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

[DancingBarry]

Home Cookin' and Broken Glass... You notice the Nuggetville mayor directing the placement of streamers and balloons in the town plaza. There are clowns and jugglers. You ask what's up? "Big day for us, sport. Big day! Should be a great victory," the mayor says. You scratch your head. "You're pretty confident. How do you know?" you ask.

He motions you closer and whispers, "The Association, sport...the Association." He winks and nudges you with an elbow. You stare at him dumbfounded. "You serious?" you reply.

"Serious as my wife's home cooking." Interesting choice of words, you think. That cooking you ate at his table last game now seems to be giving you indigestion in a bad way. Nuggetville starts to spin. The clowns and jugglers laugh in your face, and everything starts to look like you are viewing it in a fun house mirror. The mayor grins at you. "By the way, sport," he says in a voice that sounds like it's been tape recorded and played back at slow speed, "thanks for contributing to the city revenues...ha...ha...ha...ha..."

"Huh?" He nods in the direction of your Chevy Nova where a policeman slaps a ticket on it and a tow truck instantly speeds away down the street with your car. "What the!" You stumble and try to chase after it, but everything goes black and you hit the pavement hard.

Hours later, you regain consciousness somewhere on the edge of town next to your car. Someone did some serious damage to your glass. All the windows are smashed out. The ticket has been taped safely to the hood, however. Great.

You grumble and grab the ticket, noticing a message written over it. DancingBarry:

The Four Horsemen were here. They were duped, hoodwinked, outnumbered from the start. They didn't provide the hustle and aggression to overcome it. They failed to take a second battle in Nuggetville, but they will return.

They will fight again. I will continue to track them...

This game was about extra possessions. The ones the Nuggets took and the ones that were given to them.

The Lakers did what they had to do in Denver, regaining home court. Now, they will need to defend that advantage as the series is tied up 2-2. The home court cooking certainly helped the Nuggets who shot 49 freethrows in their 120-101 win.

"The aggressor gets the advantage," Phil said. "We didn't know what a foul was and what wasn't a foul out there tonight. At the start of the ball game we got guys knocked around going to the basket. They said 'we're going to let these things go.' By the end of the ball game, little fouls are being called all over the place."

Some very one-sided officiating at times. There were a dozen possessions that seemed to go in the Nuggets favor, and some calls were just shockingly bad. The Lakers may have lost a dozen possessions this way...and this is why you fight for home court advantage. Now, combine that with getting beat 20-9 on the offensive glass, and you've got nearly a dozen more possessions for the Nuggets. You just can't compete with that.

"They whooped us on the glass and whooped us to loose balls," Kobe said. The Nuggets also only gave away the ball 6 times in the game. It's amazing the game was as close as it was for three quarters.

They Lakers were up 2-1 against the Rockets only to end up going to 7 games when they couldn't take the 3-1 series lead. The road trip was still a success. They got home court advantage back, now they need to keep it for good.


