when a team loses a 20-point lead and goes on to lose the game, you can't point to any one thing. but, the media, either trying to either distill the story into manageable pieces or just trying to look smart, seems pretty content to do that.

i've heard it was kobe turning on the kobe switch. i've heard the lakers clamped down on defense. i've heard the spurs went cold. i've heard the spurs were tired from their plane ride. it's all of those things. actually, the least among them i think is kobe being kobe. he started going off when bowen and udoka started picking up fouls.

one thing that i've only seen casually alluded to is the spurs lack of composure down the stretch. every time we took a timeout, or got a stop, the next possession we had a turnover. either an offensive foul, a bad out-of-bounds call or just a stupid turnover because the big  three weren't playing big. i wonder if we just banked on losing the game and that kept up from being our best down the stretch.

we squandered a big opportunity. we squandered a great game by duncan and miserable games by odom and fisher. we won't be able to bank on any of that later in the series.

but the series is not over. we went up by 20 against this team playing our standard game. it's painful we're behind in the series now, and the going will only get tougher when the coaches start making adjustments.

it's only game 1. where are the stories saying the lakers were lucky to win? where are the stories that guessing that the beginning of the game will prove to be the norm? gasol is a chump. odom can't hit the big shots. will the team lean on kobe to rescue them every game? if they do, we win.