SPURS -at- LAKERS - 5/29 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Win No. 12 - We're Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack... Only the Lakers would blow up a Shaq/Kobe team that just played in a championship. Only the Lakers would have the audacity to think they could rebuild and return in a few years. And, perhaps, only the Lakers could do just that.

Gone are a host of old, battle-tested Laker warriors. In their place are several young impact stars in their prime, rounded out with young and improving talent and a vet point guard. Props to Mitch Kupchak, Jim Buss and Jerry Buss.

This time last year, Kobe was asking for Jerry West to run the show in L.A. or Kobe would look for a trade. With the Lakers 100-92 win over the Spurs, Jerry West was here ... but presenting the Western Conference Finals trophy to Mitch Kupchak. Symbolic to say the least. West was caught, unfairly, between the superstar and the GM he had groomed this summer. While handing Mitch the trophy in one breath, he also praised Kobe in the other.

"I've seen a lot of great players in my life," West said to Staples, "but you people in Los Angeles are very privileged to see this young man here, Kobe Bryant. He's something special."

Kobe was simply sensational tonight. In the first game of the series, we trailed by 20 and he helped lead us back. Tonight, we trailed by 17 early. The pressure was on and Kobe led the charge once again.

Down the stretch, he was the weapon of choice. The Dagger. The Mamba. The Assassin. He scored 17 points in the fourth quarter. He worked off the Pau Gasol high screens and got to the rim or open spots on the floor.

It was a virtuoso performance down the stretch. Not to take anything away from the rest of the team who played some great D and did all the needed dirty work...but Kobe showed that MVP game and simply refused to lose.

Was this the Lakers seizing the championship torch back from the Spurs? Critics will hang on a call in game four, but the Lakers took this series. They took it 4-1. You can't deny 4-1.

"We ain't done yet," Kobe said afterward.

Phil reiterated the sentiment. "As I told the players tonight," Phil said, "there is nothing like losing the Finals for a negative feeling about the year."


Kobe -- -- Kobe was relentless. In the fourth, he picked apart the Spurs. Using the Pau screens he got into the lane for jumpers or layups. Just a sensational quarter to watch. Twice in this series, Kobe has keyed a massive comeback wins. It's got to be brutal to be on the other side of those. Against the Spurs, we have to run our offense through him. He was too passive in the first game. In this one, we went into Pau way too much in the first quarter. Our offense suffered. Our defense was still in the locker room. Once we got behind, Kobe throttled it up. Kobe and the team chipped away at the Spurs lead much earlier in this one. We outscored the Spurs by 7 in the second, 7 in the third and 7 in the fourth. He had 26 points in the second half. Wearing a cap and the mandatory WCF T-shirt, Kobe was grinning from ear to ear after the game. Still, he and the other vets who have been there are keeping their focus. "We play for one thing and one thing only, and that's championships," Kobe said. The Stats: He scored 39 points on 16-30 shooting (2-6 from three, 5-5 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers and 2 fouls in 43 minutes. The Action: He missed a pull-up jumper in early offense, looked a little indecisive. He worked his way into the lane and found space at the elbow for the jumper. He threw a pass away trying to thread it to Pau instead of going up high. He spotted a seam, attacked and powered in a layup, looking at the ref for a call. He missed a three, long. He swiped a pass, pushed out and fed Pau for the dunk. He missed a jumper over Thomas instead of attacking him on the mismatch. Back in and he missed a three. He crossed over Bowen and scored a layup. He finally drew a rare foul on Thomas on an And-1 jumper, he made the FT. He missed a wing three. He iso'd on Bowen, spun around him and scored a layup with his left. He kicked out to Fish for an open three. He attacked off the high screen and scored a layup with 5 seconds left. He had 13 points on 6-11 shooting. Second Half: He missed an open 17-footer. He hit a pull-up elbow jumper. He missed a wing jumper. He airballed a jumper, trying to draw contact. He drained an elbow jumper off a screen. He drew Duncan to him in the paint and fed Pau for the dunk to cut it to 2. He missed in transition and screamed at the refs for no call. He sank a wing three to cut the lead to 1. Next time down, he attacked, pulled up in the lane and hit the short jumper to take the 1-point lead with 1:11 left in the third (great comeback). Poor weakside rotation when Lamar zone up and it resulted in an And-1 and Lamar's fourth. He popped out at the wing and hit a three to start the fourth quarter to give us a 4-point lead. He missed a wing three with the shotclock low. He drew FTs on a curl in traffic (oops, nope, the refs said it wasn't in the act of shooting. Unbelievable.). He got a step around Duncan, attacked and scored the layup. He hit a 10-footer off the Pau handoff. He missed an elbow jumper, but Pau dunked it back in. He missed a fade, nearly losing the dribble, but Gasol drew a foul crashing the boards. He missed a baseline fade when out play out of the timeout busted. He hit a floater over Duncan on the next possession. He missed a good look at a wing jumper off the screen. Wow, he hit a ridiculously hard step-back, pumping fade over Duncan from about 17-feet out. He pulled the ball out, attacked to Duncan's side of the screen and scored a layup next time down to give us a 7-point lead with 1:47 left. He iso'd on Manu, took contact and just missed an And-1, he made both FTs with 55 seconds left to give us a 7-point lead. He was fouled with 15 seconds left and a 6-point lead, he made both FTs. "This is a dream come true," Kobe said afterward. "It's such a blessing."

