Thoughts on Spurs @ Lakers (I was there)

ocho · Retired Number Joined: 24 May 2005 Posts: 53836

went to my 4th game this year tonight vs. san antonio.

really exciting game to watch in the first half....more frustrating in the second. for a little bit there it seemed as if the lakers were poised to beat detroit and san antonio back to back....but we fell short and blew our lead in the 3rd.

perimeter D was the culprit again tonight. whether its wally Z, delonte west, michael finley, steve blake, manu ginobili, etc... other teams have capitalized on our weak perimeter D this season. too many open threes to guys who can consistently knock them down.

tonight was the first time i got to see tony parker play. he really is the heart of the spurs, making things happen for his teammates. and man is he quick.

kobe's game has so much flair and finesse that make it so fun to watch. kobe has faced all the top defenders this year, whether it be artest, prince, hamilton or bowen...kobe finds a way to score. tonight againts bowen he scored 43 points on 53% shooting.

odom is so talented its a shame he doesn't maximize it. he had some trouble against duncan (fair enough), but he only shot 7 times. he made 5 of them, but we could have used his scoring more.

phil's mentality of not playing rookies is a flat out FLAW in his coaching style. in the third quarter, we needed a spark more than anything...offensively and defensively. andrew bynum and ronny turiaf never saw the light of day. ronny could have really helped tonight and it makes no sense that phil didn't put him in. ronny puts on a show even from the bench...dancing after every bucket made. at time outs, ronny runs to the scorer's table to high 5 the guys while the rest of his teammates remain seated on the bench. why...even when we were down 15-18 points did phil not give ronny and andrew a shot??

phil also puts in some screwy lineups sometimes. you simply cannot have luke walton, kwame brown, and sasha vujacic in at the same time. they all make far too many mistakes. maybe some combination of them...but not all 3 at once.

also...where was jimmy jackson??????

i realize he hasn't had much (if any) time to practice with the team....but when you're getting clobbered why not see if the guy can help turn it around? afraid its not worth it to risk sasha and luke walton's minutes?? come on, phil.

overall....it we played fairly well against the defending champs. going in to the half we had a good lead but the spurs are too good when they're clicking. we were clicking for a while too in the first half which was a good sign for the rest of the season. hopefully JJ can help give us some more W's heading into the playoffs.
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they-perch · Star Player Joined: 25 Jun 2005 Posts: 1184

i agree, i would have liked to see andrew out there for a few minutes to give us some interior defense help. a lineup consisting of pg (dont care who they both suck)/kobe/lamar/kwame/bynum would have given us low post defense, shot blocking, scoring (kobe and lamar at least), and rebounding. parker was finding his way inside way too easily and that led to the perimiter shooting.

4 Pointer · Star Player Joined: 18 Feb 2005 Posts: 1424

I don't think we will ever find a guy to slow down Tony Parker, Sebastian Telfair, Raymond Felton, Speedy Claxton, etc.. The Lakers will just have to learn how to take up space on defense as a team.

J.C. Smith · Franchise Player Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 12676

I thought it in Phil' first run here, and I still believe it. He is one of the best coaches in the league at preparing his team to play, however his substitution patterns and his timeout management are both lower tier. He's a great coach, but there are some times when the team needs a timeout to stop a run and Phil simply won't call one. Far more often though, there are times when he never allows players to get into a set substitution pattern. A guy will have a great game and never leave the bench in the next game. It just doesn't make sense.

vvbandit · Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 9:39 am Post subject:

I agree Ocho and Ive never really questioned Phil, but allowing such horrible lineups out on the court for extended periods of time is crazy. I know he wants to teach the guys and wants them to learn on their own but the W's are more important at this time.

GameCock-MD · Star Player Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 4498

There is no need to play checkers with missing pieces...

Spurs have the advantage on every substitution Phil could make...his TEAM has to outplay the other TEAm, not depend on individual match ups...
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re4ee · Franchise Player Joined: 07 Mar 2005 Posts: 12237

Mostly I agree, except your conclusion that Ronny or Bynum would have helped. You correctly point out that we were beat on the perimeter, but conclude that young interior players might somehow make a difference.

I know it's frustrating to see the Lakers play decent defense through 18-20 seconds of the shot clock, only to have a pass out result in a long make. But that is precisely what makes the Spurs as good as they are, it's how they beat just about everybody. No shame in that.

NW Laker · Starting Rotation Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 422

You hit the nail on the head. I understand giving guys a rest, but you need to spread your subs around a bit. I knew the Luke, Sasha and Kwame combo would kill us, and it did. The only question is why Phil let them stay in the game as long as they did.