NUGGETS -at- LAKERS - 5/25 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[pask]

[Corto Maltese]

Props to Gasol for letting the freaking guards and Phil know he's pissed. Give him the (bleep) ball, they can't stop him.

[pask]

Oh, by the way.. about refereeing, simply horrible...Luke´s fouls in the fourth were a complete joke...

[A Mad Chinaman]

Sir Charles agrees that the refs have been especially terrible throughout the playoffs. With NBA's John Hollinger stating that the high number of fouls are "normal" for teams like Denver (read his article), but even he admits that the fouls are even more frequent - despite taking an account that there are more fouls during the playoffs.

Not sure what PJ can do when the Triangle is based on passing, reading and cuts. DFish seems to try to pass the ball into the post - can't - then just move to take an outside shot. Kobe's first play was driving into the paint (good play). If LO has an high basketball IQ, one is curious why he isn't passing the ball into the post since it appears his back is preventing him from scoring and rebounding.

If LO can't block out, score, defend or pass - he must be injuried and play the appripriate PT. Bynum still is slow to react to penetration and his footwork isn't what it was before he was injuried.

Hmm - Laker guards (outside of Kobe) unable to consistently score or defend a Nuggets team where Melo is unable to effectively play the game (stomach virus).

[Sage_10]

Kind of disppointing the Lakers didn't come to play. People can talk about the officiating but the fact was that the Lakers were not aggressive. They didn't guard the glass and that really hurt them.
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"You Must Be Willing To Give Up That Which Can Be Lost In Order To Gain That Which Cannot Be Lost." - FORTUNE COOKIE

[jmark]

[pask]

SGH[/quote]The thug who tripped Kobe on purpose should be suspended one game. If LO's back is hurting he shouldnt be playing. The way he has played he may as well not be playing....AB played a reasonable game and the flagrant foul was a joke. Worse set of refs I have seen in a long time. Kobe needs to guard Billups.[/quote]


If Melo was off, maybe Ariza was the one who have to guard Billups

[angrypuppy]

I just wrote to the NBA front office, pointing out the blatant trip by Dahntay Jones. Naturally, it is as effective as that old cartoon series, "Children's Letters to God" as the intent of the league isn't to improve, but rather to pacify.

I feel guiltier with each passing year that I bother supporting this product. Either Stern is assigning weak crews to extend the series, or he just enjoys showing his contempt for the army of fans who dare question his ability to run this league. These officials tend to be weak and blatantly favor the home crowd. They miss the most obvious calls, and it isn't just this series. Yet Stern refused to improve the officiating... even after the Donaghy scandal he hired a law firm (major red flag) to address the problem, and then swept it under the rug.

One caveat; bad officiating is just a factor. This Laker team only had Kobe, Bynum and Pau last night. Outside of Kobe, this is the worst assemblage of guards in the NBA. But the most disturbing element is Lamar. Lamar wouldn't keep a body on Anderson (defensive scheme?), and couldn't be bothered to track him (mental lapse). I suppose it might be his back... the problem is, we've seen "passive Lamar" in the past whenever the chips are down.

Last, the defensive scheme was a disaster and adjustments weren't made to address it. Easy penetration by the Nuggets caused the defense to collapse with over aggressive help, and in the chaos the Nugs had easy scores. At the end of last season, I posted that I wanted to see two improvements on the team: 1) A real defensive assistant coach, and 2) A PG to replace Fish, as I said there was a real danger he'd suddenly show his age. We didn't address these problems, and now we're paying the price.

[limchrc]

Thanks. Let's counter and win game 5.

[Mr. EiGhTy-OnE]

WHERE THE HELL IS LAMAR ODOM?
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"When (Kobe) gets you on life support, he won't give you mouth to mouth. HE PULLS THE PLUG." -stu

[Gallofa]

What I cannot understand if why we do not feed the post. I just cannot get my mind around it. It is the simplest of things, passing the ball to the really tall dudes wearing the Lakers shirts. How difficult can it be?

We have Gasol going 8-11 and Bynum 6-7! Why do we have all these guards going 2-7, 1-8, 1-4, 3-7?!?

Move the ball around until you find Gasol or Bynum and let them go to work.

[Addicus]

Great job DB.
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The Lakers have been standing around and watching the Nuggets play for the last 3 games and it destroyed them tonight as the Nuggets finally realized all they had to do was crash the boards. There is no substitute for positive energy and movement in the game of basketball.
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The Lakers refuse to work inside out because every other guard is trying to be Kobe Bryant. Truth is our bigs and/or Kobe should be touching the ball every possession. We shouldn't have box scores where Fisher and Farmar and Sasha have as many attempts as Bynum and Gasol. That is just ridiculous.
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The one thing I railed about in the Vlad trade is how the lack of perimeter shooting would come back to bite us. Kobe Bryant consistently gets guys open shots with no defender within seven feet and these guys are bricking. To compound this bad shooting they also are refusing to feed the post which btw is wide open for an entry pass once the ball is swung to the weak side. The personnel is failing.
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The officiating was certainly geared for the home team. In the 4th quarter the Lakers defense consistently beat the Nuggets to the spot and were denied the proper calls while also being called for fouls whenever the Nuggets offensive players created contact to the chest of the Lakers defenders. It was a bad night to do that as every young basketball player in the world was discouraged from playing great man and help defense and encouraged to play defense by reaching, tripping, pushing, shoving and throwing forearms to the neck and head.
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Stop crying and start doing.

