Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:16 pm Post subject: LAKERS -at- ROCKETS - 1/13 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings
The Cursed... You pull up to a sign that reads "Rocketville: The Blueprint for a Better Tomorrow." You climb out of the Chevy and take in the surroundings. Custom houses line the street. A group of older kids plays in the distance. Looks like normal suburbia, you think.
You decide to head toward the activity. The kids see you coming and scatter from the street. Either you're developing a reputation or they're tired of hassling strangers who come limping into town. Either way, something isn't quite right.
Suddenly windows slam shut, curtains are pulled. Whispers fill the air. You catch phrases like "knock you out" ... "time to die" ... "we can take him." The whispers disappear every time you turn in their direction.
You look closer at the homes and notice this isn't quite the suburban utopia it was cracked up to be. The architecture doesn't mix well. Homes crumble on foundations, tilt badly and creak and groan with the slightest breeze. Dead flowers wilt in the yards. Windows are broken, but you think you see movement inside.
You approach the house nearest you. At your feet you stare into the open eyes of a lifeless bird that rots in the dirt. Not even the ants or flies have come to consume him. More whispers. "Gonna drop you" ... "get him" ... "just wait"... They start to tick you off. "You want to play? Let's go! Come out!" you yell. No answer. You realize then...this place seems cursed.
Cursed, but perhaps not resigned to its fate...yet.
Mail has piled up on doorsteps and overflows from the mail boxes. You reach down and grab a handful of letters. They are all from the same person. Damn, they're from DancingBarry. You open up an envelope:
The Four Horsemen were here. Only a few of the Death Riders came with them, but Famine has returned and his presence was felt. None of the Four were on the top of their games...that is until Death came searching for souls late in the battle. He stood in front of the Departing with sword drawn, and he collected them one by one.
I will continue to track them...
The Rockets took the lead in the final minute with a corner three. Kobe Bryant took it back. He rose up from the wing and swished a three over Shane Battier with 27 seconds left. The Lakers held on to the 105-100 victory over the injury-depleted Rockets. Another game, another clutch hoop by Kobe.
"I had Battier on me," Kobe said. "He had his hands down. I just rose up and knocked it down."
Lamar Odom returned to the lineup just in time. With Sasha now sidelined with back spasms along with Farmar and Walton, the roster was getting too thin without him.
The Lakers didn't bring their "A" game until late. Pau and Bynum were off. Kobe struggled for three quarters with his shot. But come fourth quarter, they went into lockdown. They won the quarter 27-18, going big at times on the defensive end, and working the bread and butter by putting Yao in the two-man game on the other end.
The Rockets had a chance to tie the game late, but froze up like other Laker opponents have in the last few seconds. They took and missed a two, instead of looking for the three. Former Laker Von Wafer had a career-high 23 points.
