I never tire of the Lakers losing

I don't care that they suck and are no match for the Spurs. I still love watching the Lakers lose. The Spurs, except for about a nine minute span in the third quarter, really weren't all that impressive, but that run - it was something like 30-6 - was just more than a mediocre team like the Lakers could overcome.

The Spurs found their defense in LA. Duncan looked fresh in both games. After going a month without any 20 point games, you can seemingly put him down for 20 and 12 or so every night again. Tonight, they finally went to the backcourt of Barry and Ginobili when Parker was on the bench, and it wasn't all that hot. I hope they give that some more minutes in the last ten games. I think the ball-handling is fine between the two of them, but those minutes were the time the Lakers made their most headway, cutting the eighteen point lead in half.

Bottom line is that the Spurs have to be considered the prohibitive favorite to win the West. Homecourt is now almost a formality throughout the Western Conference, as the Spurs two game lead is functionally three. Even if Dallas wins down here next week to split the season series, the Spurs will have the tie-breaker in their favor by having a better conference record. With ten games to play, and seven of them home games and six of them against teams out of the playoffs, it is tough to imagine the Spurs losing more than two games the rest of the way. Which, for the record, would give them the best record in franchise history. Not bad considering Ginobili has had a poor year with injuries and Duncan the least productive year since his rookie campaign.