Hahaha i had to bring it back.. And just to think that some guys were saying I'm crazy for even thinking this. Trust me i know its one game and I'm not excited but just from the play of last night guess who is laughing now.
the matchup that works for the lakers has been odum on scola. odum has been starting and while gasol has held his own against yao, its odum who has torched us IMO. just my feelings from watching the games. this game one win, artest was switched onto odum this time and it paid dividends (scola did well on ariza too). and it makes sense. ariza is used to being bigger than who he is guarding and odum is used to being quicker. artest is quicker than odum and can muscle him around, and scola hustles enough to box out the quicker ariza. so we too ariza and odum away from their strengths.
What's interesting is that the Lakers took care of the one team in the playoffs that is a matchup nightmare for us. Perimeter big men teams like the Jazz gives Yao problems. After the Jazz, the lakers are our next biggest problem. The rest of the playoff teams: Nuggets, Mavs, Cavs, Hawks, Celtics, Magic. I know we matchup well with the Nuggets. Nene and Birdman will foul out trying to guard Yao. Mavs...Dirk will have his way with Scola and Landry. I wasn't too happy the way we lost in the last game of the season to the Mavs, but I saw nothing that couldn't be fixed. I'm not giving the Hawks any chance of making it to the finals. Celtics, Magic, and Cavs, all great matchups for us. Big Z has a perimeter game but not really the big matchup problem like Okur was. It will be interesting to see if KG will be ready if the Celtics make the finals. Yao will show the world who the best center is if the Magic make the finals.
