Lakers Find Defense and Fans Come to It

The Lakers’ “on” switch works after all. It’s called defense. Who knew?

Tarik Trad

Glendale

What about all that writing about how the Lakers couldn’t beat the Spurs because Tony Parker was too fast and much better than Gary Payton? How no one, let alone Karl Malone, could contain Tim “Teemy” Duncan, and how the Lakers couldn’t beat the Spurs three, let alone four, games in a row?

Maybe the sportswriters in this paper can quit their jobs as Spur beat writers and give the Lakers some credit ... at least until they lose a game in the Western Conference finals.

Duvel Jamison

Los Angeles

For weeks, I’ve read stories and letters about how the Spurs played team ball and the Lakers did not, and that’s why the Spurs were winning so many games in a row and would beat the Lakers in the playoffs.

Then I read the box score from Game 5 and found that both sides had nearly identical numbers. Someone has some explaining to do.

Stephen Netherlain

Lake Forest

I would suggest that Laker management purchase two types of bandwagons to advertise their wares: one small one to accommodate the true loyal Laker fans (all too few) when the team is doing poorly, and one gigantic one, large enough to cater to the fair-weather fans (all too many) wanting to go along for the ride when the team is winning.

Jerry Johnson

Huntington Beach

The Times does a big front-page story about how Kobe is such a victim and he states, “You can’t imagine what it’s like, going through what I’ve gone through.”

No, Kobe, we can’t, because most of us have something called self-control. You are in this position because of your own actions and the last thing I and many others feel for you is sympathy, which you seem to think you are entitled to. It is the young lady’s life that has been turned upside down.

Bottom line: Because you couldn’t keep your pants on, you have been exposed as a adulterer at best or a rapist at worst. Either way, you are not someone I’d let near one of my daughters.

Pat Clough

Studio City

I just don’t understand the temerity of some sportswriters.

Tim Brown and Steve Henson’s article on Kobe Bryant was a little too much. How can someone be so unfeeling and heartless to fillet someone else’s soul so easily?

I only wish that writers were more accountable and that perhaps someone should follow them around and reveal their secrets to the public.

They might have a little more heart the next time they take shots at someone.

Daniel Schuetz

Tiffin, Ohio

So the meaning of Kobe Bryant’s tattoo to his wife and daughter is finally known. That’s all well and good, and, as a Laker fan and Kobe fan, I am glad to know that Kobe cares so much about his wife and daughter.

However, my hope for Kobe is that he remembers that what is written within his heart is by far more important than what is written on his skin.

Donald A. Bentley

La Puente

Just move San Antonio to the Eastern Conference and get it over with already. It is a shame that what has become a two-team league over the last six years has those two teams continually playing against each other in early rounds.

Had the Spurs been in the East this whole time, facing the Lakers in the Finals each year, we wouldn’t have been inundated with all that whining from Commissioner David Stern.

Hershel Remer

Los Angeles

So Kevin Garnett is sorry for using words of war in describing a do-or-die Game 7. Where has he been for the last year?

How can a professional athlete of his stature be so callous and flippant by comparing a game to a war or a jump shot to a gun?

Too many brave men and women are putting their lives on the line each day, too many of them are losing their limbs and their lives, too many families are being torn apart by the real war.

Ralph Morones

La Canada