I think it's your bias, lol. Yes Kobe will get to the line, but he won't live there like in the last two series. And even though he rocked in the second half last night he still had to work for his points, unlike the last two series. I think the Spurs will be in trouble when Bowen has foul issues, but I believe they can force Kobe to work for his without leaving all those other shooters open. I don't think Odom is a big issue. I don’t see him being dominant on the boards like he was against Utah, and I'm pretty convinced that Horry and Udoka can match up with him effectively. The funny thing is the Lakers got back in the game when Odom went to the bench. IMO, the Spurs were tired in the 4th because they just played on Monday and had to sleep in a plane that night. I think it was evident that Pop was trying to get folks rest (look at how he used his bench in the first half...everyone got burn). The Spurs still got shots, but they didn't fall. When I watched the game the things that stuck out the most were: A) Kobe is going to have to work for his points. B) Duncan isn't. Gasol can't contain him if he tried. C) Odom doesn't cause the huge mismatch issue due to Horry, Udoka and the teams overall defensive strength. D) Manu still got his shots...he just had a bad night. The same goes for Fisher though. E) They still have no one for Parker. F) The Laker bench is clearly better. I see SA winning.
I think the Spurs blew their opportunity to get a road win much like the Suns did against the Spurs and it'll effect them for the rest of the series. I would not be surprised to see a 5 game series win for the Lakers.
1. Bruce Bowen - the dirtiest player in the league and probably a top five dirty player of all time 2. Manu Ginobili's whining/flopping 2. Tony Parker's whining/flopping 3. Eva Longoria and her stupid show 4. Tim Duncan getting double the championships and MVP awards of Hakeem despite being half the player. Is that his fault? Not really. But I don't care. It's unjust and I hate it. 5. All the bought out vets (i.e. Kurt Thomas, Damon Stoudamire and Michael Finley) running to San Antonio to ride Duncan's coat tails to a ring. 6. Greg Poppovich's sour puss face and acne scars 7. David Robinson getting an MVP trophy that should have went to Hakeem just because Robinson is an American, a Christian and a Navy man and was therefore more marketable. (It was beautiful when Hakeem absolutely destroyed him right after the trophy was handed to him) 8. Rocket greats like Horry and Elie ending up there. 9. Brent Barry choosing them over the Rockets 10. That stupid Coyote. Nevermind it's a way more appropriate mascot than a bear considering bears aren't even native to the Houston area. Lakers vs. Celtics would definitely interest more of America than Spurs vs. Pistons. We've seen that before and most of us were bored senseless the first time. We've also seen the Lakers vs the Celtics, only not in about 20 years and the nostalgic "Remember the good ol' days" effect alone would be worth it. Besides, Kobe and Garnett are infinitely more enjoyable to watch than Duncan and a bunch of minor stars from the Pistons.
so what is your point ? based on what ? certainly not based on Kobe's past performance against the Spurs. Odom had a good series against the Jazz---NOT DOMINATING. p.s. against SA, Odom had some dominant plays in Q4 actually, SA started to tire in Q3. But i'd give kudos to PJax coaching; he went with his bench a lot earlier than normal. It was the athletic / young bench that propel Lakers' comeback. PJax kept the starter Ramonovic, who was 5 for 5, on the bench most of the 2nd half. Kobe was 11 for 21. that's a lot more efficient thant Duncan who was was 12 for 25. these stats contradict your claim another point to consider, no one can stop Gasol as well; he scored 19 points, 9 for 16 (a decidedly better % than Duncan, who (according to you) doesn't have to work for his shot true that. the funny thing is while the bench provided the spark for the comeback, in terms of production, the bench actually had a sub-par game against SA; Lakers bench was only 6 for 18 last nite. scary
1. bruce bowen is not even close to karl malone in terms of dirtiness. 2. manu and parker vs stockton and co., who're better floppers? 3. why is a player's wife relevant? 4. duncan is way more than just "half the player" of dream. yeah, the mvp voting almost always sucks, but it ain't any player or team's fault. 5. bought out vets? that's nothing new. see the 2003-04 lakers. i bet if this happens to the rockets, you'd be cheering. 6. poppovich's whatever face is still better than jerry sloan's face with dead-fish eyes. 7. hakeem got his mvp anyway. as a rockets fan, didn't it feel even better that he exposed the mvp that year? 8. that's weird. do you hate toronto too since hakeem retired as a raptor? as a reminder, mario is the assistant coach of the mavs; sam is playing for the celts (another "bought out" vet, lol). yeah, hate them all. 9. yeah, brent barry did that to us, twice. but his brother had a great year or 2 with us. enough to redeem the "crime", eh? how about their father used to be a rocket? also, ain't this a bit contradictory to your own point 5? 10. again, irrelevant, though i think ours is the best in the league. anything else?
