Lakers need to prevent a Dwightmare or stop the perimeter
Posted by: SPQR on Monday, June 01, 2009 - 03:50 PM
Lakers Blog
|
After the first Orlando-Cleveland game, Charles Barkley said that Dwight Howard could not keep scoring at the rate he did in the opening game. He said he simply was not that type of offensive player. Of course both he and Cleveland now know how wrong he was.
Howard has shown that as limited as his offense game still is, like a very young Shaquille O’Neal, he is such a physically gifted presence he can still do continuous and deadly damage scoring if he takes the position he likes in the low post.
Of course this brings up the question: can the Lakers effectively take away his comfort zone down low? The result of our two regular season meetings and his march through the playoffs seem to indicate that will be difficult. The only player who has the size and strength to do so would seem to be Andrew Bynum. Yet in his embryonic state of development he showed little else against Howard this year except a penchant for fouling in his attempts to slow Howard down. Given the added confidence Dwight has gotten with his playoff run through the east and Bynum’s lack of confidence and mobility from his injury this problem would seem to only be exacerbated now. Unfortunately Howard is also the exact type of athletic, big, strong, fast, immovable center that he has caused Pau Gasol problems too.
This is alarming for a very good reason. In our march through the playoffs we relied on two mismatches vs Utah, Houston and Denver: Kobe Bryant and the inside play of Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol and to a much lesser extent Andrew Bynum. If this advantage is taken away from us, it leaves us with only the Kobe advantage to fall back on. Not something you want against a powerful versatile team like Orlando and losing the inside edge is similar to what happened to us against Boston last year. This may be the first team we faced since that series where the inside edge no longer resides with us.
Phil is not a big fan of double teaming and with the outside shooters Orlando has he may be even more reticent to try this tactic out on Howard. Two areas that may be successful are these: Pau, Drew, Lamar, Trevor and Kobe may have to attack Howard and the basket as much as possible. Yes the defensive player of the year will certainly pick up blocks along the way but we may also force him to pick up fouls. Nothing takes the aggression and game away from a player than knowing his has picked up foul number four or five.
Because Howard has had trouble at the line, Phil may also want to use another tactic he generally loathes and that would be the hack a Howard. Between Drew and Mbenga the Lakers are sitting on 12 well placed fouls a game to force Howard to earn his points at the one place he least likes-the charity strip. He has done better on the line of late, but he has not done so in the ultimate pressure cooker of the NBA finals.
Howard averaged 21 points a game against us during our two meeting. I would find this an acceptable number if we can also mitigate to great degree their outside shooting. If Howard goes off consistently like he did against Cleveland then he will turn this series into a Dwightmare for us and make beating them almost untenable.
Once again, what is alarming is that the Lakers have struggled with defending outside shooting all year and the Magic have this part of their game down to a science. I usually want to see two teams play at full strength but this time for very selfish reasons, I am glad Jameer Nelson is out. To me, this Orlando team is already a strategic for us and giving them a player of Nelson’s ability would make this thing just so much harder to accomplish.
In the Lakers favor is the Kobe Bryant factor. In the Denver series he played some of best ball of his storied career both scoring and in setting up teammates. He will have to continue on that level for us to have a chance. I don’t see any reason why he won’t with that elusive post Shaq ring once again dangling just inches from his face.
The Lakers showed in the last two Denver games that they can play effective defense against a top quality foe. In Orlando they will be meeting the best offensive team they have faced all year and they will have to carry the willpower and determination they showed in those last two Western Conference game to the finals or risk being taken out before they really know what happened. As Orlando has proven against two teams defensively superior to the Lakers-Boston and Cleveland-if you can’t take away either Howard or their perimeter game you are facing a lost cause. The Lakers will have to take away one or the other. Not the same part every game, but one part for every win they get.
The other thing going for us that we did not have last year is home court advantage. The simple math says that if Orlando does take one in LA they will still have to sweep all three mid games at home to pull off the win. Not an easy thing for any team to do against the Lakers. If Orlando does manage to win two games on our home floor, then the series would in effect be lost anyway in my view.
We will also need major contributions from Lamar and Trevor Ariza. They need to play like they did in the Denver series. If they do then the Lakers will begin to pose mismatch problems against Orlando that will force them to change their game and strategy in order to keep from being overwhelmed. Contributions from Pau goes without saying. Perhaps even more than his scoring a willingness to attack Howard and try drawing fouls would be his largest and most telling attribute. A Howard handcuffed by fouls is freed Lakers team.
