Great game tonight by the Lakers. I just can't figure out why they can't play like this every night. The defense wasn't very good, but the Magic kept turning the ball over in the 1st half. Statistically wise the game was non-convential. The Magic were shooting 60% and found themselves down by as many as 20 points in the game. The Laker starters were very loose and energized tonight. The only starter who didn't score in double digits was Lamar Odom, but he was getting it done on the glass and doing a nice job of rotating on defense. He had one of the best Laker highlights of the night after skying for a dunk and posterizing Dwight Howard. Kwame Brown was making some crazy shots tonight. He was getting clowned on the bench by his teammates with some of the garbage he was throwing up. I noticed Ronny Turiaf and Kwame have a good relationship on the bench, and Turiaf is always trying to pump him up and give him some pointers. Kobe Bryant made some ridiculous shots tonight as well. He had one layup where he went for the reverse with his off hand over two defenders. On his final shot he hit about a 35 footer from the hash mark like it was nothing. He did a great job of initiating the offense and getting Smush Parker off early. One combination I liked on the floor was Turiaf and Kwame together in the frontcourt. They played well together and really sparked the Lakers during the 3rd quarter. Kwame was really feeding off of Turiaf, and even set him up on a quick pass leading to a Turiaf dunk. 6 players in double digits, very nice balance by the Laker offense tonight. However, they really need to pick it up on the defensive end. If they allow playoff caliber teams to shoot 53% on the night, they aren't going to be winning any of those games. For Magic fans who read this recap, Brian Hill has no idea what he has on his roster. Keyon Dooling is not a point guard, and was getting worked all night by Smush Parker on both ends. Smush crossed him up on the baseline so hard, Dooling fell to the ground. Smush picked him at the halfcourt line and then coasted in for a layup and foul. Then Smush tipped the pass from the inbounds pass leading to the Odom dunk. The Magic played very well with Arroyo running the offense. His court vision is amazing and he's creative at penetrating and dishing. I checked his stats, he's actually 4th in the league in Assist/Turnover ratio. He needs to be the everyday starter for this team until Jameer Nelson comes back. Darko Milic was impressive tonight as well. He did rush a few jumpshots and missed badly, but he has great footwork down low and really compliments Dwight Howard's game. He gets after the rebounds and can score with either hand in traffic. He made Odom look stupid on two plays by faking right and then spinning off of Odom for an uncontested basket. His deceptive speed caught Odom completely off guard on those two plays. Darko also has great shotblocking instincts. Dwight Howard is a beast. One bad habit he does have is waiting too, long to get his shot off. He got his shot swatted from behind a couple of times, because he allowed the double team to swarm him, before he made his move to the basket. Hard to believe he's only 20 years old, he's HUGE in real life. One other area he needs to work on is establishing position and demanding the ball more. Right now most of his shots come off of the pick and roll or from his guards dribbling and dishing it off to him. He never really isolated on the low block and forced his way to the basket. The Lakers fly out to Portland now for a short two game road trip. These next two games are very important for the Lakers to win, so they can have some momentum before facing the Pistons.
Ronny is, believe it or not, becoming a vocal leader of this team. He gave Sasha some words when Sasha committed a foul, he gives Kwame advice, and he brings energy to the game. I love that kid. Kobe was unreal tonight. That last shot was CRAZY.
^word. Other than TMac, no one in this league makes 28+ footers look so eaaaasy. Watching the game, I was impressed as to how Kobe was really playing the role of facilitator and played the offensive side with patience and the only bad shots he took were the ones he was forced to take with 2 seconds or so left on the clock.
great win by the lakers. im really starting to think ronny is our second best player on the team. he rebounds, scores, blocks, plays D, encourages teamates, and makes the bench lively. not to mention he is only 22! i see a great future ahead for him
What a game, I had so much fun watching it, check out the NBA Top 10 plays for the 10, 7/10 of them are the Lakers, haha! http://www.nba.com/nba_tv/top_10_leaders.html Click on the Video link to the right of Kobe's name to see last nights. Also, look who's tied at #13 with Shaq, SMUSH!! Dude can be a highlight reel no doubt. Great game by the Lakers, I hope we have an encore performance tonight.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post"> For Magic fans who read this recap, Brian Hill has no idea what he has on his roster. Keyon Dooling is not a point guard, and was getting worked all night by Smush Parker on both ends. Smush crossed him up on the baseline so hard, Dooling fell to the ground. Smush picked him at the halfcourt line and then coasted in for a layup and foul. Then Smush tipped the pass from the inbounds pass leading to the Odom dunk. The Magic played very well with Arroyo running the offense. His court vision is amazing and he's creative at penetrating and dishing. I checked his stats, he's actually 4th in the league in Assist/Turnover ratio. He needs to be the everyday starter for this team until Jameer Nelson comes back. Darko Milic was impressive tonight as well. He did rush a few jumpshots and missed badly, but he has great footwork down low and really compliments Dwight Howard's game. He gets after the rebounds and can score with either hand in traffic. He made Odom look stupid on two plays by faking right and then spinning off of Odom for an uncontested basket. His deceptive speed caught Odom completely off guard on those two plays. Darko also has great shotblocking instincts. Dwight Howard is a beast. One bad habit he does have is waiting too, long to get his shot off. He got his shot swatted from behind a couple of times, because he allowed the double team to swarm him, before he made his move to the basket. Hard to believe he's only 20 years old, he's HUGE in real life. One other area he needs to work on is establishing position and demanding the ball more. Right now most of his shots come off of the pick and roll or from his guards dribbling and dishing it off to him. He never really isolated on the low block and forced his way to the basket. </div> First off, great win by the Lakers. Don't get too confident though, because the Magic really aren't that good of a team. Brian Hill looks lost at times. I don't understand why Arroyo doesn't start or why Pat Garrity gets 15:50 of PT and SHOOTS ONE SHOT! If he is in the game, give him the ball, let him shoot, it's just horrible to watch him play defense and rebound. The beginning of the second half we started giving Dwight a couple of shots and we narrowed the margin to 2(I believe, maybe it was 4), then the stretch where you guys just completely hammered us and took control of the game Dwight got 1 touch(at the 3 pt line where he immediately passed it to Dooling) in like a 4 minute span. He didn't have a good game at all, I think the main reason was that the refs took him out of the game early and he just didn't get back into the game after that. (He was 1-1 with 2 pts and 3 boards in the first 4-5 minutes when he picked up the 2nd foul) I was very impressed with Darko, he seems to know the defense good, now it's just a matter of getting him more familiar with our offense.
