*The PG position is a wash *Shane will eat Kobe's lunch on Defense and T-Mac will do the Skeeting on Offense. *Scola is a perfect match-up for us against Gashole. *Deke will give Bynum the finger (snicker) <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QR1kz_9XYdk&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QR1kz_9XYdk&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_0_UP2-odoA&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_0_UP2-odoA&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object> I think this would be the best possible (attainable) match-up for the Rockets, it seems like they get hyped to play the Lakers and I would like nothing more than to wipe off that "Kobe-Smirk".........
nah man, this is a bad bad matchup for us. they just have too many big men. kobe won't beat us but he doesn't have to. their big men will kill us. we better get the 5th seed and face utah.
Facing Utah's the same as Laker; they got okur and boozer. It's not the worse of it. Deron William will send Rafer to never ending land.
we match up better with utah. okur never goes inside hte post against us b/c he can't do jack. and hayes can shut down boozer pretty good. deron never dominate us like paul can. and utah sucks on the road. this is the only team we can beat right now considering we can't play dallas/gs/denver.
I think Deron Williams is the matchup that would kill us, and Boozer has proven that we can't slow him down at all... I am not scared of Pau or Bynum, I think we are a good enough rebounding team to handle that.
I'm less confident about Battier being able to shut down Kobe when the playoffs come around. Kobe will be pulling out all stops to get calls and sadly, the refs will put him on the line because he's a star. The face guarding will work until Kobe pretends he was poked in the eye.
If we could not beat Utah with Yao, I have a very, very hard time believing we can win without him......(Although this is a different team) I would not mind Utah either, but you have to admit that the excitement of going up against the Lakers in the playoffs would be pretty fun.
when has deron kill us with a game like 37 pts and 12 assists like paul did? he won't "destroy" us. he'll avg 15 and 8 like he did last yr and that's good for us. without yao, boozer won't be able to just rain jumpers all over or drive in for dunks. hayes will play more along with landry to contain him. scola will be on okur and shut him down. gasol has a legit post game; bynum is a legit 7-footer who lives in the paint and avg 10 rebounds on sub-30 minutes.
Utah's defense is suffocating, and you've seen how well we play against those types of teams. Tracy gets stuck with the ball way too long and his teammates struggle to integrate themselves into the game(despite Tracy's passing). If we had Yao it would be a different story but I will tell you now that there is no way we score enough points against Utah to win. We can score on the Lakers....
i'm not saying we can beat them in a 7 game series, but it's 2000x better than playing the lakers. lakers have an unstoppable player in kobe AND extremely good big men. utah doesn't have an unstoppable player (boozer ain't gonna go off on us trust me, yao was the only reason he went off; deron never dominated us so i don't know where all the fans are saying he did) and they are very very mediocre on the road. they will be the favorites, but i'm just saying it's the best matchup we can hope for right now.
You are out of your mind. Kobe would eat Shane's lunch, breakfast and dinner and he'd snack on Shane's children and have his wife for dessert. Don't let one regular season game fool you. This would be a bad-bad BAAAAAAAAAAD Matchup. Worst case scenario possible. Especially the way we're playing right now Lakers would avg 120 points per game with Kobe pouring in 40 per. and another first round exit for us.
I would honestly rather play LA. If we catch them in the first Bynum won't be fully back (I don't even expect him to be 100% until next year), and they still are weak on D at times. At least Battier can make Kobe work for his. Against Utah, we have NO ONE for Williams, they play better D and they are hard to beat at home. I don't think we can beat either team to be honest.....
Lakers are overrated, and I am not scared of Kobe in the playoffs. Plus they will have to do some adjusting when Pau and Bynum come back, I think this puts their chemistry at a minimum. btw, worst case scenario would be the Spurs........
Ask yourself this question. If push came to shove who do you see advancing and who do you see going home if we did face the Lakers. Kobe or T-mac? I know it's a team game but there's NO way in hell I see Kobe losing to a Yao-less Rockets.