For the first time in these playoffs the Lakers are facing a team who can score with them and take away that crucial interior and rebounding edge that has helped carry LA to this point. It is a daunting challenge. Phil and the team most certainly have their work cut out for them. To me our two biggest edges are Kobe Bryant and home court. Will it be enough?
Usually going into a match up I am fairly confident of picking a winner. Last year I faced the NBA finals with dread and trepidation because I saw no way we could beat Boston. This year I enter the finals with curiosity and questions about how we will overcome a team that seems to match up so well with both our strengths-our inside play- and our weakness-perimeter defense. Because I don’t think this Orlando team is as good as last years Celtics, I do think we can win it, but to be very honest, for one of the few times in my life I don’t have an strong idea about which team will carry the day. It would not surprise me if LA wins, nor if Orlando does.
One thing I do know is that for both teams, they are facing their strongest foe at this moment of history with everything on the line. Both teams have shown they will accept nothing short of the title and both seem prepared not to give an inch in getting what they want. I don’t see an easy end for neither team nor a series that won’t go at least six games and put both players and fans of each through many tough, excruciating and heartbreaking plays and games.
I think everyone involved better put on their seatbelts. I suspect a very hard, rocky ride for loser and the winner alike before all is said and done.
|
Discuss |  Email This
|
|
Did the Lakers pay 600 grand for game six Denver win?
Posted by: SPQR on Saturday, May 30, 2009 - 02:47 AM
Lakers Blog
|
After the Lakers beat Denver in game five an unidentified Nugget said the Lakers had paid 50 thousand dollars to the league in order to get the win. In light of the their lopsided 27 point win in the clinching game six, one can only assume the Lakers paid a lot more this time around for the right to abuse and humilate Denver this time around. Based on the margin of the route I one would think the price for this win to be in the range of 600 thousand. If such scenarios really were true, the Lakers would most definatly gotten a full measure for their money on friday night.
But if we are looking for non basket ball reasons for the Lakers victory, I would disregard the payoff motiff and instead delve more into the realm of science fiction. This turn around for the two teams would be more of a an Invasion Of The Body Snatchers than a simple, prosaic payoff to the Mr. Stern.
In a must win game six, it was the Nuggets who assumed the worst of the Lakers form with surprisingly soft play, a lack of energy on offense and rebounding and a attitude that seemed to exude a aura of indifference and it was the Lakers who assumed the best of what was Denver with energy, tenacious defense, hard rebounding and aggessive and effective offense. If one didn’t know better, you would think the Nuggets had entered some transforming pods between game five and six and emerged as the Lakers who got blown out twice by Houston and the Lakers emerging from theirs as the Denver Nuggets who had been so effective in running their offense and been so determined and effective in their defense.
And as the Lakers found out in those two Houston games, Denver discovered if you are not prepared and willing to play every posession on offense with smarts and execution, every defensive shift with energy and intensity and hit the boards with with a vengence, not only will not win but you will lose by a humiliating score.
When you take a team that seemed too tired or too resigned to defeat to put forth their best effort and combine it with another god like performance from The Great Man who seems human in appearance only, throw in great performances by Pau Gasol, Luke Walton, Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza and a large edge in rebounding, you end up with the recipe for a very decisive 119-92 Lakers victory that was every bit as one sided as the score indicated.
The Nuggets started out listless and strangly without the brio and energy they displayed all series, and the Lakers seemed to pick up on this quickly and became more effective and confident looking as each minute went by. The Nuggets seemed to be a team which had finally realized that they were trying to beat a better squad and were simply hoping that home court would carry them through. As many teams have found out over the years, the fans can’t jump onto the court and help you out, that is something you have to do yourself. Home court can’t save you if you don’t try to save yourself. For fans here like OC Showtime who sensed the Lakers could end this series tonight if they could come out strong, that feeling was justified as the Lakers took control in the first quarter and only tightened their grip on Denver the more the game progressed. They just kept getting stronger on offense and defense and Denver conversly became more impotent as it became apparent to them that the Lakers had come to win and not just waste time tilll a seventh game in Los Angeles.
It was a strange and welcome anti-climatic end to a very hard fought and close series for the Lakers and their fans.
For Laker fans there was much more to celebrate than just the disposal of tough foe and return to a second straight finals berth. The real cause for happiness is that for the second straight game against our toughest playoff opponent to date the Lakers we saw were not the bumblers and stumblers we saw struggle past a gimpy Houston, but instead were every bit the team that excelled on offensive and defensive execution in sweeping Cleveland and Boston. This was a team comfortable and confident in its ability to execute and its inherent superiority over its opponent. In the last two games it won with Kobe the facilitor and Kobe the assassin, scoring machine. It rebounded, played with energy and efficiency and took apart a well coached, talented and tough team in two consecutive games. That is impressive stuff. It is title winning stuff.
