September 20, 2020

 

After Denver got thumped in the first game of the series they came out looking very similar in game two of the series.  That didn’t bother me in the least as I was pulling for the sweep.  The Lakers held a substantial lead for most of the game but the Nuggets did not give up. The Nuggets had trailed by as much as sixteen, but then Jokic caught fire and scored eleven straight down the stretch, including a basket that made it 103-102 with twenty seconds to play.

A couple of chances for the Lakers to take the lead failed and with slightly over two seconds to play, LA called a timeout with the ball in their possession with an inbounds from under the basket. Rajon Rondo inbounded under the basket and found Davis curling toward the sideline, and the All-Star forward swished it to put the Lakers halfway to the NBA Finals and me as few as five days from boarding a plane home.

 

This was the deepest that Anthony Davis had ever progressed in the NBA Playoffs.  The Lakers had been here before. So when Davis' 3-pointer swished through the net as time expired to give the Lakers the victory, coach Frank Vogel thought of a Laker who had done it before. In fact, on headsets our production crew was yelling the same thing.

"That's a shot Kobe Bryant would hit," Vogel said. The Lakers were wearing their Black Mamba jerseys that were co-designed by Bryant who died Jan. 26 in a helicopter crash.

Prior to taking the big shot, during the timeout, our director Andrew Greathouse, went over our end of game assignments.  Certain cameras were asked to follow the play, others to isolate on certain players and coaches for reactions, others to stay on the bench for their reactions.  Being as my camera was located opposite of all the other cameras, I had a perfect view of the Lakers fans.  But, remember, I’m not allowed to shoot a selection of them.  But I did know where Anthony Davis’ little boy was sitting.  So the ball is put in play and the winning shot was taken.  All the camera operators had the shot and reactions covered perfectly.  There was great coverage of the euphoric Lakers team that made air but there are two sides to every story.  Perhaps the thrill of such an exciting end to the game overshadowed the need to show the disappointment in the faces of the dejected Nuggets that had fought back so valiantly.  Those reactions didn’t make our broadcast but they were on all the highlight shows the next day.  My shot of Davis’ little boy who was dancing and screaming and so proud of his father, soaking up the moment didn’t make air either, but was everywhere the next day.  That’s the thing with live television sports.  You are only provided a small amount of time to tell a story and sometimes the entire story can’t be told.  It’s impossible to show everything but our crew did a fantastic job providing the audience with all the drama that is a great NBA playoff game. And, I am two Lakers wins from leaving the bubble.

It will be interesting to see how Denver comes back on game three on Tuesday.  They had had their backs against the wall during this entire restart so nobody should ever count them out.  On the shuttle ride back we were all talking about how exciting the playoff games had been compared to the regular season games we covered in the beginning of this experiment.  Give me a nail-biter any day rather than a twenty point blowout.

Normally when we returned to the resort after a game, regardless of the time, the pool area had usually been filled with greenies winding down for the day with a cocktail or two.  Upon our arrival it was empty. There was not one person lounging, floating, or standing.  Now I knew we were closing in on the end game.  Part of me was happy that was the case, but another part became nostalgic.  The NBA Bubble was really nearing completion.  So much work, so much effort, so much adapting by everyone involved.  I walked to my room so very grateful I had been asked to be a part of it.