OK, Maybe It’s Time to Panic

Which is worse: Losing Game 2 by 28 points to a supposedly outclassed and dispirited Timberwolves team? Or losing a Game 3 gift-wrapped with generous non-calls and phantom calls in favor of the champs to the extent that Minnesota’s best player had to watch the last five jobbings from the bench?

Mark Backstrom

Newport Beach

Even though Game 3 went to overtime, let’s be honest: Phil got outcoached and Kobe got out-played. As for Shaq, he may be big, strong and full of sass, but, bless his heart, the man put up more bricks than a union stonemason.

David Macaray

Rowland Heights

Shaq and Kobe. Kobe and Shaq. Any way you order them, the Lakers do not stand a chance of winning four titles in a row unless Rick Fox, Derek Fisher, Devean George, Robert Horry and Mark Madsen step up in a huge way.

To put this in perspective, none of them would be starting for the Spurs, Kings or Mavericks, but that only magnifies the power of an all-world Kobe and a pulling Diesel.

Danny Canas

Reseda

Why not drop the pretense that there is anything like journalism going on in your sports department? Just print a disclaimer that reads:

“Due to the Tribune Company’s ongoing grudge against Phil Jackson, the Los Angeles Times only prints negative stories about the Los Angeles Lakers. If they should win any games in the playoffs we will consider it a fluke. If the Lakers should win a fourth NBA championship, we will call upon the attorney general of the United States to investigate the team for fraud.”

Rich Seeley

Los Angeles

If one were to believe what one reads in the papers and hears on the sports shows, the Lakers (and maybe some other NBA teams) don’t actually give their all until playoff time.

Balderdash! Do you really think a team would have the guts to charge fifteen bucks to park, another hundred for a ticket, and God only knows what for a hot dog and a Coke and not give their fans 110% for their money?

Why, that’s as absurd as thinking wrestling is a fake and the Dodgers will win the division! How these nasty rumors get started, I’ll never know.

Joel Rapp

Los Angeles