Kobe -- -- Kobe started off slow, missing shots he usually makes and struggling from the freethrow line. Then came the fourth quarter. Kobe started to work the high screen to attack Yao. He drained bucket after bucket. Down by one after the Rockets scored a three, Kobe answered. He swished a huge wing three over Battier with 27 seconds left. Glad he brought the A game in the fourth. The Stats: He scored 33 points on 13-32 shooting (1-4 from three, 6-9 from the line) to go with 7 boards, 4 assists, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 42 minutes. The Action: He posted up Battier and hit the short turnaround. He hit Vlad for a three. He missed with his left in the post, got it back and missed with his right. Perfect lob pass to Bynum for the dunk (first time they went for that, Bynum biffed it). He sank a long wing jumper in early offense. He threw a pass away in the paint. He and Pau watched a defensive board and Scola scooped it up. He swished a fade from the elbow out of a timeout. He missed a three in transition. He missed a 20-footer at the buzzer. He missed a bank from the wing. He posted up, spun to the middle and had his And-1 jumphook goaltended, he made the FT. He missed a baseline finger roll. He missed a long wing jumper. He posted up Barry on iso and banked in an And-1, spinning away from a double, he missed the FT. He missed a bank hard off the glass. He attacked off the high screen and scored a layup. He missed a three. He attacked down the lane, took contact and drew FTs, he made both. He knocked Yao onto his rear and drew a blocking foul (should have been a charge), he made one FT. He attacked at the end of the half, missed a layup and drew a tech for waving at an official. He had 16 points on 6-17 shooting. Second Half: He crossed over, was tugged from behind with no call and missed the layup. He knocked a handoff off of Wafer for a turnover. He was stripped in the lane with no call. He drew a double and kicked out to Vlad for three. He missed a three. He banked over Landry in the post. He sliced past Yao, took contact on his hip and hit the And-1, he missed the FT. He missed with his left in the post. He attacked and missed a layup. He swished a pull-up from the top of the key to start the fourth. He got a step on Battier, but for some reason pulled up and missed the baseline jumper instead of continuing to the hoop. He missed a turnaround in the post, easy look. He attacked off the dribble and drew FTs in the lane, he made both. He swished a wing jumper off the high screen. He missed a turnaround short. He swished a sideline jumper working the high screen. Again, he worked off the high screen from the left wing, sealed his man on his backside, then hit the leaning jumper. Horrible help D when Lamar left to double, Kobe should have cut in front of Landry (as is our scheme), instead he left him alone for a wide open dunk. He missed a wing jumper a couple steps further out over Yao trying to go up by 6 with over a minute left. He dove for a loose ball on D, great effort, but we didn't get it and the Rockets scored a three off the scramble. He'd get it back on the other end. Down by 1 with the shotclock low, Kobe rose up and swished a wing three over Battier with 27 seconds left. So clutch.
Gasol -- -- No rhythm to Pau's game tonight. We didn't establish him early and probably paid the price for it. This was one of his weaker offensive efforts of the season. At least we will save a new wrinkle for the Rockets next time we meet them. Defensively, he had his hands full with Yao. We generally went iso on our defensive schemes until late in the game -- that's a tough cover. Neither of our bigmen did a great job running Yao. Making the bigman go from offense to D at full speed is vital to attacking the Rockets. (The other key is working that high screen as we did late in the game). The Stats: He scored 11 points on 3-9 shooting (5-6 from the line) to go with 7 boards (4 offensive), 4 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 42 minutes. The Action: He missed in the post on his first attempt midway through the first quarter. He swatted Scola in the post. He posted up Scola, drop-stepped and scored the layup. He was stripped in the post. He let Deke get around him for an offensive putback. He hit Bynum in the interior for a dunk. He swiped Wafer's pass and quickly outlet to Ariza for the dunk. He had 4 points on 2-3 shooting and 4 boards. Second Half: He missed a wing jumper. Finally back to Pau in the post and he hit a jumphook. He biffed a defensive board on the other end and gave up a putback. He missed with his left trying to iso against Yao. He drew FTs on iso, he made both. He was stripped in the post. He missed a wide open wing jumper. Nice help D challenge to prevent a hoop off the two-man game. He missed a wide open elbow jumper. He was fouled with 7.5 seconds left, up by 2, he made just one FT. Fouled again with 1 second, he made both and iced the game.
