I would be very surprised if the Lakers do not win this series in 5.
1) Lets keep this is mind. The Rockets are making horrible decisions offensively.
2) They are neglecting Scola. Lamar simply cannot guard the guy. Hopefully, Phil has gained enough confidence in Bynum to put him back in the lineup so Pau can guard him.
3) They are neglecting Yao the last 2 games. Ron Artest should not have more shot attempts than Yao. Von Wafer should't have 10 shot attempts either.
4) They are being baited into playing our pace. We are pushing this high speed pace onto them and their young guards are falling into it. Did you guys see Shane Battier telling Brooks "Slow it Down!". We can't assume that they are going to continue to do this.
5) Bottomline, they are making horrible decisions offensively and are falling into our pace. Part of the problem is Artest, but mostly it's Brooks and Lowery falling victim to our frenetic pace. They are missing shots not so much because we are defending them as much as they are playing our game and not theirs.
Can we count on Lowery and Brooks to do this forever? I don't think we should. They have to wake up eventually. _________________ I Recommend VLC Player: http://www.videolan.org/
Joined: 25 May 2008 Posts: 18984 Location: The High Desert
Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 3:48 am Post subject:
He knows the Rockets will lose by 15 because he will suddenly come out of retirement and sign with the Lakers and drop 50 points on them. _________________ ...in my opinion.
I would be very surprised if the Lakers do not win this series in 5.
1) Lets keep this is mind. The Rockets are making horrible decisions offensively.
2) They are neglecting Scola. Lamar simply cannot guard the guy. Hopefully, Phil has gained enough confidence in Bynum to put him back in the lineup so Pau can guard him.
3) They are neglecting Yao the last 2 games. Ron Artest should not have more shot attempts than Yao. Von Wafer should't have 10 shot attempts either.
4) They are being baited into playing our pace. We are pushing this high speed pace onto them and their young guards are falling into it. Did you guys see Shane Battier telling Brooks "Slow it Down!". We can't assume that they are going to continue to do this.
5) Bottomline, they are making horrible decisions offensively and are falling into our pace. Part of the problem is Artest, but mostly it's Brooks and Lowery falling victim to our frenetic pace. They are missing shots not so much because we are defending them as much as they are playing our game and not theirs.
Can we count on Lowery and Brooks to do this forever? I don't think we should. They have to wake up eventually.
I think you need to give the Lakers defense a little credit here. The Lakers have picked up their defensive intensity in the past two games. I agree that the Rockets have made some poor decisions, but much of it can be accredited to the Lakers imposing their will. The Lakers do not want Yao to beat them. They are funneling the ball away from him, and when he does get the ball, they are effectively disrupting his rhythm. Hence, no monster game from Yao...yet. Of course, they would rather see Artest and Wafer jacking up threes than Yao dunking the ball. Therefore their defense is geared toward making the Rockets do this.
The pace of the game has picked up not just because the Rockets are being 'baited'. Again, you can attribute much of this to the Lakers defense. They are disrupting the Rockets passing, and creating turnovers. What do they do when they create these turnovers? They run the break of course. Their defense also pressures the Rockets into running the ball up court, rather than walking it up and setting up their half court offense.
I give the Lakers alot of credit for what's happened to the Rockets these past two games. The Lakers are simply imposing their will right now. Whether they can sustain it is another story. _________________ If you meet the Buddha in the lane, feed him the ball. ~Phil Jackson
^Here's the problem. We are giving so much attention to Yao that we are leaving Scola on an island with Lamar. They still have yet to exploit Scola as they should be. Why? Because they are caught up in our pace.
The turnovers, the bad passes, and others are also a result of playing at our pace. I will give the Laker defense credit for going after the turnovers, but let's be honest, we weren't playing this fast in the Game 1. We weren't pushing the tempo. The Rockets were playing at a slow pace that was suited for them, and so far they haven't been doing that since Game 2.
At some point, their young backcourt is going to grow up. As much as I hate Adelman going back to the King's days, he is a pretty damn good coach. I believe that he will get his message across to both of them, and he'll have Yao, Battier, Scola and the other vets in his corner to lay down the message. They are down 2-1 right now and another loss means the beginning of the end for their season.
If those 2 guards get wise, then it's going to be a tough series for Lamar against Scola. Thankfully, Bynum did actually play well in Game 3 against Yao on defense. If we can put Bynum back on Yao and put Pau back on Scola, we can match up properly again and hope for the best. _________________ I Recommend VLC Player: http://www.videolan.org/
^Here's the problem. We are giving so much attention to Yao that we are leaving Scola on an island with Lamar. They still have yet to exploit Scola as they should be. Why? Because they are caught up in our pace.
The turnovers, the bad passes, and others are also a result of playing at our pace. I will give the Laker defense credit for going after the turnovers, but let's be honest, we weren't playing this fast in the Game 1. We weren't pushing the tempo. The Rockets were playing at a slow pace that was suited for them, and so far they haven't been doing that since Game 2.
At some point, their young backcourt is going to grow up. As much as I hate Adelman going back to the King's days, he is a pretty damn good coach. I believe that he will get his message across to both of them, and he'll have Yao, Battier, Scola and the other vets in his corner to lay down the message. They are down 2-1 right now and another loss means the beginning of the end for their season.
If those 2 guards get wise, then it's going to be a tough series for Lamar against Scola. Thankfully, Bynum did actually play well in Game 3 against Yao on defense. If we can put Bynum back on Yao and put Pau back on Scola, we can match up properly again and hope for the best.
LOL...Notice I didn't mention game 1 in my previous post. The Lakers didn't play well in game 1 at all. Things started to change in Game 2, especially after Fish's ejection. They've clearly made adjustments, and we've seen the results of those adjustments the past 2 games.
