oh please, watch the game, and then judge. everytime shaq got an offensive rebound the wolves hacked him to prevent the easy score (and considering that shaq got 7 offensive rebounds, and passed it back out only once, that was six fouls right there). everytime shaq got the ball in good post position, the wolves hacked him. hacking shaq not only sends him to the line, it also puts your team into the penalty earlier, so that any other fouls on other lakers send them to the line as well. why are teams so surprised that the lakers shoot a bunch of free throws when they have guys just to deliberately use their fouls on shaq? then, not only do you have shaq going to the line (which is more ft opportunities), but it becomes more likely for the other laker players to go to the line as well.
This suprises you that they're in foul trouble? Johnson and the Kandi-man are only really there just to foul Shaq. Hell, that's why they're using Oliver Miller and Mark Madsen.
Prediction for game 4, wolves win and end Kobe “suck me” Bryant’s streak of strong games following his court appearances!! Twolves: 91 Fakers: 79
The Wolves have noone to blame but themselves. They got out hustled (fewer rebounds, blocks, steals) by a team with 3 old guys on it. They also let LA shoot 52%. The Wolves just never brought it--I understand game 1 because they were really coming down from game 7 versus Sac, but hard to explain in game 3. Honestly to me the plays of the games were George's lucky ass 3 pointer followed by a second 3 pointer by him late in the 1st half. Instead of a 3 point differential at the half, it was like 9 points. There were the kind of shots you want the Lakers to have to take, kind of seem to break Minny's spirits. I expect a much better defensive, hustling, effort by Minnesotta in Game 4 than Game 3--whether it is enough to win I am not sure.
I thought the Hack-a-Shaq method worked really well for Minnesota. If you can hold an angry and determined Shaq to only 22 points with the likes of Olowakandi and Oliver Miller guarding him for a majority of the game, your team has a good chance of beating the Lakers. If Gary Payton plays like he normally does and Sprewell doesn’t let Devean George outplay him, Minnesota would have won. As much as I love Sam, I think Minnesota may be better off with Martin starting the next game. Although Sam contributed on offense last night, his defense on Payton really hurt the Wolves.
Flip Saunders talking about his Hack-a-Shaq gameplan in game 3: "We'll foul Shaq 50 times, if that's what it takes.'' Link But of course a lot of people, many of who didn't watch a second of the game will look at the boxscore and cry, "The freethrow descripancy is absolute proof that the refs(or Stern) tried to win the game for the Lakers. Like I said, before the playoffs started, if the Lakers win, many people will say the refs gave the trophy to the Lakers. They will completely ignore any bad calls against the Lakers, and only focus on the ones in they think is in the Laker's favor.
Mhan that was a great post. I would also add that once the TW players stack up their fouls, they are less aggressive in the paint, thus contributing even further to the free throw descrepency. Also, the TW were a mostly jump shooting team last night. KG settled for mid ranged jumpers instead of driving in. Spreewell, while still aggressive, was not aggressive enough. They really need a drive-and-kick-out player to draw fouls and set up three pointers and I really feel bad that they are not at full strength sans Sam Cassell.
I agree that the number of FT doesn't really tell whether the Lakers were favored by the refs because of the intentional fouls on Shaq. But the Lakers still deserve the "refs give them the trophy" reputation because of historical pattern. Only the Lakers fans and the NBA official deny any bias in the Lakers favor. The Malone non-suspension (well discussed in more than one threads) is the most recent proof.
Yeah because the refs and everyone watching saw Malone drop Martin while KG's elbow didn't even budge Peeler.
And even Troy Hudson would have helped, but Derrick Martin is just too offensively inept to have out there for long. The Lakers healthwise somehow came together late int he season with the younger Twolves getting key injuries, unfortunate.
Thats kind of harsh,don't you think? I mean, if you were talking about Jazz fans that would be something else...
i agree, one thing that makes them look stupid is wearing sunglasses in the damn arena, dont give me that fashion bs either, your are in a damn arena.
Ralph Wiley's article on the BEATABLE Lakers I think the media is progressing to actually hate the Lakers for once. I think outside of the Mickey Mouse Network (and it's dominion ESPN), no one gives the Lakers that kind of worship anymore. some gems from this article: "Now look at Mailman; he's turned into a chippy, classless, churlish boor who can't take losing. I don't know why. He should be used to it by now. We all should. It's part of the package. You learn this, unless you become part of the Laker Myth. When he was clocking Isiah Thomas with an elbow or absolutely KO-ing the Admiral David Robinson with another, he was equally charming. But now he's HD-enhanced old as well. Ugly to watch. His bulls*** move against Darrick Martin showed his desperation, among other things. The game was lost. Minnesota was the No. 1 seed. They'd won. Martin, a career ham-and-egger, had a good game. And Mailman dropped his shoulder and tried to murder the guy. Nakedly and unashamedly. What was he going to do? Say "Get me the ball," and drop 40? Not any more. Mailman and Artest should start their own league -- the League of Anything But Gentlemen -- and see how many people come out to watch that. It will be interesting to see how Mailman tries to bully his way by Rasheed Wallace. He cannot hope to outplay Wallace at the point; nor, perhaps, ever." ------------------------------------------------------ "So in Game 2 of the Western Final, there was the shot-out GP, in Wally's face, jaw-jacking about ... what? The fact that he has precious little game left? Plenty of guys in the league, if they have the ball in their hands all the time, can put up numbers. But what impact do you have on the game when the ball is not in your hands? In Payton's case -- zero." --------------------------------------------------------- "All Mailman can do at this point against KG is try that hard slap move designed to either knock the ball away or to break or otherwise damage KG's wrist. Either way, it works for Mailman. It must remind him of when Jordan stripped his unaware ass before hitting what should have been his swan-song shot in the NBA Finals. " --------------------------------------------------------- "As for Shaq, this is the biggest part of the myth, literally and figuratively. It's like all Shaq has to do is stomp his foot, and the world trembles. I actually thought Doug Collins would soil himself the other night when Gary Trent had the temerity, the gall, to tap Shaq on the shoulder and move him off Mark Madsen. "Don't pull on Superman's cape!" Collins begged. OK, when Superman shows up in the NBA, I'll remember that. In the meantime, play on, m&@&#$%@!" ----------------------------------------------------------- Thank you David Alrdrige, Ralph Wiley and the others that would rather lose credibility in the media world than to just turn the other cheek and proclaim the Lakers as the greatest team ever.
They are not only stupid, but also utterly classless. Whenever Karla gets the pulling chair trick work on someone, they cheered. But the other night, Kobe was pulled chair and called travel. They booed So what do they want? call a foul for pulling the chair? Kobe cannot travel? WTF the one thing I don't like Kobe is he is always bugging the refs to get calls. He misses a shot, he thinks he is fouled. He travels, he thinks he is fouled. He gets stripped, he thinks he is fouled. What is next?
once again shaq gets away with anything. He can power his way through and not get an offensive foul. He can knock people to the ground and not get called for a foul.
