Big surprise, the Lakers clinched a berth in the Finals. Yeah, I’m shocked — the team with far and away the best record, and best talent, in the West has locked up a Finals berth.

It’s up to Orlando to provide the upset. And people all over are worried that somehow the NBA is going to derail the Magic because “the league wants Kobe and LeBron in the Finals.”

My only concern for Orlando tonight is that its players don’t start buying into that crap. For one thing, if you knew the mindset of a Danny Crawford, a Steve Javie or a Joey Crawford, you’d know that they’re just cranky or tough-minded enough that if the league “wanted” them to help one team out, they’d bend over backward NOT to do that.

Second, if you’ve watched that series, you’d know by now that in Orlando’s three wins, officials have had all sorts of chances to stick it to the Magic but haven’t. If they wanted to fix that thing, it wouldn’t have gone this far. Sure, Orlando’s got a couple of bad calls — but so have the Cavs. That’s how difficult basketball — at just about any level — is to officiate.

If you think NBA officials are bad, run a few college games back on your DVR.

My lasting vision of the complaining about referees in this postseason comes from George Karl, who was whimpering after his team’s Game 5 loss to the Lakers — which came much more as a result of his team missing 11 consecutive shots than it did anything the referees did. But it’s a lot easier to blame officials than it is your own sloppy game plan.

If Karl’s team had only been able to run a few simple inbounds plays along the way,  that series would have turned out much different.

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Thanks to The Painted Area a terrific tale from a Sports Illustrated story by Frank Deford about the death of the former Trail Blazer, Fernando Martin, and George Karl, who was coaching Real Madrid when Martin was killed in a car accident:

Karl was the head coach of Real Madrid when Martín, who was the team’s star, died. In the Frank Deford piece, Karl, who played in the Final Four at North Carolina and coached in the NBA Finals with the Sonics, said that the game following Martín’s death “was an incredible moment. There has been nothing like it in my life except the births of my children.”:
A dozen years ago, in December 1989, when Karl was in his first tour with the Real Madrid team, his big star, Fernando Martín, was killed in an automobile accident. Martín hadn’t only been the best Spanish player ever. He was also a charismatic figure. “He was like James Dean,” Karl recalls. The next evening the body was placed in the arena, and the fans trooped by, late into the night, viewing it. It rained the following day, and the buses carrying the team members and the dignitaries couldn’t get through an arch at the cemetery. Everybody had to alight in the cold rain and trudge through the mud to the grave. “It was like a Fellini movie,” says Karl.

Real Madrid had a game that night, and beforehand, at the team dinner, too much red wine was consumed. At the arena Martín’s jersey was draped over his chair. Roses were everywhere. Near the top of the stands, looking down, sat the dead man’s mother, weeping. Martín’s kid brother, Antonio, another player on the team, showed up minutes before tip-off and tearfully assured Karl that he was ready to play. Real Madrid—coach and players and fans-was naked, shivering with sorrow. The team played abysmally.

Early in the second half, Real Madrid trailed by 19 points. Suddenly Karl’s players came alive. There was no rhyme or reason, except that somehow Martín must have been with them. In seven minutes they turned the game around, 38 points’ worth. Seven minutes, from 19 down to 19 up. Real Madrid coasted from there.

Señora Martín was waving from on high, like Evita from the balcony at the Casa Rosada. In unison the stands cried, “Fernando está aquí.” Fernando is here. When the buzzer sounded, Karl collapsed in his seat as the players dashed through the crowd to embrace their dead teammate’s mother. “Fernando está aquí. Fernando está aquí.” Karl cried. “It was an incredible moment,” he says. “There has been nothing like it in my life except the births of my children.”

He is sitting in his office, which overlooks the Bucks’ practice court. Peering out, he seems instead to be looking back to that court in Madrid. Listening. “Fernando está aquí” Karl says softly, shaking his head, marveling at the memory.

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Having watched the Nuggets in their past two games, I think I know a little bit about them since their acquisition of Chauncey Billups. Make no mistake, they’re a much better team since that trade, even though they’ve lost three straight games.

Denver is loaded on offense, but lately has not been maximizing its opportunities. This team seems sometimes caught up in a quandry about who is going to shoot the ball and how often — which sometimes has something to do with Carmelo Anthony. The Nuggets don’t run a lot of stuff at you — they’ll pick and roll once in a while, but mostly they just spread the floor and go one-on-one a lot. A LOT. Billups is trying to make sure the ball gets spread around to everyone and that the hot hand gets it when appropriate. He’s the reason that team is now a serious contender for the division title.

Teams like the Nuggets are streaky, without some sort of system to bail them out of shooting slumps and defensive pressure. They struggle when teams keep them outside and double the hot shooter. Their ball movement is not always the best.

Denver, last time I checked, had the most fast-break points in the league, but is vulnerable to teams that run right back at them. Not sure how much of that the Blazers will do. There will be a pretty good battle on the boards in this game — I would expect Nene to try to get pretty physical with Greg Oden.

On defense, George Karl has a little more of an imprint on this team. The Nuggets will double-team and trap, a long-time Karl strategy, particularly if they can fence you in near the sidelines or mid-court stripe. And if they get the ball, they’ll convert and often turn a couple of fast-break baskets into a double-digit scoring run by keeping the tempo up.

The challenge for Portland will be to get the ball inside, rebound well, avoid turnovers and get back on defense. Problems with transition defense could be fatal against Denver.

I have always kind of liked back-to-backs against good teams. It’s almost like a playoff situation where teams can adjust in the second game. It should be fun. And Portland has a big edge in one area — the Blazers have had three days off while Denver will playing four games in five nights by the time this mini-series ends.

And by the way, if anyone’s got a pool on the Nielsen ratings of Monday night’s game, I’m taking the highest number on the board. Most of Portland will probably still be cooped up at home because of the weather, the team’s coming off a great win in the Brandon Roy 52-point game and first place is up for grabs in the division.

All of Portland — perhaps all of Oregon — will be watching this baby tonight.

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