<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">LOS ANGELES, Oct. 19 (Ticker) -- Cuttino Mobley's sustained effort gave the Los Angeles Clippers a close victory over their co-tenant at the Staples Center. Rookie Jordan Farmar, a former standout at UCLA, scored 11 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter, including a pair of foul shots to put the Lakers in front, 90-88, with 3:01 left. However, the Clippers closed out their third win in four preseason games when Shaun Livingston made 1-of-2 from the foul line with 2:47 left and Daniel Ewing sank a pair of free throws 47 seconds later. Andrew Bynum scored 15 points and Smush Parker added 13 for the Lakers (2-3), who played without scoring champ Kobe Bryant, who is recovering from knee surgery, and Aaron McKie, who is sidelined with back spasms. Team officials also announced Kwame Brown will be out from three to four weeks with a sprained right shoulder.</div> Source Box score Even if we have tons of guys injured, this does not bode well for the future...
<div class="quote_poster">Bahir Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Source Box score Even if we have tons of guys injured, this does not bode well for the future...</div> <font color=""Red"">PRE</font>-season!
That's still no reason to lose games. If the guys don't do what they are supposed to, it will carry on to the season. We might have lost by only 1 point, but if you look at the shooting percentage and turnovers of some of the guys, you know they can't keep playing like this if they want to make the playoffs. Kobe can't do it all for us.
<div class="quote_poster">Bahir Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">That's still no reason to lose games. If the guys don't do what they are supposed to, it will carry on to the season. We might have lost by only 1 point, but if you look at the shooting percentage and turnovers of some of the guys, you know they can't keep playing like this if they want to make the playoffs. Kobe can't do it all for us.</div> As long as the Lakers take care of buisness early on, they should be fine through out the season. The Lakers play 15 of their first 20 games at home. Kobe Bryant should be back in time for the season opener and hopefully our wounded Lakers can heal quickly to contribute.
It's not good to lose in the pre-season because we need our players to head into the new season with confidence. Especially the players that are supposed to be supporting Odom and Kobe. If one of these two go out, we need someone else to step up. So far, Farmar looks like that player but the rest are inconsistent.
You guys are looking at this wrong. Winning is always nice, but losing isn't going to hurt the confidence of the team at all. The Lakers young squad hung all game long with the Clipper starters. CMaggs logged 20 minutes, Brand 30 minutes, and Mobley pretty much played the entire game. The Lakers would have won this game if the officials made the right call on Farmar's drive to the basket. He was slapped acrossed the arm and instead of going to the free throw line to tie or win the game, he was hit a turnover. The coaching staff was happy at the way the team responded after a lousy game against the Kings. Progress was made tonight and that's all you can expect for preseason. All these injuries do concern me, because the starting 5 won't have any practice together during the preseason. The Lakers are also very thin and inexperienced on the frontline with just Turiaf and Bynum available. The good news for the Lakers, the majority of our games are at Staples Center to start the season off. I think 11 of 14 or 14 of 16 are home games. The bad news for the Lakers, the majority of our games are at home to start the season off.
<div class="quote_poster">shapecity Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">You guys are looking at this wrong. Winning is always nice, but losing isn't going to hurt the confidence of the team at all. The Lakers young squad hung all game long with the Clipper starters. CMaggs logged 20 minutes, Brand 30 minutes, and Mobley pretty much played the entire game. The Lakers would have won this game if the officials made the right call on Farmar's drive to the basket. He was slapped acrossed the arm and instead of going to the free throw line to tie or win the game, he was hit a turnover. The coaching staff was happy at the way the team responded after a lousy game against the Kings. Progress was made tonight and that's all you can expect for preseason. All these injuries do concern me, because the starting 5 won't have any practice together during the preseason. The Lakers are also very thin and inexperienced on the frontline with just Turiaf and Bynum available. The good news for the Lakers, the majority of our games are at Staples Center to start the season off. I think 11 of 14 or 14 of 16 are home games. The bad news for the Lakers, the majority of our games are at home to start the season off.</div> We've lost two in a row, if we carry on losing, the players may start to think they can't win without Kobe. The players need to believe that they don't need Kobe and co. to win games. The ego's for these players will be hurt if they continue to lose. When making decisions on the court, they will be in two-minds leading to poor execution. If they start winning, they will be full of confidence and it will help the execution and decision making. To be fair to the team, they haven't played with each other together enough to pull out results. I'm glad to see the progress of Turiaf and Farmar and I hope they get solid minutes in the coming season. In regard to the Farmar foul, I didn't see the game but as you said he was fouled. However, as Kobe said on "The Best Damn Sports Show Period," the refs aren't going to make these types of calls late in the game hence why he likes to have a good pick so he can get a clear shot at the end of the game without getting fouled.
