Lakers in a short series. I'll give Wolves a game simply due to homecourt. -Lakers right now are not the team we played in the first round. They caught fire and are going to enter this series playing as well as they have all year. -Sam being hobbled robs the Wolves of perhaps their best disadvantage to exploit. Payton was probably licking his chops after watching Cassell commit endless turnovers last night. -The Wolves might do reasonably well on defense against the Lakers, because of their zone. The big question is whether George, Fisher, and Bryant are still hot from the outside. If they are, the Wolves are toast. -The biggest concern for the Wolves should be offense. Spree won't be able to drive consistently if Bryant is on him, and like I said earlier, Sam doesn't look good at all and has no time to heal. Can KG carry over his new-found aggressiveness in the post? Cause the Wolves centers aren't going to pick up the slack. Evan
I’m really pulling for the Wolves and Pacers to win the next round. A Wolves/Pacers Finals would be the best matchup the finals have had in ten years (94: Rockets vs. Knicks). #1 seed in the West vs. #1 seed in the East Superstar power forward matchup: Garnett vs. O’Neal Battle of the hotheads: Sprewell vs. Artest Cluch/savy veteran guard matchup: Cassell vs. Miller Instant offense off the bench: Wally vs. Harrington Anyways, as far as the Lakers vs Wolves goes, I have a really bad feeling the Lakers are going to sweep.
All I gotta say is that the Lakers are much better defensively than the Kings, and Minny struggled with the Kings. They're obviously gonna double or triple Shaq, I think the key lies with Kobe, if they can somehow stop his penetration and limit his scoring, then they might have a chance.
Spurs and T-wolves are actually pretty similar. In the last game Spurs had two starters score 0 points in Bowen and Rasho. The T-wolves had the exact same situation in one game when Hassell and Johnson had 0 points. Lakers will have four people scoring no matter what. It's a 4 on 3. T-wolves can win if they make it 3 on 2. (GP and Malone play crap)
Cassel > Parker Spree > Ginobili or Bowen Wally >> Hedo Garnett currently> Duncan E.Johnson, Kandi and Miller = Nestovich(?) and Willis The Wolves are 3-1 against the Lakers in the regular season. Sammy, even injured, played better than Parker. Sam scored 23 points in game 7 despite injuries. He'll get better along with the series. The key for the Wolves is holding Shaq to around 20 points. Possible given Shaq averaged 16 in the first round and 22 in the second. Kobe is scoring 26 and Payton 9 ppg. So Kobe,Shaq and Payton amount to 55 points. Garnett scores 24 while 18 for Spree, and 9 for Sammy let them neutralize the big 3 of the Lakers.Cassel will be better than Payton for he is scoring 18 in the last series, meaning the Wolves can have a 9 points advantage there. Wally, Hoiberg plus Hassel need to match Malone, D.George and Fisher's output, difficult, but feasible.
Well the reason that SA should have just wiped the floor with the Lakers is by the way they wiped the the floor with the Lakers last year. And Minny has a LOT more to prove before they can be considered a good opponent for the Lakers. Don't get me wrong; i'm rooting for the Wolves all the way. But This is a different type of basketball...it's playoff basketball. So Spree and Cassell has NBA Finals experience...look at the Lakers starting five and they're accountable for 12 years of FINALS experience. And that 3-1 reg season victory over the Lakers is misleading...Shaq missed one of those losses and so did Kobe. It seems like i'm arguing for the Lakers but in all honesty, the Spurs was THE team that should have beaten them.
I've seen the Candy man match up well against Shaq before. If he puts his mind to it, he can come as close to neutralizing Shaq as anyone else on this planet. Of course, ability and desire are two different things. Candy has no heart. Lakers in 5.
Full strength, I like the Wolves, but they lose a lot of punch with a hobbling Sam and Wally and no Hudson. I do think the Wolves will have trouble scoring. I think they must get production out of Wally or Sam, along with the expected production of KG and Spree. I don't expect Kobe to as much of a factor as he is versus SA because Minn will play more zone and has quicker rotations in their big guys. Minny will make Payton, George, Rush, and those guys beat them from 3 land. Fisher could prove invaluable to the Lakers by pestering Sam and knocking down 3s though. If I had to call it I'd say the Lakers in 6. But if Minn can somehow to hang in the early part of the series (get it 2-2 and then to game 7) I like their chances. I am worried about the Lakers jumping on them early, Minny has to find out a way to gut out at worst a split of the 1st two.
Why, the Lakers probably will come out of the West unless Sam gets healthy quick, but they are likely to meet the Pistons anyway.
I like Sammy and the Wolves, but the Lakers will take this series. I wouldn't be surprised to see them do what they did to Sacramento in 2002, and win a game 7 on the road; but this will probably be over in six.
------------------Team Leaders------------------- Lakers---------------------------------T'Wolves Bryant 24.0 ----------PPG--------Garnett 24.2 O'Neal 11.50---------RPG--------Garnett 13.90 Payton 5.5----------APG---------Cassell 7.3 O'Neal .584----------FG%---------Johnson .534 Bryant .852----------FT%----------Martin 1.000 Russell .384----------3P%---------Hoiberg .442 Some of these that matter are pretty close.
I've always felt that once the Lakers got past San Antonio, there'd be no stopping. They are like a locomotive gaining speed and momentum. For those who rooted for the Spurs' defeat, the Spurs are very beatable by either Minny or Sacto. The Lakers are not. I hope I am wrong. The Wolves are inexperience for the playoffs. If they get beaten badly in the first game (which is very possible due to the physical and emotional drain of the Kings series), they may well be intimidated and discouraged much like the 2001 Spurs. Again, I hope I am wrong.
Kandiman gives Shaq fits? Didn't Shaq score 60+ on his ass? I'm with Kenny and Charles, Olowasucky does not even belong in the NBA. He might not even belong on a Eurpean ball club. He needs to find a job in the Turkish league or somethin.
As I expected, KG becomes a wussy against the Lakers. In two weeks, they will forget his great performance in game 7 against the Queens and ask "K who?". Meanwhile, Shaq is on pace to get his 4th PO MVP trophy. I think that the Rockets should hire some of the Yao haters on this board as our PR men. They will make everyone in the league know how great Cato and Mo are as defensive players. They can control Shaq, baby! Then we can easily and smoothly pack them and get back a star player like J. Oneil and the league will believe that Indiana got a steal!
