Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Lakers lead 2-1) What happened to height advantage? I thought we'd have this series in our hands by now. Bynum and Gasol should be dominating.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Lakers lead 2-1) Bynum is a step slow. That knee is obviously bothering him. We need to sit him out for the rest of the WCF and get him healthy enough for the championship round. Its a MUST win for the LAKERS in Staples IMO, and all the pressure is on them. They still havent found a solution to that ZONE.....
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Lakers lead 2-1) Yeah, there is no way I'll be able to deal with Bynum's knee injuries next year...
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Series tied 2-2) Bynum played better than both Odom and Gasol tonight in terms of production based on time played. Odom was good, but he had that scared look in his eyes all night. He Phil needs to play the 2 of the 3 that are having the better game when the game is on the line. He can't just go to Pau and Odom by default. Speaking of Pau, he was raped multiple times tonight with no call. The refs were fucking atrocious. All 3 of our bigs were hacked beyond belief and the refs swallowed the whistle. Remember the alley oop attempt to Bynum in the 1st half where side show Bob nearly spun him 360? Bullshit. We've got a serious issue @ the PG position and sorry to disagree with you HK, it doesn't start with Fisher. The Suns took the game when Farmar and Shannon were in. Farmar dribbled out the shot clock numerous times and then dished it off for a horrible shot or hoisted a horrible shot. We have 3 PG's, and none of them can penetrate to break the zone. I've seen HS PG's break zones better. If this is going to be the case, then Kobe needs to take over PG duties and drive to the hoop and set up our bigs or kick it out and hope we're knocking down 3's. Speaking of perimeter players, where the hell is Sasha? I'd much rather see him in there than Farmar and Shannon. Is his ankle okay? How about giving Josh Powell some burn? He's an energy guy who isn't afraid to get scrappy down on the block. We need to match Phoenix's energy. Put Powell in there with Gasol or Odom if you're going to spell Bynum. Game 4 is a must win for us. I have no doubt in my mind we'll win it, but I'd like for a convincing win. Hopefully we can close this out in 6.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Series tied 2-2) Tonight we couldn't BREATHE on the Phoenix Suns without a foul being called. I know I always shit on Fisher, saying he can't play defense and he plays D with his hands, but today, he got a few fouls called on him that, after replaying 2 or 3 times, were CLEARLY offensive. They couldn't miss a shot today. Just a weird game. LA NEEDS to play with as much intensity as they did Game 5 against OKC. Game 5 is officially a MUST win.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Series tied 2-2) I expect Kobe to be dominant in game 5. Also, Fisher needs to lay someone down with a very hard pick like he did to Scola last year. Phoenix is just doing whatever they want right now, jumping up and down, barking and yapping, and they think they've got control now. This is where Fisher's leadership and veteran grit needs to come out. Pop Lopez or Amundson, please.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Series tied 2-2) I see Lakers winning still but it's giving even more hope to the Celtics IMO.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Series tied 2-2) Some good old fashion home cooking last night. I knew we were going to lose once I saw Dan Crawford was officiating. He always had it out for our team for some reason. They got every call in the game still almost lost. The Lakers have been getting jobbed on the road this entire playoffs. There +/- minus differential at the free line is outrageous on the road -14.3 the next worst differential is Boston at -4.6. After last night that differential is even worse. Phoenix shot nearly twice as many free throws at home. Game 3 they earned it because Amare was beasting in the paint, but last night was embarrassing officiating.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Series tied 2-2) Some post game quotes ... “Kobe had a great game,” Lamar Odom said. “Too bad we weren’t able to come along with him.” “We lost the game,” Bryant said, “because our defense sucked. “Our focus was on the other side of the floor, which doesn’t win championships. So we need to get back to ground zero when it comes to that.”
