any chance -- any? -- that Miami's leaving it all on the regular-season floor? It's not the regular season won-loss record; it's whether Miami will be able to handle adversity. That is always in the back of the Heat's collective mind, and until Miami gets a chance to wipe away those bad memories of last June, it will always be in the front of everyone else's mind. "It's a scary thing, honestly," James said. "One thing is you don't want top stop playing well now. I don't know. I played some pretty decent ball in Cleveland, and then we caught fire and made it to The Finals (in 2007). I also had a season where we played extremely well and we only made it to the second round (in '08), and then made it to the Eastern Conference finals. And last year we were kind of up and down here in Miami. We won 22 out of 23, but we were 9-8 at one point, we had lost six in a row. It was kind of like a roller coaster last year, then we caught fire again in the playoffs, and evenutally lost in The Finals. I don't know. I don't have the answer for it, but I would rather play good right now and we'll worry about the playoffs when they come."
LOS ANGELES LAKERS Bryant has said he believes general manager Mitch Kupchak will make the right decision, as he did when he got Pau Gasol from Memphis. But it's getting late in the season, and now that the talk is about dealing Gasol, Bryant insists he continues to believe management will do the right thing. But is Kupchak still empowed to make the call now that Jimmy Buss is handling the day-to-day operations in L.A.? And what does Kobe think of that? He said next to nothing this weekend, and when he did, he reiterated to me what he'd told others last week: He spoke up for Gasolbecause Gasol couldn't say the things that Kobe could say and get away with them. But Kupchak's statement last week in which he said ... well, nothing really, didn't mollify anyone. It's hard to imagine Kobe will be swayed by the return of Rasheed Wallace to the NBA, either, if that rumor turns out to be true and Wallace signs with the Lakers. 'Sheed is in good shape for a guy that's been out of the league two years, I hear. But is his heart really going to be in it even if he does sign? And while his conditioning may be good, nothing is the same as playing games. It would take even a finely-tuned athlete a few weeks to get in basketball shape, and with all the games this season there will be little time to do any kind of conditioning on the side as you would normally. So, Bryant has to continue to believe that Kupchak and Buss will turn a trade of Gasol into the kind of franchise-altering piece he himself was when he came from Memphis -- or leave it alone and let the Lakers give it a shot with what they have. It's not like they stink, and it's not like they've forgotten how to win playoff games. They need more production from the point, and it doesn't look like Gilbert Arenas is going to be the answer there. They need Andrew Bynum's knee to hold up. They need Gasol to shake out of his mental funk and for Metta World Peace to find some kind of regular rhythm. They need Mike Brown to lengthen his bench, because it's hard to ask Bryant to keep playing these killer minutes. (Like he's going to ask out of any game.) They need a lot of things to go right. And that's a lot to ask Bryant to believe in. |