MVN: Most Valuable Network

Ah, the Pacers. The once hated Pacers are now one of my favorite teams, especially after they beat the hated Lakers last night. The Pacers, who outscored the Lakers by 16 points in the fourth quarter, beat LA by one point last night, 118-117. Danny Granger scored 32 points, but had a bad shooting night shooting 10-27. Kobe had 28 points on 10-21 shooting.

The Lakers are now 14-2, and the Celtics 17-2, recently beating the Magic, and have their shot at the Pacers tonight. They could make it 10 straight, making it pretty clear who is the better team, even though it is already clear to me. Now I know all of you are saying that the Pacers beat the Celtics also, but that was on a back-to-back road game, and if they beat them tonight, they will be 1-1 against Indiana.

In my last article, which talked about entering December for the C's, I ranked the Celtics ahead of the Lakers even before they lost and the Celtics beat the Magic. Lets see why the Celtics just got better, and why the Lakers just got worse.

Celtics point of view
1. The Celtics not only have confidence from the Pacers beating the Lakers, but also from beating the once 13-4 Magic. They came in with a record of 16-2, and left with a record of 17-2. Catch my drift?

2. Yes, as I said, you are all saying the Celtics lost to the Pacers also, and the reasons I have above are certainly something to talk about. But, a loss to the Pacers is a loss to the Pacers, and 17-2 is better than 14-2. Especially when you are on fire.

Lakers point of view
1. You leave most of your momentum in Indiana, and you give up the best record of the league. This is a very tough loss to bounce back from, especially when you're a team like the Lakers and you had it all going for you. When your hungry to win and all of a sudden it comes to a stop, you have to be strong to recover.

2. On the other hand, they only lost by one instead of the Celtics, who got blown out, but it might be more of a loss to the Lakers. When your team is up most of the game, and you get outscored by a non-playoff team by 16 in the fourth quarter, its a major reality check.

We saw it before last year with the devastating loss to the Magic, ruining their chances of going 82-0 (darn and they only won a championship). But, the Celtics bounced back to destroy the Warriors. Can the Lakers do it too?