Lori and I make it back early this morning taking the red eye from Vegas.  There are pluses and minuses with taking the red eye back east, but it was a quick flight as both she and I were knocked out from jump.

Basically today was shot as we were trying to readjust to normalcy, but man it is tough.  Somehow we sleep and generally mope around all day and the next thing you know it’s time for game 4 of the NBA finals.  Now I have not really seen any of the games so far since we were in Vegas the whole time and seemingly always playing in some tournament during the 6 o’clock hour (games out west start earlier than I am used to, but what can you do?).

The game was great for about 3 qtrs. and I was about to turn it off as I was getting tired from being worn down after 6 days of poker, but unfortunately I didn’t and had to endure the largest collapse in NBA history.  Awesome.

Normally I would be asking all of the usual questions, “why did we go away from what was working early (Lamar Odom)?” and “what or who is Kobe going to blame for his spotty performance?”  But watching the game you just got the feeling that the Celtics were better down the stretch and it was the Lakers looking like the team who was scrapping to come from behind.  Just a gut wrenching experience made worse by my own physical delirium of the Vegas effect.  More on that later.

I have a ton to post, but I will get to it this weekend as I am beat.  And from the looks of it, so are my beloved Lakers.

So I have resisted posting about the upcoming NBA finals mainly because I have had no time to really sit down and do it justice.  But since Lori and I are going to Vegas tomorrow for the WSOP, it seems appropriate to talk about it mainly because I have the opportunity to wager on it for the first time.

Basically I have loved the Lakers since I was about 9 years old.  When you pick your favorite team as a child, that’s pretty much it.  I have known, followed, agonized, rejoiced, suffered, and just plain love the Lakers for over 20 years.  I can remember doing the “sky hook” with rolled up socks hitting my little brother in the head like about a million times as a kid.  Good Times.  It’s pretty insane considering I could have held on to my love of all things Ninja at around that same time; but once you discover girls in middle school, Ninjas no longer seem relevant.

But the Lakers have always been relevant, in some way shape or form, for most of my life so them being in the finals is always a good thing.  I really think that the Lakers have the deeper team and should win it in 6.  Which would be extra special seeing how they are the only team to have ever won a title on Boston’s home floor (85’ which was the first year for this 2-3-2 format; just dumb really).

The Forum Blue & Gold is my favorite place to go when I am looking for the down low on the Lake Show.  They have been doing it since 04’ and it’s hands down the best blog out there on the Lakers.  I highly recommend it if you can somehow pry yourself away from this blog, haha.

We are flying in to Vegas tomorrow late, so of course I am going to miss Game 1.  However I think that if I am going to put any money on the series it would be Game 2.  The Lakers should be underdogs and I can just bet them to win.  I can not even think about betting them as the favorites at home and then they somehow win but not cover.  I would rather them just win.

I have no clue what the point spreads are, but I will be in the Venetian for the first 4 days so I will check out what they got.  We will finish up at the Rio, but my mind won’t wonder far from the prospects of LA bringing home another title.  Especially at the expense of the Celtics! 

Vegas Here We Come!