Kobe -- -- He was clearly frustrated with the officiating from beginning to end. Early on he had a few drives where he took contact and didn't get the call. Later, the refs missed some of the absurd ones, but also started calling touch fouls on the Lakers. You could see Kobe pointing this out to them. He held his tongue with the tech situation as it is, but the smoke was coming out of his ears at some points. The shove in the back from Jones in the previous game was upgraded to a flagrant. Kobe took another cheap shot on a cut tonight. Jones stuck his leg out to trip him and got away with it with no call. Kobe sarcastically joked afterward that he just tripped and it was good defense. He took the high road regarding the officiating questions. The Lakers need to make sure they are on the attack early at home in the next game. Kobe also needs to make sure our bigs are aggressive, too, giving them some post touches early to go on the attack. The Stats: He scored 34 points on 10-26 shooting (2-10 from three, 12-13 from the line) to go with 7 boards, 5 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 41 minutes. He was a -11. The Action: He was hacked from behind after getting ready to throwdown on the first play of the game, he made one FT. He ran the two-man with Pau and it led to a Bynum dunk. He attacked the lane and was stripped with no call. He missed an early offense three. He missed a layup around Nene and wanted the call. He attacked the paint and drew FTs, he made both. He sank an elbow jumper. He sank a two-for-one 22-footer. He iso'd against Martin, crossed over to his right, got contact with no call and banked a one-hander as the first quarter buzzer went off. He had 9 points on 3-5 shooting. He settled and missed a three over Nene (attack that). Floating off Kleiza, he gave up a layup and a three. He stripped a ball off Nene. He hit Bynum with a lob for a score in traffic. He sank a turnaround And-1 jumper on the baseline, he made the FT. He missed a short baseline fade off the drive. He missed a wing three. He was fouled away from the ball for FTs, he made both. He sank a three in the corner (Van Gundy on the D: "Hand down, man down."). He airballed a turnaround jumper trying to draw a foul. He swished a two-for-one wing pull-up jumper with a man on him. He had 19 points on 6-13 shooting. Second Half: He sank a top-of-the-key jumper out of a timeout. He missed a long pull-up jumper with the shotclock low. He was deliberately tripped by Jones as he cut down the lane, no call (Phil went after this play in the post-game press conference). He missed a pull-up wing jumper. He was hit on a pass-off with no call. Down by 13 now and Kobe was fuming. He missed a three. Back in after a long rest, he missed a three. He missed a turnaround jumper. He got hit on a pull-up 18-footer with no call and still made it (pretty obvious foul). He sank a fading wing jumper, forcing it up (looked ticked). He swished a top-of-the-arc three on the next trip down. He got tapped on a three on the next trip. He sank a tech FT, taking a shove from Melo on a drive, he made both foul FTs. Martin then picked up a tech, Kobe made that. He attacked Melo again, more FTs, he made both. He missed a three.

Gasol -- -- Feed the post. Feed the post. Feed the post. You just can't go away from it as much as we do. We need to be aggressive, take it to the Nugget bigmen and get them sitting with foul trouble. Phil said they need to get Pau the ball more and gave a variety of reasons why he didn't see as many touches. Bottom line, however, is we just need to get the ball to him with consistency. Defensively, Pau challenged and contested a number of shots. The Nuggets have no post game, but their bigs are able to get set up when our help D gets scrambled. We're going to have some of those sequences, but we have to cut down on the offensive boards. Pau needs to do a better job, but he also needs help. Pau only had 2 rebounds in the second half. That won't get it done. Bynum and Lamar combined for just 7 defensive boards. They need to step it up. The Stats: He scored 21 points on 8-11 shooting (5-7 from the line) to go with 10 boards, 4 assits, 3 blocks and 4 fouls in 35 minutes. He was a -16. The Action: He missed a 16-footer straight away. He set up Drew for a dunk off the two-man game with Kobe. He faced up from the elbow, attacked and hit the short runner. Finally a post up, he backed down Nene and scored the easy jumphook. He missed a 16-footer. He swatted a Smith shot from behind in the paint (one of several nice challenges). He missed an awkward left-hander over Andersen. He grabbed a Kobe miss and hit Fisher for three. Great recognition, coming to bail out Fish who was attacking, he took the pass and immediately flipped in an 8-foot one-hander to beat the shotclock. He attacked baseline and was hit for FTs, he made one. He dunked off the interior feed from LO. He lost his man easily on a spin move from the post and drew more FTs, he made just one again. He swatted Balkman under the hoop. He had 10 points on 4-7 shooting, 8 boards, 3 assists and 3 blocks. Second Half: He spun baseline to lose a smaller defender, then hit a sweet reverse spinning the ball off the glass around another defender for an And-1, he made the FT (probably the highlight play of the game for the Lakers). He attacked to his left from the mid post and hit the runner with his left. He hit a short jumphook on a loose ball. He picked up his fourth foul with 3:31 left in the third. He dunked off the drive and dish from Luke. He drew FTs going after a Kobe miss, he made both.

