yeah, foul him hard when he drive to the bucket, not dirty play, just hard foul, send him to floor, never give him plus one.
Exactly, why is everyone having a hard on for the Lakers. The team is very good but not great. They have thier flaws as well and one is that playing tough D on them neutralizes their talents, just look what Boston did to them last year. Gasol and Odom do not like it when the game gets too physical.
That strategy worked against the Blazers -- we let Roy and Aldridge got theirs but shut down the rest of them. However, it is unlikely to work against the Lakers. We can let kobe and Pau get theirs, but we can not shut down the rest of the Lakers like we shut down the Blazers because: Bynum >> Oden Odom >>> All Blazers forwards except Aldridge combined Ariza > Outlaw Fisher > Blake The Lakers are simply a superiror team with talents at each position. It will take a miracle to beat them.
If Yao goes Hakeem mode on the Lakers and average 35, 15 and 5, we will beat them! We need a fair share of the calls which I can't emphasize enough. We need to make Kobe work and put up 40 shots to get his 30 points. Also, Landry has not been in normally beastly self, I hope he recaptures the form where he was just dunking on anybody as we are going to need his input.
Here is my analysis. 1. Steal Game One. Get the Lakers out of their "Comfort Zone". As the old adage goes, the playoff series does not "start" until the "road" teams wins. The Rockets have to win in Los Angeles, to win the series. 2. Stay Glued to Bryant. Cannot allow Bryant to get into his "Rhythm". The Rockets have to make Bryant a "Volume" Shooter/Scorer. Battier understands "Efficiency", and will make Bryant work for his points. 3. Collapse the Paint. The Lakers live in the Paint. Gasol, Bynum, Odom all live in the Paint. The Rockets need to "Close off the Lane". Limit all of their easy baskets. Similar to Boston, force the Lakers into "Jumpshots", rather than "Layups/Dunks". 4. Get Physical. The Lakers are a "Finesse" team, therefore are "disrupted" by "Physical" play. The prime example: Denver. The Nuggets got "physical" with the Lakers; held them to season-lows. 5. Slow the Pace Down. The Rockets "Achilles' Heel" is "Transition Defense". Yao Ming cannot beat Pau Gasol in transition. The Rockets must slow the pace of game down, to limit those opportunities. This applies to chucking "Long" (and "Corner") three pointers (prime suspect: Artest); as "that" promotes transition opportunities for the Lakers. A slow pace also keeps the score down. 6. Contain the Bench. The Rockets cannot afford to allow the Lakers bench to explode. Stay infront of Farmar, keep Vujacic in "Reach" (but know he is in a shooting slump; 6 for 29 in the Utah series), keep Powell off the "Offensive Glass" and give up the jumpshot to Walton (keep him off the free throw line).