If this is the Laker team we will see in the finals, neither Cleveland nor Orlando will be o defeat them in a seven game series. Not since the breakup of the Shaq-Kobe 3peat team has the title looked so attainable, the championship so probable. That is the real cause of celebration in the aftermath of our Western Conference championship.
After the game George Karl made several strong remarks:
He said this Lakers team got stronger as each game went on. He said this Lakers team is the best team in the NBA. I can’t find fault with his opinion.
He said Phil Jackson outcoached him in the last game with his strategy and defensive changes in shutting down the previously effective Denver offense. I can’t find fault with his opinion.
In his most eye and ear catching soundbit he said even Jesus would have had a hard time covering Kobe Bryant in the last five minutes. In this opinion I have a minor quibble. I have heard no mention of basketball being played back in those ancient times and since I don’t consider resurrection, walking on water or his other miracles as qualifications to be an NBA stopper, I think Jesus would have had much more than a hard time in stopping the Kobe Bryant we saw last night. They claim Jesus could work his miracles in many ways, but Kobe works his on the hardwood and in that environment nobody is better. Not even a defender as qualified as MJ would have done much to stop a man so on his game, so very determined to reach the finals and rectify last seasons disappointment.
Kobe Bryant has ghosts to exorcise and that is something that his finals opponent is going to have to deal with and try stop. I do not envy them their task.
Jesus, payoffs, bodysnatchers and other things have been brought up in this wild and colorful series. But in the end all roads really lead to Kobe Bryant. That is the real story going on here. It is something Cleveland or Orlando will experience first hadn next week. If the rest of team can follow his lead and play like they have the last two games it will be a beautiful championship summer for King Kobe, his teamn and all the fans who follow them.
So now it is the long wait to find out about our foe and the first matchup on Thursday. For all teams in the west without a certain Great Man named Kobe Bryant on their roster the wait for their next game will be quite a bit longer and a lot less meaningful than the game that awaits the Lakers and their incandescent, transcendant leader.
|
|
Discuss | Email This
|
|
LA-Den game 4 :"were the better team, now bring it home!"
Posted by: SPQR on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 - 12:39 AM
Lakers Blog
|
Mid way through the fourth quarter of the pivotal game four between the Lakers and upstart Denver Nuggest, coach George Karl told his team, "Were the better team, now bring it home!" His confidence harkens back to a interview ESPN played earlier where coach Karl said in reviewing tape of the previous games in the series, he liked what he saw. He felt his team was doing more things better and had control of the series.
After game four and the three proceeding ones, it is hard to argue with his assessment.
Even with his star player hobbled by a stomach virus and gimpy ankle, the Nuggets gave an object lesson to the Lakers in rebounding, defense, bench play and sheer high velocity aggression as they attacked a sleepy, stock still defense that LA can never hope to have won this game or a championship with.
Even the Great Man Kobe Bryant could not stem a tide of dominance in so many areas as the Nuggets showed the Lakers that any hoped for after effects of their game three win were only wishful thinking on the Lakers part.
How bad can you get dominated in game you need to win to put away a dangerous oppenent? The Lakers showed it in every way, every catagory. The bench was out scored and out manned. Every rebound seemed to go to the team from the mile high city, and why shouldn't they? They were the only team that boxed out and made an effort to get those boards. How bad can you let a team walk all over you and humiliate you? The Lakes showed the way be allowing a non existant defense to pave a golden path to the hoop that Denver traversed again and again to dunk, layup, stuff and convert and ones all night long. It could have been a gym drill for the Nuggets, but it wasn't, because a gym drill comes with more resistance than this Lakers team offered up.
Lots of fans here say the Lakers won't win a title because you have to play defense to do that. Last years Celtics series was powerful proof of that axiom and this Nugget series is once again showing that if this version of Laker ball does hoist a trophy up in June, they will have had to do it against conventional wisdom, against type and do it the hardest way possible.
Another thing has become crystal clear. Beating this Nuggets team two games in a row seems beyond a team with the Lakers fallibilities. If we do come out of this series bloody but ultimately unbowed, it will be after a game seven win in Los Angeles. To expect a win in game six in Denver is seemingly as realistic as expecting the sun not to rise tomorrow and just about as likely. The Lakers lone road win of this series was due to an anomally-in the fourth quarter of that game they forgot who they were and played defense the way title contenders are supposed to. Don't expect it to happen again.
With a beat bench, a distinct inability to match Denvers attack attitude, a defense that trails Denvers in every regard and short fall of rebounds, the Lakers will need every bit of home court advantage to pull this thing out. If Kobe Bryant did not wear a purple and gold uniform, this series would have been long over instead of the 2-2 deathmatch it has become.