Bynum -- -- Phil said he had a decent game aside from a couple sequences. "He got determined and went out there and played the kind of game we want to see him play," Phil said. Bynum (and the team) needs to watch the tape of a couple of possessions where he just overpowered his man for easy scores in the low post. This is the advantage we have to milk. Bynum has to be aggressive, the team has to give him the ball. We didn't do it with the same methodical approach to start each half as we did in the last game...but when we did give him the ball, good things happened. He made all but one shot. Bynum got some minutes as the lone impact player on the floor and had a couple of nice sequences in that. I'm not sure what Phil was doing with those lineups, but that was a very different change of pace. He had some better moments on the boards, but we got killed on the glass. He has to get greedy. Make it a goal to get every ball near him. There were some very good signs of life here, but also stretches where he needed to impose his size better. The Stats: He scored 14 points on 6-7 shooting (2-3 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 1 block and 5 fouls in 23 minutes. He was a -6. The Action: He took the high entry over Melo and scored an easy reverse. He missed a 15-footer from the wing. He dunked off the Kobe/Pau two-man game. He grabbed a Lamar miss and drew FTs. He scored a layup off the high entry from Kobe. He had 8 points on 3-4 shooting in 11 minutes. Second Half: Rare post up and he banks easily overpowering Nene in the post. He smothered dribble penetration on the other end to get a stop. He hit a turnaround jumper in the paint. Another low-post possession, he overpowered Andersen for an easy And-1, he missed the FT. He was called for a flagrant foul trying to take a foul on a cutting Andersen as he tried to strip the ball (very weak).

Ariza -- -- Trevor got in early foul trouble in this game. When Luke joined the club, Phil had to scramble his lineups and it didn't go well. Like others, Ariza had to endure a couple head scratching calls. There was an obvious travel in the post from Melo right in front of a ref, another was a blocking foul that looked like a sure charge. Very tough game to get through. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-4 shooting (1-3 from three, 0-2 from the line) to go wtih 1 board, 1 assist, 1 turnover and 5 fouls in 26 minutes. He was a -8. The Action: He missed a sideline three. He was hacked in transition for FTs, he missed both. He missed another sideline three. He picked up his second foul trying to steal the ball from Kenyon on help, he had to sit with 3:48 in the first. Second Half: Melo got away with a travel that everyone but the refs saw and he scored a layup. Left open, he swished an early offense three. He was blocked on a reverse. He got plowed over trying to take a charge in transition, blocking foul.

Fisher -- -- He struggled again with three ball, just unable to connect with consistency. Phil only ran him 23 minutes in this one...maybe those few less minutes will help with the legs. Better yet would be Fish force feeding our bigmen and not taking so many long-range jumpers. Those early offense chucks are not what we want. DFish was on the head scratching end of a few of the ref calls, one was a jumpball where he clearly stripped it and was then fouled. The other was one that looked like an easy charge call. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 2-7 shooting (1-5 from three) to go with 1 board, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 23 minutes. He was a -6. The Action: He missed a corner three. He banked in a runner off the glass. He missed a chuck off the high screen. He sank a wing three on the Pau kickout. He missed a three next time down. He stripped Melo on a drive for a turnover. He stripped Martin and was fouled but the refs called jumpball, bogus call, refs giving another possession away, but Fish somehow won it. He was drilled on a drive, should have been a charge, but another call the Nuggets way. Second Half: He was trapped and threw the ball away. He missed a corner three in transition. He missed a three trying to beat the shotclock.

