WARRIORS -at- LAKERS - 3/23 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

E-Ticket Ride... From down by as many as 26 to up by 2 in the same half, and just when we get the lead, we can't hold onto it. Seems like a microcosm for the season to date. From the low of lows with Kobe wanting out to the highs of Bynum and Gasol helping us get to the top of the Western Conference...only to slip with injuries. If you don't like the roller-coaster ride, you're in the wrong line.

The Lakers gave up a 72-point first half, trailing by 23 heading into the locker room at halftime. After playing to the Warriors strengths all that half, we tighted up the defense and stopped turning the ball over in the second half. With a 32-9 run in the third quarter, we reeled them back in.

We played with purpose and intent in the second half and late in the game had a 2-point lead and the ball. We just couldn't push through after getting our first lead. The Warriors took a 4-point lead off a series of free throws and then we traded threes the rest of the way to toggle the lead between 1 and 4 points in the final minute a number of times.

Even though we lost, I'm glad we were able to salvage something from this game that we can carry over to the next game. Hopefully, we can use that to compete from the get-go in tomorrow's Warrior game.

The Lakers had 60 rebounds in this game, 36 of those by Lamar and Kobe. That's some crazy boarding by our two impact players. Lamar went for a career high 22, Kobe was one shy of his career mark with 14.

With four games in five days on the schedule, Phil rested the guys and didn't hold a shootaround. He pondered whether that hurt. "It was one of those things where they weren't focused when they came," he said in the Times.


Kobe -- -- Despite being in the thick of things during our third-quarter run and despite dropping some bombs late in the game, Kobe just couldn't push through. He was hitting the boards hard tonight. Offensively in the first half, he seemed to float around a bit, a lot of stuff coming weak-to-strong. In the second half, he worked a bit more in the post. I wish we didn't have to worry about both Baron and SJax defensively, because Kobe has locked down SJax very well in the past. But he's also our best defender on BDiddy, too. The Stats: He scored 36 points on 13-30 shooting (3-9 from three, 7-7 from the line) to go with 14 boards, 8 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers and 4 fouls in 46 minutes. The Action: He swished a wing jumper on a kickout from Ronny. He posted up Davis and picked up Baron's second foul just three minutes into the game, he banked in the And-1 and made the FT. He missed a good look at a short jumper, should have went glass. He drained an open 15-footer on a kickout from Luke. He flashed to the ball and hit a 10-footer. He missed a three short. He missed a turnaround jumper from the wing. He missed a 19-footer. He missed a three. He drew a double and bounced a pass to Luke cutting for an easy layup. He forced a pass into traffic and it resulted in a turnover and dunk the other way. He posted up, drew the D and fed a cutting Lamar for the layup. He posted up and wanted the foul on the miss. He missed a three. He had 9 points on 4-12 shooting, 5 boards, 3 assists and 3 turnovers at the half. Second Half: He picked up his third foul on our first defensive stand. He missed a corner three on an inside-out sequence. He backed Baron down and hit the 8-footer over him. He bricked a wing jumper, off balance and short. He sank an open wing three after a loose-ball scramble. He swished an elbow jumper, finding space off the dribble. He attacked and kicked to Lamar for a jumper. He missed a three. He was fouled on a 10-footer when LO found him from the post, he made both FTs. He scored a layup on the bust out with Lamar. He forced up a three with a man on him and missed. He posted up and powered in a bank. He was blocked on a turnaround. He finished the oop from Farmar on the break to cut the lead to 3. We finally cracked that 3-point Warrior lead on this next amazing Kobe sequence: As the lone man back on a two-on-one, he got the Warriors to miss a three, tapped the rebound off the glass to himself then pushed up the dribble, he went behind his back to lose a defender, spun to lose a second, and passed around the back of a third defender to Ronny for the And-1 dunk over a fourth defender, awesome play to tie the game. He posted up, muscled his man, then burst to the middle with speed and drew FT to take the lead 99-97 after making both. He missed a fallaway on the baseline. He missed a bank in the post, shooting over a help defender. He missed a jumper in the lane. He attacked from the wing and drew FTs, he made both to cut the lead to 2 with 1:48. He crossed over and scored a layup. He drained a huge three with 56 seconds left to cut the lead to 1. The Warriors hit a three with 38 seconds left, Kobe countered again with a three with 30.5 left to cut the lead to 1 again. He got tapped on a three with just a few seconds left, down by 4 again.

