I guess yall don't remember last time we played La. I also guess yall didn't see him vs boston either. He's like landry except their team is so talented, he can't get on the floor. If you give him landry's minutes, you would see the same production.
I know I'll get flamed by some for saying this, but I like the idea of not trying to force it to Yao all the time in clutch time. I think it's pretty obvious Adelman is trying to do that. I'm not saying we have the personnel for that to be extremely effective and I don't think Adelman is going in that direction because he doesn't trust Yao, but I think Adelman wants to be less predictable. He figures every opponent knows we try to lean on Yao down the stretch so he wants our perimeter players to not only gain more confidence but to learn how to be effective without relying so much on Yao. I think that will benefit the team and Yao eventually.
Shaud, don't argue with tinman. You'll just ridiculous 90s rap references somehow infused with Vernon Maxwell with just a hint of Clutch ass-kissing thrown in for good measure. Brooksball - I agree with you, forcing it to Yao in the clutch is stupid. He's so slow, everybody knows what he's going to do and its fairly easy to prevent it.
Exactly. And considering we lost by only a handful of points, and Kobe had to play down to the wire, it should be pretty obvious that we could have easily (yes, easily) won that game by making a few better decisions at both ends of the court.
yep, it looked like the Lakers were just sitting there waiting for it, I'll give that one to Phil Jackson
I hear you, tinman, but the Rockets are a Top 10 3-point shooting team. We are not a 5/28 kind of team. And that was just one of several things we could have done just slightly better to win the game. Even going 5/28 or whatever if we do just one of SEVERAL other things slightly better, we win last night. I'm not saying every time we play the Lakers it will be us giving the game away versus them earning it by outplaying us but last night, we beat ourselves. We handed the game to them by being dummies, collectively. We may not be the highest IQ team in the league but we are smarter than what we showed last night.
I guess you didnt realize Ron was shooting 43% from the 3pt line for the season. Also one thing Ive noticed is Ron rarely 'jacks up' 3's. Hes usually shooting wide open ones. And I have no idea how you see Wafer as a me first player. He just makes bad decisions. He has the athleticism to blow by anyone but needs to realize that defenses do tend to rotate. Your statement is pretty contradictory too. Wafer just needs to increase his bball IQ, which is what will happen as he gets more and more playing time.
Artest should have kept his mouth shut and let Kobe choke the game away with horrible shots. Man I hope Artest is just getting all this crap out of the way before the playoffs, the Bulls game and this one...I hope he's just getting it out the way.
Nothing was wrong with what Ron did. Trash talking is normal. This reminds of the Maxwell vs Jordan trash talking, except that Max didn't get lit up so bad at home. And that big fella for the Rockets did some damage to Phil Jackson's team. Despite all the trash talking, Max still stuck to the team game. The worst Jordan ever dropped on Max in Houston was 32. but we won that game by 22. http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/199101030HOU.html
This lost wasn't so bad. It's better than losing to the Bucks. It's just a reality check, we need to fix some things as a team and we'll be ok.
His stats are only down this year because he didn't play much for most of the first half of the season. Since Bynum went down, I believe anyone with half a brain can see Odom's stats have been on the rise. He's been rebounding at a pace that's a career high. I'm not sure which Odom you've been watching, but it isn't the Laker. Jackson has played Ariza consistently all year, substituting him in as a primary sub off the bench for a number of starters (mostly 2's and 3's). As for Walton, he's been injured as well and only recently has gotten any significant playing time. Fact is, right when he came back from injury, he was inserted into the starting lineup (which made Radmanovic trade bait). Since starting for a couple weeks, his current playing time is much less than what "they wanted" from him. Odom is playing the 4 spot, Gasol has shifted over to 5. Ariza and Walton are playing the 3 (and sometimes 2 when Kobe sits). Neither of these guys substitute for Odom. Powell and Mbenga are the ones Jackson puts in for Odom. Thus, I'm not sure what you're talking about here. NBA League Pass is a great way to keep informed. It will be interesting to see how Odom is used when Bynum comes back. You simply have to reward his rebounding and tough play with more playing time. He can play the 3 as well. I'd expect the starting Lakers playoff squad to look like this... C - Bynum PF - Gasol SF - Odom SG - Bryant PG - Fisher That's a hell of a lineup. Woe is to the west.
