I think part of the reasons signing Bobby Jackson was to handle strong PGs like Deron and Baron. Boozer has taken the advantage of being guarded by Yao in our last playoff series. Chuck Hayes had given him some hard time in the early playoff games IIRC. Pau or Bynum is not scary I agree. But it's very likely that we will play against Pau AND Bynum. It will be something we can hardly handle with Yao.
all this talk of kobe gasol and bynum , don't forget about odom numbers in march 15.4ppg 12.7rbs 4.2ast 1.7 blk 55%fg we have no one that can defend him. I definitely don't want to face the lakers
I'm not worried about Odom provided that McGrady turns up his defense for the playoffs. If he decides to play solid defense on Odom then Odom is done. We know if Odom isn't getting his touches he sort of disappears and becomes a non-factor. If McGrady isn't playing his rear off on defense then he is a bum and doesn't deserve to get out of the first round. Gasol is who scares me. I think Bynum is an old school, throw back C who likes to play big and play near the basket. He is the perfect C for Deke to guard. Gasol is the X factor. On one hand, I believe that Scola will come close to equaling Pau's production but then I think playing off Kobe (and Kobe KNOWS to get his big men going) might allow the guy to be dominant. Of course we might throw this all out the window if Kobe goes off and averages 42PPG on 55% shooting for the series.
I still see the Suns winning their division and the Rockets catching the Lakers. with the tiebreaker, we should be 5th seed against Utah and the Suns and Lakers will have another first round showdown...
Rox and fakers series will solely depends on how well gasol and bryum can gel. If there will be one team that will change chemistry wise in the playoffs, it will be the lakers. Lakers in the first round will no doubt be their weakest of all (assuming that they go all the way to Finals.) Why? Gasol back from few weeks not playing BB, Bryum will be back after couple of months inactive. That team will be so out of cing, that AD would be the ideal coach to take advantage of it. We matching with Utah is another one that we could win. all we have to do is sending guard on deron. scola on boozer should be a wash as scola is a better defender. scola may have trouble scoring but defending boozer should be ok. hayes on okur or landry on okur would be fine. AF will be the unknown factor on how well he can shut tracy down.
Elton Brand will play for the Clippers vs. Houston on Sunday night. the final stretch isnt as easy as we thought...
I think laker will win the series but not easily. Other teams might blow rox away with 4:0 or 4:1. If you think laker is easy, you are just still dreaming under the influence of 22 streak. Maybe coach want to keep rox low to find better matchups, but that's too cool to be true.
Sorry, whatever you said about Odom can be applied to Gasol as well. We have Scola and Landry to play Gasol tough and he will disappear too. Dont believe it, please refer to Gasol's playoffs resume! The only worry about lakers is kobe. Battier cant stop Kobe and it all depends on what degrees are Battier able to slow Kobe down. Then again, against Kobe, you wont know which kobe will show up. A ballhogging kobe(like the last game against the rockets) will be easy to defend as he himself will shut down his own teammates and goes one against five. A passing only kobe(who show up against Suns 2 playoffs series ago) who cant handle critics and decide not to shoot the ball but to pass it only. Or the scariest Kobe, the team oriented kobe who play within the system, who is impossible to stop. Overall, I like our chances against lakers than the Jazz! Because Lakers cant play D and Bynum and Gasol will not work because both need the posts to be effective!
That's some wishful thinking there. You expect us to shut down both Odom AND Gasol? Meanwhile, hoping Battier contains Kobe? Please.... That's a lot of wishful and hopeful thinking. Our best bet is to play the Jazz like I said. Let T-mac prove it finally once and for all that he can indeed get out of the first round and avenge his loss from last year. Who better to do it with then against the team that made him cry. I know not having Yao hurts but I think he has enough help this year to get us past the Jazz at least. Our key additions of Scola, Landry and B-jax should be enough. Last year Rafer was our only pg and he averaged around 45mpg and our 2 pfs were Hayes and Howard. Everything the Jazz killed used to kill us last year such as playing Rafer too much, 2nd chance points, getting killed at PF, lack of rebounding, Derek Fisher's intangibles those things are either gone for the Jazz or we have the perfect remedy for. Bring on the Jazz Holes!
We are going to have a tough time against anybody team in the playoffs. In that sense, we shouldn't be "bringing on" anybody. If we catch some key breaks, we have a small chance to get out of the first round.