Lamar -- -- Lamar was doing some serious balling at the C spot and PF spots tonight. He owned the glass. We have to get that from our bigs against the Warriors. He also had some anchoring in their with some swats, including a clutch one at the rim against Baron. Offensively, nothing really came easy. He missed some chippies and jumpers. But he was a beast on the boards, even on that end. Tough to out-smallball the Warriors, but Lamar nearly helped make it happen. "It's so fun to play that way, and we've got guys who can play that way," said LO in the Register. "But as a team, it's just not good for us." The Stats: He scored 19 points on 6-19 shooting (0-3 from three, 7-7 from the line) to go with his 22 boards (9 offensive), 4 assists, 2 steals, 4 blocks, 5 turnovers and 5 fouls in 43 minutes. The Action: He missed a layup after taking some contact with no call, he then missed a tip. He missed a jumper, got it back and threaded the needle on a behind-the-back pass to Ronny for a layup. He lost the handle on iso and it resulted in a three the other way. He took the high-low from Luke and dunked. He swatted dribble penetration. Rare post up attempt and Lamar drew FTs (more please), he made both. He cut off the Kobe post up and scored a layup. He tried to post up and had it tipped away. He bricked off the glass from 5 feet away at the end of the half, never hit rim. He had 6 points on 206 shooting, 9 boards (4 offensive), 2 blocks and 4 turnovers in the first half. Second Half: He clanked a stepback 19-footer on iso (not what we want from him, get in the post against these guys). He sank a baseline jumper hanging out on the perimeter for Kobe to kick it. He took a pass from DFish on the baseline and drew FTs on the reverse, he made both. Great D with Ronny to double-team the swat on Baron, he then drew FTs in transition, he made both. Great D again, this team rejecting the shot himself and getting out in transition, where he missed the layup, but Vlad cleaned it up. He posted up and hit Kobe for FTs. He missed a top-of-the-key three. On the other end, he tipped the ball to himself a number of times before finally pulling the board down and pushing out, where he hit Kobe for the layup. He grabbed a Kobe airball and scored a layup. He filled the lane, took the pass and scored the And-1 layup, he made the FT. He threw a pass away for transition points. He got the ball slapped away trying to dunk. He tapped a miss by Luke once, then tapped it in on the second attempt. He missed under the hoop off a pass from Kobe. He missed a layup trying to avoid a charge. He swatted Baron at the rim on a must-get stop, down by 4. He couldn't get an airball on D and fouled under the hoop with 1:03 left. He missed a heave from the corner at the buzzer.

Fisher -- -- His third quarter shooting was big for our comeback. He nailed a few key shots in that stretch, and on the other end, we had stopped giving up penetration and transition scores like in the first half. Late in the game, Fisher hesitated on his challenge of Stephen Jackson's three when we had to zone up to help Vlad against Baron. Had Fisher not taken that pause, who knows what happens? But a mental mistake by Vlad allowing for a mismatch and DFish's hesitation trying to cover for him cost us our last chance to take this game. Fish should have been tighter on Jackson because the Warriors spacing could have allowed Kobe to D-up a couple defenders until we recovered. The Stats: He scored 16 points on 6-10 shooting (3-4 from three, 1-1 from the line) to go with 3 boards and 3 fouls in 33 minutes. The Action: He choked a wide open layup, (wow, that one was hard to do, even for him). He made a tech FT. He missed a baseline jumper. He swished an elbow jumper in transition. He negated a three-on-one break by taking a charge on Ellis. He swished a corner three in semi-transition. He missed a pull-up jumper in the lane. He missed a three near the end of the half. He had 6 points on 2-6 shooting in the first half. Second Half: He rattled down a long jumper with a toe on the three line. He attacked off the screen and surprisingly finished the layup. He drew an offensive foul on the D end fighting an illegal screen. He drained a huge wing three to cut the lead down to 7 and force a Warriors timeout (he was leaping in the air down the court after that one). In transition, he let a man fly by and swished a sideline three to cut the lead to 5. He "swatted" Wright from behind at the end of the quarter. Not much of note in the fourth quarter.

