^ So you guys complain if we say the Lakers had a bad offensive game and you claim it was all Detroit's defense.. but if we say Kobe did a great job on Hamilton that's not true because it was really just him folding under the pressure of people constantly referring to the match-up? Riiiiiiiight...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Chungster:</div><div class="quote_post">Pistons can win game 2 and the Lakers would still win the series. I'm sorry, but they are not in the Laker's league when they're motivated.</div> If the Pistons win game 2, the Lakers are going to have to play the next three straight in Detroit. Lakers road record in the regular season: 22-19 Lakers road record in the playoffs: 3-5 If the Pistons win game 2, Pistons are going to win in 5 maybe even 4. btw, that motivation talk is crap. you're playing in the NBA Finals. Karl Malone and Gary Payton took lower salaries and left their teams to win a championship. don't tell me, just because they got beaten badly, they weren't motivated. if they truly aren't motivated enough to play hard at this level, i'm sorry, they don't deserve to win...and they'll be embarassed by the Pistons.
all the pressure is on L.A. right now. they MUST win game 2. L.A. is barely an average road team (22-19 in the regular season and 3-5 in the playoffs). if L.A. goes to Detroit to play 3 games down 0-2, i predict the Pistons in 5 maybe even 4. even if Detroit loses game 2, they did what they needed to: split on the road.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Kobe 8 Ball:</div><div class="quote_post">No actual NBA skills? He is argueably the best big man passer in teh NBA, he is incredibly athletic for his size. What is wrong with using his weight? It is a God given ability, if he was on teh Pistons do you honestly think you would be complaining right now?</div> Really, ever since he came to the league Shaq dislikers have been saying that. Then when the guy doesn't use his size, he's considered big for nothing. Which is right, if anybody was a whole lot bigger then every other player. It's mandatory to use your size advantage. Don't wanna be called big for nothing.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Phreeze:</div><div class="quote_post">^ So you guys complain if we say the Lakers had a bad offensive game and you claim it was all Detroit's defense.. but if we say Kobe did a great job on Hamilton that's not true because it was really just him folding under the pressure of people constantly referring to the match-up? Riiiiiiiight...</div> No, he didn't fold under the pressure. The fact that the Pistons won proves that we didn't fold under the pressure. Kobe is a great one on one defender and any true fan would admit this. However, it is you Lakers fans that say these TWO things at the same time, 1. We had a bad offensive game and 2. Kobe shut down Hamilton. If you don't want us to say that we shut you guys down and that Hamilton had an off night, then you can't use the same excuse. Kobe did a good job on Hamilton, but Hamilton was still fairly effective without scoring as proven with his 7 rebounds and 5 assists. (And a bunch of turnovers, but ) Hamilton is not a true superstar and you cannot expect him to go every single night and give 20 points and shoot 42%, on the other hand Kobe is one of the top 5 players in the league and he is supposed to give at least 20 and 42%. Kobe got his 20+ but he jacked up enough shots to prevent the only Laker that wasn't sucking from scoring enough to get them back in the game. But, we'll take it. Edit: BTW, you guys are saying this like Hamilton is our whole offense. Before the Indiana series he was still unproven and now everybody considers him the Pistons' superstar when he isn't. Hamilton is an above average player but somebody like Kobe is supposed to shut him down. On the other hand, Kobe shouldn't be shut down by Prince.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting PyroManiac:</div><div class="quote_post">If you don't want us to say that we shut you guys down and that Hamilton had an off night, then you can't use the same excuse.</div> Actually I think almost every Laker fan on this site would agree that the Pistons had much to do with the Lakers' offensive struggle. Ever since the game ended I've seen majority of us Laker fans crediting the Piston Defense, but you can not say that 100% of their struggles were because of Detroit either. The Lakers were also clearly lost on what they were doing, and they were not only being bothered by the Pistons but looked confused on what to do on the floor. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting PyroManiac:</div><div class="quote_post">No, he didn't fold under the pressure. The fact that the Pistons won proves that we didn't fold under the pressure. Kobe is a great one on one defender and any true fan would admit this. However, it is you Lakers fans that say these TWO things at the same time, 1. We had a bad offensive game and 2. Kobe shut down Hamilton.</div> I'm not talking about the Pistons as a team folding under pressure obviously.. nor do I even think the pressure was why Hamilton had a bad game. We were discussing the Kobe vs Hamilton matchup there. I replied to Avery's post because he said Hamilton had a poor game because of the matchup being so anticipated, and it wasn't because of Kobe. If you were looking at it like that, Rip did infact fold under pressure. It went something like this: <div class="quote_poster">Quoting Avery:</div><div class="quote_post">The reason why it may seem as if Kobe "Shut Hamilton down" was because everyone was anticipating for this match-up. The media was hyping it up since day one. They were constantly referring to this match-up (Kobe and Hamilton) to be the deciding factor in Game 1 and quite possibly the entire series. Being that Kobe had a better game than Hamilton, it was all said and done. Just because he had a better game than Hamilton dosen't mean he had a good game.</div> Kobe had a horrible offensive night, but I just felt his defense was great. I'm also not saying that EVERYTHING bad that came from Rip was all due to Kobe, but a majority of it was. Either that, or Hamilton folded under pressure, as basically suggested.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting NTC187:</div><div class="quote_post">HELL YES!!! D-TOWN BABY!!! :mrgreen: Thats a blow to all those who doubted us, but I wont get too cocky, we still got 6 (possibly) more games to play, but still, we beat L.A at HOME!!! We're going straight to the top! </div> Groupie. Funny how you come out of the woodwork. Why is it I've never seen you here before?? You only come in here when your "team" advances to the Finals, and you claim you're going straight to the top after one victory?? Homie, this will be a long series, but if you haters are going to underestimate the Lakers, think again.
