Sources: Stern ordered the Lakers to lose that game.

What I'm hearing is that Phil was told that he was supposed to hand a "close victory" to the Blazers. If you watch the replay, Kobe was very purposefully short-arming those freethrows as Phil asked him to. Derek was supposed to make one of two and then he and Kobe were told to make sure they foul whoever gets the ball for Portland so that the Blazers can pull it out with game winning freethrows. The final challenge for Phil, though, was how to deal with the final three seconds. Kobe has taken and made these shots all season long and to ask him to purposefully brick a big shot like that after bricking two free throws would've been too much to ask of Kobe's ego. So Phil chose Gasol who had only made one three in his entire career as a Laker. The play was completely designed for him. Kobe didn't complain and pull a Pippen. Kobe didn't even try to get open. And afterwards, Kobe wasn't all that upset. Meanwhile, Pau couldn't help laughing at what they had just done.

So why was the game thrown? Because Stern has ordered the refs to make sure we lose our next two and fall to the 8th seed. Today's game was on ABC and Stern wanted it to be a playoff preview. He wanted to get people excited about a "sure to be dramatic" Blazers-Lakers first round series. Of course, the series will go 7 games but then Kobe, Phil, refs, etc will make sure we lose that final game, just as Andre Miller had been told in confidence by one of his friends in the front office. And that's why Miller said what he did. He was telling his team, we have to fight the refs and the league to get out of that 8th seed and ruin Stern's plans. Miller is pissed.

Anyway, that's what I'm hearing. I'll let you know if I hear anything else.

 

WOW

 

Groundhog day. Over and over again. Yeah baby!!

 

Hahaha, that's so funny. I'm sure you can tell if he's aiming for the front rim or just a few inches pass. Ya, right. To bad this is to big for a sig.

 

I'm hearing a much more plausible explanation. The Lakers want to play anyone but the Blazers in the 1st round. We have their number, just like Houston had ours last year, when we failed to throw games at the end of the season to avoid them. Meanwhile, we want to play the Lakers in the 1st round for the same reason, because they're such easy patsies for us, even when Roy doesn't play.

Phil Jackson outcoached Nate McMillan yesterday. Both went into the game intending to lose. You could tell how Kobe was playing so poorly most of the time. He shot like what, 8 for 30? The announcers kept saying how bad he was and how Jackson should be resting him. He was, Kobe was resting while playing. This was so obvious that even McMillan could tell what was going on, so he pulled Roy out of the game and sent him to the locker room. Did you notice that at first, Roy didn't know what reason to give? Did you see the trainer talking to him and then Roy said his knee hurt? How often does a trainer talk to a player when he's faking being hurt? Never that I've seen.

Once Roy was announced out at halftime, we got BETTER. Suddenly the Lakers just rolled over and we took the lead early in the 3rd quarter for the first time. From there on it was a cakewalk. Shouldn't it have been the opposite? How come the Lakers played so badly, and then we did the same, so they played worse, so we played worse, and it all spiraled downward to end with ridiculous mistakes in the last minute by both teams? Explain that if you disagree with what I heard.

And don't quote this whole thing in this thread. No one wants to use their page down button on a mile-long grey block.

 

...you mean like this?!

 

That came out better-looking than I expected. Good job.

 

This is more like what I was thinking of.

 

This is what happens when you can no longer masturbate because you lose the use of both hands.

 

You got me KingSpeed, I thought you were serious for a second.

 

I'm serious. Listen to this shit:

Kobe experimenting with a new way of shooting free throws??? And even if he made both, the plan was still to put Webster on the line? And Pau would've shot two? Meaning Kobe was definitely not the go to guy regardless of the situation? The Lakers threw this game. That's why they were smiling after. My sources were correct.

Nice picture, Sug. Damn, Zack needs regular hand/blow jobs now.

 

I really thought you were joking, either way I don't believe it.

Anyway, do you forgive Andre now? I thought you were a bit hard on him.

 

Sure. I didn't realize the situation was this severe. The Lakers throwing a game? Kobe and Pau laughing about it?

 

I saw Kobe laughing on the highlights.

I don't doubt a team might throw a close game trying to avoid a tough match up in the first round, but I don't believe it the league office tells them to.

 

This thread is made of fail.

 

*edited*

 

I understand Kobe was 8/30, but why the hell did Pau take the last shot?

 

*edited*

 

I figure this thread is as good as any to post this beautiful article: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/ready-243563-angeles-arrogance.html