I am so excited that we won game 1. We are doing a lot of good things. But here is a few things that I think we need to improve. 1. Rebounding - We are giving up 2 manay offensive rebounds. 2. Turnovers - This has been an issue every time we face LA. They have very quick hands and always look for steals. They are anticipating our passing very well as well. Here is our turnover numbers against LA for last 5 times we meet. 11/09/2008 AWAY 19 01/13/2009 HOME 11 03/12/2009 HOME 23 04/03/2009 AWAY 18 Playoff Game 1: 16
How to deal with full court pressure defense when the game is winding down. Thanks to a relatively sizable cushion late in last night's game, the collapse didn't quite happen.
I agree about rebounding and I think our biggest problem there is keeping Gasol off the boards with those soft follow ups, so far at least. I expect them to trap our guards more because they came really close to being successful with that at the end, and they need to try to slow them down. So turnovers will be a key for our guards to avoid in game 2 and on.
Agreed on both accounts. Lots of lazy passes that were easy steals for the Lakers. We gave up a run and the lead due to a few in a row. Inexcusable.
Free Throws % ( 7 games) Yao Ming .943 Ron Artest .800 Aaron Brooks .625 Luis Scola .708 Von Wafer.917 Shane Battier.933 Carl Landry.600 Kyle Lowry.682
Landry too, wheres the monstrous dunks? he's been missing easy midrange jumpshots he usually takes also
Turn overs and letting huge leads slip away in the second half. We could have won that game by double digits if the defense hadn't let up enough for the Lakers to almost make a comeback.
I don't mind Landry, but Brooks shooting 62.5% is atrocious. Wasn't he shooting in the high 80s in the regular season?
The defense in the end was horrible. Don't just assume the game is over and allow a bunch of dunks and layups when you know Kobe can score in bunches. Someone said it earlier, Landry needs to wake up offensively and DEFENSIVELY. Odom was running circles around him. Wafer needs to keep up with his man around those screens, and Brooks need to continue to be aggressive and not wait until the coach screams at him.
Keeping Battman on Kobe. As "great" as Ron Ron is, I haven't seen him keep Kobe in front of him. (watch for it)
Just stay tough mentally, be physical and more bench contribution needed. They going come out firing so we'll have to find way to stay in the game by not making dumb mistakes. Bench will have to step up to give starters needed rest down the stretch.