They did win without Kobe in the first two games, so they do know it's possible. This last game the team was without Kobe, Cook, Radman, Kwame, Shammond, and McKie. Losing by just 1 point to a Clipper team who played their starters heavy minutes should be a victory in the minds of the Lakers.
<div class="quote_poster">custodianrules2 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">If anything preseason losses should get a team hungry. Anyone?</div> I know the losses are eating Kobe inside, because he can't come in to save the games. All summer long the players have manifested on blowing the series against Phoenix, so they sound fired up for this season. I still see a lot of bad habits from last season though. This team knows it needs to win "ugly" games, but aren't doing what's necessary to win those type of games. 1. Shaq-esque free throw shooting 2. Excessive turnovers Game 1 - 57.1% free throws / 16 turnovers Game 2 - 56.7% free throws / 19 turnovers Game 3 - 57.1% free throws / 22 turnovers Game 4 - 84.4% free throws / 21 turnovers Game 5 - 68.8% free throws / 22 turnovers Those are some alarming numbers even for preseason. If the Lakers could make free throws, we'd be 5-0 in preseason.
man, this is the first time I've seen fans whining about pre-season games. This isnt the real show. Players are still conditioning, coaches are still adjusting rotations, players still need to be cut... The Lakers have a long 82 games to advance to the playoffs. Lets worry if they continue to play like this 20-30 games into the season.. haha.. Pre-season is a time to make the mistakes, oil down the mighty Laker machine, and let our stars rest up. Im glad all the injuries occured now instead of in the middle of the season, especially after the all star break. Lastly, have faith in our Laker team. This young team needs SUPPORTERs, not DOUBTers.
First of all, I have idea how some of you are stressing over a preseason game. It's a preseason game for god sakes! We lost to Clippers who had Brand, Maggette, and most of their starters healthy. Meanwhile, we were without our key player in Kobe Bryant, and we were without our low post presence Kwame Brown. Guys, it's just a preseason game. It means nothing
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Trench:</div><div class="quote_post">man, this is the first time I've seen fans whining about pre-season games. </div> <div class="quote_poster">Quoting Brian:</div><div class="quote_post">First of all, I have idea how some of you are stressing over a preseason game.</div> Who is "whining" or "stressing?" If you were referring to me, I don't see how I was doing either of the things you said. All I stated was that winning will give this team confidence. I never said anything about how I have no faith or anything like that.
<div class="quote_poster">Laker_fan Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Who is "whining" or "stressing?" If you were referring to me, I don't see how I was doing either of the things you said. All I stated was that winning will give this team confidence. I never said anything about how I have no faith or anything like that.</div> My bad, I apologize. I guess I misinterpreted what you've said.
<div class="quote_poster">Brian Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">My bad, I apologize. I guess I misinterpreted what you've said.</div> Yeh no problem. I'm sorry if you misinterpreted me when I said "the team needs wins for confidence" as me "stressing."
<div class="quote_poster">Laker_fan Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Yeh no problem. I'm sorry if you misinterpreted me when I said "the team needs wins for confidence" as me "stressing." </div> Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what happened. lol. Anyways, it's all good
