The Sound of the Suburbs

The mistake most sports writers make is postulating that the game is purely based on physical superiority.

On an everyday/everyweek basis this is true. And this is what Vegas and gamblers everywhere bet. But sports, like life, is a complex business. The best team does not always win. We shall see what happens in Miami with the herd expecting Indy to win handily. In that case I happen to agree, Colts 34 Saints 14.

But as we saw Saturday in Portland sports is a mind game.

The Lakers went into the Rose Garden having lost nine straight there and coming off a home defeat to Chauncey Billups and the Nuggets, who shot around sixty percent from the field AND beyond the stripe, a rarity in league play. Nobody could have beaten Denver last night. The Nets, Knicks, Clippers or Pistons (has there ever been an NBA season with more bad teams?) by fifty.

So what happens the next night?

Kobe Bryant isn't even in the building and they blow out their longtime road nemesis Portland and decisively at that.

This is fascinating sports psychology because Gasol, Odom, Fish, Brown, Farmar, Walton, Bynum and most of all Artest rose up and played the game without their ace just like the Willis Reed-less Knicks overachieved decades ago in the pivotal game of the NBA Finals.

When Ron Ron hit a three just inside halfcourt at the end of the first half, you just knew the Lakers were gonna win. And win they did, convincingly at that, an upside the head beatdown just when they needed it most.

Despite their losing regular-season record against the top teams in the league, the Lakers showed why they are head and shoulders above everyone else playing the game.

Kobe's supporting cast have been subconsciously waiting for a chance to show the world what they're made of, and they did it in style against Portland.

Everyone stepped up and put pedal to metal, and for a change the boxscore will actually tell the real story.

LA simply dominated and this win will resonate with this team all the way to the end of the regular season. Scolding Papa Kobe wasn't even there but for certain he was watching somewhere rubbing his hands together with glee as this is Just What The Doctor Ordered, and Ted Nugent would heartily approve.

A team dependent on such a singular leader as Bryant needs a good dose of individual approbation every once in a while and tonight the Lakers threw down the gauntlet. Led by three guys -- Gasol, Bynum and Artest -- who would be The Man on most other teams but are subliminally undercut playing with one of the five greatest players ever to play the game in Bryant, the Lakers showed why they are not just the reigning champs but the team to beat come playoff time.

It does indeed take a village in the corporate nee sports world and LA showed how that matters. Playing without your top gun is a test of fortitude, talent and guts, and Phil Jackson knows it. I don't know if he forced KB to rest or not, but either way he gets credit and continues to solidify his position as the best manager of million dollar talent in sports.

Even without its stud Brandon Roy, Portland always finds a way to beat LA but this time it was overwhelmed by a group of athletes with powerful motivation -- showing their true boss KB that they can and will get it done without him.

Every sports squad around the globe can learn from this contest, learn that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and that's why they call it a team game.

Laker Nation can now sit back and know their team is ready for anything, know they traded up for Ariza with Artest, know Gasol can be the main stem whenever he has to be.

A chilling prospect for the rest of the league, including the aging Celtics, the one-man Cavs and the creaky Spurs.

Phil Jackson never gets consideration for Coach of the Year honors, but it's a game like this that should remind voters why The Zen Master is in the same class as Red Auerbach, Vince Lombardi and Joe Torre.

Look out, NBA. The Lakers may be the incumbent champs, but they're still Hungry For That Good Thing, baby.