Home court and Kobe Bryant may be the only thing that keeps George Karl's vision of the better team "bringing this home" from being not just a description of game 4 but a final denoument of the series. The question is: will having the best player and closer in the game with home court in two precious remaining games be enough to over come the purchase that Karl and his Nuggets seem to be fashioning on a very erratic and flawed Laker team?
|
|
Discuss | Email This
|
|
LA-Den game 3-Kobes hammer: when one win is so much more.
Posted by: SPQR on Sunday, May 24, 2009 - 12:09 AM
Lakers Blog
|
In sports, two teams line up to play. Time passes, plays are made, mistakes commited, effort rewarded, decisions and strategies work or fail. When it is over, one team has one win, the other has one loss.
But once in a great while, a win really does mean more than just a win. Such was the case tonight when the Los Angeles Lakers, teetering on the brink of serious playoff trouble fought through a talented and tough Denver team to over come a 9 point deficit and secure a 103-97 victory in the mile high city and turn this series back in a new direction.
In taking a victory in Denver, the Lakers answered alot of questions posed by the two close games in LA. First and most important, they proved that they can play Denver just as tough, stay just as close and win in their opponents home floor as the Nuggets did in LA. The Nuggets now know that playing well and achieving victory is not their sole purview in LA but that the LA can respond in kind. And the Lakers now know it too. The Nuggets, after stealing a game in LA have found out that there is no safe haven in Colorado, where they had won sixteen straight and every playoff game by ten or more points. Now, they are forced to share the same doubts at home that they had planted in the Lakers. It must a strange and uncomfortable feeling for them.
Second, that home court advantage that Denver fought two game so hard for, is now just a thing of the past. An advantage they wanted and played their hearts out for is gone just that fast. The math says they will have to win in LA again to take this series. Common sense says winning a second game in LA will not be any easier than it was the first time-maybe even harder.
Third, for the first time in this series, the Lakers actually strung together effective offensive and defensive play for a sustained period at the same time agaist their rocky mountain tormentors. In limiting Denver to 5 of 22 shooting in the fourth quarter, going inside to Gasol, having Ariza hit three point shots, the Lakers for the first time looked like the team that swept Cleveland and Boston. When the Lakers can play that game, they are ever so hard to beat as Denver found out in the crucial game deciding, and perhaps series deciding quarter 4 of game three.
The Nuggets will reamain tough, the games close and victories for both side will be hard fought, but for the Lakers, the pendulum of victory in the series and the road to the championship series just took a very decided swing back to their side of equation.
In game where we had so much to prove, so much to lose, so much to say about what we are and where we are going, this win was so much more than just one win. The Lakers know it and so do the Nuggets.
After that game, I do want to say a few words about Kobe Bryant. He has been called the Mamba, the best player on the planet, the best closer, the thoughest guy in basketball. All these things are true, but really they are just mere words in the english language. They are all words used to describe real things. For that reason, they just don't do him justice. Because if Kobe is anything, he is not real at all. He inhabits a place that is so unreal that no real words can justify what he does.
As I watched him just fight tooth and nail, his face a grimace of pain, determination and concentration, making one great play, one unreal shot after another, I realized that now mere words do him justice. Only watching him play does. You have to see it to understand it, describing it is just a hollow exercise in futility.
We may win this series, we may lose it, but Kobe Bryant has owned it. As I watched him just attack and attack and attack a brutal Denver defense, an image of a hammer pounding against a steel wall came to my mind. A real life hammer can't do any damage to such an edifice. But Kobe is not a real life hammer. He is a unreal hammer. Because when he hammers away like only he can, cracks spring up in even the toughest of steel. Splinters shard and fall away. Holes and gouges appear and he just keeps hammering like a maniac bent on destruction of not just a piece of that steel wall but every single seam, surface, rivet and inch of it. And by the time he is done, that wall has crumbled and the Los Angeles Lakers have another victory pounded out by their magnificent one of a kind hammer.
All that was left of that wall tonight was broken lumps of pounded and tangled steel and the empty expressions of the Nuggets team that got assaulted as only Kobe Bryant can hit you. The shear majesty of his violence was plain to see on the face of every Denver fan, coach and player in the arena and loud as the silence in the mile high city as the final seconds ticked away, the scoreboard the last and best description to a man who refuses to accept the contsraints of reality when he dons his uniform and hits a basketball floor.
|
|
Discuss | Email This
|
|
NBA playoff and Lebron conspiracy exposed!
