The Knicks Can Take the Lakers

It is going to hurt me to say this. Really hurt. Yet after the Lakers' second straight loss to those spunky kids from Sacramento two nights ago, it must be said. Cough Cough. The New York Knicks will Cough Cough, beat the Los Angeles Lakers in six games for the NBA title this June.

Let me say just off the bat that I'm from Chicago, and grew up cheering for the Bulls more than any other sports team. I toiled for years as Michael Jordan and company lost repeatedly to the Detroit Pistons, the self-proclaimed Bad Boys, in some of the most intense and thrilling playoff series I have ever seen.

I was too young to remember the best of the Pistons-Celtics and Lakers-Celtics match-ups at the time, so the Bulls versus the Motor City Champs was the most passionate rivalry that I had seen. Along with the help of Scottie Pippen and the Zenmaster Phil Jackson, Jordan was able to exercise three consecutive years of Bad Boy playoff demons with a convincing sweep of the back-to-back champions in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals. Chicago went on the beat the Magic Johnson-led Lakers, the Team of the '80s, in five games and a dynasty was born.

So it was all good, right? We had just vanquished our most hated adversaries in a sweet romp, and the nucleus of the team was relatively young. There would be years and years to come where we would breeze through the league to hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy again without competition in sight. Although looking back at the '90s, it is apparent that this was actually the case, a shrewd move by Knicks management in the summer of 1991 resulted in a heated rivalry that consumed most of the following decade in basketball.

Deciding that spending time with Bob Costas in the NBC booth was a little too much fun for his own good, former Lakers coach Pat Riley joined the New York Knicks in hopes of turning a former 50-win team in the '80s into a championship contender. If there was a defining moment and turning point for modern Knick basketball, it came the following June in the 1992 Eastern Conference semis.

With a physical style remnant of the '80s Detroit squads, the Knicks set out to dispatch the defending champion Bulls after beating the Pistons in five games in the first round. The Bulls had gone 67-15 in the regular season and were the prohibitive favorites to repeat as champs in the postseason. The Knicks, refusing to let themselves roll over and give up, stretched Chicago to only one of two seventh games it would play in its six championship years under the guidance of Patrick Ewing, John Starks, and Anthony Mason.

In one of the most thuggish moves of the year, and one which epitomized the nascent bitterness between the two teams, Starks clothes-lined Pippen in the sixth game as the Bulls all-star went up for a dunk. The emotions spilled into the final and deciding game of the series when Xavier McDaniel actually challenged Pippen to a fight on the court. Refusing to let his team back down though, Jordan dropped 42 points to lead his team to the clinching victory and sent an emphatic signal to New York that they'd always have to go through Chicago if they wanted to earn a ring.

Over the course of the '90s, these teams would meet four more times, with the Bulls' only loss coming after Jordan had retired the first time and Hugh Hollins blessed the Knicks with a phantom foul call on Pippen in the waning moments of the pivotal fifth game. Even though the rivalry was basically one-sided, a Chicago-New York match-up never ceased to be special. Memorable moments such as Charles Smith's four layup misses at the end of Game 5 of the 1993 Conference Finals or Patrick Ewing finally rejoicing after beating the Bulls in the seventh game of their 1994 series left an indelible stain on the sports rivalry of the '90s.

So now that you have a little history behind why it might be so hard for me to predict the Knicks to win this year's playoffs, you may wonder why anyone other than the Lakers or Blazers this year should have a chance. After all, haven't most of the pundits already declared the Western Conference Finals to be for all intents and purposes the real NBA Finals? Just five days ago, it seemed as though Chicago Bulls West, I mean ... the L.A. Lakers, were primed to bring back a championship to the City of Angels twelve years since Magic and Kareem last won one.

After importing the Zenmaster and his coaching staff from the Bulls as well as Ron Harper and the always humorous John Salley, the Lakers dominated the National Basketball Association this year. Even with Kobe Bryant injured for the first 15 games of the season, an inspired and soon-to-be MVP Shaquille O'Neil finally lived up to his vast potential and carried his team to a league-best 67 wins. Although they drew a dangerous Sacramento King squad in the first round of the playoffs, there was little doubt in most critics' minds that the Lakers would sweep through Jason Williams and Chris Webber on their way to an inevitable Western Conference showdown with the Portland Blazers. After all, hadn't Phil Jackson led his team to a 24-1 record in his last eight first-round series as coach?

Well, it is probably more appropriate to say that it was actually Jordan that led and coached the Bulls, but the fact remained that Jackson was a clutch playoff coach. There was no way that the Zenmaster would let Shaq and his teammates slip and face possible elimination so early.

Yet a funny thing has happened since last Sunday when the Lakers held a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-five series with the Kings. With a raucous Arco Arena crowd galvanizing Sacramento' s players, the Lakers lost two consecutive games for the first time since the beginning of February. What once was perceived to be an unbeatable team is now reduced to a squad that is 48 minutes away from one of the most humiliating and embarrassing playoff exits in recent memory.

The Knicks on the other hand swept away Vince Carter and his Toronto Raptors on their way to a fourth consecutive playoff series meeting with the Miami Heat. Latrell Sprewell, the "American Dream," dominated the next Michael Jordan both on the offensive and defensive ends, hitting clutch shots at the end of Games 1 and 2 while Carter instead preferred to pass the rock to teammates like Dee Brown at crucial moments. Assuming the Knicks maintain their playoff advantage over the Heat, there is little doubt that they can put away either the old Pacers or the inexperienced Sixers.

The Lakers will probably win the fifth game against the Kings tomorrow, but a potential match-up with the Blazers in the conference finals seems as though it will be a lot more competitive than was thought entering the playoffs. Yet the Blazers have still not found a trustworthy go-to-guy in the clutch despite their wide range of talent. Rasheed Wallace might be their answer, but his emotions usually hinder rather than stimulate his game in the fourth quarter.

So in all likelihood, we will have a Lakers-Knicks final. Although one might question if the Knicks are consistent enough to play with L.A. in a seven-game series, they have one advantage that most teams other than Portland do not possess, which is the fact that they can guard the Big Three on the Lakers. Sprewell can defend Kobe just as well as he did Air Canada and Larry Johnson can more than keep up with Glen Rice and will even be able to exploit his size advantage on offense. Even though the Big Fella, Patrick Ewing, is as immobile as he has ever been, a double-team on Shaq using defensive SWAT-team-specialist Marcus Camby will neutralize O'Neil as much as any team in the league can hope for.

Unlike Portland, New York can depend on a go-to-guy, actually, three of them. Allan Houston, Sprewell, and Johnson have all shown themselves to be clutch in the past, and New York can depend on at least one of them being on their game each night. New York also has one advantage the Lakers cannot boast - a real homecourt advantage. While the Staples Center can be one of the quietest arenas in the NBA, Madison Square Garden is THE place to play.

So you can count on it now. Knicks over the Lakers in six to win their first title since the Wills Reed days of the early '70s. I'll just be waiting for May 20 to come around. Why you may ask? It just happens to be the day of the NBA Draft Lottery. Along with free agency, who knows how good my Bulls can be next year. I can just see it now: Elton Brand, Ron Artest, Eddie "Basketball" Jones, Tracy McGrady, Kenyon Martin, and Darius Miles. Well ... one can always hope.