Similar Road to Championships for Lakers, Penguins

At most this aforementioned instance terminal year, the Los Angeles Lakers and the metropolis Penguins' seasons had ended in dissatisfaction as both teams were reaching soured six-game program losses in the  Finals of their leagues, having been foiled by the Beantown Celtics and the city Red Wings, respectively. But after having become so near terminal year, the Lakers and the Penguins were eventually healthy to get this year. Here's how they did it.

REGULAR SEASON

Lakers: The Lakers cruised ended the lawful flavour and ended with an NBA-best 65-17 record, clinching a playoff blot daylong before the flavour was over. The Lakers endeavor in the Pacific division, which was by farther the NBA's poorest sectionalization this year, with the Lakers existence the exclusive aggroup in the Pacific divsion to attain the playoffs. They were a compounded 14-2 against their inter-divisional rivals (the Suns, Warriors, Clippers and Kings), patch losing exclusive 5 games on bag court. Reigning participant Kobe Bryant led the aggroup erst again in scoring, averaging 26.8 points and nearly 5 assists per game.

Penguins: At the prototypal of February, the Penguins were movement in 10th locate in the Eastern Conference, and it looked implausible that the aggroup would attain the playoffs presented their past play. But the motion saucer of their flavour came on Feb 15, when nous railcar Michel Therrien was fired and replaced with past NHL contestant Dan Bylsma, who was work the Penguins' AHL affiliate edifice the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. In 25 games low Bylsma, the aggroup ended the flavour with an awful 18-3-4 record, and in the impact they not exclusive prefabricated the playoffs, but they tight home-ice plus in the prototypal ammo of the playoffs by closing in 4th place. Penguins grapheme edifice Evgeni Malkin led the team, as substantially as the association in scoring, closing with 113 points.

PLAYOFF ROUNDS 1-3