Next Iteration of the Ewing Theory?
The Ewing Theory, as you may know, is the postulation that a team that is playing mediocre will improve dramatically once their star athelete is taken out of the picture. For a more in-depth definition, see Ewing Theory 101, which describes the gensis of the Ewing Theory:
The theory was created in the mid-'90s by Dave Cirilli, a friend of mine who was convinced that Patrick Ewing's teams (both at Georgetown and with New York) inexplicably played better when Ewing was either injured or missing extended stretches because of foul trouble.
I bring this up because we might have an opportunity to see a mini-Ewing Effect again, this time with the Lakers. Last night Kobe Bryant rolled his ankle while playing against the Cavs, forcing him out of the game for, likely, weeks. The question now is how will the Lakers respond with his absense? Without knowing about the Ewing Theory one would immediately assume the Lakers would crash and burn without their superstar, and they just might. But armed with the knowledge of the Ewing Theory one might not be terribly surprised if the Lakers, sans Kobe, go pull off a seven or eight game win streak, or win 80% of their games while Kobe sits. (And the schedule should help them - in their next eight games the Lakers play Golden State twice, the Nets, the Jazz, the T-Wolves, the Bobcats, the Clippers, and Seattle, teams that have a combined 103-139 (Seattle being the only +0.500 team on the list).
Let's see if the Lakers can't pull off a mini-run here, providing another validation to the Ewing Theory. (Be sure to check out the Ewing Theory 101 article for a long list of anecdotal evidence for the Ewing Theory...)