Gasol -- -- I don't know what we were thinking in the first quarter running so much offense through Pau. We just can't do that against Duncan. The team struggled as a result and Pau wasn't efficient offensively. Where he excelled and one of the key aspects to our game was Pau's continued aggressiveness on glass. He had some huge plays for us there. "After game three, I was disappointed in myself," Pau said. He wanted to be more aggressive and physical in the next two games. The biggest improvement was easily his tenacity on the offensive glass. Getting 9 of his 19 boards on the offensive glass just killed the Spurs. Very, very effective in that regard. Keep that up. Defensively, he again had his hands full with Duncan. He kept Duncan to 19 points on 19 attempts, but Duncan pulled off a triple-double. In the second half, we kept Duncan to 3-10 shooting. Down the stretch, Pau had some very disruptive defensive plays, including 2 blocks in the fourth. He played the entire second half. The Stats: He scored 12 points on 5-15 shooting (2-2 from the line) to go with 19 boards (9 offensive), 5 assists, 4 blocks, 3 turnovers and 3 fouls in 43 minutes. The Action: He followed Vlad's missed layup with a putback dunk to start the Laker scoring. He missed a turnaround jumper. He missed another turnaround next time down. He missed an elbow jumper on the third straight possession. He dunked after getting out on the break and taking the pass from Kobe. Slow rotation to Finley and he hit a three. He missed a soft hook in the lane. He attacked and missed a layup, looking for a foul. He missed a short one in the lane. Thomas flopped in the lane to draw a charge on Pau. He tipped in a miss by Luke. Second Half: He swung a pass to no one when Odom cut the other way as soon as Gasol passed. He missed a layup trying power around Duncan. He threw an outlet away. He dunked off the attack and dish from Kobe. He tapped out a Lamar miss to reset the offense. He dunked back in a Kobe missed jumper. He got blocked, rolling off the screen with Kobe, but Lamar cleaned it up. He got blocked on a dunk attempt. Big stop on iso D against Duncan with 2 minutes left, getting a piece of the shot. Huge rebound of a Vlad missed three. He was fouled off a defensive board and made both.