Radmanovic -- -- Stephen Jackson had 16 points in the first quarter, largely on Vlad. This wasn't a good match up for us, but you've got little choice right now. Offensively, very average game from Vlad with the way he's been playing lately. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 3-8 shooting (1-4 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 3 assists, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 37 minutes. The Action: He drained a corner three on an overpass from Ronny. He missed his next three, way too long. He attacked and kicked to Ronny for an open jumper. He missed an open elbow jumper. Horrible force on a backdoor lob pass and it turned into a steal and points the other way. He hit a jumphook after flashing weak-to-strong. Good D on Baron Davis, forcing a brick, then he didn't watch the ball into his hands and dropped the rebound out of bounds. He had 5 points on 2-4 shooting, 3 assists and no boards in the first half. Second Half: He missed an open three. He drew a charge on Ellis, moving his feet well on the switch. He bricked a wide open corner three badly. Good job trailing the break to clean up a miss by Lamar in a crowd. He airballed a runner. He drew FTs on an interior feed from Lamar, he made both. For some reason, Vlad tried to reach in the back court on the inbounds and fell with 30 seconds left, he then had to match up with Baron defensively, the D sagged trying to lend him some help and SJax hit another three.

Turiaf -- -- We struggled to anchor the D in the first half. The Warriors throttled it up without a guy like Bynum in there and we took the beating. That all changed in our third quarter run. Ronny had a number of blocks in the second half as we got into more of a half court game, defensively. Offensively, we got a good game from Ronny, but we sure could have used more banging down low early on. We went to him on the first possession, then went away from it. And, Ronny has got to be careful on the overpasses. Some of the kickouts from under the hoop need to turn into him powering up to try to finish. The Stats: He scored 16 points on 6-10 shooting (4-5 from the line) to go with 6 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal, 3 blocks, 5 turnovers and 4 fouls in 23 minutes. The Action: He took the post entry and banged in a jumphook on his first touch. He snagged a behind-the-back pass from LO and scored the layup in traffic. He overpassed off a lob, but Vlad hit the three. He missed a wide open jumper from the top of the key. He sank an open 17-footer working the high pinch post. He sank another on a kickout from Vlad. He picked up two fouls and had to sit midway through the first quarter. He missed a jumper in the lane. Horrible outlet pass, giving it right back to the Warriors by chucking it out of bounds. He picked up his third foul trying to deny penetration and he had to sit midway through the second quarter. He had 8 points on 4-7 shooting, 4 boards, 2 assists, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 12 first-half minutes. Second Half: He drew FTs, working the two-man game with Kobe, he made one FT. He missed an open layup off the two-man game with Kobe. Nice D on the screen-roll and he swiped the return pass. On the other end, he slipped the screen and took the pass from Kobe for FTs, he made both. He and Lamar ate up Baron's drive, both getting there and Ronny getting the block. SJax flopped and Ronny hit the turnaround. He threw down an And-1 dunk off a sensational attack in transition from Kobe to set him up, he made the FT to tie the game at 95-95. He challenged on one end to help get a miss, then pulled down the offensive board on the other and called a timeout, he then overpassed out of the timeout and was called for three seconds.

