There are ways of winning in the NBA and there are ways of losing. I'll leave it to lucky Lakers fans to discuss the winning and will concentrate on the losing instead. I don't mean anything deep, just would like to discuss in what manner a particular game may be lost or win.

1. A nail-biter. There are games between evenly matched teams when the outcome is decided during the last minute, sometimes during the last possession. Our championship contending Spurs in 2003-2008 had quite a few series when a nail-biter decided the series. In 2004 we lost game 5 on a ridiculous 0.4s Fisher shot, in 2006 we lost in overtime of game 7 by Dirk's free throws and in 2008 we lost game 6 when Barry could not make a buzzer-beating 3-pointer and didn't get a foul on Fisher.

2. A blow out.  Lesser teams tends to get blown out of the games in the playoffs and even blown out of the series. We got blown out several times in the first round of 2009. We also got blown out in the game 5 of the 1st round this year, but then we proceeded to win the game 6 and the series. Sometimes blow outs go back and forth as in games 1-4 of our Finals against Detroit.

3. Losing the lead.  Sometimes teams get a big lead, and then other team comes back and steals the game. Losing a large lead tends to hurt a team psychologically, so it usually leads to losing a series. The Lakers mounted large come back against Portland in the game 7 of 2000 playoffs, the Heat came back in the game 3 against the Mavs and never lost again in those Finals. This year, Phoenix came back several times against us, including converting 18 points deficit into 14 points win in the game 3. For me, losing the large lead is the worst possible loss in basketball, especially in the playoffs.

What do you think?