I really don't even want to waste a lot of time on this topic. Anyone making a deal out of this win doesn't have the ability to see exactly how the NBA works... especially the pre-season and player's mentalities. Sure they lost to Rubio (who went 0-5 with 3 assists and 4 turnovers again showing that against the NBA speed and athleticism, at 6'4'' Rubio needs to keep the ball closer to his body and maybe dribble a little lower, because he was picked "super-clean" by 2 or 3 different players, including Fisher and Artest. But I know Rubio will be a great NBA player; Phil probably figured if he could shut down Rubio he would win or something...
But the game itself wasn't even fun to watch. From the get go it was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters against the "other team"..... I won't bother looking them up (the General's?). The Lakers came out with the pre-season attitude most veteran teams do, ready to run the offense, play competitively, implement the new uys, and not get hurt all at the same time. That last part about "not getting hurt" is really important.
I mean go ask the Bulls if they maybe regret playing Boozer a certain amount of minutes. Obviously injuries will and do happen all the time, but pre-season is a time that you play with structure, a huge rotation, and a lot of learning and gelling going on. That's why I had to comment on this game.
I couldn't do much but laugh at the difference in mentalities the teams took. The Lakers really didn't care if they won or lost this pre-season game in Barcelona (obviously they prefer to win), but they wanted to just work on their offense with new pieces and try some things for the season.......
FC Barcelona would have NONE of that. They came out of the locker room with adrenaline pumping like it was Game 7 of the finals and they were about to become the NBA Champs by beating the Lakers, LOL. I'm not saying anything against them; FC Barcelona is an amazing team with loads of talent from 1 to 12, but just remember this;
The Lakers were jogging and talking while FC Barcelona were sprinting full speed. That is all I want to say.
After watching so many years of teams like the Wolves and Pacers have "great" or "solid" pre-seasons the past few years might give one a clue that it's the young teams playing their best players a ton of minutes while the veteran teams with everything set use this time to play all their bench, as well as newcomers and rookies and integrate them into the system.
So FC Barcelona, I really enjoyed watching you become the Euroleague Champions, but this win over the Lakers proves very little. But congrats! I do think Barcelona is easily a top 20 NBA team (well not the worse if they were in the NBA).
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