Luke -- -- In the first half, Luke took a little heat from the Staples crowd for a couple turnovers that the Warriors took advantage of. All three of his turnovers came in the first half as he tightened things up a little. We miss having an athletic SF on D and try to overcome that with Luke or lineup changes when we can. Not sure how long it will take for Newble to get some run and understanding of what we are trying to do on both ends, but we could have used a little help, especially in the first half. One of those three's by SJax late in the game you can't put any blame on Luke. He had switched, got pushed off and tried to recover, but was too late. Tough situation with the advantage the offensive player got. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-3 shooting to go with 4 boards, 6 assists, 1 block, 3 turnovers and 1 foul in 27 minutes. The Action: He posted up and hit Kobe at the elbow for an open jumper. Nice strip under the hoop to save a basket. He found Lamar on a high-low for a dunk. He had the ball stripped off his leg outside the three line for a turnover. He cut down the lane and Kobe for him for the layup. He swished a 17-footer when his man sagged off him. He had back-to-back turnovers on passes and the crowd started to boo. He had 4 points on 2-2 shooting and 3 turnovers in the first half. Second Half: He swatted a man under the hoop to save a basket. He posted up Ellis and drew his fifth with 7:14 left. He was called for a phantom foul, getting all ball on SJax's drive, the Warriors tied the game up on FTs. He missed a turnaround, but Lamar tapped it in. Monte Ellis got away with a big time push off on Luke on a switch and Luke couldn't recover to his man in time and SJax hit a three to take a 4-point lead with 38 seconds.

Farmar -- -- Some aggressive offensive play by Farmar. He was attacking the rim with some authority at times. Nice to see. What I liked better was seeing him take a rare charge. I'm going to keep pointing out this aspect lacking from his game until it starts happening with some kind of regularity. He's got the speed to do it and a mentor in Fish to learn from. It should happen more. Farmar and Turiaf exchanged some words in this game. "I thought there were some disturbances tonight where players didn't play team basketball and other players picked up on it at times," Phil said. "But that happens in games that are highly emotional like this. They're young players and they're still learning how to keep their mouth shut and take advice and not retort immediately."
The Stats: He scored 10 points on 3-10 shooting (1-4 from three, 3-5 from the line) to go with 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 15 minutes. The Action: He missed a long wing jumper, pulling up on the break. He clanked another three a few seconds later. He was blocked on a drive. He attacked again on the same sequence and drew an And-1 off the goaltend call, he made the FT. He attacked baseline with speed and threw down with both hands. Nice burst of speed on the dribble and he drew FTs in transition, he made one. He drew more FTs in transition trying to throw down, he made one...got it back and drained a quick three. He missed a three, got it back, attacked and missed a drive. He threw a pass away on a drive and kick. He had 19 points on 3-8 shooting in the first half. Second Half: He had a teardrop blocked. He lobbed to Kobe on the break to cut the lead to 3 with 9 minutes left. Finally...Farmar draws a charge (might be his third this season), he came over on help D with speed, set up and got the stop (more please, I beg you). Strong attack again, but he got blocked.

Vujacic -- -- Ugggh. Poor game from Sasha. This was more like the kind of game he played last year, which shows just how much things have clicked for him. He had some brainlock on one offensive sequence that really looked bad, but he somehow recovered to get his only point of the game. He led the Lakers with a -9. The Stats: He scored 1 point on 0-5 shooting (0-3 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 5 boards and 1 foul in 16 minutes. The Action: He missed a wing jumper. Insane possession, he took a three on a one-man break against three defenders, he missed, somehow got his rebound back, attacked into a couple defenders and drew FTs, he then made one FT. He missed a corner three. Second Half: He got blocked on a layup. He missed an open sideline three.

Phil -- -- You know what the coaches wanted. The players knew it, but they just didn't execute. Whatever was said at halftime, they came out in the second half and flipped the game on it's head. Even though they didn't win, the ability to dig themselves out of a hole like that with better D and better execution is a character-builder... After making a token attempt to establish the post early, the Lakers went to more of a perimeter-oriented game, playing into the Warriors game plan. We had Baron Davis with two early fouls, but didn't look to attack him after he switched off Kobe... The Warriors went on a 9-0 run and Phil subbed Ronny out after a turnover and foul, his second, and we went small with Lamar at C (he'd see a lot of time at the C spot)... The Warriors led 34-30. We went into to the post about 4-5 times in that quarter, scoring out of those sequences in some fashion, but the rest of the time we were content to shoot jumpers... We came out of the huddle late and gave up a tech FT. The Warriors got 4 points on that trip and pulled to a 10-point lead.... Full-court pressure twice, two baskets for the Warriors. Again, playing into their hands... The Warriors led 72-49 at the half, scoring 23 points off 14 Laker turnovers (Warriors had 5 turnovers on which we converted into 2 points). Monte Ellis had 21 points and SJax had 18... "We got caught up in their style," BShaw said at the half. "One of our keys to the game was to get the ball inside."... Lakers turned the tables in the third. We cut down the turnovers. We let them shoot jumpers, cut down on the dribble penetration (and collasped nicely on the rare occasion it happened). We went on a 32-9 run to cut the lead to just 3 at one point in the quarter... The Lakers took a 2-point lead in the fourth quarter, then gave up a series of FTs to the Warriors... We had just 4 turnovers in the second half. That was key... Phil wasn't pleased with some of the yapping by Farmar, Turiaf and Sasha...

