The Lakers gave up 36 points in the third quarter!

[Supa]

And only scored 19 points. Supposedly, according to some, Kobe shot the Lakers out of the game in this quarter.

Tell me what happened in the second quarter when the Lakers only scored 18 points supposedly playing within the offense. That quarter they gave up a more respectable 22 points.

Are you telling me that Kobe's play is the reason the Lakers gave up 36 points in that third quarter? Is that really it? The guys didn't appreciate Kobe taking the majority of the the shots, so they decided to leave Manu wide open? Wasn't Manu Lamar's guy? So what? Is the main culprit Lamar?

I highly doubt that's the case. If it is, those players with that mentality need to be traded ASAP. It is just a fantasy created by fans upset that we got worked by a better team. Face it, we couldn't stop the Spurs in that third quarter. Their inside out game is too good, and they were nailing their outside shots.

[JerryWest_44]

If there was one area that killed us tonite it was perimeter defense. The second problem was PG penetration.

Finley 21 pts
Gino 21 pts
Parker 21 pts

Nice defense Smush, Kobe, Sasha ...

[drzucchini]

1. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=supposedly

2. Their inside game wasn't dominant enough to warrant a double team on Duncan. Brown was playing adequate defense on him. Odom messed up.

[Supa]

[cirehawk]

[cirehawk]

But I agree about Smush

[drzucchini]

[aiel]

Can't fully blame odom. WHen a team gets beat off the dribble, it sucks the defense in creating open perimeter shot. odom's not fast enough to recover to the open man.

[Supa]

Odom probably could have challenged Ginobili a little better. It was almost embarrassing to watch him shoot all those wide open 3 pointers we nobody near him. But, you also gotta consider that the Spurs system creates those wide open shots.

If you stay at home on their perimeter guys, either Duncan will get going, or Parker will start killing you on drives. If you double on Duncan or try to clog the lane to stop Parker, it'll leave some of their shooters open. There's a reason they've won a couple championships in the last few yeras.

Parker was killing us a couple years ago in the playoffs. I believe they adjusted by clogging the lane, leaving some of their shooters open. Parker was contained, the shooters couldn't make shots, and the Lakers went on to win four games in a row.

[osj]

the spuds have the best halfcourt offense in the league

[Laker_Dynasty]

I was there. Kobe didn't shoot the team out of the game in the 3rd quarter. When the lead built up to 9 from wide open jumpers from 20 ft and beyond and they were knocking down every one of them, the team should've made adjustments to that and stayed home on the shooters.

Of course, there's always a risk of opening more things up for Tim Duncan, the problem is that the Spurs were completely on fire and had SO much time to shoot. There were a few instances where everybody on the team was guilty of sagging back from their man a little too much. It's almost as if they had this mentality that they could recover so easily. End result was the Spurs pushing the lead to 18 at one point.

All-in-all, the team didn't necessarily come out "flat" in the 3rd, but they still don't know how to come out with a sense of urgency in the 3rd. It's been their M.O. the entire year. At halftime, I was really concerned about it because despite having a 2 point lead, I saw that the Spurs were still missing some wide-open, uncontested jumpers (still shooting above 50%) and had a feeling it would haunt the Lakers in the 2nd half. Sure enough, that's what happened.
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Just chill and watch the new Dynasty evolve...

Time for the Lakers to create a whole new legacy! We want 10 more trophies boys!