I agree that the Rockets haven't exploited the Scola-Odom matchup very much. Perhaps that is an adjustment that they'll make for game 4. However, you can't blame the Rockets for consistenly trying to go to their big man in the paint (Yao). He is their 1st option on offense. You also can't blame the Lakers for focusing heavily on guarding Yao. Like I said, the Lakers would rather have other guys jacking up shots than have Yao repeatedly dunking the ball in the paint.
Regarding the pace of the game, I don't think you quite understood what I said. The Lakers are forcing the Rockets to play at a quick pace. I'm not saying the Rocket guards haven't made some poor decisions. However, you have to give the Lakers credit for pressuring the ball in the back court at times. What that does is force the Rockets to hurry the ball accross half court. It prevents them from effectively setting up their half court offense. It also creates turnovers which the Lakers transform into precious points.
I fully expect the Rockets to make adjustments for game 4. Like you said, Addleman is a terrific coach. What the Lakers did in the past 2 games, they'll have to do 10x better next game. It probably won't be easy. _________________ If you meet the Buddha in the lane, feed him the ball. ~Phil Jackson
Glad to hear Horry has our back. _________________ "You Must Be Willing To Give Up That Which Can Be Lost In Order To Gain That Which Cannot Be Lost." - FORTUNE COOKIE
I'm pretty sure the pushing the pace starts with good defense. You run the break out of turnovers and defensive rebounds. The 3rd quarter run was definitley keyed by the defense.
I would be very surprised if the Lakers do not win this series in 5.
2) They are neglecting Scola. Lamar simply cannot guard the guy. Hopefully, Phil has gained enough confidence in Bynum to put him back in the lineup so Pau can guard him.
Did I just see someone call Scola un-guardabel? Hold on a minute, Luis Scola an offensive juggernaut?
Dude, he is a scrub enforcer. He is a cross between Rick Mahorn and PJ Brown WITHOUT the rebounding skill. He is a CAREER 12 ppg guy. And after a guy has been playing as long as he has, I would say he's reached his ceiling. He is what he is which is 12 ppg. He is not going to carry the Rockets.
If he could rebound, I'd give him props. But he just gets some garbage baskets and pushes people around. If not for his thugness, he'd be out of the league.
Joined: 24 Dec 2007 Posts: 35812 Location: Santa Clarita, CA (Hell) ->>>>>Ithaca, NY -≥≥≥≥≥Berkeley, CA
Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 6:17 am Post subject:
Horry is right. There will be no game 1 repeats. Like I said earlier, Lakers in 5. _________________ Damian Lillard shatters Dwight Coward's championship dreams:
They are shooting themselves out of the series. Scola didn't have much success in the 3rd quarter like he did in the first half against Lamar when the defense tightened up. So they went away from both he and Yao and decided to start jacking up shots. They probably would've had a better chance of going back inside and it would open up some more options.
I thought Horry might be doing some reverse psychology on the Rockets to fire them up, but the way the Lakers are playing, they are going to be determined to take two in Houston with a well-rested Fisher.
Joined: 24 Jun 2005 Posts: 2500 Location: Inland Empire
Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 7:13 am Post subject:
revgen wrote:
OX1947 wrote:
I would be very surprised if the Lakers do not win this series in 5.
1) Lets keep this is mind. The Rockets are making horrible decisions offensively.
2) They are neglecting Scola. Lamar simply cannot guard the guy. Hopefully, Phil has gained enough confidence in Bynum to put him back in the lineup so Pau can guard him.
3) They are neglecting Yao the last 2 games. Ron Artest should not have more shot attempts than Yao. Von Wafer should't have 10 shot attempts either.
4) They are being baited into playing our pace. We are pushing this high speed pace onto them and their young guards are falling into it. Did you guys see Shane Battier telling Brooks "Slow it Down!". We can't assume that they are going to continue to do this.
5) Bottomline, they are making horrible decisions offensively and are falling into our pace. Part of the problem is Artest, but mostly it's Brooks and Lowery falling victim to our frenetic pace. They are missing shots not so much because we are defending them as much as they are playing our game and not theirs.
Can we count on Lowery and Brooks to do this forever? I don't think we should. They have to wake up eventually.
They are making bad decisions. These are kids in comparison to Fisher and his experience. They have the youth and speed, but Fish has to make that up with smarts, muscle and experience. Those players will eventually learn, everyone has to figure things out for themselves.
But to answer that last question, I don't think we can count on Lowery and Brooks to do this forever either. They will eventually wake up, it will happen after game five though. Just after the Lakers finish sweeping the next two!
Bye. _________________ "This trophy removes the most odious sentence in the English Language. It can never be said again that 'the Lakers have never beaten the Celtics.'" -Dr. Jerry Buss (1985) R.I.P., 33 x M.V.O.
Joined: 03 Mar 2009 Posts: 1527 Location: Big Red Country
Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 7:30 am Post subject:
MissingCali wrote:
I'm pretty sure the pushing the pace starts with good defense. You run the break out of turnovers and defensive rebounds. The 3rd quarter run was definitley keyed by the defense.
I agree. Even when Kobe was not clicking offensively on the 3rd, we managed to pull ahead with good defense and force turnovers.
Joined: 02 Sep 2005 Posts: 13197 Location: @ the beach
Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 7:42 am Post subject:
I wonder if Rob thinks of himself as more of a Laker or a Rocket... _________________ ♪ ♫One good thing about music, when it hits, you feel no pain...
So hit me with music! ♪ ♫
Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 8:31 am Post subject: LAKERS @ ROCKETS GAME 4 Thread 5/10
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I hope both Yao and Artest get to play. But it's time to rip Houston's heart out! Get that 3-1 lead, I don't care how you do it! _________________ The killer in me is the killer in you!
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