The thing that stuck out to me about the game last night was the fact that Van Gundy went away from the team defense in the first quarter and let Yao defend Shaq one on one. Shaq ate his lunch and then finally later in the 2nd quarter, Van Gundy switched Cato over as the primary defender and had Yao playing off Malone to help double on Shaq when he got the ball. Why didn't he play the whole game this way? Why did he let Shaq get rolling that first quarter? Does anybody know?
Why would you start the game with a Shaq double team leaving 3 other future HOF'ers open to beat you? Unless you have a crystal ball knowing that Malone and Kobe are going to have poor shootings games you play it staight up and stop whoever is hot.
17 seconds left in the game WHY WEATHERSPOON? I would have thought CATO for rebounding PADGET for outside shooting . . . WHY WEATHERSPOON? When YAO WENT OUT . . . . WHY WEATHERSPOON? Rocket River
Because.... * We didn't need a three. * Shaq wasn't going out to the three point line even with Padgett in. * Weatherspoon sets a better pick than Padgett. * Spoon shoots over 50% and has range out to 18 feet. If you have a tape of the game, you will see Shaq came out to guard Spoon on the perimeter all game long. * In case of a missed shot, Spoon is a stronger offensive rebounder and better finisher against Shaq and Malone. I've got more if you need them.
spoon was also smart enough to call timout with 11 secs left after realizing that the lakers played good d on that initial play, he had no good angle to pass to francis and it would have just resulted in a broken down play. in the end we got a great shot that just didnt go in, all in all i was happy with the way spoon played and glad he was in there
Besides the perefectly valid reason GATER already mentioned...I would also add that possibly VG wanted to see if Yao was gonna be able to handle him...he has done a decent job on Shaq when on top of his game....once he realized Yao didnt have it...he went to plan B.
Because that is the defense that worked best all season against Shaq. Which would you rather have, Shaq 1 on 1 with Yao with the ball in his hands 4 feet from the bucket, or Malone shooting an 18 footer? I'll take Malone every time, especially at this stage of his career. Whoever was hot was obviously Shaq. It was obvious after 2 possessions that he couldn't be contained without help. Van Gundy should've switched off to Cato early in the first quarter if not start the game with him on Shaq. Just my stupid opinion. Yao is not ready to defend Shaq without help...............especially in the playoffs where Shaq gets so many calls.
I'm not going to 2nd guess, but i wanted Taylor,Jackson,Pike,Mobley and Francis, get Shaq in a pnr and Taylor if given the ball co go by shaq or shoot the open mid range.They got a good look , so can't complain about that.
I'm surprised by the lack of back cuts and the usual Francis to Cato alley oops weren't called more often last game. The whole regular season the Francis/Cato alleyoops gave us anywhere from 4 to 8 points a game just running that play. And with a hobbled Karl Malone I'm surprised it wasn't called even more. As far as the back cuts, I distinctly remember Mobley eating up the Lakers with his back cuts to the lane and getting lay up after lay up. Although I could see the Lakers adjusting to defending that a lot more easily than the Cato alley oops that I feel weren't called enough. That one play seriously tore the Lakers a new butt hole the whole regular season.
I don’t think the defensive coaching strategy was a problem at all. We held the Lakers to 72 points.
the main problem was jvg had no confident in yao. yao had very few opportunities in the post. when he did get it, he didn't have the space to operate.
If it "worked" all season, why were we 2-2? It "worked" when Malone or Payton or Kobe or Fox or Fisher were injured. None of them are now. It's just bad coaching to start with doubling Shaq and allowing any other Laker to get off quickly. It wasn't obvious after two possessions because Cato blocked Shaq from the weakside and then Malone to start the game. And because Malone is a good passer, he creates just as many problem when his shot isn't falling. The Lakers are one of the few NBA teams which run a triangle offense and everyone of them can pass. I'm not saying you don't double Shaq, I'm saying you just don't start the game that way. That strategy plays right into the strength of the triangle which by design has excellent floor spacing.
Agree completley. I would let Shaq get his but don't give Kobe a chance to get hot or for that matter anyone else in the lineup. We just gave open looks to so many players in game 1.
Then why did we go for the three? The idea is that Padge is good out to three pt land Padge is taller That Alley oop to Cato LB mentioned too would have been nice We got a nice look . . .a Good Shot so I ain't too bothered but . . . I thought it was an odd call we had NO LENGTH in the line up Rocket River
First, we didn't go for a three as the first option. Secondly, "length" is not synonomous with offensive rebounding (See "Barkley, Charles" in the NBA dictionary). Francis in a PnR was the first option. We ran it with Taylor and Francis but Malone switched off on Francis as Francis drove to the basket. Not only did Malone switch off but Shaq rotated off of Spoon who was low post weakside. Francis had enough problems eluding the Shaq and Malone double to get Jackson the ball in the corner but he sure wasn't going to get the ball back out to the front of the arc through Malone and O'Neal. (You did notice Francis falling out of bounds just to complete the pass to Jackson?). As stated, Jackson was not the first option and the only reason he was open is because Kobe rotated over to cover Spoon in the low post. Had we had another player at the arc Kobe would not have left Jackson wide open and Francis would have been forced into one of his athletic shots over both Malone and Shaq. The thing that I noticed was that Spoon had inside position on Kobe but Steve couldn't get the pass around Shaq. Padgett had played a grand total of 5 minutes in the game and had not taken a shot. If Francis would have passed up a 10 foot shot to pass it back to Padgett for his first shot of the game, the FOF would have been livid.