That Kobe won't have a parade to the line like he did in earlier rounds, because SA has players to make him work for his points...unlike the previous two teams that had no one to match up with him (hence him in the lane more hence more fouling). It helps to read the post I was responding to (not said in a smart manner). Based on me watching the game and seeing the type of shots Kobe was getting (mainly jumpers), and not seeing his teammates get open 3's all game long. Odom put up 18, 12 and 2 bpg against Utah, on 59% shooting. I would call that dominant, especially considering his season and career numbers. He had a great block and a nice score to knot it up (when Finley was on him) in the 4th. And you don't think playing on Monday and spending the night in a plane had anything to do with them starting to tire out? Duncan got his position on Gasol at will and got more layups in this game then I saw him get all of last series (I am exxagerating but the point remains). It is clear that Gasol can't stay with him. Kobe was 11-21 and made great shots...but look at the degree of difficulty on his shots. He was working for them. You haven't seen him work in two series. Work for your points doesn't mean one doesn't score, or that they can't be very efficient. It means you aren't just giving them easy points or easy shots. You can play great defense and still get beat by a great offensive player.... They need to keep Gasol off the offensive boards and half of those points came from Kobe setups. I wouldn't say no one can stop him....
1. Karl Malone is retired. I am not comparing the modern day Spurs to the Jazz of old. I am comparing them to the current Jazz roster. 2. I actually think Manu flops every bit as much as anybody who has ever played for the Jazz, but again, I'm not comparing him to Stockton. I'm comparing him to the current players of the Jazz. 3. Because I hate her. 4. Respectfully disagree. Not fit to carry Hakeem's jock strap. 5. I agree if the Rockets were benefiting from the bought out vets I'd be celebrating, I ain't saying it isn't hypocritical of me. I'm just saying I hate it. 6. Valid point. I do hate Jerry Sloan even more than I hate Popovich. Nonetheless, Pop is something I hate about the Spurs. Can't stand the guy. 7. It was totally awesome when Hakeem exposed Robinson, and I'll cherish that memory always. Still, I hate David Robinson and the fact he got as many MVP trophies as the Dream. It's just absolutely ridiculous. 8. No. I don't hate any Eastern Conference teams. I hate our players going to division rivals. Heck, I'm even bummed Juwan Howard is on the Mavs. 9. Nope. Love Jon and Rick. Hate Brent. 10. Agreed, but I wanted an even ten points.
tv rating should only be a concern of the commish. as a fan, i want fair play and whoever is the best team of the year win the title. i wouldn't mind a lakers-celts finals this year, or any other possible scenarios. i just don't think a spurs-pistons finals will necessarily be "boring", like the media has tried to sell its bias. how's the 04-05 finals (spurs vs pistons) more "boring" than the 03-04 finals (lakers-pistons)? yeah, and d. wade shooting 100 free throws a game was a much much more entertaining finals that year. "good ol' day" feel? i'm all for it. hey, the rockets haven't been in the finals for a while. since we've paid our dues in losing game 7's in recent years, how about a houston-boston finals? or houston-philly finals? or houston-nyc finals? good for asian and global markets too, you know. and "enjoyable" is a relative term. what is enjoyable to you may be disgusting to me, and vice versa. i like a yao's fadeaway more over a shaq power dunk; i found a tony parker penetration is as enjoyable as a kobe slash and twist; i enjoy a duncan bank shot much more than a kg jumper; rick hamilton's jumper is as good as it gets, and probably a lil better than ray allen's for right now. etc. finally, most of us love kobe's game. but please, never put kg and the word "enjoyable" in the same sentence. (could've said that to lebron too, but i'd save it for another day. )
man, you are one funny dude. "Heck, I'm even bummed Juwan Howard is on the Mavs." really? you must be the only fan who has a grudge that we FINALLY dumped juwan's contract. lol. there is only one way that can settle this now - you hate whoever you hate, and i hate whoever i hate. how's that? one more thing though. (oh oh) talking about flops, the jazz take it up a notch to another level above everyone's. i've said this when we were playing them - they INITIATE contact and foul you first before they flop. and they still manage to get the call in their favor. example? see ak47 (as well as fisher of last year). that, my friend, is way more superior than all other floppers.
