1. What do you feel the Lakers need to do to win this series? 2. What advantages do the Lakers have over the Spurs and vice versa? 3. Whats your prediction? Here are my thoughts from the Spurs perspective.
For the Lakers to win, Shaq must want to play defense and rebound. He must attack the SA front line and force Duncan to waste some energy guarding him at times. Kobe must keep being Mr. 4th Quarter. I don't believe that will be a problem. Malone will start out on Duncan, but how long can he play him straight up? I'm making a call right now. Malone will make Duncan bleed sometime in this series with a shot from one of his elbows. He will make it look like an accident as usual, but he will try and take him out to help frustrate the Spurs and give the Lakers any advantage that he can. Parker I believe can have a Bibby-like series against the Lakers, and I believe they should try putting Kobe on him to try and slow him down. Having said all that, this one is going 7 and I'll call a tossup. This is the real NBA Finals.
Yeahhhh, this is the dream series... finally let the media and all the eyes on this series! The Lakers need to: 1. Keep moving the ball. Don't stall the ball too long in one scorer's hands... they gotta remember the one guarding their best offensive player, Kobe Bryant, is not Cuttino Mobley anymore (although he proved that he can play D somehow in the series) but Bruce Bowen the defensive force from hell. If Bryant gets suffocated he needs to remember to pass it to open guys. But guys without the ball have to also move well to complement this strategy. If they don't double Shaq, they gotta take advantage and feed him the ball. If they leave Malone open like Houston did all series long, get the old man the ball and let him have his way with the past 2 season MVP Tim Duncan. Maybe in the process he can draw a couple of fouls from Tim and make his game approach less aggressive. 2. The advantage the Lakers have over the Spurs IMO is they have at least three prolific scorers they can go to (Malone, Kobe and Shaq... Payton will have to prove what he said he's gonna do in this round). These guys plus Derek Fisher, Bryon Russell have enough experience to guide the whole team and its rest of young supporting casts to keep the Spurs at bay. They just know what to do and how to execute in critical moments. The advantage the Spurs hold over the Lakers is four words: they are a team! 3. My prediction is that Lakers in 5!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting King James:</div><div class="quote_post">For the Lakers to win, Shaq must want to play defense and rebound. He must attack the SA front line and force Duncan to waste some energy guarding him at times.</div>I'm still waiting for this beast to wake up. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> Kobe must keep being Mr. 4th Quarter. I don't believe that will be a problem.</div>This is what I am afraid of. I'm sure Bowen will have something to say about that. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> Malone will start out on Duncan, but how long can he play him straight up? I'm making a call right now. Malone will make Duncan bleed sometime in this series with a shot from one of his elbows. He will make it look like an accident as usual, but he will try and take him out to help frustrate the Spurs and give the Lakers any advantage that he can.</div>I wouldn't doubt it if Malone tried and pull a stunt like this. Like I said in the Spurs thread, Malone will use every tactic in the book to frustrate Duncan and get him out of his game. Easier said than done against the reigning MVP. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> Parker I believe can have a Bibby-like series against the Lakers, and I believe they should try putting Kobe on him to try and slow him down.</div>Thats a good point. Parker is going to eat Payton alive, he doesn't stand a chance. Phil will have to make an adjustment sooner or later.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Rudeezy:</div><div class="quote_post">Thats a good point. Parker is going to eat Payton alive, he doesn't stand a chance. Phil will have to make an adjustment sooner or later.</div> Yeah, Payton is not what he used to be, and I feel that he can save energy by guarding Bowen out there on the wings. Putting Kobe on Parker can make things tough on the Spurs as I feel Kobe can stop (or contain) anyone he wants to. Helps having the size and strength advantage too. The Spurs run a nice system, they are very consistent, so if I was Phil, I would try to disrupt it right out of the gate.
The player the Lakers should experiment with on Parker is Devean George. The problem with putting Kobe on Parker is two fold. Kobe is expected to shoulder a lot of the scoring as it is and having him expend additional energy on defense might tire him out for the 4th quarter. Devean George is a great defender when he's not reaching in and getting cheap fouls. I'd like to see the creativity of Phil Jackson come out in this series, the way he did against the Pacers when he coached the Bulls. In the series he put Scottie Pippen on Mark Jackson and completely disrupted the Pacers's offense. If Devean George can have the same results against Parker, the Lakers will have a much easier time. Neither Gary Payton of Derek Fisher have proven they can stick with Parker or Ginobili, so experimenting with George can't be much worse.
Kobe needs to not post up. At all. Call for picks and move without the ball. If he has to create his own shot off the dribble I'd prefer that he drives and dumps it off to Shaq rather than trying to go over both Bowen AND Duncan. 15 shot attempts and 8 assists per and LA can definitely win this series...provided they play D every moment of every game. If he comes out shooting 25 times and only handing out 2 dimes, the Lakers are screwed.
