dang we seriously need to start bundling up these threads with the hundreds of other threads about this issue.
Weird to see people on Gasol's jock. All you have to do to shut him down is tell him it's a playoff game. I also think Scola/Landry more than hold their own against anyone the Lakers put at PF. I'm not saying they win the matchup but it will be closer than most think. Gasol is so overrated it's funny. I just like the Rockets lineup better. Kobe is better than Tmac but Yao is better than Bynum by at least the same margin. Regarding PG, Derek Fisher hasn't been good in a long time and Farmar can't put together a good game more than once a month. I'll take Rafer over Fisher all day long and depending on what Brooks does he could very well turn out better than Farmar this season. Kobe is the X factor. He has to be brilliant AND efficient for the Lakers to beat the Rockets. Fortunately, when you have a roster full of guys to guard him including two of the best defenders in the game you can be sure in a 7 game series he is going to be worn down to the point where he will have at least two horrible games.
In situations like these, it comes to bball IQ. Is Kobe gonna jack up 11-33 shots and call it off as a bad shooting night again? Obviously, our 22nd winning streak was mainly thanks to Battier shutting Kobe down, but if Kobe continues with that kind of attitude, its a big NO factor for the Lakers. I can kinda imagine Phil yelling at Kobe "PASS THAT DAMN BALL". McGrady statistical is one of the best playoff performer, in fact a better performer than Kobe (no denying this, nor am I being a Homer). He has been doing this by himself for a few years, and only twice with another all-star in Yao beside him. With the addition of Artest, and terrific finishers, his game is bound to go easier. What I really want to see is whether McGrady is going to play hard and go up against Kobe in playoffs, or play smart and pass the ball more (which led to our 22nd win streak). As long as McGrady doesn't constantly jack up 10 shots and only hitting 2, then we have the advantage there. As of now, Kobe > Mcgrady in regular season no question, but statistically, McGrady > Kobe in playoffs.
Kobe does take a lot of shots but his teammates expect him to do just that. Even during the playoffs this past year the only player who had that shoot first attitude was Vujacic. Also Pau shies away from physical contact. Whenever he plays against a bigger center he always has terrible games. I think Tmac feels comfortable with his teammates this year and I think he will have amazing assist numbers this year. With Barry and Battier we have a very good outside touch. With Artest, Scola, Landry, and Yao down low we can do some damage. We match up with the Lakers physically equally if not better.
no idea, as a rox fan, i think the advantage goes to rox. Reason being that rox starting 5 is just a bad match up for anyone. Dominant Center, Crafty PF, 2-way SF, Playmaking SG and errrr i cant think of anything good for rafer...... Yao still dominate any team that does not double him or front him. Scolandry is as good of a 1-2 punch as any. Artest/ battier with their 3p shooting and defense ability Tmac capable of going hot anytime. Rox weakest position is also lakers weakest position.
Are you serious? The last time two times Tracy played against the Lakers at the Staples Center, he had 30 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists, and 30 points, 10 assists, and 5 rebounds. As for the rest of the subject, Lakers will be tough to beat, but I think just like the Celtics, if we play hard-nosed defense, and keep a fluid offense running, we can win.
The blueprint to beating the Lakers lies within Yao's hands. Seriously, we put much onus on Yao and have unbelievably high expectations from him every year but if he dominates puts up his 25/12/2 (scores clutch/timely buckets ala Hakeem and keeps Gasol/Bynum in check) we should be able to dispose of the Lakers.
yao has typically always dominated the lakers. the lakers don't really double yao, and when yao isn't doubled (especially with the addition of artest) he'll have little trouble scoring. this year will be no different.
i think that's true. phil, for some reason, never double yao ming. hell, he put kwame brown 1-on-1 with him last yr in the opener and just left him on an island despite yao doing very well. i imagine him doing the same thing with bynum.
how can you compare t-mac to kobe in this way. t-mac makes more contributions to our team than kobe would were he in rockets.
It's obvious our pg position is the biggest disadvantage we hold, but we have a large advantage over them at 2/3. Kobe is a great 2/3 but his effects will be minimumed when he faces the rockets, because we have two great defenders who will twist him round and round again. Kobe will feel toughness throughout the forty-eight minutes so that he'll have to dedicate his defense to retain some more energy for offense, and tmac will have more chance to regain the feel of being a scoring machine. We don't have any advantage over lakers in the paint and nor do them, I mean, we'll possibly tie with them in the paint. our paint rosters are more athletic while theirs have advantages in size.
It seemed our team is better than the lakers on paper power. But it is still too optimistic when the lakers had played the finals without Bynum last season and we still can not pass the first round these years.
Another strange thing about Yao vs. The Lakers is that he has more times than not always been good to great against them, even when they had the big bad Aristotle in his prime standing in the middle. The only way stop him is if they play small ball, have Lord Sternius watching out for them vis the REFs, or somebody puts a dirty chopblock him.
Brooks seems have improved quite a bit, but he is not better than Farmar. Farmar has played quality minutes in the Finals, while Brooks hasn't played any quality minutes in regular season.
Wait till the season begins and then we'll see. On PAPER the Lakers looked much better than the Cavs but yet the Cavs gave the Celts their biggest test throughout the playoffs. For the most part, defense wins championships. The Lakers couldn't handle the Celts D. I think our D will be a little better than theirs with the addition of Ron.
The lakers are good but we should worry about the matchup with them but I think we can beat them in 7. I am more worried about the "dirty" teams and some of those that has the refs behind them. I would consider Jazz, SAS and Dallas as those "dirty" teams.
Doesn't this work against all the Rockets too? Is Barry the only player to have ever done anything in the playoffs?
