Blazers have 33 freethrows, Lakers have 8. The lost of Gasol really exposed them. I can't help but say Kobe is looking more and more overrated. Gasol is the true MVP of the Lakers. I won't be surprised if the freethrow discrepancy is due to the lack of inside threat. Kobe is known to shoot a lot of contested jumpshots, and without Gasol there is no paint presence to free him up.
:grin: Man, you could see how bad the Lakers wanted this win. I haven't seen them try so hard all season. The effort they put in against us didn't appear anywhere close. I think they really wanted this monkey off their collective back. I watched most of the final quarter but just flipped to the game a few times before that. In that span, I've seen the following players all look more frustrated than I've seen all season: Artest, Kobe, Odom, Bynum, Brown, even Coach Jackson I'm sure there were others, too. Kobe: 37 shots to get 32 points Roy: 11 shots to get 32 points Enough said.
There we go. They softened up to their usual form on the very next possession. The Suns are a glorified version of the Warriors. Neither team plays championship-caliber basketball.
When Bayless plays well, the Blazers have two slashers that are impossible to stop and they can draw a lot of fouls. Another reason I'm surprised the Blazers won is because Aldridge's ankle is nowhere close to being well. He was a liability much of the time tonight. It cracked me up when Mike Rice called JH "Old Man River" when one of his jumpers was in the air.
On a side note, Kerr got a lot of flack for that failed Shaq experiment but I think he had the right idea. As exciting as the Suns are to watch, they aren't going to win a championship with their style of play. I'm not sure you blame Kerr for trying something different when the reality is that he realized they would never win running and gunning and not defending along with lacking a true big. Once the Shaq move proved a failure, he probably figured they might as well play to their strengths and entertain the fans until Nash retires ringless and Stoudemire ends up elsewhere. I imagine Kerr will take a totally different approach to building the Suns once the Nash/Amare era is officially over.
Is that a joke? I'm guessing not since you asked who was better between Roy and Kobe. Monta is better. A lot better.
Tyreke is trying to do too much on offense. Pretty much put the nail in the coffin for them in the last minute.
