The 4-Down Podcast, Episode 46: Darius Soriano of Forum Blue and Gold

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Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant are both firmly entrenched on the down side of their careers. This cannot be argued. However, they have both continued to play well and have team success despite their obviously diminishing athleticism. And when these two leads their teams against each other, it’s always a treat.

I don’t really need to tell you how important Spurs-Lakers game always seem to be. But I will, because I feel like I need to give some sort of intro to this podcast. Regardless of the standings, there’s enough mutual respect between these two teams to give this matchup an extra bump. It just so happens that both the Lakers and Spurs are pretty high up in the Western Conference standings. As things stand right now, San Antonio and Los Angeles are slated to face-off in the second round of the playoffs if things go according to plan.

A couple of seasons ago, the Spurs beat the Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs and were swept by the Suns in the second round. I was really hoping for the Spurs to advance past the Suns and play the Lakers in the Western Conference finals. The Spurs looked to be on their last legs as a competitive team in the Western Conference playoff picture, and we thought this might be their last shot (we were wrong), so I was hoping for something of a greatest hits playoff run. A playoff stretch where the Spurs faced all the teams that gave us so many playoff memories over the years, both good and bad. It didn’t happen, and while there’s still a chance things could fall that way this season, it’s a long shot.

Either way, we get to watch the Spurs and Lakers play three times in the next 10 days, so it’s almost like a mini playoff series. There’s just other games in between. Otherwise, exactly like a mini playoff series.

To preview tonight’s game and update us on this season’s Lakers, I had Darius Soriano of TrueHoop Network Lakers blog Forum Blue and Gold on the podcast to chat about the purple and gold taking on the silver and black.

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  • DorieStreet

    Listened to the podcast while Bynum equals the rebound total of the entire Spurs team — 25 each at the 7:40 mark in the 4th quarter.
    I feel for all the Spurs fans watching this “contest”

  • http://profiles.google.com/kilgoretrout321 Zack Oliver

    umm so Kobe is scoring 28 a game while looking healthier and jumping higher than last year and he’s ‘firmly entrenched’ in the downslope of his career. Speak for Duncan but not for Bryant man. Duncan obviously is not putting up the numbers, but Kobe is. The biggest change is Pau and Andrew both need more touches and Sessions can score so Kobe’s attack has changed. Why am I wasting my time on the homer nvm.

  • http://48minutesofhell.com Andrew A. McNeill

    You think 33 years old is up-and-coming? Unless Kobe is playing until he 50, yes, he is on the downslope of his career. Nothing homerish about that, just the fact of the matter and we’ve got plenty of former players as evidence.