Posted by: SPQR on Saturday, May 23, 2009 - 12:55 PM
Lakers Blog
|
Last nights miracle win by Cleveland keeps them viable for the series, even though it once again exposed them as a very flawed and undermanned team now hanging on to playoff existance by the skin of their teeth.
But more importantly, it completly exposed the frequantly brought up, mythological NBA playoff conspiracy as the total fraud that most people know it to be.
It is no secrete that a Kobe-Lebron finals would the the preeminent sporting event of 2009. That finals would literally take center stage in the world of sports for two weeks and push all other sports to the small type of a last page. For those two weeks, the NBA would be the biggest sport in the world. The press coverage and tv viewership would be unprecedented.
I have read about such conspiracies here again and again, heard it from friends and coworkers and on radio talk shows. I recently read on here that tha NBA will most certainly make sure their favorite player - Lebron James - will get into the finals or that if we make the finals against Cleveland we would have to beat both the refs and the Cavs.
Conversly for the NBA, a Orlando-Denver finals would be a nightmare. The only people interested would be die hard NBA fans and those in the two respective cities. Viewership and media coverage would be miminal and would be incidental compared to the Lakers-Cleveland matchup extravaganza. In fact it would go down in history as the series nobody wanted and even less watched.
We have all read on here the "theories" all espoused with such confidence that the League is fixing the series to get the teams they want to advance. Last night, in a must win game for Cleveland, down the stretch two iffy calls went Orlando's way and ensured that Cleveland would lose their second straight home game and therefor the series. The first was a travel on Lebron James that cost Cleveland a possession and two points. The second just moments later was a foul given against the player guarding Turkgolu as he drove towards the basket, again giving Cleveland two points and the win.
If the NBA had a conspiracy going on, last nights game was the perfect time to ensure Cleveland won. It would have been fairly easy to do as well. Simply don't call the Lebron travel and don't call the foul against Cleveland as Turkgolu was driving at the end of the game. Instead we got TWO close calls down the stretch that ensured an Orlando win. Of course Lebron obviated that win with one of miracle shots off all time-but the facts of the calls remain.
So in this great, all knowing, all seeing, all controlling conspiracy, the NBA for some reason was TRYINIG TO DESTROY A KOBE VS LEBRON FINALS and bury Cleveland so Orlando could move on!!! You see how ridiculous it all is when you look at the facts? But the conspiracy theorists don't look at facts. They conveniently ignore games like last night because THEY HAVE TO OR THEIR IDIOCY BECOMES SO VERY APPARENT.
They will pick out a game here, a play there to say there is a sinister agenda. They ignore the facts, like this game and the calls made down the stretch in this game because it totally destroys their theory. What they do is like taking a quote out of context to defame someone instead of showing the whole paragraph which changes the meaning entirely.
The fact is the NBA rarely gets the dream matchup they want like last years Boston-Lakers final. Every year calls happen in the playoff and teams lose that go against what the NBA would prefer to have happen for the betterment of media coverage and viewership. Just like last nights game, conspiracy theorists ignore that, year after year, series after series, game after game.
So to all conspiracy nuts out there, or those who read their wacko theories and are tempted to believe them after you don't like the way calls went in some game (usually against your team or for a team you don't like, right?), the next time you are tempted to jettison your brain or ability to think rationally and jump into the the fantasy remember the night the NBA did its best to cut its own throat by eliminating the Cavaliers and a Kobe vs Lebron finals. And all the thousands of similar games and calls that did not go the way the NBA would have preferred over its long history.
Try out the real world for a change. Yeah its a little more boring and prosiac and in it bad calls are just bad calls but it really isn't so bad...nor half as sinister or silly as the one you live in right now.
|
|
Discuss | Email This
|
|
LA- Den:Two close games = evenly matched teams? Not so fast!
Posted by: SPQR on Friday, May 22, 2009 - 12:37 AM
Lakers Blog
|
After the heart breaking loss to Denver in the second game, we have now had two games that were seperated by a razors edge difference, the Lakers taking the first and the Nuggets taking the second.
In watching the post game show Magic Johnson said these teams are evenly matched and this will be a long tough series. This will be the general concensus by alot of fans and the media. But has that really been established? The answer is an unequivical no! Magic and others are jumping the gun based on these two games and here is why:
After these two down to the wire struggles, then ONLY thing we really know is that the Denver Nuggets can come into Los Angeles and play us head to head, quarter to quarter right down to the wire. They have proven that they can come to our home court and stay right with us and beat us. The Lakers have yet to show they can do the same in the mile high city. Now it is up to the Lakers to prove this is actually an even matchup. If we go to Denver the next two games and lose by substantial margins, then the theory of evenly matched teams will disappear and the series will suddenly reveal itself to be a case of a better team-Denver-able to play with the Lakers and take them down in tinsel town while we are not able to reciprocate in Denver.