Lamar -- -- "It was a three-man show: Gasol, Bryant and Bynum most of the night," George Karl said, "and that wasn't enough tonight, fortunately." The key name left out in that group was Lamar. We finally saw a brief stint of Lamar at the SF, but Phil used Powell at the PF when he had Bynum available. Again, the point of LO at the 3 spot is to get more minutes for our trio of impact bigmen. There were a couple minutes there where Phil seemed ready to do it, but missed the mark. Lamar played small on the glass today. One has to wonder to what extent his back is hurting because the one usually reliable part of his game is on the boards. The Nuggets were killing the Lakers on the offensive glass and Lamar was providing little resistence. He had just 4 defensive boards. We need double digits. Think back to those games where you were greedy, gobbling up every board, LO...17, 18, 19, 20 boards...he needs to impose himself on the game like that. Get after it. "They beat us to the ball a number of times tonight," Phil said of the Nuggets. Offensively, Lamar has struggled to get in sync with the offensive schemes. The Rockets packed the paint, but there is more room for Lamar to work in this series. He also has defenders he can post up if he wants to. Martin is mobile, but LO can get him on his heels by working the dribble, then hit over him when he gets him moving back first before going to the jumphook. Again, though, you wonder how much he's able to battle in the paint physically. He struggled inside and out. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 1-8 shooting (1-2 from three, 2-4 from the line) to go with 8 boards (4 offensive), 1 assist, 1 steal, 3 turnovers and 5 fouls in 30 minutes. He was a -11. The Action: He missed a 20-footer. He attacked Andersen with speed and missed a layup, Bynum drew FTs on the rebound. He was called for a lightening fast three-second call to erase his post-up layup, bogus. His pass to a wide open Pau under the hoop was deflected out of bounds. He attacked to his right and was blocked. He hit Pau with an interior feed for a dunk. He didn't score on 0-3 shooting and had 2 boards. Second Half: He airballed an attack to his right. He finally backed Martin down and drew FTs, he made one. He swished an open three. He missed a point-blank layup off an offensive board (got to finish the easy one's and FTs, Lamar). He missed a wing jumper. He posted up Kleiza and drew FTs, he made one.

Luke -- -- Another of the Lakers who was getting frustrated with the horrible officiating. Luke took a tech at one point when he got hit in the neck with elbow on a cut. Later, he was tagged with a series of cheap fouls. Phil specifically pointed at this after the game. Luke was smiling after fouling out, just shaking his head at what took place. Some nice passing sequences from Luke. He was one of the few who could consistently work the soft spots offense with the pass. Our SF position is getting sagged off quite a bit. They can collapse the D after the defense has to scramble when they attack the paint. The Stats: He didn't score on 0-2 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 3 boards, 5 assists, 1 steal, 1 block and 6 fouls in 13 minutes. He was a -2. The Action: He picked up two cheap fouls after entering the game, second one looked like it should have been a charge. Second Half: He attacked, drew the D and hit Gasol for the dunk. He went behind his back to Sasha for a three in transition. He missed a three, but got it back and drew a foul. He picked up a tech. He missed a floater. He picked up three straight fouls and sat, shaking his head.

Brown -- -- A few sloppy sequences and he seemed to be contested on his jumpers whenever he had to take one. I still like his off-the-ball movement. Something our other small guards are giving and the Nuggets are consistently getting hurt by it at least once a game. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-4 shooting (0-1 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 1 board, 2 turnovers and 2 fouls in 16 minutes. He was a -13. The Action: He missed a 20-footer on a kickout. He as swatted badly in transition. Second Half: He missed a corner three at the end of the third. His post entry pass to Kobe was picked off. He attacked baseline with aggression and drew FTs, he made one. He cut off Pau and flipped in a layup over a help defender. He fumbled a dribble away.

