Lakers

[FN Phat]

Why so quite in Lakerland? Where is all the talk that this is what they needed. Now they can wake up and kick ass and take names?

[Surfah]

Why so quite in Lakerland? Where is all the talk that this is what they needed. Now they can wake up and kick ass and take names?

Cause the game didn't get over until midnight and I was tired. I posted this morning and gave the Magic their props.

All last night's game proved is that the Magic need lots of Magic to beat the Lakers.

[DrumNFeather]

The real star of this year's playoffs is Stan Van Gundy. That guy is money in the post game news conference.

[ERCougar]

Cause the game didn't get over until midnight and I was tired. I posted this morning and gave the Magic their props.

All last night's game proved is that the Magic need lots of Magic to beat the Lakers.

So when the Lakers play the Magic close on the road, it's proof that Orlando's lucky to be in this, but when the Magic miss a game-winning layup on the road, they're done in 5? Got it.

The Magic are inches away from being up 2-1. I wonder how Lakerfan would spin that.

[Surfah]

So when the Lakers play the Magic close on the road, it's proof that Orlando's lucky to be in this, but when the Magic miss a game-winning layup on the road, they're done in 5? Got it.

The Magic are inches away from being up 2-1. I wonder how Lakerfan would spin that.

You obviously haven't followed the thread. I said the Lakers were lucky to win game 2 several times:

http://cougaruteforum.com/showpost.php?p=93690&postcount=1229

http://cougaruteforum.com/showpost.php?p=93872&postcount=1253

All that really matters though are W's and L's. The Lakers are up 2-1. The Magic had a historic shooting night and the Lakers had a chance to tie with 30 seconds left. If Kobe shoots his average from the FT the Lakers win. The law of averages will correct itself. That's the beauty (depending on how you look at it) of a 7 game series. The better team prevails 90% of the time.

[TripletDaddy]

So when the Lakers play the Magic close on the road, it's proof that Orlando's lucky to be in this, but when the Magic miss a game-winning layup on the road, they're done in 5? Got it.

The Magic are inches away from being up 2-1. I wonder how Lakerfan would spin that.

Here is how I would spin it:

The Lakers are up 2-1.

[FN Phat]

The law of averages will correct itself. That's the beauty (depending on how you look at it) of a 7 game series. The better team prevails 90% of the time.

Great point. That is why I love the playoff system of the NBA. At the end of the day, the team that wins, deserves the kudos.

[TripletDaddy]

Plaschke: Lakers lose, the World is coming to an end

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-...1844309.column

Magic can shoot

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-...2477804.column

Lamar Odom can't sleep

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-...,1908547.story

Barkley doesn't believe in Magic

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-...,6004198.story

Skip has a good game

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-...,6397270.story

[Indy Coug]

So when the Lakers play the Magic close on the road, it's proof that Orlando's lucky to be in this, but when the Magic miss a game-winning layup on the road, they're done in 5? Got it.

The Magic are inches away from being up 2-1. I wonder how Lakerfan would spin that.

I'm not a Laker fan, but I would point out that the Magic had to shoot an obscenely high percentage from the field to win by only 4.

[JohnnyLingo]

Kobe continues to try to be the hero. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But he always, always, always needs to try and be the hero.

Gasol shoots 9-11. Kobe shoots 11-25. You think you might want to trust your all-star a bit more, Kobe? He's only shooting 62% for the Finals and 58% for the playoffs as a whole.

[JohnnyLingo]

Kobe wants some of that

[SoCalCoug]

Phil Jackson admitted this afternoon that Pau Gasol goaltended Courtney Lee's shot at the end of regulation.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2009/news/story?id=4246830

So I guess that means the Magic are up 2-1, making it 4 out of 5 on the season.

Kobe is so determined to be like his daddy Shaq that now he's missing free throws?

Because the goaltend only makes a difference if it's at the end of the game.

Think of it as a makeup for the really blatant one Howard had on Gasol.

[JohnnyLingo]

More excellent deconstruction of Kobe:

From the Basketbawful blog:

Kobe Bryant: Let's face it: The Lakers got Mamba'd last night. Kobe obviously wanted to steal the show, only he ended up trying to do too much. Bryant was indeed a bad, bad man during the first quarter, when he hit seven of 10 shots and scored 17 points in the final 5:41 of the period. But after his first-quarter tour de force, Kobe missed 11 of his final 15 shots...mostly jumpers of course. Not that it mattered, though, since he also blew six of his eight layup attempts (two of which were blocked) and bricked five of his 10 free throws. Oh, and did I mention that he committed a game-high 4 turnovers. The league's supposed best closer went 2-for-6 in the fourth (missing layup and a trio of three-pointers). He only went to the line once in the last 12 minutes, and he missed one of two. Said Kobe: "It was a bad night."

I can't help but wonder why Kobe is shooting the hell out of the ball when Pau Gasol has been scorching the nets. In this series, he's shooting better than 62 percent from the field (23-for-37) and almost 90 percent from the line (17-for-19). Last night, Pau went 9-for-11 from the floor (3-for-3 on dunks, 3-for-3 on layups and 3-for-5 on jump shots) and knocked down five of six of his freebies. None of the Magic know quite how to stop him, even the reigning Defensive Player of the Year. And yet it seems Kobe would rather try to win on a steady stream of contested jumpers than defer to his big man. A cynical person would say that it's not only important for Kobe to win the title, but also to be the Finals MVP while doing it. As it is, Pau has been the better player in this series.

Meanwhile, Kobe was actually going after his teammates last night for what he saw as THEIR mistakes. As Adrian Wajnarwoski explains: "He shot his teammates disdainful glares when they failed to get him the ball, and he berated Andrew Bynum(notes) in timeouts and did his damndest to hold down the Magic. This was one of those nights when it was hell to be a teammate, when 17,461 screaming fans found an ally in No. 24 on the Lakers. Kobe was on the edge, the brink. These Magic scare him, but so does the understanding that these championship seasons can be so fleeting. It makes him a nightmare of a teammate this time of year. He was beyond unpleasant with his teammates Tuesday night; he was downright nasty."

Why does someone so unquestionably great and single-mindedly devoted to winning continue to revert to such schizophrenic behavior even after over 1,000 career games? It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma.

Bravo.

[TripletDaddy]

Zo to Jax: You Suck!

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/9666540/Mourning:-Kobe-doing-it-all,-Phil-%27just-showing-up%27

Dwight Howard listens to loud music

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/9635416/Kareem:-Magic%27s-Howard-%27kind-of-predictable%27

[Surfah]

Big game tonight. Can the Magic make this a series?

My buddy sent me this:

[YOUTUBE]3AEYKEHfJ68[/YOUTUBE]

That close to being 1-2 Magic.