Anyone have an opinion on the Juwan Howard flagrant foul? To me, it looked like it was just a hard foul that happened to result in Derek Anderson landing very awkwardly. And now he’s probably out for the rest of the playoffs. Regardless of whether it was Howard’s intent to hurt him, that play might have just made the Lakers the favorite to repeat.
Still, I think the Western finals will be Lakers-Spurs and the winner of that will beat the Eastern champ in the NBA finals.
I agree, I don’t think Howard’s intent was to injure but rather to make sure Anderson didn’t make the lay up.
And I think the Lakers were already the favorites to repeat, since they won last year, nobody else could repeat as champs.
True, the Lakers are the only NBA team that can really “repeat” this year, though I thought of the Spurs as having the best balance of inside and perimeter strength…perhaps a little better than the Lakers, but with the injury, it would seem to tilt in the Lakers favor. The Lakers and Spurs are so closely matched, I wouldn’t be surprised one way or the other by the result of a Lakers-Spurs series.