Lakers

[TripletDaddy]

I don't understand how Bynum and Pau could not be drooling with Collison and Ibaka guarding them. They should be dominating those two.

Man OKC fans are loud. They're starving for something.

And Collison has been playing with 5 fouls since around the 5 minute mark. Can someone please explain why we haven't gone right at him on every possession?

We are doing something that works very well for 3.5 quarters. Why abandon it now? I wonder how many of these guys have Doug Christie syndrome: terrified of the pressure.

[TripletDaddy]

that is the first time Pow made an attempt to help. On the last several possessions he was literally standing around not even raising his arms up.

Good job hitting 2 FTs.

We need a stop and a score right now.

[Surfah]

And Collison has been playing with 5 fouls since around the 5 minute mark. Can someone please explain why we haven't gone right at him on every possession?

We are doing something that works very well for 3.5 quarters. Why abandon it now? I wonder how many of these guys have Doug Christie syndrome: terrified of the pressure.

Doug Christie was scared of his wife.

If the Lakers steal this one back it will be nice. Glad to see Pau hit his FTs. I wish we could have been more aggressive and gone to the rim to get to the line more. That's killed us this game.

[Surfah]

What the hell? Calling that crap off the ball at this juncture in the game? Give me a break.

[TripletDaddy]

What the hell? Calling that crap off the ball at this juncture in the game? Give me a break.

$@^!^!!$&(#)@!!

[Surfah]

That's ball game. The Lakers blew a perfect opportunity to close this thing out fast.

[TripletDaddy]

ok, so I am wondering whether Pow and Bynum are instructed to stay out of the paint on offensive possessions down the stretch...so that they can clear the lane for Kobe? It just happens way too often for it to simply be boneheaded play by our big men.

This game is in the WRONG refrigerator.

[Surfah]

ok, so I am wondering whether Pow and Bynum are instructed to stay out of the paint on offensive possessions down the stretch...so that they can clear the lane for Kobe? It just happens way too often for it to simply be boneheaded play by our big men.

This game is in the WRONG refrigerator.

OKC +22 at the FT line. The Lakers settled for jumpshots all night. 31 3 pt shot attempts. Stupid. I'm pissed I stayed up for that crappy finish.

I predict the Lakers blow out OKC in game 4.

[Surfah]

I can't tell if Kobe's career minutes have finally taken their toll or if it's just this seasons injuries finally adding up.

I am so sick of watching Fisher get destroyed at the defensive end. I am getting pissed watching these highlights of Westbrook.

Odom was absent again. I just don't understand how he can turn into a space cadet for stretches. This is his 3rd game in a row now where he has done nothing.

Artest needs to stop shooting 3's. Can't complain about his defense. He has frustrated Durant and held him well below his shooting %.

[Surfah]

Wow watching Inside the NBA and these post game interview outfits by the players are an abomination. They make Craig Sager look good.

[CJF]

I can't tell if Kobe's career minutes have finally taken their toll or if it's just this seasons injuries finally adding up.

I am so sick of watching Fisher get destroyed at the defensive end. I am getting pissed watching these highlights of Westbrook.

Odom was absent again. I just don't understand how he can turn into a space cadet for stretches. This is his 3rd game in a row now where he has done nothing.

Artest needs to stop shooting 3's. Can't complain about his defense. He has frustrated Durant and held him well below his shooting %.

He's saving up just in case the Jazz advance. I honestly can't remember the last time Odom had a poor game against the Jazz.

[Babs]

[YOUTUBE]zvoeeq-BH4w[/YOUTUBE]

[TripletDaddy]

Lakers: not good

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-...5.story?page=2

Stuff like this confuses me...

The Lakers aren't panicking, but they're wondering aloud why they didn't get the ball more often to their big men.

Andrew Bynum had 13 points on six-for-nine shooting and Pau Gasol had 17 points on seven-for-12 shooting. They each took two shots in the fourth quarter.

"Pau should definitely get more touches," Bynum said. "Every time he touches the ball, something good happens."

***

But why didn't Bynum and Gasol get more chances?

Jackson found fault with Bryant's teammates in the fourth quarter, not Bryant.

"We wanted the ball going inside," Jackson said. "We didn't get the ball inside and it ended up in Kobe's hands and he was like, ‘OK,' and he got into attack mode."