Vujacic -- -- Well, we got a couple of threes from Sasha. We also didn't see any fouls. Maybe the mojo is back? One can hope anyway. Although, Sasha probably wasn't close enough defensively on some drives to even commit a foul. Still, this was more like the Sasha we've been missing. He needs to build on this. String a few together. The Lakers need bench production big time right now as the Nuggets bench is starting to come to life. Sasha needs to fight more on the defensive glass. He's had a couple close out in the last two games where he didn't get back into the play and his man eneded up getting his own miss. He also needs to throw a body on people to help the helpers. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-4 shooting (all threes, he was 0-1 from the line) to go with 1 board, 1 turnover and no fouls in 15 minutes. He was a -9. The Action: He was called for a travel on a drive. Easily broken down by Smith to give up penetration and points. Second Half: He clanked an open wing three. He sank a corner three in transition when Luke found him. He missed his next look at a three. He tied up Smith on a drive for a jumpball. He missed a tech FT, arrrgh! He made up for it with a wing three on the same sequence.

Farmar -- -- Jordan led the bench in scoring with 10 points in 14 minutes. A lot of his run came in the fourth as Phil didn't play DFish again after his stint in the second half. I'm not sure what Phil was really going for in some of these fourth quarter lineups. Just looked like a change of pace or something. So, I don't think you can read much into this about whether it would carry over into the next game or not. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 3-7 shooting (2-5 from three, 2-3 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 2 assists, 1 turnover and no fouls in 14 minutes. He was a -5. The Action: He missed a three. He swished a three on a kickout from Kobe. He missed an open early offense three. He attacked and missed a layup. He missed a long heave for three at the halftime buzzer. Second Half: He attacked Billups in transition and scored an And-1 layup over him, he missed the FT. He sank a corner three. He had the ball poked loose for a turnover. He drew FTs in the final minute and made both.

Powell -- -- Phil finally went to Lamar at SF with some foul trouble for Ariza and Luke, but he used Powell at PF. Perhaps, he wanted Powell's shooting in there, but this isn't playing your best players. The point of running Lamar at SF is to get more minutes for your impact players. The Lakers took a -6 on the chin in that short 2-minute stretch. Sigh. The Stats: He was 0-1 and had no other stats in his 2 minutes. He was a -6. The Action: He fumbled away a sure hoop. He missed a baseline jumper. Second Half: He did not play.

Mbenga -- -- A brief stint in garbage time for him. Nothing worth going into detail about. The Stats: He didn't score on 0-1 shooting and didn't get credit for the block in 1 minute of action. The Action: He came in for the final minute of garbage time. He blocked a Petro drive. He missed an elbow jumper.

Phil -- -- Some very odd lineups in this game. when you look at the bottom line numbers of minutes for Pau (35), Lamar (30) and Bynum (23), you've got to consider there are some flaws in those rotations. And once again we saw Phil run some stretches with just one impact player on the floor. Not good... Phil told his team in the locker room to play with a desperate level. To focus on this game and this game only... Phil let the refs have it after a couple of no calls early on against Kobe. He called a timeout, trailing 12-5... Phil brought in Brown as the first guard off the bench. He later brought in Sasha for Luke when he and Ariza and two fouls in the first... The Lakers trailed 22-19 after the first. They were called for 8 fouls in the quarter, the Nuggets just 3. The Nuggets shot just 7-21, but had 5 offensive boards... "We've got to protect the basket," Phil said. "They've out-rebounded us so far. They are beating us to the ball."... Phil went with a Pau, Powell, Lamar, Sasha, Brown lineup. Perhaps, no Bynum so we could space the floor with some shooting, but if you are finally going to run Lamar at SF, why not give Bynum the minutes? Dang... This unit got killed as the Nuggets took an 8-0 run against them before a timeout came... Phil went with a Bynum, Lamar, Kobe, Sasha, Farmar lineup out of that timeout... Just no real post-game emphasis from the Lakers in the first 18 minutes... The Lakers started playing to their strengths a little more and cut the lead back to 4... They lost the second quarter 30-26. The tempo in the Nuggets favor for a long stretch in that quarter... The Lakers trailed 52-45 at halftime. The Lakers shot 38 percent (16-42, 3-13 from three). The Nuggets shot 43 percent (19-44, 1-6 from three). The Lakers got killed on the offensive glass 11-5. Martin, Nene and Andersen had 8 of those... Kobe was a +1 in 21 minutes. The 3 minutes he wasn't on the floor the Lakers floundered. The bench was 1-10 for 3 points in the half... Phil sat Bynum early for Lamar... Struggling with rebounding and Phil put in a Bynum, Luke, Kobe, Sasha, Brown lineup to close the third quarter... The Lakers trailed 77-66 to start the fourth... Phil continued with that lineup... He then sat Kobe for Ariza. So, we now had a Bynum, Luke, Ariza, Sasha, Brown lineup in there. When you are getting killed on the boards, how do you go with Luke at PF?... After fading with that lineup, we then went to a Bynum, Lamar, Ariza, Sasha, Farmar lineup down 16... Down 12, Phil brought back in Kobe with 6:44 left. Strange rotations... "We were fine. We were 7 points down at one stretch their in the fourth quarter," Phil said... When Luke fouled out Phil drew a delay of game warning by not putting anyone in. Glad he did. The officating was ridiculous... With all the FTs in the fourth quarter, the two teams combined for 78 points. The Nuggets winning it 43-35 by pouring it on in the end with threes and dunks... The Nuggets shot 49 freethrows in the game...

