Correct me if I am wrong. I think the 3 point play by karla is the real dagger. On that play, yao leaves karla open to double shaq. And it is too late to come over to cover karla. Why double shaq in the last minute when we are up 4. Hack-a-shaq is the best way to do. Just put him to the free throw line. And a hot player like karla should not be left open. How do you guys think?
Good point, I agree. Seeing how badly Shaq is shooting, they should employ the Don Nelson strategy and foul him every time.
That, and not doubling Kobe for that final play, even though we'd done it all game. Way too slow on that defensive play.
As bad as that may have been, it isn't nearly as horrible a job as Phil Jackson has been doing in LA, and well, for the most part of his career....just had the talent overshadow anything he does wrong. As much I dislike Balki(Gundy for you non-Rome listeners), switch the position of the two coaches and the Lakers win each game by 17+ every game EASY.
I don't know about that The Issue I have is . .. you are tied with 27 seconds to go YOU HAVE A INEXPERIENCED PLAYOFF TEAM TAKE THE D*MN TIME OUT!!!!!! what the hell are you saving it for?????? QUESTION: If a 24 second Violation goes off . . . . doesn't the clock go until the ball hits something? Rocket RIver
You've watched how much basketball and don't know the game clock stops when the shot clock expires? And you want to question Van Gundy's time out calls?
The one coaching question I have from the game is before Steve's last shot which was an airball, why didn't the team take a timeout? I suppose JVG didn't want the Lakers to set up their defense but with the Rockets being an inexperienced playoff team I really would have loved to see the team take a time out to set up a good play for the last shot. Basically all we got was Francis jacking up a shot with no play at all in mind. It worked before, true, but I personally would rather a play be run than just jacking up a shot.
I noticed what wen the shot is off at 23 seconds. . . and the ball is in the air . . . the clocks runs until it hits the rim . . and never stops. And when it missed the basket. . . then it stops. . . they don't normally reset it .. . . . . . . So yea. . . I've watched a game or two in my day Rocket River
I'm not going to make judgements on Phil Jackson's very succesful career, but you are correct to say that Phil Jackson has done a lousy job of coaching in this series. He has mismatches galore and for whatever reason, can't or won't get his team to take advantage of them. Kobe is a mismatch for Mobley or Francis in the post. Why not exploit that? Shaq has gone almost entire quarters in this series without getting a touch in the post. How exactly can you justify that? Yao has done a great job defensively on Shaq making Shaq work extremely hard to get good post position, something Shaq gets at will against most opposing centers, but Shaq is still to powerful for Yao and should not be ignored. Malone's a good outside shot, but given the choice between a Shaq 5-footer or closer and a Malone 17-footer, I'm going with the Shaq 5-footer because so many good things can happen in addition to getting the bucket. Finally, I think Derek Fisher is the only player on the Lakers that has been playing aggressive every minute on the floor on both ends of the court this series and really for the better part of the second half of the season. Gary Payton has been the exact opposite and star or not, should be coming off the bench to releive Fisher, not the other way around. The obvious counterargument is that the Lakers are up 3-1 playing the way they've played. Well, I'd say they're lucky to be up 3-1. Games 1 and 4 could have gone either way when you look at the Kobe air ball that fell into Shaq's hands and Taylor's lay-up that rolled a full 360 around the rim before coming out in the final minute of game 1 (by the way Mo T, where the hell have you been this series? Offense is all you offer and you haven't even offered that this series) and the fact that the Rockets lead by 4 late in OT yesterday before blowing it.
