Columnist Dean Juipe: Wings, Lakers have the look of champions

Dean Juipe

Monday, June 3, 2002 | 9:59 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

The heightened sense of drama was evident around town.

Big crowds in the sports books. Excited people glued to the screens and reacting to every play.

Noisy. Vivacious. Entertaining.

It's just what we've come to expect on a weekend in which the National Hockey League and National Basketball Association provided climactic Game 7s with their championships on the line. The winners -- Detroit in the NHL and Los Angeles in the NBA -- were sharp and impressive as they secured the shiny hardware that is awarded only to the very best teams.

OK, OK, I know. The hockey and basketball seasons aren't really over, at least officially. But they're over in terms of which teams are going to be immortalized and have their names inscribed on their respective league's trophies, if you ask me.

That the Red Wings still have to win a best-of-7 series with Carolina and that the Lakers still have to dispose of New Jersey seems perfunctory at this moment. If either the Hurricanes or the Nets win more than a game, let alone the series, it will qualify as an upset of David-like proportions.

But these Goliaths -- laden with proven, veteran stars -- aren't going to lose. They're locks, in gambling terms.

Yup, Jim Morrison was right. The West is the best.

In the geographically challenged NHL, Detroit blitzed Colorado 7-0 in Friday's Western Conference finale and Carolina appears badly mismatched with the Stanley Cup on the line in a new series that opens Tuesday.

Let's see, Detroit is a nine-time Cup winner only four years removed from its last championship and sporting a roster of nine future Hall of Famers. The Wings also won both games with the Hurricanes during the regular season and their experience level is such that nine of their players are older than Carolina's head coach, Paul Maurice.

In addition, the Carolina franchise -- which dates back to a stint in Hartford -- hasn't won a game at Joe Louis Arena in 13 seasons and is a collective 3-16 against Detroit in the last 10 years.

They'll play the games just to make sure, but the hockey season is figuratively over.

Same with the NBA.

You don't really think the Nets can hang with a Lakers team that dug deep to dispose of Sacramento in Sunday night's Western Conference slugfest, do you? I mean, the Nets may think they're up to the task but wait until that series opens Wednesday and it should be apparent that one side was built to hoist the banner while the other is just happy to be part of the festivities.

New Jersey, which is only a season removed from a mere 26 victories, is in its first NBA final after getting past the opening round of the playoffs for only the second time since 1976.

Conversely, Los Angeles, which needed a 112-106 overtime win over the Kings to advance, is annually groomed for a run at the title and there's no reason to think the Lakers will disappoint now that they're this close.

Those were great series, Detroit vs. Colorado and Los Angeles vs. Sacramento, ones that could have gone either way.

But the next round of playoffs in each sport may not be as intense. Fans of the Wings and Lakers are already making celebratory plans, and it's easy to see why.