I agree that the Lakers need to be creative defensively...for some reason, Kobe has had a terrible time defending Ginobli, perhaps because he's a lefty, i dunno...but I'd love to see GP shift over and defend Ginobli, one crafty player defending another. Shaq needs to save his fouls early so he can guard Duncan during stretches of the game...they did that last year with some success.... I think the key is going to be the bench...can the Laker bench at the very least hang in there with the Spur bench? Ginobli, Horry, and Rose are all full of energy...if they can figure a way to neutralize those guys, I like L.A's chances...
1. What do you feel the Lakers need to do to win this series?- Play defense.We didnt do this when we played them in our last meeting of the season. Too many uncontested shots and they drove to the hoop at will. Thats gotta change. On offense, I think we have to get shaq more touches. The more touches he gets, the more likely we get SA's big men into foul trouble. In the playoff series last year, duncan really didnt have to work much on defense, cause horry was something like 2-100 from the field. We have malone now and just like houston found out, if you leave him to constantly double shaq, he will burn you with those mid range shots. And one last thing, shaq needs to learn how to make a damn free throw. He shot under 50% for the season and is gettting worse in the playoffs. Not good. 2. What advantages do the Lakers have over the Spurs and vice versa?- Spurs biggest advantage is at PG. Parker will probably clown whoever is guarding him. I thought with the addition of payton, we would be able to stop those speedy PG's. Apparently I thought wrong. Payton also needs to get more involved offensivly. 6, 7 or 8 points isnt gonna get it done. He missed god knows how many easy layups in the houston series. He has to score. It cant be 4 on 5 again like last year when we got knocked out of the playoffs. Lakers biggest advantage, like it is every night is kobe and shaq. Malone has been playing great lately too but this team is only gonna go as far as shaq and kobe takes them. Kobe will get his points on bowen regardless if he makes him work really hard or not. Its impossible to shut him down in a 7 game series. Ditto with shaq. Role players for the lakers are gonna have to step up and do something. During our title runs, they did. Last year they didnt. I think they know this too and will be ready. 3. Whats your prediction? To avoid getting jinxed again like last year, i'll keep my predictions to myself.
Kobe needs to play the smartest that he's ever played in his entire career. Set aside your pride because we all know that you could destroy any human being one on one. Bowen is goign to get in his head as much as possible but Kobe needs to focus and needs to play a near perfect team game; then go for the kill in the 4th like you always do. Shaq needs to really up his D down the low post. He played extremely well defensively in Game 5 against the rockets and we need to see him continue to play dominant d downlow. Malone has to make Tim work for every shot possible and try to contain him as well as he can. He's obviously a lot slower than Tim and because of Tim's exceptional footworking, its going to be hard for Malone to defend him. Since we know GP and D Fish can't guard Tony, they need to make him exert a lot of energy on D so he could slow down. GP needs to tire Tony by playing physical posting him forcing Tony to use his physical strength. D Fish needs to run around; look for clear open shots and knock em down like he did 00-01 which will force Tony to have to play D. We also need to focus our attention on the silent assassin Ginobili. Someone really needs to look out for him because he was killing us last year. And finally, the PICK AND ROLL...our kryptonite. We need to seriously find a way to defend the dreadful pick and roll. I know many of the Lakers from last year are seeking revenge really bad and will be focused. Malone and GP are beyond hungry for the Bling so I'm sure they will step up their game to another notch since the REAL challenge is starting. I predict Lakers in 5. We'll steal the first game because we have a lot of momentum going into the game after destroying Houston in Game 5 and Spurs are going to be rusty not playing for 6 days. After the surprise, they'll beat us in next game and we'll pound them in next three games.
I think that this is the time where kobe and shaq qill really step up, cuase they seam to be very fed up with the spures, it will be a long sereries but lakers will win.
