Can the Lakers Break the 72-win Season Record?
Can They Still Go 20-1 (After Losing to the Dallas Mavericks)?
Oct 31, 2009
In the game where Kobe Bryant set an NBA record for the earliest "MVP" chants (as Marv Albert noticed), a seemingly innocent remark by TNT NBA analyst Reggie Miller came accross as controversial.
It was near end-game, the Lakers was winning against city rival Clippers, and the TV analysts were doing their thing, praising the victor, running the "what's next?" script. In the spur of the conversation, Miller spewed out:
"The Lakers can easily go 20 and 1."
Marv Albert, the long-time NBA play-by-play standard, couldn't get over it.
Can the Lakers Really Go 20-1?
Taking a look at the NBA schedule, where it shows that the Lakers would not go on a lengthy road trip until their 22nd game, it was clear to Miller's mind how the Lakers can go through that schedule with just one abberation on their standing.
The word "easily" highlights his comment. He could have said "possibly", or any adjective less extreme, but he said "easily".
It prompted Albert to react, and their three-man broadcast crew, including Mike Fratello, began to postulate about it.
The first quarter of the Lakers' 82-game season includes just four visiting games sandwiched between stretches of home games. As Miller pointed out, Los Angels is scheduled to take Oklahoma City, Houston, Denver, and Golden State, road games versus teams they can take on. In that bunch, Denver Nuggets, the Lakers third-round nemesis from last year's playoffs, provides the most difficult test outside home.
For Miller to see the Lakers going 21 games with just 1 loss, he must be seeing them as an excellent home team.
The Lakers' toughest home assignments this early are two games apiece with New Orleans and Phoenix, and Utah, which they would face again after playing Minnesota, on road, to commence a five-game road trip that ends in Detroit.
And oh, Dallas at home. So much for Miller's prediction?
Can the 2009-2010 Lakers Better the '95-'96 Bulls Record of 72-10?
If the Lakers can go 20-1, it would be a necessary start to a 72-10 season, just like the Bulls' spectacular 41-3 start in 1995-96.
Grand forecasts are more fun to take before everything begins. That way, it will hold more value as far as prophecies go, because of boldness. In the NBA, this means the off-season.
In the off-season, the Lakers acquired Ron Artest from the Houston Rockets, but lost Trevor Ariza to the same team in the process. Although it was not a trade, Artest and Ariza still became subjects of straight-up comparisons. That pick-up is instrumental to the Lakers' chances to win 73 and more in the season that follows, effectively surpassing the 72-10 mark that 1996 Chicago Bulls of Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, and co., also led by Coach Phil Jackson, set.
The Lakers either upgraded over the top, or made an unnecessary, perhaps excess, acquisition.
After the Lakers' second game of the 2009-2010 season, a win against a non-elite team and a loss against an elite team, we are provided with a better perspective in measuring the Lakers' chances.
Verdict
In actuality, it's irrelevant whether the Lakers, or any other team for that matter, beat the 72-win record. Everything is relative, and the Bulls holding that record was dominating against a far lesser competition. This season's competition is one of the league's deepest in years, and even in decades. The teams beaten by the Bulls to compose that record pale in comparison against the teams which the Lakers will try to do it against: 2009-2010 versions of Dallas Mavericks, Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs, Orlando Magic, etc.
But for sure, if the Lakers does beat that record, or maybe even flirt with a 70-win season, it would be much more impressive. Given the competition mentioned above, it will be more valuable than just the number.
As far as 20-1 goes, the Dallas Mavericks, which made their own moves last offseason, already registered the number on the wrong side of the standings. But to be fair, among the opponents of the Lakers in their first 21 games, the Mavericks of Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion, Jason Kidd, and co. may have had the best chance of defeating them. Still, just a game removed from Reggie Miller's "easy" predictions, and the fact that Dallas was missing the services of Josh Howard, the Mavericks have colored an explosive start by the Lakers unlikely. Speaking of injuries, Pau Gasol, the Lakers' second option and dominant post player, is also unavailable for the moment.
Unlikely also goes for a 72-win-or-more season standing. For a team to win so much and lose so few takes a near-perfect season where everything goes right, and the Lakers start this year is not going so smoothly.
But with the Lakers offense and defense, depth, star power, superb coaching, and everything not seen in a long time from any other NBA team-- it's possible, of course.
And not in an "everything is possible" sense, mind you.
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