I respect Magic Johnson as few others, but here he is making an assumption that has not been proven yet. It will be up to the Lakers to play even steven IN Denver to make Magic's statement a fact.
Two things trouble me now about going to Denver. First, those two blowout losses to a crippled Houston team down in Texas have bothered me since they happened. If this team has lost its mojo on the road then the chances of beating this Denver team there are not so good. The other is with the problems Fish and Sasha are having shooting the ball at home, what are the odds of them suddenly feeling comfortable in Denver with the energy the Nuggets will bring to their defense and a manic crowd going nuts for every second? These things trouble me as we get ready to take the Lake Show on the road against this particular team.
Just a couple comments. Of course there will be the usual whinning about the officials for some Laker fans. I mean when isn't there when we lose a close game? I am not going to get into whether the calls were good or bad. Any mature sports fan knows how calls go and long ago stopped complaining about them. I will say this: If the Lakers didn'e want referees calls to not effect them down the stretch, then they shouldn't have given up a 13 point lead in the first half at home. They shouldn't have given up the lead they built in the third quarter. When you give up two cushions at home and make a game that close, well if some calls go against how you want in the end and cost you, you have no one to blame but yourself for putting your team in that position.
As I watched Melo just have a field day down low, I wondered why Drew was not in the game. He had played pretty well in the first half. Nobody on the Lakers has the body or strength to slow this guy down once he is down in the post. Only Drew has the size, wingspan AND strength to make him think twice instead of letting him have carte blanche down there. Controlling Mello is becoming a singular problem that this team has not been able to answer. Phil may want to put Drew in with the command: when Mello starts to get in the paint, you do nothing but get there and make things uncomfortable for him. It may work, it may not, but some answer needs to found pretty fast.
I thought it was interesting how many fans for some reason thought we would win this series in a sweep or even in five. The Nuggets proved in thier first two series they are the real deal and we showed way too many flaws against Houston to become so smug, cocky or confident that we would just smack that powerful and versatile team down so easy.
Now after two games what we do know is that Denver can play with us at LA in every phase of the game. What we don't know is if the Lakers can do the same to them in Denver. If the answer is no then the league may end up with a huge surprise finals with their two biggest stars and millions of putative tv viewers not there. Orlando-Denver anyone? Doesn't seem so far fetched tonight. What a nightmare that would be for Kobe, Lebron, LA, Cleveland and the NBA finals ratings.
Both the Lakers and Cleveland have alot to prove on the road now before either series can be called evenly matched.
|
|
Discuss | Email This
|
|
Laker killer Orlando moves one step closer to finals.
Posted by: SPQR on Monday, May 18, 2009 - 10:19 AM
Lakers Blog
|
With their game seven win over Boston, the Orlando Magic moves within one series win to berth in the finals. In over coming two consecutive heart breaking losses to Boston and taking the final two games the Magic has stamped themselves as a serious contender for the Lawrence O’Brien trophy. The heart guts and determination they showed in a situation that would have crumpled lesser teams was a warning that is team is no parvenu or imposter. They have what it takes both on the court and in the locker room.
The question is, if the Lakers do make the finals, who would be the most advantageous foe for us to take on?
In Cleveland you have a team that will have home court advantage over us, necessitating that we have to win at least on game there. No small thing considering that in our last two road games we were blown out by a crippled Houston Rockets team. They are also led by the most versatile and dominant player of the 2008-2009 season in Lebron James. On the plus side is Cleveland’s abysmal record against top quality teams this year, including the Lakers who swept them in both their games, the last of which we played without Andrew Bynum. Our dominance in both games was by no small measure.
In Orlando, you have a team that on paper, and on the court this year, proved very problematic for the Lakers in sweeping us in our two meetings. What makes this team so hard for us? For one, they can effectively counteract our biggest strength: our low post play. With Dwight Howard, our advantage of Drew and Pau is obviated to a large degree. With Drew’s inexperience and injury and Pau’s tendency to play soft against players just like Dwight, the advantage we take for granted down low, which has been so instrumental in our most impressive victories may evaporate game after game. The other problem is that Orlando’s highly effective outside shooting feeds right into one of the Lakers biggest defensive problems: effectively guarding the perimeter. These things could turn out to be very tough obstacles for this Laker team to overcome, as indeed they did during our two regular season match ups. On the plus side we would have home court advantage making it necessary for Orlando to turn the trick in LA at least once and not requiring us to win even one game down there if we take care of business at home.
