LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Lakers unveiled their latest NBA championship banner on Tuesday night on the west wall of Staples Centre and got their rings handed to them by commissioner David Stern.
Then they were nearly handed a large dose of humility by the Houston Rockets before erasing a 15-point deficit and pulling out a 112-110 victory.
“It was an emotional night for them, so we knew that if we jumped on them early, we’d have a shot to steal this one,” said Rockets forward Shane Battier.
“But they showed a lot of resolve. They’re the team to beat, and the road to the championship still goes through them.”
Sometimes, all this ring-ceremony hoopla can become a distraction.
In their 11 banner unveilings in Los Angeles, the Lakers have lost four times – twice during the Showtime era, when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson were the marquee names.
In 1985, Cleveland beat Pat Riley’s squad after they had begun the defence of their title with a 4-0 road trip.
In 1982, Golden State administered a 132-117 pounding at the Forum – the worst loss by a defending NBA champion on banner night until 2006, when the Riley-coached Heat got trounced 108-66 by Chicago.
Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher, who matched Abdul-Jabbar’s and Magic Johnson’s Laker ring totals with their fifth each, got their first one the same night they lost to Utah 97-92 in November 2000.
Two years later, they celebrated their three-peat right before San Antonio beat them 97-92.
“You tell ‘em to go enjoy the ring ceremony and then get down to work. It’s not always possible to get focused again,” said coach Phil Jackson, who won six titles as coach in Chicago after winning two as a player with New York in the early 1970s. (AP)
