T-Mac - A-. Started out slow but found his groove. The fact that he shot 50% (amazing i know) and made TWO dunks earns him an A. Yao - B. Started out slow as well, but hit some big shots at the end. That was the quietest 25 and 12 i've ever seen, but he made some silly fouls and a few too many turnovers. Mike James - A. The reason we stayed in the game at first. He provided exactly what we needed, a spark off the bench. He was shooting well. Bonzi Wells - B. The momentum started to shift in our favor once he and James came in the game. Rafer - B-. Had some bad turnovers at the end, but put up 7 rebs and 8 assists. Battier - A+++++++++. Did as good of a job you can do on Kobe and hit the game winning shot. Automatic A+++++!!! Hayes - B. Had some huge offensive rebounds that are often taken for granted. Francis - F. F for Francis lol
And here is the award for "stupid post of the day" Really? Your claiming Rafers performance was as good as Yao's? Wow dude, you truely have no knowledge whatsoever.
wow, it seems rox as team played very well. vs a team that might be a lottery team at the end of season.
they played decent considering how PATHETIC they looked early on offensively. they looked like a JV bball team out there. defensively, were were still very good as usual. but offensively, outside of tmac/yao/james/bonzi, the rest were just not there. it'll come with time. and the refs helped the lakers a lot or else it would not have been close. 45 fts, u gotta be kidding me.
The best feeling of the night was being down 15-5 and actually having a bench to turn to. Watching MJ tie his drawstrings and Scola point at Chuck Hayes to sub was pure poetry... I thought Adelman did a GREAT job of rotating players at the right time all night btw. He did it in such a way where Yao and T-Mac could rest effectively and were rarely off the court at the same time. A Battier is going to be Adelman's horse though; he seems to be the base for any set of players that Rick puts out there. He's constantly working and getting himself into position to make plays despite some of his limitations; ultimate glue-guy... A T-Mac was still T-Mac, figured his points would be down and assists would be the same or up though. Who cares, more importantly, 10-12 FTs! A Yao will have plenty of open looks all year, his assists will also be up. That's exciting because I don't think people realize what a good passer he is... Legit MVP candidate IMO. B+ Rafer seems to just be treading water out there, I wasn't impressed at all. It's clear he's not the answer at starting PG, he just has 2 things that are important to Adelman. Experience with the starters and a pass-first mentality (compared to the other PGs in the rotation at least). Maybe he grows into this system as the season moves on, but I agree with another poster who stated that you just can't trust Skip, especially in the last 5 minutes of a tight, intense game. Nice 3-pointer late though (1-5)... C+ I wanted to see more of Bonzi though, thought he gave the Laker second team some fits. Needed to get inside a bit more instead of settling for jumpers, but his D was also solid, great first outting. B+ Head was a non-factor, missed some open shots, but he's earned some PT with a solid preseason. Hard to believe he was our main 6th man (along with Juwan at times I guess) all of last season! Shows you how deep we really are now... D How did we win 52 games last year with that team and all the injuries?
Tmac B plus Slow start, but really picked it up. Yao B plus After the 1st quarter, he really picked it up. His game was a tale of two cities. When he was inside the paint, he was strong and would get an A...but when he was in the high post....well..... to be fair, his teammates weren't cutting properly a lot of times and/or just weren't open. James B plus. Didn't really run the offense that well, but his shooting was a huge spark. Battier B plus Pretty good defense. Made Kobe take tough shots. Hit a key 3....Battier wasn't great, but at least he made smart contributions. Bonzi B Our offense seemed better when he was in there. He's very active....he should have been given more minutes than that. Rafer D Man, he was terrible. Shot 1-6. Wasn't even good at the one thing he was supposed to be in there for....threw some really bad turnovers inclluding a very critical one in the 4th. He should never do that teardrop ever again. Deke A solid when he was in the game....but his cheerleading skills were excellent. Every shot had him really enthusiastic off the bench.