With all things being considered, this writer, given his druthers, would prefer to play Lebron and the Cav’s over a team that not only preys on one of our most glaring defensive weaknesses but also has the ability to take away, or at least strongly neutralize our greatest strength. The fact that Orlando proved so resilient and mentally tough to come back and take two straight games against Boston including a game seven in the Fleet Center when all appeared to be lost is also something that makes me view them as a very dangerous team that can win when they have to, no matter where the game takes place; something Cleveland has not proven they can do yet.
|
|
Discuss | Email This
|
|
Manic-depressive Lakers are like a little girl.
Posted by: SPQR on Monday, May 18, 2009 - 09:31 AM
Lakers Blog
|
There was a little girl who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead;
When she was good, she was very, very good,
And when she was bad she was horrid. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
When Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote this famous nursery rhyme he wasn’t thinking about the NBA, but he sure could have been talking about the 2008-2009 Los Angeles Lakers.
How good can they be? Good enough to win 65 games and sweep the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers. Good enough to dispatch the Utah Jazz in five easy games. Good enough to blow out the Mingless Houston Rockets in their last two series wins with such ease that they looked like they were playing a high school team.
How bad can they be? Bad enough to lose to the Charlotte Hornets twice and get blown out two times by the same Mingless Rockets team.
When they are good, they are capable of playing tough defense. Pau and Drew will rebound and play interior defense. When they are good, they tend to play smart ball and go to their strengths on offense, not relying on Kobe Bryant and the guards, but instead feeding Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom down low. Kobe takes the ball inside for lay-ups and the and one.
When they are bad, they will play lackadaisical defense, allowing drives to the basket and open outside shots. They tend to shoot the ball from the outside and ignore the mismatches down low. Kobe will relegate himself to shooting the ball from the outside and the other guards will jack up shots while ignoring the inside players.
When they are good, they can beat anyone, and beat them badly. When they are bad, they can lose to anyone and do so just as badly.
To emerge triumphant in their next two series they will have to be good during their home games. One suspects if we lose the home court advantage to Denver or Orlando, those teams will not be as amenable to giving it back as Houston was. With the Lakers not only losing, but getting blown out by Houston on their last two road games, one does not want to rely on the Lakers to win too many more road games in order to achieve an NBA title. They will have to win one if they meet Cleveland. Beyond that they would be wise not to push it.
Longfellow never did say how often the little girl was good, or how often she was bad. For the Lakers to achieve what they want the percentage is clear: they will have to be good for at least four games out of seven for the next two series. Anything less and it will end up a bad finish to a very good year.
|
|
Discuss | Email This
|
|
SOS: Laker championship cruise hits a iceberg
Posted by: SPQR on Friday, May 15, 2009 - 02:13 AM
Lakers Blog
|
On April 10th 1912 the HMS Titanic regally pulled out of her berth in Southampton England bound for New York city. It was the maiden voyage for the biggest, most powerful and prettiest luxury ship ever to set sale. She was expected and determined to make record time in her crossing, putting all other ships of her kind in here majestic wake. She was considered a modern marvel of transporation and considered not only the epitome of elegance and style but also unsinkable.
The voyage proceeded as planned and he ship stormed across the Atlantic for her date with a victorious, glorious destiny. On the dark, freezing cold night of April 14th, close to half way through her journey, disaster struck. Sailing fast, full of confidence in her invulnerablity she struck an iceberg. Hard and frozen black/blue in the sub freezing waters, the berg remained unseen and unsuspected till a collision was unavoidable. This can happen at times in the deathly chilled North Atlantic, but in his case, the berg was a killer. Small above water, she lay under the calm edge line water surface a mass of jagged and lethal substance. The Titanic traveled along its vast expance, ripping gashes along her hull, under the waterline. First examination seemed to indicate acceptable and minor damage. All seemed well. But shortly the great ship began to list and groan. As more and more water poured over the water tight compartments in the ships lower decks, it became apparent that the collision was nothing less than catastrophic. The pumps could not work fast enough and the ship was doomed. As the marvel of the seas slowly lost its fight to survive, being claimed a gallon at a time by the black water in a torturously long death knell, those aboard knew that their voyage had come to a sudden and permanent finish. In the end, the great ship, the master of the sea ended up at the bottom, just a relic for historians to analyze, pick and probe at, trying to find answers to how the accident happened and what caused the ultimate, untimely disaster of her glorious maiden cruise.