I don't understand this. Why would Pow and Bynum wonder why they aren't getting more touches down the stretch? I rewatched the final 7 minutes of the game and noted that Pow did very little, if not almost nothing, to call for the ball or to properly set up to receive it. On several possessions, he didn't even get involved in the play, simply standing around just outside the paint. Bynum was doing the same thing.

Am I alone in noticing this? I must be imagining some of it because it doesn't seem to be a topic of much discussion.

Plaschke is negative

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-...1606184.column

Durantula bites the Lakers

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-...,3611476.story

[Surfah]

Stuff like this confuses me...

I don't understand this. Why would Pow and Bynum wonder why they aren't getting more touches down the stretch? I rewatched the final 7 minutes of the game and noted that Pow did very little, if not almost nothing, to call for the ball or to properly set up to receive it. On several possessions, he didn't even get involved in the play, simply standing around just outside the paint. Bynum was doing the same thing.

Am I alone in noticing this? I must be imagining some of it because it doesn't seem to be a topic of much discussion.

I don't get it either. It's not like they're posting up and working hard to establish position. And then look at the times it does go in, Pau is sending it right back out as soon as he gets a forearm in his back. The last 2-3 minutes of the 3rd quarter was a prime example of this. And Kobe was on the bench!

I was talking about the game with my dad this morning and we both agreed that Kobe should have taken the games off during the season necessary to get his finger, knee, ankle, and back right. The Lakers would have made the playoffs without him and he'd be ready to go right now. Sure HCA is nice, but lets be real there are only a handful of games separating 2-8 right now. They're all about the same level. Anyway, this is why winning last night was so important because it will give them some time to rest as I am sure the Denver/Utah series is going to go 6-7 games.

[TripletDaddy]

I don't get it either. It's not like they're posting up and working hard to establish position. And then look at the times it does go in, Pau is sending it right back out as soon as he gets a forearm in his back. The last 2-3 minutes of the 3rd quarter was a prime example of this. And Kobe was on the bench!

I was talking about the game with my dad this morning and we both agreed that Kobe should have taken the games off during the season necessary to get his finger, knee, ankle, and back right. The Lakers would have made the playoffs without him and he'd be ready to go right now. Sure HCA is nice, but lets be real there are only a handful of games separating 2-8 right now. They're all about the same level. Anyway, this is why winning last night was so important because it will give them some time to rest as I am sure the Denver/Utah series is going to go 6-7 games.

The FT disparity is annoying, but I don't blame the refs. How can the refs put the Lakers on the line if they are shooting 31 3s, setting new team records for attempted 3s in a post-season game? FTs come when you attack the basket, not when you keep kicking the ball back out to the perimeter for crazy shots. Kobe, Shannon Brown, Fisher...ugh.

Game 4 will be telling.

I don't want to take a Plaschke pill here because the sky isn't falling. After all, it took an epic meltdown and a massive FT disparity (plus amazing defense....credit to the OKCT) for the Lakers to blow a lead that they held most of the game. I initially predicted Lakers in 5 so they had to lose a game.

But it is definitely frustrating. These guys need to step up.

If Odom, Bynum, and Pow are not getting the touches they want, they still can change the game on defense. OKC is killing us with blocked shots. Where are all of our blocked shots? We need to play smarter...Collison picks up his 5th foul, we need to go right at him. Instead, we start shooting more 3s. Pow and Bynum need to work for position and call for the ball down the stretch.

Kobe's shortcoming in all of this isn't that he missed those shots. As Jax pointed out, many times the ball simply just got passed right back to Kobe with a few seconds left, so he had to shoot it. Some of them were also bad decisions on Kobe's part, sure. However Kobe is falling short in the leadership department. I can't quite put my finger on it, but he needs to demand these things from his teammates. I wonder if he has spent so much time being paranoid about making his teammates like him that he gave up some of the alpha-male nastiness needed to run the team properly. He needs to pull Pow aside and tell him to get his a** on the block and to post up the shorter defenders. He needs to get in Bynum's face and demand more blocked shots. He needs to tell Odom to crash the boards on every shot. Not sure he does that effectively. He might, I am just trying to make some sense of this.