Lamar -- -- You could see a little frustration early on with Lamar at some of the inconsistent officiating. He eventually put that aside and played with aggression. Instead of Horry, he got to see a lot of Kurt Thomas, who gave LO a little trouble on the glass. He still had some huge plays and helped spark the team out of its early funk. Great intensity during some offensive sequences. The Stats: He scored 13 points on 5-10 shooting (0-1 from three, 3-3 from the line) to go with 8 boards, 1 assist, 1 block, 2 turnovers and 4 fouls in 34 minutes. The Action: He missed an elbow jumper. He scored a layup around Duncan off the two-man with Pau (more please). He was called for a travel in the post, looked like he was pushed. He gave up an offensive board and putback layup to Thomas. He missed a corner three with the offense stalled in our second unit. He was called for his second foul, setting up in the post, very cheap, he had to sit with his second with 9:11 in the second. He took contact with no call and missed in the lane. He grabbed a defensive board, pushed out in uber-speed and scored the And-1 layup around Thomas with his right, he made the FT. Second Half: He fumbled a pass away. He attacked Oberto and hit a jumphook, screaming after the score. He picked up his third foul when Duncan got into his arms on a post up. He iso'd Oberto, attacked and drew FTs, he made both. He drained a wing jumper over Duncan. He missed a pull-up elbow jumper. He gave up a putback to Thomas. He scored a layup, crashing the glass off the Kobe/Pau two-man game. He was fouled with no call on a rebound and the Spurs took possession.

Fisher -- -- DFish didn't make a lot of noise in this game. You were almost expecting him to drop the key jumper or come up with the huge clutch defensive play down the stretch but he wasn't in the mix. He's faced a variety of difficult guards in our first three series and played them well. He has been piling up the steals all playoff long. It's no surprise that you look at the box score and he had 2 more tonight. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 2-7 shooting (1-3 from three) to go with 3 boards, 1 assist, 2 steals, no turnovers and 2 fouls in 31 minutes. The Action: He hit Vlad for a three. He missed an 18-footer with the offense stalled. He missed a corner three. He missed a pull-up 19-footer on the break. Nice D crowding Manu on a rotation to force a shotclock violation. He missed a layup on a drive. Big three by Fish with a minute left in the first half to cut the lead to 9. Second Half: He was fouled on a jumper with no call, pretty obvious miss call. He stole a ball and scored a breakaway layup.

Radmanovic -- -- Quietly, Vlad put together a very effective series. He did a lot of little things you need from him in the last game. Tonight, he gave the Lakers a little three ball. Regardless of whom we play in the next series, Vlad will have his work cut out for him again. Hopefully, we can get another series like this from him. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 3-6 shooting (2-4 from the line) to go with 2 assists, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 31 minutes. The Action: He missed a layup off the handoff from Pau, but Gasol cleaned it up on the follow. He caught a pass at the wing and immediately drained a three. He flashed to the FT line and hit a jumper on his next touch. Second Half: He missed a three. He drained a corner three off the swing pass from Farmar. He missed a corner three.

Luke -- -- Luke and Farmar teamed up a for a couple big plays. One was Luke connecting with Farmar on a lob pass. The other was Farmar kicking out to Luke for a three. No disaster like the start of the last game. "Getting to (the Finals) my rookie year and losing was one of the worst feelings I had of my life," Luke said. He'll look to turn that around this time. Luke was one of the key difference-makers for the Lakers in our lone win in that Finals. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 1-4 shooting (1-2 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal and 2 fouls in 14 minutes. The Action: He lobbed to Farmar for a layup off our set weakside screen sequence. He missed a turnaround jumper. He drew a foul in the post, he made both FTs. Second Half: He hit the backboard on a three-fourth's court chuck at the third quarter buzzer. He missed a jumper. He hit a sideline three off the kickout from Farmar.

Turiaf -- -- Not many minutes from Ronny, but he held things down with the second unit in a single first half stint. They were +2 in that stint. The Stats: He scored 1 point on 1-2 from the line to go with 3 boards, 1 block and no fouls in 5 minutes. The Action: He drew FTs on an attack in the lane, he made one. He swatted Duncan in the post. Second Half: No action.

