Basel57

We've got 4 very tough games coming up after the Hawks game (which could be tough in itself if they play like they did tonight), and I think those 4 games will show us what the real Lakers are made of this far into the season: vs. San Antonio, @ Houston, @ Dallas, vs Houston.

After a week and a half, we should be able to get a better understanding of how the Lakers will keep playing...

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Bleeding purple & gold...

upsanddowns

W- Hawks

L- Spurs

W-Mavericks

L-Rockets



Hopefully they go at least .500 these next four...

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"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."

-Muhammad Ali

Damian Necronamous

Kind of odd to hear that, but I agree 100%.

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Chick Hearn: This game is in the refrigerator. The door is closed, the lights are out, the eggs are gettin' cool, the butter's gettin' hard, and the jellooooooo's jigglin'!

Current 2008-2009 LA Lakers Roster
PG: Derek Fisher, Jordan Farmar
SG: Kobe Bryant, Sasha Vujacic, Sun Yue
SF: Vladimir Radmanovic, Trevor Ariza, Luke Walton
PF: Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Josh Powell
C: Andrew Bynum, Chris Mihm, D.J. Mbenga

upsanddowns

Yeah, I think the home games are making the guys too relaxed.

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"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."

-Muhammad Ali

The One

All right Lets get something straight...

The things that had nothing to do with the loss:

1. Energy
For a while I have been wondering why the Lakers have been outrebounding teams before when the Lakers are very poor at boxing out. It's because The Lakers are very good at opportunistic rebounding and Lamar Odom is a monster at controlling the ball. The Lakers played the Hornets with the same mindset - play D, watch the ball, tip the ball, Odom grabs. But The Hornets came in with the exact same gameplan (since the only player that boxes out is Chandler). The Hornets just had better hands and the Lakers were not prepared for that. There were a lot of times that the Lakers had their hands on a rebound but just could not hold on. No matter how hard they chased the ball their was a Hornet player with better hands that got a rebound or a loose ball. So it wasn't energy, It was lack of focus on boxing out.

2. Defense (Rotation)
The Lakers played decent on defense (except for guarding Paul of course) but it's hard to tell when a team gives up a lot of offensive rebounds that lead to scores. That's why I wasn't sure why Phil stuck with the 3-2 zone (that appearently the Lakers don't practice often). It made the Lakers less interested in defense and it allowed the Hornets to then score from the perimeter.

3. Chris Paul
Chris Paul would have torch the Lakers nomatter what they do because there is noone on the Lakers that could guard him. Period. The reason why I put him as a nonfactor to the loss is because there were a lot of times when even though Paul was scoring and passing, he was having no effecy to the Hornets momentum. Kobe would have matched every score that Paul throws out.

The things that did contribute to the loss:

1. Kobe Bryant (Ankle)
Kobe's injury kept him from attacking the paint. Unfortunately, the Lakers adjusted too well to that problem by working the offense through the post instead of penatration. They scored well enough for them to not relized that they cannot win this way - Kobe needs to drive to the lane. As a result, the Lakers stay with the gameplan, Kobe never really receives defensive attention thus nobody gets loose enough (since there wasn't that much double teaming on Bryant) to stay fresh for the fourth quarter.

2. Boxout
As I said in the first section, the Lakers did not concentrate on boxingout so they where in a tip and grab match with the Hornets that they Lost soundly. Those offensive rebounds ruined another good effort from the Lakers' defense.


That's about it. If Kobe's ankle was well enough for him to drive, and if the Lakers concentrated more on boxing out, they would have won this game.

Ohh well there's always next game.......GO LAKERS

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Lynx

I still wanna cry, man.

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And though it seems heaven sent,
we ain't ready to see a black President

Yes We Can....Change the World

DANNY

edited

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KDOS

Totally unexpected loss, NO does not even have Peja and West and we still gave this one away.

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Eternal

Just letting you guys know, I'll have to stop doing game threads for about a month. I'm getting my house redone, and really won't have time right now. I'll still be posting though.

Also with the redesign of the boards, I'll have to change the layout of the game threads as well. =\

Bartholomew Hunt

I think I just puked a little in my mouth after watching that ****. Wow. I'm surprised there isn't more talk about Odom's brilliant play. He tried to just dribble it out on the inbounds play instead of pass. I did that once, but it was in the 4th grade. Unbelievable lack of focus for the entire team. Hopefully we'll rebound from this sooner than later.

KennethTo

26 pts, 11 assists... I was close on my pauls prediction, but no cigar, wish I would have been wrong though

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Fav players: Kobe Byrant, Jarrett Jack, Raymond Felton, Grant Hill, Leandro Barbosa, Corey Brewer, Javaris Crittenton, Yi Jianlian, Derrick Rose

Phil Jackson: "Bowen is a tenacious defender and will occasionally stick his leg underneath a player when he's up in the air."

a.y.h.

oh, so that's what the violation was for. must've missed it.

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"There's Michael Jordan, and then there's Kobe Bryant. That's it; the list ends there".

Basel57

Yeah that play by Odom was mind-boggling. I have no idea what was going through his mind.

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Bleeding purple & gold...