He moved his pivot foot up off the ground slightly but yea if that's a travel then Hakeem's Dreamshake should have been called every time.
Someone else mentioned this and I think it needs to be repeated...Greg Popovich threw Bob Hill under the bus. I mean, IIRC, the highest level of coaching Popovich had done before coaching the Spurs was at the high school level and maybe he coached a little bit while he was in the Air Force (but I don't think he coached the Air Force Academy's team). I still remember David Robinson's reaction when it was announced that Bob Hill had been fired and Popovich (who was the GM at the time and may still be) was taking over as head coach. Robinson was like, "Are you serious? Wow, I mean wow." So, it was pretty apparent that the team's big superstar at the time (remember Duncan was still at Wake) thought that Bob Hill got a raw deal. I hate it so much how that dude orchestrated all that ****. He gets rid of Hill, sits Robinson out for pretty much the entire season so they can get a high draft pick (which turned out to be Duncan), and then he "all of the sudden" becomes this great coach - almost like he did it by magic. I have often said how much I dislike Phil Jackson because I feel he is an opportunist. You will never see Phil coaching a team like the Bobcats; he only coaches teams that have a chance of winning the NBA title. It makes me sick that he will wind up (eventually) breaking Red Auerbach's record for most NBA titles won. But Greg Popovich is a million times worse; at least Phil didn't throw a coach under the bus and orchestrate his way to the coaching chair. He also didn't ever tank a season, either. And to his credit, Jackson has coached at least 2 different NBA franchises. Can anyone here (other than diehard Spurs fans) say with an honest face that Greg Popovich is that great of a coach that he can turn around a moribund franchise like the Clippers or Grizzlies around or even get the Bobcats into the playoffs? The answer to that is obviously no. I will give him credit for one thing, though - seeing the opportunity that was presenting itself to him in that he could tank the season and get Tim Duncan to play with Robinson and at the same time use the bad season to get rid of his coach. Pretty dirty and underhanded, but I guess the guy doesn't have much of a moral code about him. EDIT - I looked it up and found out that Popovich had been a head coach for a Division III school (not high school, at least from what I read it doesn't appear he ever coached on the high school level). It also said he had been an assistant for many years, mainly under Larry Brown. Still, he seemed a very unlikely choice to be an NBA coach.
Oh and one other thing about "Pop" - it absolutely floors me that more people don't bring up the whole Bob Hill situation. It's like they just look the other way or have swept it under the carpet. I wonder how many other coaches could have gotten away with doing that. The guy is an absolute scumbag in my book.
so what, pop is still a very good coach, regardless how he got here. much better than say doc rivers. compared to for example what riley did to stan van gundy, it's not any different. many great coaches are mean. larry brown, phil jackson, etc. that doesn't mean they can't coach.
Yea, he's a good coach as long as he has a Robinson and/or Duncan around. I would love to see him continue to coach the Spurs if they ever decide to go into rebuilding mode; it won't ever happen, though.
man kobe's outside shot is still just way off. an airball and a bank shot from straight away that was about 3 feet long. in a way, it's made him so reliant on drives and post-ups that i think it's made him better. his efficiency has been great the whole playoffs even while not getting a lot of the free points on long jumpers and 3's he usually gets. but at some point, SA will make you pay for that.
is manu going to show up any time in this series? lakers are too deep offensively for him to take a vacation right now.