Bynum -- -- Rebounding. Boards. Cleaning the glass. Where is it, Drew? He had 1 rebound in 27 minutes. Nearly every Laker but Sun had more boards. I like the offensive push from Bynum lately. The team is going to need him to develop confidence in that end. But Bynum has to get back to the rebounding and shot blocks. There were a lot of drives and shots that went without a challenge. If Bynum wants to be an elite center, he needs to look at Yao's non-scoring production tonight: 17 boards and 3 blocks. The Stats: He had 11 points on 5-12 shooting (1-2 from the line) to go with 1 board, 3 assists, 1 turnover and 5 fouls in 27 minutes. The Action: He missed a 17-footer on the wing. He missed an easy lob dunk from Kobe. He missed another 17-footer, straight away. He dunked the lob from behind Yao off the great Kobe pass. He missed a jumphook. He missed a jumphook with his left against Hayes. He got position in the middle of the lane, faked right and jumphooked left for the score. Good position again on the left block, he turned to his right and banked. He rushed a 12-footer in transition and missed. He dunked off the interior feed from Pau. Second Half: He missed a long wing jumper to start the half, not what we drew up. He drew a block foul on the aggressive dive down the lane, he made one FT. He beat Yao down the court, took the pass and dunked (that's how you run Yao). He was robbed on a rejection from behind at the rim, looked very clean, instead he was called for a foul. He picked up his fourth foul midway through the third and had to sit. Back in briefly and he picked up another foul late in the fourth.
Radmanovic -- -- Von against Vlad is a defensive mismatch for the Lakers. You can't have Vlad on that kind of athleticism. As a result, the Rockets got off to a hot start to the game. A lot of easy looks. Battier and Barry are better match-ups. I'll admit to being a little worried when I saw Vlad in there on D late in the game. Put aside that mismatch and Vlad had a very solid game. He was draining his shot all night and even created some hoops around the rim. We missed Luke's ability to post up a smaller defender and never went after that with Vlad. He did seem to try to go to the offensive glass on occasion, but again, Luke is much better at that, too. Vlad played his role well, though. The Stats: He scored 12 points on 5-6 shooting (2-2 from three) to go with 6 boards, 1 assist, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 19 minutes. The Action: He missed a layup on the break. He drained the wing three on the kickout from Kobe. He curled into the lane and hit a runner. He charged over Yao in the lane. He tipped in a miss by Pau. He pulled down the Bynum miss and scored the layup. Second Half: Nice corner give and go with Bynum and his layup was goaltended. He swished the three on the kickout from Kobe.
Fisher -- -- With no Sasha and Farmar, Phil had to crack open some untapped lineups. For part of the game, we saw an Ariza/Kobe backcourt which worked well because Ariza was on fire from the perimeter. Defensively, that unit also seemed to set the tone for the fourth quarter. Still, some long minutes for DFish. He did fine defensively. The Rockets looked to attack from the post for the most part. Fish was able to be his usual disruptive self as far as getting offensive fouls on opponents, scrapping for loose balls and playing some decent angles on off-the-ball D. Hopefully, he has his legs for tomorrow. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 3-6 shooting (0-2 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal and 3 fouls in 39 minutes. The Action: He attacked, got contact on Yao and scored the layup. He missed a runner in traffic. He swiped the ball, pushed it out, fumbled it and recovered for the layup. He dribbled into a bigman at midcourt and lost the ball. He swished an open 20-footer. He made a tech FT. Second Half: He drew a moving screen on Yao. He bothered Scola on the perimeter and took a shoulder from him for a charge. He missed a wing three when the offense stalled. He made a tech. Down by 2 he fouled Rafer with 9.6 seconds left after he rebounded his own miss, Rafer missed both.
Lamar -- -- We missed him, but survived while he was gone. Good to see him back. Lamar is glue for this team on the D end. He came in with under 2 minutes left in the first quarter. He looked active, fast and didn't show too many signs of the bone bruise. It seemed like it took a bit for him to get into the flow, but not very long. It figures that this is the game we finally run him at the SF spot for a stretch. That unit held their own and we even explored LO in the post twice (we should have gone to it more). I want to see it more. He ran with Powell, Pau, Ariza and Kobe. Aside from Ariza, that's a pretty consistent perimeter group. (Ariza was on fire tonight.) That unit should space the floor well enought for LO to work the post. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 3-5 shooting (4-5 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 4 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 28 minutes. He was a +7. The Action: He attacked to his right with speed and was blocked. Nice rotation and pass deflection. He lost the ball in transition. With Barry on him, he quickly went to the post and drew FTs. Second Half: Nice curl coming weak to strong and he picked up Yao's fourth foul, he made one. Crazy And-1 make attacking to his left, going down and flipping it in off the glass, he made the FT. He swatted Alston on help D. He posted up Barry, drew a double and hit Powell for the layup. We finally went back to Lamar against Barry and he easily hit a jumphook in the post. He was fouled on an offensive board when Kobe drew a crowd and missed, he made both FTs. He blindsided Yao and tied him up. He took the ball in the post, attacked to his left in a crowd and hit the jumphook falling down with 2:40 left. He missed a baseline jumper, rattling out with a minute left.