From what I saw, the Rockets played absolutely lost. I'm extremely glad we got away with a win from what I thought was a better playing Lakers team for a large part of the game. Yao - Part of the problem is that RA is trying to create Vlade Divac. Yao has a far superior set of abilities that should be used. Here's a hint: The Lakers should not be outscoring the Houston Rockets with an All-Star Center in the Paint. Just should not happen. T-Mac - Did you see Kobe? The jumper is the easy shot. Drive into the bloody lane and get some contact. Battier - Kiddo, airballs aren't cool. He made the game winning shot, but besides that, all game, Kobe did whatever he wanted him half the time, including in the critical final quarter. Rafer - Don't get me started. Anything you make the Lakers look like an agressive defense, and Luke Walton as a defender worthy of consideration, your ball handling skills become suspect. James - Sometimes dribbled a tad too much, but I also give him credit for coming into the game and wanting to drive and to get some contact. Put the ball in the hoop. Still, an off performance. Bonzi - He did exactly what he was suppose to do. When he got the ball, he sought to make something with it. I for one, am extremely grateful that Wells looked to put the ball into the hoop. Sometimes too quick to settle for the jumper, but otherwise, good game. Defensively - JVG would cry. Too many mistakes. Overall - I'm glad we won. But if that's San Antonio we open up with, we lose by 25.
Shane played solid defense on Kobe. He held him to a low percentage. He scored a lot because the refs gave him 27 free throws. I mean geez, i know he was driving in all the time, but a lot of the times he just jumped into people and got the call. I would say Shane did great on Kobe.
Yao A: Keep it up Heyes B: Heyes Shane B: Shots not went in early but what a shot with 2 senconds to go. T-MAC A: Slow start but good all around game, bad at the end with the team Rafer C: Decent game. James A: Who we lacked last season. Scola D: Should get used to play without ball, need more time to adjust. Head D: Like the play-off Head. MT B: Decent backup C. Steve D: Be a teamplayer!
T-Mac: A | Started slow, but so did the whole team. I'll chalk it up to "opening night jitters" for everyone. Got into a groove later though. Got himself a "quiet" 30, and did attack the basket, but got cut off and/or fouled most of the time. Its not necessarily him finishing that is always the end result of his cuts, and that's what makes it so effective. Yao: A | A "quiet" 25 & 12. He looked out of place at times at the top of the key, but he'll get it with time. I think we got a glimpse of what Adelman wants when Yao shot that quick pass to T-Mac underneath for the 2-handed stuff. Despite all the talk of playing him in the high post, his low-post game hasn't suffered a bit... still deadly. Shane: A | Great D on Kobe (the 45pts were a result of the striped monkeys sending him to the line almost 30 times, his FG% was crap), but his shot was off all night (horribly bad). He gets awarded an A for nailing the game winner Rafer: B | Yea, he played like crap in the end, but he wasn't the only reason we almost coughed it up. The whole team seemed to think it was over and everyone relaxed. Nonetheless, Rafer had a decent game despite the bad shooting. What really stood out for me was watching him in the open floor - that's where this guy excels. He ran the floor and dealt a nifty pass to Shane for a layup on one fast break, and tossed it back to T-Mac for a monster slam on another. Once Adelman's offense really sets in with the team, I think Skip could be invaluable. Mike James: B | Great spark off the bench - sorely missed last year. His treys in the first half kept the Rockets in the game. Pounded the ball too much a couple times though, instead of passing it, thus the B. If we could just combine him & Rafer, we'd have the perfect point guard. Bonzi: A | He came to play. He played well. He gives us a low-post threat off the bench, and even some outside shooting. Definitely someone we can go to for a basket when Yao & T-Mac are on the bench. No complaints about Bonzi, just glad he's finally ready to play. Hayes, Scola, Head, Deke: incomplete | Hayes played 26 min, but I honestly barely noticed when he was on the floor. Not that he played bad, I was probably just focused on everything else. Scola got the rookie whistle, so he didn't really play much. Luther got a couple shots up in very limited minutes with no success, but managed a couple assists. Hopefully he'll be able to provide some "instant offense" without requiring too much PT, cuz otherwise he may fall out of the rotation - which is too bad, cuz I like the guy. Deke played even less than head, and was just too slow for the Laker bigs.
One thing I have against Tmac: ATTACK!!! and he needs to be more "determined" in the 4th quarter, especially in tight games like these. I know he's a very unselfish player, but at some point he needs to take on that responsibility. Thats the ONLY thing that separates Kobe from Tmac. Here's what I think: Tmac needs to get PUBLICLY criticized for not taking the big shots, and even if he misses it, he needs to get reminded about it, because thats the only way he can learn from it. I've never seen anyone criticize him for not taking the game over. Heck, even Kobe got berrated constantly when he airballed during the playoffs. But he learned from that and became a much better player from that experience.