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Series tied 2-2) Lopez or Dudley. Lopez just pisses me off, he looks like an ass. It's laughable how much better his twin brother is than he. And Dudley ALSO pisses me off. He thinks he's Kobe out there.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Series tied 2-2) Im so hyped for game 5! Im not going to get anything done at work today. I hope we clown the suns tonight.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Series tied 2-2) Lopez is awesome. I love him, Dragic, Grant Hill and Steve Nash.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Series tied 2-2) Today, by popular demand, we're taking another look at lineups and matchups in the NBA playoffs, which are turning out to be crucial, maybe even decisive, factors in both conference finals. A good chunk of any NBA game involves the most gifted players on the court spontaneously creating scoring opportunities. At the opposite end of the improvisation spectrum, there are relatively few set plays in most hoops contests, though some coaches go out of their way to make these as complicated as possible. (Someone once said Hubie Brown could make diagramming an inbounds pass seem like planning the landing at Inchon.) In between, there's a whole world of strategy, where different players' skills come together and face off against opposing combinations, and the results create a game's ebb and flow. As I detailed earlier this month, we can use plus/minus, which is simply the difference between the points a team scores and the points it allows when a given player or unit is on the floor, to study these matchups. For example, in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals, the Phoenix Suns' bench outscored the Los Angeles Lakers' bench 54-20. But even that doesn't describe what happened Tuesday night. When a nonstarter was on the floor, Phoenix was an incredible plus-69, while when L.A. played any member of its bench, the Lakers were minus-45. Specifically, through the first two rounds of the playoffs, as in much of the regular season, the Suns' most effective lineups played Jared Dudley and Channing Frye. But Frye hit a wall against the Lakers, or, more accurately, he hit two walls: Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom. In the first three games of the Lakers series, Frye was minus-23 (on 1-for-20 shooting) in 47 minutes. For the majority of that time, he was facing Gasol and Odom, against whom he was a horrible minus-35 in 30 minutes. But in Game 3, Robin Lopez (plus-19 in 30 minutes) picked up Frye's slack. And in Game 4, Frye regained his shooting touch, with four 3-pointers -- but he played mostly with the other non-starters, who helped the Suns dominate in the fourth quarter. So it looks like Alvin Gentry has figured out that to match up against Derek Fisher-Kobe Bryant-Ron Artest-Odom-Gasol, the Lakers' unit that has given the Suns the most trouble, he needs to play Lopez, not Frye. Phil Jackson has not figured out how to respond. He has played Fisher-Kobe-Artest-Gasol-Andrew Bynum most frequently against the Suns, just as he did in the earlier rounds of the playoffs, though Bynum was ineffective even when L.A. was running all over Phoenix (minus-2 in 37 minutes in Games 1 and 2). And in Game 4, Bynum was back on the floor as the Suns' backups were killing the Lakers, and he finished at minus-16 in 25 minutes. Meanwhile, as a unit, Goran Dragic-Leandro Barbosa-Louis Amundson-Dudley-Frye were an amazing plus-15 in Game 4, putting them in position for their group postgame interview with Craig Sager. For the series, the Phoenix back five are now plus-30 in 20 minutes against lineups including both Bynum and Odom. On offense, Bynum doesn't look too hot against the zone, and on defense he's not moving out to stop Frye's, or anyone's, long-range shots. The Lakers are sure to adjust, but for the moment the matchups say advantage, Phoenix. And if you care about stats and analytics, tonight is the most important NBA game of the season. The Suns aren't fun just because they've got college-level enthusiasm to go with their 2-3 zone, or because they can save the planet from another Celtics-Lakers final, but because their team has 10 guys their coach is willing to play. That creates an incredible number of lineup combinations, and watching them mix and match is truly enjoyable. I wish I could say the same thing about the Orlando Magic in the East, but while plus/minus is screaming about what the Magic should do, there's little evidence that Stan Van Gundy will listen. Jameer Nelson-Vince Carter-Matt Barnes-Rashard Lewis-Dwight Howard has been by far Orlando's most frequently used lineup in the playoffs. But the Celtics have been chewing Barnes up: he's minus-37 in 108 minutes against Boston. Meanwhile, J.J. Redick has been extremely effective, at plus-38 in 134 minutes, and neither of those scores are the result of garbage-time play, according to the analysis of plus/minus guru Wayne Winston. With Redick in the lineup, Orlando is plus-26 against combinations of Celtics that include Ray Allen, the supposedly unstoppable Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce, but with Barnes, the Magic is minus-46 in 74 minutes against Allen, Rondo and Pierce. Redick also played well against the Celtics' starting five in last year's playoffs. But the Magic just won't divert any more minutes to Redick from Barnes or Vince Carter (minus-15 in 159 minutes this series). It's certainly possible that the Celtics, who were already old and are now seriously banged up, could complete their collapse and the Magic could win this series. But if they don't, it won't be because Howard or Nelson let them down. It will be because they never figured out how to rotate Barnes and Redick, or how to rest Howard and Nelson most effectively. Orlando's playing like a one-lineup team.
