scola has always been an average defender especially when he has to guard bynum whos a good 4-5 inches taller than him. we were getting destroyed on the boards because of our lack of size.
Much like shane, he really depends on the attention yao gets to get open shots on offense. On defense, just like it has been said before, he's small. If he wants to be better, he needs to get stronger and learn to contest shots like shane. The only difference is when a big guy like gasol know u can't affect his shots, its really a uncontested shot from 8-10 ft vs 20 ft.
i'm not even kidding, bu last night in this massacre...it looked like Scola was throwing the game. everytime he touched the ball, something real bad happened...this happened alot during a certain time span of the game. It really seemed like he wanted us to lose. It was weird.
None of the Rockets played well last night. It was painful to watch turn-over after turn-over and so many missed shots. It did occur to me at one point to wonder if the team had been threatened by the underworld - ie lose or else.
without Yao, Scola has to band with bigger, taller, stronger guys all game long on offensive end. He was tired. Pau Gasol was tired in game 3 after banging with Yao for 2 games, missed shots he normally make, and let Yao got good position and rebounds much more often than in game 2. Now he can be relaxed on defense.
I don't think 20 points per game on 49% shooting can be called non-factor. Roy and LMA were the only Blazers made some noise on offense. Scola played very well in 1st round, neutralized LMA to certain degree.
Nothing is wrong with Scola, he is very very good, and overachieved this year, plus that our media overhyped him bit too, including our GM. I can still recall Matt Bullard comment on the sport radio 610 that he said Scola is the MVP of the team, also could the best player on the offensive end, he should be the first option on the post, because he can do many things. So if you follow that, then you become bit of disppiont.
Nothing wrong, he is just what he used to be, a 0.1 block/game big man, rank 74 in all NBA PFs and SFs.
Maybe because they are not good shots, because our offense blows, and Aaron Brooks refuses to be consistently aggressive...
I think it is his confidence, however, the lack of hustle in last nights game was disappointing. We've seen him fight harder than last night. No disrepect to the foreign contingent of NBa players, however, they are fairly horrible on D. Dirk, Scola, Rudy F., Gasol, cats play D slow or no D at all.
Exactly. I think it is all about confidence. Look, Scola is normally a phenomenal rebounder who is gonna give you 10 rebs nigh in and night out. He can't do it against LA. Without Yao he is having a really difficult job. He has to either guard and try to box out Andew Bynum who is MUCH bigger and more athletic than he is, or he has to guard a skilled 7-footer (Gasol). Those are difficult matchups for him. That leads to lack of confidence and frustration which leads to easy turnovers (still, you just can't loose the ball like he does) and missing those wide open jumpshots. Scola is playing really poorly and remember, we need everybody to step up. Right now the only two guys who have acomplished SOMETHING in this series are Aaron Brooks and Shane Battier. They deserve credit.
Scola could never guard any 7 footers in the Euroleague either. He can't be expected to guard guys well in the post that are 3 inches taller and have a 5-6 inch reach advantage.
He has been struggling a lot throughout the series, but without Yao. The defense actually values what he does on the low-post. All said and done, Scola's easiest points came from Yao. Although Scola is highly underrated, the Lakers are currently treating him like he's an all-star caliber player. Our high-low post game is quite dominant. When healthy.
You know what happens to good role players as their team gets worse around them? They struggle, as does the entire team. Is anyone really surprised by that? Scola is fine...just fine. DD