Ariza -- -- The Cobra strikes. Ariza was due for an impact game, and he picked an excellent time to deliver it. With Sasha out, the Lakers needed someone to help defend the guards. That's not a problem for Ariza. It's spacing the floor and hitting the open J's that can sometimes be an issue on the other end. Ariza did his best to duplicate Sasha's Sick Jumpers of Death and gave the Lakers the scoring/shooting punch they needed. He led the team with a +12. That Vlad/Von head-to-head was probably a big reason for Ariza's +12 and the team low -3 from Vlad. How about Ariza getting lifted off the ground by Yao on that jumpball? Ariza laughed about it, then won the jumpball. That was the second jumpball that Ariza robbed the Rockets in this game. The Stats: He scored 14 points on 6-7 shooting (2-3 from three) to go with 5 boards (2 offensive), 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover and no fouls in 29 minutes. The Action: He grabbed Lamar's shot, which was blocked, and scored a layup. Great feed from the wing to Powell who scored a layup. He stole the tip when Fish went up against a bigman on a jumpball. Barry tried to iso against Ariza, Trevor picked him clean and took it the distance for the layup. He swished a 19-footer. Leaking out, he dunked off the outlet from Pau. Second Half: He threw a pass away trying ot make a post entry. He drained a three from the top of the key next time down. He drained another wing three. He missed a wing three, heat check. He was lifted up with the ball when he tied up Yao under the hoop, he won the jumpball.
Powell -- -- On defense against smaller players, he reminds me of Mini-Kwame...which is a good thing. Kwame had good footspeed when he switched on guards. Powell does, too. Offensively, he showed his range on the jumper. He was in on the big lineup with Lamar at SF. His shooting could make that an effective unit if they get more time together. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 3-4 shooting to go with 2 boards and 1 foul in 12 minutes. The Action: He scored a layup on the feed from Ariza. He swished a 21-footer. Second Half: He missed a pull-up from the sideline in transition. He should have cut to the hoop, but settled for the baseline jumper on the LO pass and made it.
Sun Yue -- -- He came in with 3 minutes left in the third. For some reason, he was matched up with Von. That didn't work. He should have been on Barry while Ariza took Von. We switched that up later. The Stats: No stats in 3 minutes. His lineup held even with a +/- of 0. The Action: No action to report.
Phil -- -- With the injuries to Farmar, Sasha and Walton, Phil had his work cut out for him. Thankfully, Lamar returned and the Rockets were missing a couple pieces, too. I love when Phil has to get creative with the lineups. We saw some unique ones tonight... The Lakers gave up layup after layup to start the game. Wafer was lighting up Vlad and other mismatches on rotation. Pau got his first touch 6 minutes in... The Lakers trailed 24-21 when we went to Ariza and Lamar... The Lakers trailed 26-25 after the first quarter... With Kobe and Pau out, the second unit took a 42-40 lead... Phil barked at the refs for an illegal D and got the call. Deke didn't like that... They were tied 54-54 at the half. The Rockets shot 63 percent, the Lakers 52 percent. The Lakers had an 8-2 advantage on the offensive glass over the Rockets. (The Rockets would even that up in the second half.) The Rockets were 4-6 from three in the first two quarters... The coaches were irked at the Lakers soft D, giving up too many easy shots... Bynum and Gasol were getting hurt by Yao in the post on iso. Yao picked up his fourth foul with the Lakers trailing by 6 (we trailed by 2 when he returned)... Phil went with a Pau, Lamar, Ariza, Sun, Fisher lineup. Wafer went off on Sun and Ariza for a few buckets... The Lakers trailed 82-78 heading into the fourth... Phil went with a new lineup to start the fourth: Pau, Powell, Lamar, Ariza and Kobe. We tied the game at 89-89 before we went away from it... Up by 2 with 1:13 left, Phil called a timeout. Lamar missed a baseline jumper out of the timeout. Not sure that's what we drew up, but it was open... The Lakers had just 7 turnovers. The Rockets shot just 6-8 from the line. The Lakers went 18-24... The Rockets outshot the Lakers 53 percent to 51 percent...