Game Flow -- LINK -- No Laker had a positive +/- in this game. Very rare to see that.

[TheLakerFeeling]

1st!

WOOOHOOO! My first 1st!! I can die in peace now. Thanks DB, tough loss but we'll get the next two!

--
GO LAKERS!!

[Raijin]

[8750]

thanks, DB
it's evident that they know what to do against our defense, but as always our coach is not able to find countermoves during the game... we play some hybrid zone, overhelp, our defense on the weak side is disgusting, and they have very easy slashes, rebounds and shots...

[Sister Golden Hair]

It's stupid to zone the Nuggets. You lose the possibility of exploiting rebounding advantages you might otherwise have. It also doesn't make sense to collapse reflexively, sometimes three Lakers collapse, only to leave three-point shooters all alone at the arc. But these season long habits, especially the collapsing D, are very hard to break. Brain dead tactics combined with lackluster excetion and neglibile accountability usually lead to embarrassing losses.

And the refs were horrendous. I wonder what the refs/league would do if in another horribly officiated game PJ refused to let his team come out on the floor in protest. Sure he'd take some techs, but maybe it would force the issue out into the open, in the very fabric of the game. Those refs were damn near criminal tonite.

Just make plain what everyone sees but which the powers that be never acknowledge.

SGH

[Vishnu]

thanks DB.

[DancingBarry]

Not to sidetrack this thread, because this game was about possessions and how many extra possessions the Nuggets got... but I'm glad to see Pau getting pissy:

Shelburne

[chilake24]

thaks,DB. i am still feel sad for kobe been treated like this by the refs. he is almost 31, and lots of injuries, a tip might get his knee injured badly. i think there might be some other cheap teat he get that we just didn't noticed and he will never let us know. DB, for so mnay year watching NBA, are you frustrated with the league these past several years. i think i had PMed you that you are my mentor to learn to watch the game, after every game, i came to read the thoughts and rating,especially after the losses

[hellsling]

It's hard to post up Pau when our guards can't shoot or make a decent post entry pass and rather chug the ball

[Klone_dd]

Hard to win playing 8 on 5. The refs certainly savored every cheer they were getting (or thought they were getting). They lost control of the game early by ignoring calls or "letting them play." Then, when they realized that they had lost control, they tried to take it back by calling a lot of touch fouls.

Jones should be suspended, plain and simple. Ultimate embarassment to the game.

The Lakers zone allowed too many offensive boards. They've gotta be more selective when they use it. If you do it every single possession, teams get familiar with it and start exploiting it. So many gaps to give the Nugs bigs a running start to crashing the glass. It gets their energy up and frustrates the Lakers because they can't get the ball, then the defense breakes down and we're fighting an uphill battle.

