Peripheral vision - Orlando/L.A. Lakers

by Jeff at the BBC on Mar 7, 2010 8:32 AM CST

Time to wake up, Cavalier fans. Dust yourselves off from that ugly performance last night in Milwaukee and get back to business. Games like last night won't happen very often with this team, so we just have to write it off as an abnormality.

Today, we have one game to keep our eyes on. It involves the two teams closest to us in the race for top billing in the NBA.

L.A. Lakers at Orlando, 2:30pm EST - The winner will draw a half-game closer to the Cavaliers, the loser will fall (most likely) far enough back to begin setting their sights on the #2 slot. The only question is....which team should we silently cheer for?

If Orlando wins, they'll be 5 games back of us and fired up for the stretch run. The Lakers will still be three games behind us (minus the tiebreaker to the Cavs) and will have missed a golden opportunity to gain some ground on Cleveland, as well as keep a small amount of distance between themselves and the surging Dallas Mavericks (3.5 games currently separate the Mavs from the Lake Show).

If the Lakers win, they'll shrink our lead down to two games (minus the tiebreaker), and Orlando will fall back to six games behind us. L.A. will also push their West lead to four games over Dallas, five over Denver and 6 over Utah.

By the end of the game today, one of these teams will still be in the hunt for home court advantage throughout. The other will probably be looking at too much ground to make up in an 18-game stretch.

Which one do YOU want to see draw closer, and which one should fall out?

0 recs | 16 comments

Comments

Obviously you should cheer for Orlando

Not that I am biased. =)

MagicMark - March 7, 2010 reply

Sorry dude

Couldn’t do it. Maybe other Cavs fans can do it, but I can’t.

WaveOcean - March 7, 2010 reply

I can't cheer for the Lakers against ANYONE

can’t stand the front-running ignorant fans that show up late for games and don’t know most of the players on their own team.

SouthBayBuckeye - March 7, 2010 reply

You missed a second half for the ages on Friday!!

WaveOcean - March 7, 2010 reply

I watched the game

left the live blog, obv.

SouthBayBuckeye - March 7, 2010 reply

I would love to see the Lakers lose again, they haven’t lost 3 in a row since the Gasol trade.

CavsLebronFan - March 7, 2010 reply

I would love to see the Lakers lose again.

fixed

Chief WaDrew - March 7, 2010 reply

Have to root for Lakers to fail.

Once any teams enters the playoffs the only thing out of their control is home court advantage. We need the Home court advantage over the Lakers to help in the Finals. Rooting any other way just doesn’t make sense. Our present lead over Orlando is greater than the lead over the Lakers.

lifelongvike - March 7, 2010 reply

I can’t bring myself to cheer for either of these teams. I honestly don’t know which I’d rather see lose. I really HATE both teams with a passion, the Lakers has a longer running of dislike.

If I were to judge purely based on record, I’d have to say it’s better for the Cavs to have Orlando win. However, come playoff time, I see Orlando as a bigger threat of beating us over a 7 game series than LA. (Funny, because LA still would beat Orlando, over 7.)

As long as Shaq and Z are 100% though, I can’t picture losing to either of them in a series.

Simmsinns - March 7, 2010 reply

With Shaq back and 80% healthy and Z back for the series against either team

I like our chances. LA’s big men are both soft (Andrew has no excuse, Pau is a Euro therefore he will never be a power type player) and we won’t need to double Dwight come play off time. Shaq can play him one on one and will have 6 fouls to devote to him. Z comes off the bench whenever Dwight sits down and also gives Shaq-fu a rest.

SouthBayBuckeye - March 7, 2010 reply

Only for today but I am rooting for the magic. would love to see them lose 3 in a row.

eye_was_born_ready - March 7, 2010 reply

I like seeing either team lose, so I won’t be disappointed.

woodsmeister - March 7, 2010 reply