Farmar -- -- What a difference a series makes. Farmar was actually a critical part of our comeback. He sparked the crowd and the offense on several occasions. Defensively, Parker was able to hit a few floaters or jumpers, but Farmar was able to get some back. The impact he had in this game was very similar to the early season "Impact Farmar." If we play Detroit, he will have his hands full with the bigger guards. If we play the Celts, he can probably keep on a roll. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 4-8 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 1 board, 3 assists, 1 steal and 1 foul in 17 minutes. The Action: He missed a pull-up jumper from the top of the key. He missed a reverse layup. He missed a wing three. He attacked to his right and banked. Next time down he finished a lob from Luke with a layup. He missed a long jumper tying to create. Next time down, he attacked from the right side and scored a reverse. Good stretch by Farmar to cut the lead to 11. Second Half: He attacked and hit Luke on the weakside for a three. Great D, slapping down a return pass off the two-man game for a steal. Then, he attacked off the Pau screen and hit a layup over Duncan. He was pumped after that sequence and Staples loved it.

Vujacic -- -- Sasha's play in this series: Manu Ginolbi, I take your 10 percent. I take it and I play with 110 percent. The biggest factor in this series was shutting down Manu. Manu's bad wheel obviously had an effect. To me, he couldn't change directions. So, we shaded him right and he couldn't go left. That killed the Spurs. Pop made no excuses. "The better team won," he said when asked about Manu's health. Manu had 9 points on 3-9 shooting. Props to Sasha on his D. He didn't allow him to go off. He didn't let him light it up from three like the Hornets did. Intelligent effort by the Machine. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 2-5 shooting (sinking 2-4 from three and 3-4 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 3 steals, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 23 minutes. The Action: He missed a three. Way short on his next three attempt. He swiped a board from Thomas and drew a loose ball foul, he made one FT. Second Half: He drew a moving pick on Thomas out of a timeout. Pau fumbled a kickout out to Sasha, he promptly picked it up and swished a three. He missed a pull-up jumper, Phil wanted a foul on the miss. He was fouled with 33 seconds left and a 7-point lead, he made both FTs. He drained a three at the game buzzer.

Phil -- -- Phil stressed closing the deal prior to the game. "We got the message," Kobe said... We trailed 21-15 early. Seemed like we were back to going one-on-one instead of working the ball around... We trailed 28-15 after the first quarter. Very soft start with the Lakers trying to run offense through Pau (which resulted in our game three loss). And our rotations on D very slow... We started the Ronny, Lamar, Luke, Sasha, Farmar lineup again for the second... We trailed 33-16, getting doubled up by the Spurs on a 20-3 run... Phil had Kobe, Pau and Lamar all on the bench and the Lakers went on a run to cut the lead to 11. Heck of a decision. The Spurs called a timeout and extended the lead again... The Lakers trailed 48-42 on an 11-2 run to close out the first half. They ran the offense through Kobe more and he was aggressive. The Spurs shot 51 percent to the Lakers 39. They were 5-9 from three, we were 2-10. We had just 6 assists at the half... We trailed 58-56 with 2:42 left in the third and a timeout. Kobe was aggressively attacking. Lamar was, too. On D we were zoning on Duncan and rotating well... We led 64-63 after the third quarter. Intensity on both ends and we fought our way back in the game... "We did some things quickly on the defensive end," Phil said of that quarter... Phil went with a Pau, Luke, Kobe, Sasha, Farmar lineup to start the fourth. No rest for Kobe and Pau... We led 81-76 with 6 minutes left. Out of the timeout, we scored when we ran a two-man with Kobe/Gasol and Lamar cleaned up a missed layup... The Spurs cut it to 2 (Lakers getting absolutely no love on anything by the refs). Phil called a timeout with 4 minutes left. He said afterward, he took this timeout to give Kobe some rest. Our play busted out of the timeout and we missed. But the team went on a 12-3 run after that. He also brought back in Vlad for Lamar during that stretch...

Game Flow -- LINK -- The line graph illustrates the hole that was dug and the clawing and climbing out of it by the Lakers.