1)What do the Lakers have to do to win the series- Let Gary Payton get some isolations in the high post against Parker. The only way the Lakers are going to wear Parker down is by making him work on the other end of the court. Bench Perimeter shooters must produce. Guys like Kareem Rush & Derek Fisher must stretch the Spurs Defense. If they dont the Spurs are just going to pack their defense in the lane on Shaq. And to prevent Kobe from penetrating. And of course get the ball into shaq in the post against Rasho. Last year shaq averaged about 30ppg against Rasho. Granted its a new team for Rasho & new circumstances on both sides. But I still like that match for Shaq. What advantages do the Lakers have Spurs & vice Versa Spurs Advantage- Pick & Roll. Tony Parker is probably one of the smartest pg's when it comes to decision making off the pick & roll play with the bigmen. The Lakers arent going to be able to hide the fact that they cant guard the pick &roll against the Spurs. If Shaq doesnt step to help on the Pick & roll, Parker is just going to walk thru the lane all-night. And if Shaq does step up, both of the spurs main bigmen(Rasho & Duncan) can make that mid-range shot when the defender leaves them. Lakers Advantage - The three guard lineup. Inorder for the Lakers to have an advantage at this Gary Payton must be effective in the series. If Payton is effective that will mean that the Spurs will counter with a three guard lineup of their own. The spurs will bring in Manu, so they can take Parker off GP. But they will have to keep Bowen in the game to stay with Kobe. Which means the Spurs will go with a perimeter of Parker,Manu,Bowen alot in the series. So that means the Lakers can use their most productive perimeter lineup of GP, Kobe, Fisher without Fisher being a defensive liablity. The Lakers can hide Fisher on Bowen. So now the Lakers have a lineup of GP, Kobe, Fisher, Malone, Shaq for most of the series. That is the lineup that produce the most points for the Lakers during the regular season. Series Winner -Spurs 4-2. I think the Lakers have better indiviuals. But the Spurs are a better team, so I favor the Spurs in the series. But I dont see the Lakers losing a game 7, even on the road. So if the Spurs win the series they are going to have to do it in 6 games.
Well of course I'm going with the Lakers. In 7 games and I wish they could sweep them but that isn't really realistic at all. Henacy's right about the Spurs have to win it in 6 because it's like Barkley has been saying these past 3 years is that he can't see anyone beating the Lakers in a 7 game series even though he think the Spurs are gonna win it. BTW getting off topic KJ is just a regular member now. I thought it just was some new member with another KJ avatar at first. I was trippin out seeing that.
For once, I want the Lakers to win. I think they can do it too. This is the playoffs where everything counts, so hopefully Shaq will be active. If not Kobe and Mailman will have to take care of business which would cause them to lose as they alone wouldn't be able to handle the defense of the Spurs. They have to take into consideration the chemistry and rotation of the Spurs, how good they are at it. Not to mention the fact, that all of them provide something positive along with a hell of a lot of effort, wish the same could be said for Shaq. You guys might have Horry as an x-factor, he might be sore of no longer being a Laker, also he's clutch and useful. And as stated earlier, Parker will burn any of your providers. TD and Ginobili will of course play the biggest roles. Not forgetting the hard time Bowen will be giving you, also keep an eye on "Malik Rose." I feel he's gonna do something.
Some of u guys are pretty bold with your "lakers in 5 prediction." I said that last year, and l.a. got their asses handed to them in 6... I'm going wit the majority and saying its going 7 games....I have a feeling this series is going to be special...
For Spurs to win this series Tony Parker needs to continue to shoot the ball well from the outside and attack the pick and roll. Payton is not quick enough nor is his defense that good anymore to stop TP from attacking the basket. I wouldn't worry about Duncan getting into foul trouble, he is a very smart player and not even Karl Malone could force it to happen. We all know Karl will try and smash someone with his elbows but If that happens in comes.... Kevin Willis He can take care of Malone in that department. I'm not worried about Kobe going off as I expect Bowen to hold him to under 45% for the series, Spurs only worry will be If Derek Fisher, Deveon George and Kareem Rush are consistantly knocking down their jump shots. Thats the only way I see Spurs losing this series. Spurs having homecourt advantage is further proof why I think L.A will be send home for the 2nd straight yeae by Timmy and co Won't be easy as to me this is the real NBA finals, Lakers aren't playing great which will play into the Spurs hands but they are a team who can turn it on, which they will have to do for them to even compete in this series. This should be a great battle. Game 1 is on sunday and the SBC will be rocking.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Won't be easy as to me this is the real NBA finals</div> I think alot of people feel that way. The Lakers need to involve Shaq more this series and get at least 3 of the big 4 in tact. But Shaq has to at least hit 50 to 60% of his freethrows too. It's so discouraging to see him go to the foul line this year then any other year. Shaq has to annihilate Nestrovic so that the Spurs collapse on Shaq so much the perimeter players get 10 to 15 open looks a quarter and Dthrone the defending champs.
I will be surprised If Lakers get even 3 open looks per game, If that Certainly don't expect Kobe to have any open shots. Malone is the only guy who will likely be given an open jump shot.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting notMuchgame:</div><div class="quote_post">Some of u guys are pretty bold with your "lakers in 5 prediction." I said that last year, and l.a. got their asses handed to them in 6...</div>I am very suprised too. I think the first game or two will tell us a lot about how this series is going to turn out. If the Spurs win their first two games at home, look for this series to go 5 maybe 6 games. If they split in SA, we will bel looking at a 7 game series IMO.
