The Lakers might actually be better with Kobe gone. They have plenty of firepower with Shaq, Kung-fu, and Payton, and the offense runs a lot smoother since there isn't one guy that demands that he be given freelance oportunities. A three point specialist might be a better fit for them.
LOL SHAQ: HEHE when Kobe comes back lets not pass him the ball MALONE: HEHE, yea I'm gonna go for jabbar's scoring record PAYTON: HEHE , let's see if we can get Kobe to average 0.00 points this year SHAQ, MALONE, PAYTON: HE HE HE KOBE:
lucky for us -- 2 or 3 years the lakers will be in rebuild mode (payton will be old, malone will be very old or gone and shaq's knees and toes will be shot) -- just when we are peaking!!
everyone is talking about Lakers and Houston at the end...i LOVe the houston rockets..dont get me wrong...but i think we're fogetting one other team...the timberwolves...i think they have a very good chance too..they have sam cassell, wally, garnett,sprewell, and oliwakandi...thats a really good line up..jus thought i should voice that out...hopefully it'll be rockets and LA and minnesota fighting and beating each other other
i meant houston making it to WCF and LA and minnesota beating the crap outta each other for the other spot
I'm mildly impressed with the Lakers but hardly blown away. Dallas really stunk it up. * Steve Nash had very little trouble penetrating but instead of shooting (his floater) he opted to kick the ball out and no one could hit. * Mavs were 37.6% from the field and 28% from the arc (7-25). And if you watched the game, you know those were mostly wide open shots. * Mavs had only 4 fewer DRebs but were outscored 15-2 in Fastbreak points. IMO, the way to beat the Lakers is still to run them. Look at what the Clippers did to them in pre-season. The Clips always use their athleticism against the Lakers and it's usually a close game.
I'm not really sure how useful a meaningless preseason game is, in determining strategy. It's lot easier said than done to run on LA. Yes, Shaq does not really get back on defense, but at the same time, if the other team's center is scoring cheap buckets on one end, Shaq is on the other end cherry picking too. If Dallas got run out of the Staples Center, then I don't see how many teams could outrun LA. Especially now that LA shoudl be able to score a lot of points, which means less defensive rebounds for the other team, which means less fastbreak chances.
We all know Dallas has no defense and they depend on their offense. Last nite, they couldnt even get to 100. A team with that much fire power and no defense needs to at least score in the hundreds to win their games. Lakers played well but Dallas just sucked.
It is more than one preseason game...the Clippers regularly play the Lakers tough and they do it by upping the tempo of the game. If you have watched the Lakers at all, you would have noticed that the teams that play them tough always have more fastbreak points and uptempo the game. Both Dallas and Los Angeles shot about 45% from the field last season. If you think Dallas and LA are going to continue their respective 37% and 50% from this game forward, you are greatly deceiving yourself.
preseason games are always meaningless against the lakers (unless its the kings, and fox is in the game). they have, iirc, never had a winning record in the preseason. the first year pj was here, lakers actually went like 2-6 in the preseason, and there were a lot of naysayers saying the lakers were not going to do anything that season. actual season starts, and the lakers bust out to an incredible regular season record. pj uses the preseason to tweak his lineups, and play the third stringers to see if anyone's good enough to make the squad; the games mean nothing. lakers totally killed the mavs in the running game last night. with payton running the show and george and malone (soon to be kobe) on the wings with shaq being the trailer, the lakers can run pretty damn well themselves. the best time to try to run them would on the second game of back to backs, other than that, the lakers can run with the best of them this season.
If you watched yesterday's REGULAR SEASON game then you would see that it's not that big of a problem. You are basing your judgement on what the Lakers were in the past. Wake up, the roster is diffferent now.
The one thing that surprised me was Malone's passing. I guess if you play with Stockton for about 2 decades, you'd be able to rub off of him something. But let's not get too carried away. The Mavs aren't a good matchup against them. And the fact that they didn't hit their shots didn't help. Don't expect the Lakers play that well every night. Also, I agree that Kobe's absence might actually make the TEAM work better. Let's wait and see.
The beautiful thing about Payton and Malone is they can both pass and play defense, two qualities that are rare in this league, especially coming from two star players. When the Lakers were winning those rings they were always one of the top defensive teams in the league, a Phil trademark. Last year the wheels came off and they all got lazy. Payton I think will reestablish that defensive attitude. Plus they got a running game now...man I know its only one game but this team should win atleast 60, probably between 60-70. And of course the favorites for the championship...
Well, supposedly they would be since they can "outrun" the Lakers. Who the hell is Dallas a good matchup with in the West, anyhow?