As usual, good job. _________________ On Lakersground, a concern troll is someone who is a fan of another team, but pretends to be a Lakers fan with "concerns".
2-0 in games I go to this year! I sure pick great ones to go to!
Great game and great win. I went numb after that Battier three but was amazed when Kobe hit the 30 footer, he is truly unbelievable. _________________ "I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure...everyone does. You don't deny it, but you also don't capitulate to it. You embrace it." -Kobe Bean Bryant
Loved the big lineups today. We should definitely try the Ariza/Kobe/LO/Pau/Drew lineup to close one of these days. Lamar played very well at 3. I dont know what the argument is for Luke anymore. Lamar is better at everything than Luke. Vlad has the range over Lamar but Phil showed he doesnt care for spacing by starting Luke. _________________ Alltime lineup: Magic | Kobe | MJ | Hakeem | KAJ
Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 12825 Location: Somewhere watching a Laker game
Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:34 am Post subject:
High praise from D. Fish:
Quote:
“Most great players you see do amazing things with their ability on the basketball court,” Lakers teammate Derek Fisher said. “He is one of three guys. The other two are Larry Bird and Michael Jordan that I think of immediately that have an ability to will the ball into the basket when their team needs it the most. That’s what separates those three from all the others that play the game.”
How come they didn't credit Bean with the steal in (if i remember correctly) the third quarter? _________________ "Offensive rebounding? Bynum at 19 has passed Duncan at 31." - parsons777
Joined: 13 Sep 2008 Posts: 5742 Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 4:30 am Post subject:
Because some scorekeepers give the steal to the guy that pokes the ball away and some give it to the guy who get's his hands on it after it's deflected. So you never know who gets credited.
(if we're thinking about the same play, of course)
Thanks for the recap DB! _________________ "You Must Be Willing To Give Up That Which Can Be Lost In Order To Gain That Which Cannot Be Lost." - FORTUNE COOKIE
If Bynum continues along this path, he'll morph into a mid-post version of Eddie Curry. _________________ We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
I think tonight should silence those who say Bryant isn't clutch. His performance down the stretch was the epitome of clutch.
1- On the road
2- Horrible shooting preformance 3
Yet he made some wicked shots including that gamewinning 3.
And Kobe has done this on numerous occasions.
Did you catch the interview with Ireland after the game when he asked Kobe how he overcomes such poor shooting to make them in the end. I think he wanted Kobe to say something mystical. Instead he just said he practices all summer and sometimes the shots don't fall at first and he keeps adjusting and shooting. For those who hate it when he keeps shooting (and most of us do) we should remember that he is making adjustments so he can hit them when we need them the most. It's hard work that pays off. _________________ Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.
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-- No rhythm to Pau's game tonight. We didn't establish him early and probably paid the price for it. This was one of his weaker offensive efforts of the season. At least we will save a new wrinkle for the Rockets next time we meet them. Defensively, he had his hands full with Yao. We generally went iso on our defensive schemes until late in the game -- that's a tough cover. Neither of our bigmen did a great job running Yao. Making the bigman go from offense to D at full speed is vital to attacking the Rockets. (The other key is working that high screen as we did late in the game). 
