I'm really sorry if this has been done (I couldn't see it anywhere - but that could be my old eyes) I was just scrolling through the regular season matchups again and noticed that perhaps it's not as lopsided as many people suggested. The first matchup we got completely annihilated 111-82. Third game of a road trip, we were starting the season slowly and McGrady/ Alston played. This was McGrady's only regular season game against the Lakers. Second game was close - 105-100, and we collapsed in the 4th to hand them victory. We were without Artest, and still had Alston at the point. So effectively Ming was the focal point of the offense. Third game again close, 102-96, again we collapsed in the 4th to hand them victory. We had our current lineup in action Fourth game 93-81 - Again we collapsed in the 4th to hand them victory. We played without Landry in this one. So what am I trying to draw from this? Well, the 4-0 might flatter the Lakers somewhat considering that in 3 of the games we fell flat on our faces and couldn't execute in the 4th; and in 2 of those games we were missing a significant rotation player. Again, the sample size for our current lineup is only the last 2 games, one of which we were missing our 3rd "big". And the first of which we had only recently shuffled Brooks into the starting position. 4th quarter execution is about trust and consistency, and we're seeing our lineup starting to gel and finish games off - this supposed favourable matchup for the Lakers might have been a bit of fools gold!
A lot of it had to do with the fact that in the regular season, Artest was always guarding Kobe, IIRC. Artest is a good defender (not as great as he used to be, but good), but he cannot check Kobe. It's not even just how good Kobe is, he's just a bad matchup for Artest. Artest's defense is more well suited for someone like Lebron I think. It didn't help us that Yao didn't play very well against the Lakers this season, which he has in years past I think. (And which he definitely did in game 1)
Err... well obviously Artest wasn't guarding him in that second game, but I'm pretty sure he was in the last two.
We collapsed because Lakers played tighter defense in 4th quarter and Kobe stepped up. Those TOs caused by Lakers' long arms in passing lane were just too much. Take care of the ball is the most important things against Lakers, I think.
of note: odom did not play in the 2nd game in houston and i think bynum did not play in any of the games except the first one in houston. basically monday night was the first time both teams played each other with a "healthy" squad
Yeah ok - so that's interesting. I'm not sure if Bynum really helps them tremendously when matched up against Yao. Bynum is a good player, but he can't guard Yao 1 on 1 and clogs the lane offensively, allowing Yao to sit near the hoop. If it's true that Odom is starting in his place it'll be interesting to see how things progress.
