Okay, so maybe the season's not "over"

At 22-5, and with some of those 22 wins feeling a little like losses, we Lakers fans were starting to get pretty pessimistic looking ahead to tomorrow's game against the Celtics and the rest of the year. I have to admit, I was ready to just write off any championship hopes for this season---"Maybe they get out of the West, but there's no way they''ll beat whoever comes out of the East", was something I repeated in conversations over the weekend.
And then, last night, they beat an awfully good New Orleans team--on the road--to further confuse us all. But really, this shouldn't be confusing at all. The fact is, the Lakers are now 23-5--they still have just 5 losses! Yeah, so the Celtics and the Cavs both have even more impressive records at this point, and generally, their wins of late haven't all seemed like near-misses. I wouldn't think to argue that they're not great teams. But I think it's a bit premature for us to count out a team that can go out and dominate a game against a great (really good?) team like the Hornets.
Take the example of last season. In December, very few people were expecting something like what happened where the Lakers made it to the Finals after blowing through the West as the 1st seed. Remember, they were strong favorites going into the series with Boston (which is fodder for a different post). Point being: one third of the way through the season is just too early to predict how things will end up in June.
But as for tomorrow, a win over the Chris Paul-led Hornets, doesn't bolster my faith going up against the Kevin Garnett-Ray Allen-Paul Pierce-(and now Rajon Rondo, too)-led Celtics.