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/addicusbrown

[Mr. EiGhTy-OnE]

if we're going to lose, i'd rather get blown out than lose a close one. hopefully this forces phil to make some serious adjustments
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"When (Kobe) gets you on life support, he won't give you mouth to mouth. HE PULLS THE PLUG." -stu

[LakersMD]

It's tough to make an entry pass when the guy guarding the passer is basically sitting in Pau's lap. Fisher is a reluctant entry passer, even when he's shooting terribly. Now it's just a joke. He holds the ball over his head, pretends he's looking inside, and then swings it, taking 5 seconds off the shotclock.

The wing player could easily just fake a drive, force his man to honor him and then dump it to Pau on the block. Ariza does this pretty well, but Fisher is just inept.

What really kills me is the 2nd unit guards unwillingness to feed the post. How many times do we see Farmar and Sasha call Pau out of the post to set a pick for them? They rarely get anything out of it, except a jacked up perimeter J.

Not having Luke's passing out there with the 2nd unit killed us.

[Arizona]

We need to run the offense. Too much one on one play. I'd be interested to see how many assists we are averaging compared to other series and the regular season. We've gone completely away from our strengths and what got us here. We get a few decent passing sequences per game but they are few and far between. This team isn't even fun to watch anymore. I'm losing interest fast. Luckily my Yankees seem to have hit their stride. I'm more interested in them right now than watching the Lakers. I'm sure some here are enjoying Kobe's 40 point games, but we're not winning anything that way. I'm not saying it's Kobe's fault, he's playing amazing and shooting a high percentage and keeping us in it, but this can't continue. He's getting worn out. We've got to find a way to get the rest of the team involved, especially our bigs.

I still say Phil is missing his security blanket in Tex. We're seeing the type of coach he is without him, and I don't like what I see so far. Some of his lineups were real headscratchers, like when he sat Kobe in the 4th. I think we were running Drew, Luke, Ariza, Sasha (or was it Shannon) and Farmar. WTF???? And at such a critical point in the game. Yikes. You don't know whether to laugh or cry.
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“I’m just a basketball player, you know? Just put me where you need me.” -Lamar Odom

“You’ve got to play with pride and guts.” -LO

[TooCool]

Thanks as usual DB.

However, too much effort and time put into something where the results are already pre-determined by the NBA.
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[ChefLinda]

Thanks for another great write-up, DB.

I didn't expect Denver to lose two in a row at home and knew they'd come out like mad men with the crowd behind them. So I wasn't that upset about the loss, in general. But aside from the ridiculous home-cooking, the thing that pissed me off the most was our pathetic rebounding. Letting that freakazoid Birdman beat us on all the hustle plays around the basket was embarrassing. Our bigs should be steamed.

[Burgundy]

You know, you can point out individual flaws in the actual on the court play, but this loss was more about officiating than anything else.

Phil Jackson said it in his presser - the absurd home cooking had the Lakers on their heals from the beginning because they had no idea what was a foul and what wasn't it. Lamar Odom got called for two touch fouls on rebounds in the first quarter.

Do you think MAYBE that had something to do with his aggressiveness on the boards the rest of the game?

Honestly, I wasn't that upset with the way the Lakers played - they missed some shots they should have made, they didn't get some boards they should have gathered, but the officiating dictated the outcome.

No question about it.

[jmark]

[mike_dee23]

People keep talking about the Lakers "not matching the Nuggets' energy." The Lakers were down by only 3 points at the end of the first quarter, 7 at halftime and then by 4 when the officials missed the most obvious travel call I've seen in a long, long time.

They had matched the energy with skill and solid play.

Here's how the refs took the game from them:

After that blown travel call, the Nuggets go up by six, and then proceed to shoot 11 free throws in the quarter to the Lakers 2. The Nuggets outscore the Lakers 8-1 from the line and the Lakers trail the game by 11 to start the fourth.

The Lakers then cut that 11-point lead to 7 on two solid post-up moves. Lakers have the momentum and then Billups makes a good move and Bynum gets called for an and-1 phantom foul to put the Nuggets up by 10. Nuggets get that momentum back and Bynum picks up his fourth foul.

The Lakers really never recover after that.

The offensive rebounding discrepancy should have an asterisk next to it... Nene pushes in the back on EVERY play. That leads to so many offensive boards.
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MTFBWYA

[squidward]

From what I saw: if the Lakers grabbed half of those offensive rebounds, they would have at least given themselves a chance to win. The officiating was horrible, of course. They gave Billups the actor whatever he wanted. And Mr. Jones is dirty player + a proficient flopper. But let's be honest, Lakers played some pretty suspect defense. Phil's coaching isn't as good as it used to be. He has to play Bynum more and give Pau a little more rest.

[Arizona]

The refs were indeed horrible. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but the officiating has been really horrible this post season, not just for our series.
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“I’m just a basketball player, you know? Just put me where you need me.” -Lamar Odom

“You’ve got to play with pride and guts.” -LO

[squidward]

[Rick12322]

I loved this:
Home Cookin' and Broken Glass...

so true, so true!

[Mr. EiGhTy-OnE]

the only postive i can take is that we really havent played that great all series, yet we're 2-2. u have to expect at least 1 breakout game by us
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"When (Kobe) gets you on life support, he won't give you mouth to mouth. HE PULLS THE PLUG." -stu