-- Rebounding. Boards. Cleaning the glass. Where is it, Drew? He had 1 rebound in 27 minutes. Nearly every Laker but Sun had more boards. I like the offensive push from Bynum lately. The team is going to need him to develop confidence in that end. But Bynum has to get back to the rebounding and shot blocks. There were a lot of drives and shots that went without a challenge. If Bynum wants to be an elite center, he needs to look at Yao's non-scoring production tonight: 17 boards and 3 blocks. 
-- Von against Vlad is a defensive mismatch for the Lakers. You can't have Vlad on that kind of athleticism. As a result, the Rockets got off to a hot start to the game. A lot of easy looks. Battier and Barry are better match-ups. I'll admit to being a little worried when I saw Vlad in there on D late in the game. Put aside that mismatch and Vlad had a very solid game. He was draining his shot all night and even created some hoops around the rim. We missed Luke's ability to post up a smaller defender and never went after that with Vlad. He did seem to try to go to the offensive glass on occasion, but again, Luke is much better at that, too. Vlad played his role well, though. 
-- With no Sasha and Farmar, Phil had to crack open some untapped lineups. For part of the game, we saw an Ariza/Kobe backcourt which worked well because Ariza was on fire from the perimeter. Defensively, that unit also seemed to set the tone for the fourth quarter. Still, some long minutes for DFish. He did fine defensively. The Rockets looked to attack from the post for the most part. Fish was able to be his usual disruptive self as far as getting offensive fouls on opponents, scrapping for loose balls and playing some decent angles on off-the-ball D. Hopefully, he has his legs for tomorrow. 
-- On defense against smaller players, he reminds me of Mini-Kwame...which is a good thing. Kwame had good footspeed when he switched on guards. Powell does, too. Offensively, he showed his range on the jumper. He was in on the big lineup with Lamar at SF. His shooting could make that an effective unit if they get more time together. 
-- He came in with 3 minutes left in the third. For some reason, he was matched up with Von. That didn't work. He should have been on Barry while Ariza took Von. We switched that up later. 
-- With the injuries to Farmar, Sasha and Walton, Phil had his work cut out for him. Thankfully, Lamar returned and the Rockets were missing a couple pieces, too. I love when Phil has to get creative with the lineups. We saw some unique ones tonight... The Lakers gave up layup after layup to start the game. Wafer was lighting up Vlad and other mismatches on rotation. Pau got his first touch 6 minutes in... The Lakers trailed 24-21 when we went to Ariza and Lamar... The Lakers trailed 26-25 after the first quarter... With Kobe and Pau out, the second unit took a 42-40 lead... Phil barked at the refs for an illegal D and got the call. Deke didn't like that... They were tied 54-54 at the half. The Rockets shot 63 percent, the Lakers 52 percent. The Lakers had an 8-2 advantage on the offensive glass over the Rockets. (The Rockets would even that up in the second half.) The Rockets were 4-6 from three in the first two quarters... The coaches were irked at the Lakers soft D, giving up too many easy shots... Bynum and Gasol were getting hurt by Yao in the post on iso. Yao picked up his fourth foul with the Lakers trailing by 6 (we trailed by 2 when he returned)... Phil went with a Pau, Lamar, Ariza, Sun, Fisher lineup. Wafer went off on Sun and Ariza for a few buckets... The Lakers trailed 82-78 heading into the fourth... Phil went with a new lineup to start the fourth: Pau, Powell, Lamar, Ariza and Kobe. We tied the game at 89-89 before we went away from it... Up by 2 with 1:13 left, Phil called a timeout. Lamar missed a baseline jumper out of the timeout. Not sure that's what we drew up, but it was open... The Lakers had just 7 turnovers. The Rockets shot just 6-8 from the line. The Lakers went 18-24... The Rockets outshot the Lakers 53 percent to 51 percent...
DB
) topic after the Spurs game!