Mitch, Jim & Jerry Buss -- -- "One of the most incredible people I have been associated with," West said of Mitch before handing over the Western Conference Finals trophy. Vindication. Mitch held it up high. "We've had a couple rough years, but they have stood by us," Mitch said of the fans. Props to the organization for getting us back to the Finals again. Obviously, it's all about the rings, but getting us back here -- giving us a chance to beat the Celtics back from the gates -- that is a tremendous success. Great, great job. Now...Four More Wins...

[patmcfar8]

Awesome!

EDIT: Holy crap I got first... after this game. Truly a special time. Let me take this opportunity to say thank you DB for all your hard work this season. It feels pretty good right now don't it!

[B_Rabbit1212]

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bonerkillcollective.tumblr.com - peep our art.

[City_Dawg]

DB didnt waste no time today

ABC,Always Be Closing!!!!!!
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*sighs*

!...

[KBryantisclutch]

4th.

[vida24]

[Vadorojo]

To come back from 17 and roar to a series-ending victory was simply huge for this young team. Who would have thought that we could repeat game 1's performance, this time with another heaping helping of Kobe-clutch sauce?

Four. More. Wins.
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"I like looking at a guy's face when he realizes that even his best moves aren't going to work on me all night. They look depressed." - Ron Artest

[SpunkieLakerCat]

DB I have never said thank you for all the hard work you and the other mods do. Thank you thank you and thank you..... LG Rocks!!!!!!!

[Flight#24]

WHy are the bananas frozen?

[IPK]

Stayed awake just to catch your world famous "Thoughts and :- )) Ratings". Great read as always.

Still, you said it best when you noted earlier on that.....

[DancingBarry]

Flo'z, that title was stuck in my head all day. Hell, I think that title might have been in my head for a month or two, now that I think about it.

[Siguy]

Great season, and as always a great recap.

One random negative nellie moment from me: Farmar was great, but I thought he hurt us actually for some periods. What I mean is that the Spurs put Brent Barry on him and Barry couldn't possibly keep up with him and just backed off like ten feet from him.

So we had this period where our offense sucked and Farmar's just standing there with Barry ten feet from him not frightened by Farmar's jump shot, and Farmar never drove and broke their defense with Barry on him.

It's a small criticism in a game we won and in which he played quite well, but it really drove me batty at the time watching our offense stall and pass around while our fastest player is guarded by one of their slowest.

[Critical Beatdown]

Phil's decision to spread the floor with shooters in the final four minutes was brilliant, probably surprised the hell out of Pops because it entailed leaving Lamar on the bench, and was checkmate once Kobe delivered on the opportunity.

I'm not sure who made the first move - Pops with the small lineup or Phil bringing in Rad in, but it doesn't matter who made the first move, only the best move.
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!
Per 100 possessions, we're winning 118-102 with LO on the floor, and losing 109-111 without him. (updated: 4/1/09; source: 82games.com)

[IPK]

[DancingBarry]

[20,000]

[limchrc]

Great win by LA. Hope we get 4 more wins.

[IPK]

Found it DB.

[DancingBarry]

[GasolFolks!]

DB, I've been lurking on the boards for several years now. Finally, signed up this year, and only started posting this week. I have been waiting to tell you: "thanks for the excellent recap." x however many times I've read them.

This is a totally nerdy bball thing to say, but reading your recaps have actually made me a smarter fan; I've learned a lot about how to watch games from reading them.

[IPK]

[DancingBarry]

Thanks, GasolFolks! ... Glad you started posting. (And excellent use of the semi-colon.)

[8750]

DB, you took us to the finals! heartfelt thanks...

[BenChCarl]

Go Straight to Championship 2007-2008!

[lngtimlkr]

DB

thanks for your on target assessments all year long. we all watch them and then appreciate your honest observations and accurate accounts. can't wait for boston or detroit as well your thoughts and ratings. the lakers are baaaaaaaaack and fortunately for us you're still here.