Kobe, as usual, was consistent with his effort. Pau needs touches. Bynum had good stretches. Everyone else played with no energy or urgency and practically wilted.

I kept waiting for a Laker run in the 4th when the refs flipped the page and closed the game.

[Texas_Pete]

Thanks DB.

As much as I want to P&M about this game, I just can't. It will go 7, with LA winning at home in game 7. We're playing fine. We just can't overcome their homecooking. Despite all of their antics, we were right there until the whistle happy last few minutes of the game. Denver can't feel happy about where they are in this series. We haven't even played our A game yet.

Trevor: They absolutely took Trevor out of the game. What I do like is that he still maintained his composure even though he was jobbed by the refs.

JR Smith should have been suspended along with Donna Jones. Man I don't like thuggery.

Bright spot: Drew's play in the post. He missed some chippies but when we made a concerted effort to go into him he delivered. He was aggressive with most of his fouls and offensive plays. What I hate is he is a mismatch waiting to happen. Why won't PJ exploit it?

Game 5 will be a Laker blowout.

[DancingBarry]

[Ray_Gonzoles]

Lakers need to reduce the offensive rebounds and easy putbacks that Denver seems to be getting - i.e. ground the 'Birdman'.

Now need to win at home, then take care of business back in Denver.

Thanks for the recap DB!
_________________
"Just show up ready to work, ready to play, Have your big boy pants on, leave your diaper at home." Kobe Bryant
Anything less than a championship is a failure. Period.

[DancingBarry]

[DancingBarry]

[OregonLakerGuy]

Thx DB

[Laker4andmore]

[mike_dee23]

DB, do you agree with me that Phil shouldn't have put in a sub for Walton after he fouled out just to prove a point to the league?

That would've been sweet.
_________________
MTFBWYA

[Laker7]

Thanks again for the awesome analysis! You are the best!

A couple of observations.

1. Refs can call games tight or call them loose. Just be consistant. They were not tonight.

2. Bynum had a couple of good sequences, particulary in the second half. I hope Phil notices and gets on the team more. I knew we were in trouble when we shot jumpers the first couple of times down the floor in the first half.

3. Thuggery aside, when JR Smith gets hot, he is dangerous. I have seen him go off before and he can be unconsious. We have to find a way to slow him down. Melo, Billups and Smith are the main 3 offensive weapons that Denver has. We have to slow 2 of the 3 of them down.

4. The more Denver plays, the more confident they get. Even in the losses, they hung around. We need to have a good old fashioned lock down clamp down defensive game to take a little of that confidence away.

5. WTF is Lamar doing on offensive end? With his height, he should be taking KMart to the hole on every possesion. Play to your strengths and against your opponents weaknesses.

L7
_________________
Darvin Ham is an idiot!

[ReaListik]

At this point it's the same thing that's always being said. The inside presence has to be established at opportune times and we have to take advantage of those instances. Kobe continuing to get others involved as well as picking and choosing times to be aggressive at the right times of the game is another key.

We need to win game 5, because if we don't, I don't see us winning game 6 in Denver.
_________________
"We are the goodest." - Shaq ESPN interview

[mike_dee23]

What's going to piss me off is that the NBA will wipe off Bynum's flagrant foul tomorrow and will assess either a flagrant one or a flagrant two to Jones. They catch those in the game and there might be a momentum shift and a different outcome.
_________________
MTFBWYA

[KINGD]

Refs were horrible tonight. You can't make runs when the other team is literally allowed to throw themselves into a player and they get calls for that. Just absolutely ridiculous officiating.

[srm90]

[lakerboy]

thanks db


this team seems physically dead. i don't know if they can overcome another seven games series

[revgen]

Why did Phil take Bynum out when we cut the lead down to 3?

That's what I really want to know.
_________________
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