Man, I was so fired up and juiced for the NBA Finals yesterday night. I did my pregame rituals and everything, and my team played pathetic Laker basketball for 48 minutes. Unbelieveable. Of course if you check out the boxscores, Shaq was the main man. Scoring 34 points, Kobe scored 25 but really had to work for that 25, and the rest?? Nowhere to be found. Karl Malone who is hungry for a ring? 4 points. Gary Payton? The man that all of us Laker fans have slammed.....3 pts. Devean George the hot-cold guy? Five. And the hero in last week's clincher over Minnesota? Zero. Much credit to the Detroit defense. They really made the Lakers look stagnant and flat all evening, and they definitely did not look like a team that barely had Finals experience. But if you ask me, I'm not worried at all. The Lakers are one proud arrogant team, and I'm sure they thought in their minds that the Pistons were just a "JV team" and that they could just walk all over them whenever they wanted. But now that they're challenged and in for some competition, they're really gonna play their A game. Game 2 should go in the Lakers favor, and I'm still going with the Lakers in 6.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Phreeze:</div><div class="quote_post">I'm not talking about the Pistons as a team folding under pressure obviously.. nor do I even think the pressure was why Hamilton had a bad game. We were discussing the Kobe vs Hamilton matchup there. I replied to Avery's post because he said Hamilton had a poor game because of the matchup being so anticipated, and it wasn't because of Kobe. If you were looking at it like that, Rip did infact fold under pressure. It went something like this: Kobe had a horrible offensive night, but I just felt his defense was great. I'm also not saying that EVERYTHING bad that came from Rip was all due to Kobe, but a majority of it was. Either that, or Hamilton folded under pressure, as basically suggested.</div> Well, good thing that it is Detroit vs. Los Angeles and not Hamilton vs. Bryant. Detroit is not like most other teams, we don't have only one player that must have a good game or we lose. Billups, Hamilton, and Rasheed are all able to take on the scoring load with Prince, Corliss, and sometimes even Mike James and Memo. The Lakers have the superstars and the Pistons have the teamwork. It is Showtown vs Mo'town. As for Kobe vs. Hamilton: Kobe should be able to beat Hamilton every single night. He should have a better shooting %, the better defensive game, the whole package. Kobe is the better player. However, if Hamilton can give us what he gave during game 1 (12 points-7 rebounds-5 assists) with slightly more points and fewer turnovers then that is all that we can expect and want from Hamilton. Kobe obviously bugged Hamilton throughout the game just as Prince bugged Kobe. However, I expect both players to come into game 2 and have a better game with fewer turnovers and better percentages.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting PyroManiac:</div><div class="quote_post">As for Kobe vs. Hamilton: Kobe should be able to beat Hamilton every single night. He should have a better shooting %, the better defensive game, the whole package. Kobe is the better player. However, if Hamilton can give us what he gave during game 1 (12 points-7 rebounds-5 assists) with slightly more points and fewer turnovers then that is all that we can expect and want from Hamilton. Kobe obviously bugged Hamilton throughout the game just as Prince bugged Kobe. However, I expect both players to come into game 2 and have a better game with fewer turnovers and better percentages.</div> I could really care less about their individual battle if the Lakers came out with the win, but I just hate it when people try to credit their own team but never an apponent. Most of us Laker fans have said that the defense of Detroit obviously bothered L.A. and we gave Detroit all the credit for that. Since that Detroit victory it's unbelievable how many posts I've all of a suddenly seen about the Pistons all of a suddenly being so good and we all under estimated them, sorry guys but we didn't under estimate the Pistons. We knew they would bring defense like this, we just didn't think our role players would be that bothered like they were in game 1. I can't wait until L.A. comes out and takes a couple of games @ Detroit, you'll hear plenty of your own medicine from me. Yes many writers and playoff-time fans ( fans who are only around when playoff time comes around) did write /talk too much crap about the Pistons having a chance, but the majority of us knew Detroit wouldn't go out without a fight. All these Piston-praising Laker-bashing posts have actually annoyed me more than the Laker-King threads.. And trust me aren't many things that annoy me than the Kings.