Twenty seven years later, in the NBA playoffs the Los Angeles Lakers left port on April 19th. Considered the biggest, most powerful and prettiest team in the league, she was expected and determined to make record time in destroying her opponents as she set sail for her coronation as NBA champion. The were considered the offensive marvel of basketball and expected to leave all other teams in their wake. The voyage proceeded as planned as she stormed past the Utah Jazz in five quick games. Moving on, confident in their invulnerablity they struck an iceberg. It seemed small on the surface, without its best player, but underneath is was large and hard, buttressed by grit, determination and a burning fire to compete and win despite all odds. In their fourth game with the Houston Rockets, despite playing a team now bereft of its two stars, they were shocked and humiliated in Houston by 12 points in a game not remotely that close.
After the team rebounded to destroy the Rockets by 40 in game 5 it seemed to indicate the damage of game four was acceptable and minor in nature. All seemed well. But shortly after the supposed end game six started, the team began to list and groan as the Rockets, repeating their game four mastery jumped out to an 18 point lead. All the problems of game four had unexpectedly resurfaced. A lack of intensity down low where Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum seemed to be more ineffective spectators than active participants. A slowness on defense and a total inabliity to contain or control Houstons mercurial Aaron Brooks. A stumbling sloppiness and lethargy on offense.
Unlike game four, the mighty team tried to fight back. She closed in to striking distance and by the third quarter found themselves down by only two points. It was time to finish Houston off and get the voyage back on championship track with the Nuggets already waiting on them. It was not to be. The Lakers ran out of gas and Houston slowly, inexorably pulled away for their second shorthanded, stunning upset victory in six games.
Examination of the Lakers after the latest loss shows much more damage than orginally thought. The team is leaking water hard and fast with weaknessess they just cannot seem to fix at this late date. A defense that comes and goes, interior players who tend to fade away when the going gets tough, an old, worn out point guard whos body cannot do what his mind so desperatly wants to. An offense that can get very sloppy and stupid and a defense that is a step too slow to many plays in too many games and too many players whos one constant is inconsistancy. The team is captained by a coach who seems to be struggling to get the answers, just as he has all to often in his recent playoff failures.
The flagship team of the NBA now finds itself embroiled in a deadly seventh game with an undermanned team it just can’t shake. Seventh games can mean this: Kobe draws three quick fouls, Pau sprains an ankle, the Rockets come out on fire, any one of these scenarios or a host of others can now signal a sudden and final end to the Lakers playoff voyage. That is what seventh game means. That is where the Laker cruise is at this point.
The gash is bigger and deeper than originally thought. Water is pouring in at an alarming rate. If the pumps don’t work in every way Sunday, this great Laker team, the master of NBA, will end up at the bottom, just a relic for basketball historians to poke, analyze and study in seeking answers for how the accident happened and what caused the ulitimate, untimely disaster of their glorious championship cruise.
If the Lakers do win that seventh game and move on, there are now other icebergs dead ahead in their path. Bergs that now seem so much bigger, much more threatening and ominous than they did just a week ago.With the inconsistancies they are showing and their sudden inability to win on the road, the path to the title looks more perilous than it ever has this year. The Lakers are only halfway through their journey, they are taking on water and safe harbour now seems further away than when they first started their trip.
|
|
Discuss | Email This
|
|
What would Cleveland do?
Posted by: SPQR on Monday, May 11, 2009 - 09:16 AM
Lakers Blog
|
There has been alot of talk on here about how Cleveland was breezing through the playoffs because of their weak competion.
Last night, the Lakers played a Houston team bereft of Yao Ming, Dikembe Motumbo and Tracy Mcgrady. In other words, a team whos talent was comensurate with those teams Cleveland has been playing-or even worse. All we did under those circumstances was get our hats handed to us in humiliating fashion.
What fans fail to realise is it not just who Cleveland is playing, but HOW Cleveland is playing those teams. The recipe for a Lakers win couldn't have been more simple last night: Without Yao, they only way the Rockets could have beaten us with outside shooting. The one thing we did not do was cover the outside shooters. So because this team was too dumb and lazy to disrupt the only option available to Houston, we will be forced to play at least six games in order to dispatch them.
Cleveland and Denver are destroying the competion not only because of who they are playing but how they are playing those teams. If the Lakers played with the attitude and defensive intensity of those two teams, we also would be running through the playoffs at that pace and could have had a very easy win last night.
Am I the only one who feels had that been Cleveland or even Denver playing the Rockets last night those open jumpers, and their path to victory would not have been there?
The next time anyone wants to say, "Cleveland (or Denver) is winning all their games and blowing teams out because of their competition", I suggest you run a replay of last nights debacle and rethink your position. It is not just who you play, but how you play them that figures into the final score.
|
|
Discuss | Email This
|
|
|
|