Not a good start, even though we won. Considering all the Laker's problems including Odom out, this should have been a much easier win. Rafer showed once again that he is not the PG of a championship caliber team. I'd grade him out at a D. Yao is just excellent when in the low post...but the high post variation is being overused by the Coach. I give Yao an A but am concerned about the overuse of him at high post. T-mac gets an A- in my book. The others were pretty much at "C" level. Scola just needs playing time and he will become a significant contributor. Rafer is not the PG of an NBA championship caliber team and never will be, but I already said that.
Yao A-: looks a lot lighter on his foot this year. He is actually the least of my worries. Scola n/a: Was basically reffed out of the game. Some of the fouls called on him was absolutely atrocious. Mutumbo B: Usual Deke Hayes B-: Was very active, but not much of a factor in the game. Battier B+ (B-): Wasn't himself. Would of been a B- if not for his last 2 plays. T-mac B: Got his scoring touch back towards the end, but had some silly fouls and it was sad seeing Luke Walton taking him to school. Alston C: I guess old habits don't change, although he did make a clutch 3 towards the end. Terrible pass to Yao for the T/O. I wouldn't blame him for the T/O when he was trapped in the corner, because he was basically setup for that. He did make it up at the end by swatting the ball away from Kobe. James B: Was a good spark off the bench... except for those missed fts and over dribbling. Bonzi B: After shaking off early jitters, was very effective in the lineup. Head C: Didn't really notice that he was playing. Francis F: For attitute... although he should of played ahead of alston. Overall C: The performance was as expected, since this was our first real game in the system. It can only get better from here, although don't be surprised if we lose to the Jazz tomorrow. Our bench is definitely a huge upgrade over last year. I am also very pleased to see how supportive the guys are of each other (Francis being the exception). Thank god basketball season is back, although I'm going to lose a few years of my life if they keep playing like that.
The fouls are not as silly as a hater like you. You did have one non-negative comment about Yao in that post. That must be a first for you. I guess you had not choice but to do that because Yao did play a good game. So you needed to do that in order to make your post less dumb. I am curious what you will say after Yao's first bad game. We will see.
Yao A+ (murder down low) Tmac B+ (effective in 2nd and 3rd Qtr) disappears at crunch time and doesn't get to the bucket during crunch time. The boy did hit his FT Battier A - The shot plus his D. Kobe had a tough 45 if you can call it that Hayes C - Dude get's a check for playing D and rebounding below the rim Rafer D - He is exactly what he his a playground legend from NY with no jumper. I at least thought he could finish. Stop with the floater Scola C - Hurry up and get adjusted, you're too smart for all of the fouling. Just focus on scoring James B+ - Bobby Jackson reincarnated, I hope he knows when to stop shooting. Big lift off the bench when we're struggling Bonzi A - Play D, Rebounded and Scored, I can't ask for more Luther D - He must be the nicest dude on the team and kills in practice. Turn on the lights for real games and his D and rebounding are horrible. He didn't even score last night. Can't play him with MJ. Deke C - Just give Yao a break and keep the score close Kirt A++ - Looked excellent as a cheerleader and looked as if he enjoyed it. Steve F+ - Looked fat, dumb, and unhappy lying on the floor. Did he join the huddle at all. It's not RA fault that you lived at Frenchy's since you were bought out by Portland.
Yao (A+++) Didn't think he can adjust to Adelman's offense so quickly and scored 25 points. Tmac (A) Unstoppable in the 2nd half. Dished to Battier for the win which made up for the terrible 1st half showing. Battier (A) Shot the game winner and have to guard Kobe the whole game how can you not give him an A... Haynes (B) Did what he was suppose to do. Rebounds, defense and got 2 easy buckets. Rafer (B-) Played well 7 rebs 8 ast, but shot the ball poorly. James (A) Kept us in the game with his 3 points shooting in the 1st half when we desperately needed some points. Bonzi (B+) Didn't have a great game but didn't play bad either. Scola (C) Still need more time to adjust. Rockets: B+ We won the first game under a new coach and a brand new system. I am not too worry about what happened in the last 2 mins... it was just some mental mistakes, it's good that we learned a valuable lesson so early in the season and still came out with a W.
Nobody sets example to Yao. Yao will have his legendary career follows which Divac can never imagine.
