> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Lakers likely to enter Nets series overconfident - URL: https://www.smdp.com/lakers-likely-to-enter-nets-series-overconfident/ - Published: 2002-06-05T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T00:19:10.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import *By RON SMITH* Will ‘The Robert Horry Picture Show’ be played again? OK, it’s not exactly NY vs. LA, the “big one” we’ve all been waiting for. So what if The Meadowlands vs. LA just doesn't have the same ring to it. Get over it. The New Jersey Nets slink into Staples Center tonight, perhaps wondering, “why us, Lord?” Meanwhile, on this road to three-peat, from Ocean Avenue to Whittier Boulevard and beyond, all of LA is in a state of group yawn and heavy sigh. Bring ‘em on. Cue up Pink, and get this party started so we can get this series ended and start celebrating. The parade thing. “The West Coast is superior” bragging thing. The Mark Madsen dance thing. Can we just fast forward to all that and skip this nuisance of playing the games? The real finals just ended in a gut-wrenching, overtime, game seven, instant classic, right? “The Lake Show,” fresh off its death-defying, Houdini-like escape from oblivion in the three-ring circus that was the Sacramento series, will come into this one extremely overconfident because believe it or not, they’re only human. You would be human too, I mean overconfident, if you possessed: • Two certified, diamond studded NBA championship rings for demolishing any team in your way the past two years. • The two best basketball players on earth — Kobe AND Shaquille (referred to hereafter, for the sake of saving space, as “Shakobe.”) • A head coach with more of those rings than he has fingers, who has an obscene record of something like 38-0 in playoff series where he has home court advantage. • “The Robert Horry Picture Show,” a bad horror flick that gets replayed time and again, where this slow guy with a limp and a sneer, fires a deadly dagger into the bad guy’s heart just when anyone least expects it. Yes, if you had all that and a lot more, you’d be overconfident too. On second thought, you wouldn’t be. You are. And you know it. On these streets, in these pubs and sports bars, on this Promenade, in these trendy coffee and tea parlors, the command is out. Get this thing finished and fast. Send these guys back to Tony Soprano Land where waste management can dispose of the remains. Well, hold on for just a New York minute, Laker fans. These games do have to be played. And guess what? The Nets will show up. They’ll have the look of a lean, hungry, abused animal lying in wait. This is a talented and well-balanced team with the added edge of a free-spiritedness that comes with having nothing to lose. With the best point guard in the NBA running the show, New Jersey already fast breaks, free wheels, and pressure defends at a high pitch. With no more than maybe 23 or 24 lost souls in this town actually thinking New Jersey has a chance, Jason Kidd will lead his guys into this battle as loose as a goose. Have you seen fierce? Not lately, what with Rasheed Wallace’s Portland, and Tim Duncan’s San Antonio crews succumbing without so much as a whimper. Sacramento, with all due respect, put up a hellish battle, hitting shots from black holes in the universe, running and gunning to within a split second of the promised land. They had the purple and gold giant all but slayed until that high camp “Robert Horry Picture Show” ran again, and killed again. They could well have been the better team. But that’s all they ended up with. Kenyon Martin, the NJ power forward, has more ferocity than Vlade, Weber, Tekoglu, et al., put together. Kerry Kittles, the NJ shooting guard, has his own black holes and brings more Philly ball to town — like we haven’t had enough of that with Bibby, just barely beaten, and last year, Iverson. And for the final twist, Byron Scott, the NJ coach, one of Lakerville’s own, he of Magic, Riley, Showtime fame, cool as ice, winner, been here, done that. These guys come fully loaded with game. Believe it. The Nets are here, ready, and willing. Able is another story when you’re up against the Shakobe, and RHPS monsters. But don’t be surprised if you’re rudely awakened right from the get-go tonight in game one. Transplanted east-coasters will be out in full force for this show. Nothing brings out the Laker-haters like a good old left versus right coast championship series. They strike a nerve back east, those NBC filler shots of a sun-drenched Santa Monica Pier and surfers at sunset. It’s a tough place to live and a tough story to cover but somebody’s got to do it. *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 5, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/060502.pdf?ref=smdp.com)