http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v348/wangster888/bloodybattier3.png There's Kobe (in the pic) kneeing out the eye of Battier with a Power Band. No worries. Artest gave Kobe a taste of his right knuckles and fingers to his eyes in return. Pow! Take this back to the showers while you stew about the lost from the rising Rockets'. If you thought that hurt, the Celtics also did a number on the Fakers last night, even with Kobe's 41-point output. Shows to go ya, not one superstar can beat a team of five.
LOS ANGELES LAKERS SCOUTING REPORT by W22_STREAK The Lakers are 2nd in the West with a record of 33-15, 7.5 games behind first place San Antonio. They are 18-7 at home and 15-8 on the road although one of their road losses came at the Staple Center against the Clippers. LA is the #1 offensive team and ranks 8th in defense, and ranks 4th in differential behind Miami, San Antonio, and Boston. LA had a 2 game losing streaks against Sacramento and Boston, and also Denver and Phoenix. And then a 4 game losing streak against Utah, Indiana, Memphis and Houston, all by December 1st. And, they had another loss against Chicago, but most of the losses occurred while Andrew Bynum was still recovering from off season surgery. The Lakers have had far less losses on Bynum's return. They had losses to Milwaukee, Miami, San Antonio, and Memphis where they failed to score more than 85 ppg. They’re most recent losses came against the Kings and the Celtics where they scored 96 and 95 points respectively. In their first game against the Rockets back on Opening Night, the Rockets had 20 turnovers and won both the offensive and defensive rebounding battles. Funnily enough Houston actually had 5 less FG opportunities, and we only shot 41% from the field we ended up with 2 less made field goals. Unfortunately, LA made 82% of their FT’s and 43% of their threes, to win 112-110. LA was led by Gasol, Odom and Bryant while the Rockets were lead by Martin and Scola. It was the Lakers guards (Bryant, Fisher, Brown) who really hurt us going 15-19 in the paint. Their starting frontcourt of Artest, Odom, and Gasol went 18-33 which didn’t actually help either. [actually 45 points came in the paint alone]. But, it seems pretty obvious that we have little or no interior help to go along with our lack of exterior defense. Also, there was very little team play from the Rockets Bryant lead the Lakers with 27, with 5 other players scoring in double figures. Gasol had 29(!!!) Three of the Laker’s losses came in games of 92-94 possessions and the other three came in games of 86-88 possessions. The Lakers have played only two games since Bynum’s return of 100 or more possessions and they won both. So, in game with less than 100 possessions, the Lakers are 14-6. It would seem that the best chance for Houston to win is by not turning over the ball, control the pace of the game to below their average number of possessions, play the up-tempo game mostly on breakaways when there’s a decided advantage, and protect the paint. The Rockets have shown the ability to do the first 3 but protecting the paint seems to be a skill that eludes them. And, it’s not just the exterior defense of the guards. We’ve been susceptible to penetration from the SF position as well. Almost any type of screen or pick works to get the ball handler free, and there is seldom any type of rotation help in the paint to stop the ball unless Hayes is on the floor. The answer might seem to be to double the ball handers off the screens, but that would be Bryant and Gasol, and they know how to pass out of the double team. And the usual recipient of the pass and subsequent easy basket is Odom, which is not the 3 headed-monster that you can take advantage off. There really seems to be no good choices. If you cheat or double off of Odom, Artest, or Fisher, you’re leaving a 39% three point shooters open. If you try to double off of Bynum to defend Gasol, Pau will find Bynum for a posterizing dunk. And, if you don’t double Byrant well the number 40+ comes to mind. And, if you go zone, Phil is smart enough to break it or simply put more 3pt shooters out there. If at any time during the season we’d have shown that we could rotate off the double team, I’d say double Bryant the minute he gets the ball, but we haven’t. So, I guess I’d play Bryant man, and send help toward the top of the key to force him into the corner, or give up the ball to Fisher and make him beat us. I think we can play man down low with Hill on Gasol and Hayes on Bynum. I wish we had an answer for Odom and Artest, but they are too strong for Battier/Budinger, so maybe more T-Will at the 3 is in order. Not that they are likely to drive on us, but they’re both capable of cutting to the basket off the ball, and I don’t think we can slow them down. Wow, I don’t believe I spent that much time trying to find a way to stop the Lakers. The reality is that the Rockets need to keep them out of the paint and hope that they miss their outside jumpers. The main reason for watching this game is to see if our young guys can produce against one of the top 3 teams in the league. A win is a dream, and most but not all dreams rarely come true. GO ROCKETS!!!
I Love the ROX, but the ONLY way we win is if the Lakers sleepwalk through this game. Which is a possibility, but we can't consistently compete with a team with their blend of size, talent & experience. Morey has ALOT OF WORK TO DO!
yep yep...but the rockets are gritty!! determined!!! hungry!!! we have a young team so if we go uptempo we can win this game against the lakers!!!
Revenge of the Batpalm continues as Kobe goes for 80 points on 80 shots, losing in a blowout. After the game, Kobe walks in on shane, during a shower, asking shane to go to L.A with him. A week later, shane is dealt to L.a.
Phil's scared of us. Jackson said he did not go over the game tape from the Lakers' 109-96 loss to the Celtics on Sunday with his players, opting to focus his team's energy on its upcoming game against the Houston Rockets on Tuesday. "It's Houston right now that we're worried about," Jackson said. "Our practice [Monday] was about Houston. The last time we played Houston, we lost to them so we have something to do about the team coming up."
the Rockets aren't hungry this year. I want to believe that we are team of true grit and determination but unfortunately that was last year's squad. however the Lakers aren't playing well right now and this is a trap game for them... I think the Rockets have shown flashes of this grit you mention, but overall Adleman just hasn't been able to convince the team to leave it out on the floor every night...
I'm going to the game tonight @ Staples Center. I'll be wearing my Yao jersey and dreaming about what could have been.
Bynum is out tonight with a bone bruise in his knee. Also, AB is determined to get us this win: Thirty2zero Aaron Brooks Happy Black History Month! For those who have a job happy 1st & 15th! It's a short month so the next 1st comes quicker! Yay! Bunda713 Ricardo Banda @Thirty2zero Stop worrying about which month it is and get us some dam wins Thirty2zero Aaron Brooks In Cali trying to get a win in for bunda713 LOL.
It's stuff like that, that makes me want to get an account on twitter. hilarious.."for those who have a job"
Hey Clutch, What happened to the big grin emoticon waving the Rockets flag that used to be in the initial post at the beginning of the season?