I hate that everytime the Lakers lose its because they didn't want to win or didn't care enough but when they win it is because they are great. Both teams played hard and the Pistons were better prepared by a HOF coach and came in and executed their game plan. The Pistons were the better team in game one.
I have a bad feeling about this series, even down 0-2 to the Spurs previously didn't make me this nervous down 0-1 to the Pistons. Like Sheed said, they have a little scheme... wonder what it is. I have to say this I'm a fanatic NBA Live player on PS2, put a superstar season and my Orlando Magic can go 75-7. My point is: I'm a great NBA Live player. Here are my Lakers who just started the season well... but they just lost two of the last three games... guess who beat them in both games? The same Pistons. They even won both games in routs. This happened before the real Game 1 of the NBA Finals, which the Pistons won it. I've had the bad feeling ever since about this Finals series. No NBA Live superstar team can rout my Lakers, but it happened. Usually when I sense things will go bad, they will go bad, oh welll..... I hope saying this is gonna jinx myself. The Lakers are going to win Game 2!!!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting SupraJames:</div><div class="quote_post">What you are trying to say, Iron Shiek, is that the Lakers lost because they failed to exploit the Pistons' "short comings". That is making excuses. Simple as that. The fact that they lost because they didn't exploit those "short comings" is as valid of a fact as, for an example, Clippers lost a game to Spurs because they're just a better team. The Lakers could've won that game if they did bla bla bla, but the fact remains: they didn't. They lost. Fair and square. They need to do this, that could've happen, bla bla bla, all that is just yappin excuses. Now you tried to pull some BS such as Pistons doesn't rebound as a team (that's a joke) and I'm not going to even write to prove that everything you've said in your initial post quoting me is wrong. You've said some weird things like telling Karl to post up against Sheed... Hello, Shaq is in there too? Why crowd the paint by pulling Karl in or even considering posting Karl up if Shaq is just torching them?</div> When you play a seven game series you look to make adjustments. It's not making excuses, it's called analyzing the game. This isn't the NCAA tournament. Now I'm neither a Laker or a Piston fan but I know that the Lakers are capable of playing better offense than they did on Sunday. Also considering that there are two blocks (right and left for the uneducated) in the paint, I figured that there might be just enough room for Karl Malone (the second leading scorer in NBA history) to post up from time to time. I didn't realize that an effective strategy would be for Shaq to shoot the ball every possession while the other four Pistons were allowed not to play defense. I'm guessing that SupraJames would rather the Lakers forfeit the next three games and gift wrap the title for the Pistons. At least then the Lakers couldn't have an excuse.
pistons had it lucky in game 1. i mean cmon you all saw the lakers weren't playing seriously in game1. besides its only one game, still 6 more to go...
I Was suprised how well Detroit got off to a good start...The Pistons showed great defensive moves,and hopefully they can do the same throughout the series
Posting Malone on one block while having Shaq crowd the other is not a good idea in my opinion. Why? Rasheed is such a long defender and Ben is a great defender overall and it'll just be too congested and uneffective for all those people to be down there. Malone may be the 2nd all time leading scorer in the NBA but he's also 40 years old and his game has evolved into shooting from outside, kinda how MJ evolved from dunking on people to just taking fadeaways. Iron, I'm not a Lakers fan nor a Pistons fan as you can see from my profile. However, I recognize credit where credit is due. That poor Lakers shooting credit is due to Pistons' defense, not because the Lakers are just off for no good reason other than "it's just an off night, not their defense". By the way, gift wrap the next 3 games? Huh? Anyways, my prediction is that if Pistons win game 2, there's a chance Detroit might take it in 6 games. Just a hunch.