Game Flow -- LINK -- Check out the third-quarter run and the numbers put up by Kobe, Fish and Lamar in that stretch. That little Warrior 8-2 run in the fourth gave up the ghost for us. A point of debate was taking Ronny out in the fourth where he was a +5 in that stint (2 turnovers, though) for Luke, who ended up a -4 in his stint. (Note: both those late SJax threes, were more on Fish, IMO, than Luke).

[AndrewBynum17]

bad loss hopefully we win tomorrow.
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www.andrewbynum.com

[Magic'sSon]

thx DB 2nd!!

[KBryantisclutch]

3rd!
After reading on how we gave up 72 it reminded me of how we gave up 71 to the Kings. Both of those games were home games in which we took the lead but ended up losing.

We'll be alright though.

[rpadma12]

[A Mad Chinaman]

[8750]

thanks, DB
maybe it's about bad execution, but it seems to me that our defensive strategy has the greatest fault, if every time we allow wide open three pointers... when your players are so slow or tired or mentally unprepared, help-and-recover is the best way to catch three points instead of two..

[jmark]

Ronny needs to stop kicking the ball out & finish inside.
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"I appreciate all those who have supported me. Thank you for believing in me. My family and I are going to need your support and prayers now more than ever." Kobe

[Mation]

Thanks DB.

Catching up to tie the game took its toll on the players. To say we had the lead in the fourth with a 20 plus deficit is amazing considering our injury situation.

If Kobe, Vlad or Sasha had anything close to a fifty-percent shooting night we would've took this game. Oh well, tomorrow we'll have a greater feel for their game and will be hungry for that revenge. Just hope our starters have enough energy for it.

[X56]

Thanks for the recap DB, this is the first time i've posted to express my appreciation. I always look forward and read your recaps especially since i don't get to watch all the games.

The D during the last sequence was really baffling for me since even if they scored a two, we would still have a chance to tie especially with Kobe hitting two consecutive threes. Reminds me of the game against the pistons when we gave Prince the three.
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Game 7 2010 NBA Finals - Lakers 83, Boston 79

[mike_dee23]

When Sasha went down and shot that 3 on a 1 on 3 fast break, I thought, "Thank God the Lakers never traded for White Chocolate." He did do OK defensively against B-Diddy.

I would've liked to see Newble come in and get physical with Stephen Jackson in the first quarter. That's why he's here, right?
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MTFBWYA

[prisma8slg]

[wolfpaclaker]

Thanks for the effort DB. Don't read the board much these days, but still catch this thread almost every game.

Hopefully you're not tired out, I am in mood for a long playoff run. It's been a few years since you've had to go into June

I thought this was a tale of two halves.

The Lakers played awful defense and executed poorly on offense in 1 half. Then they played very solid defense (considering the lack of size and matadors at the perimeter they have) in the 2nd half, executed better on offense.

But Lamar summed it up. LA got caught up in playing their style, and the funny thing was they were right there to win it in the end. Some brilliant plays by Kobe and Lamar in the 2nd half allowed that to happen. However this is just not our style, and we played like this IMO only because we have no size right now, Lamar is basically our best big right now, and he's more of a forward than big anyway.

Tonight, I get the feeling we will win this game. Although a tough one and we should be underdogs, if Kobe executes smarter, Odom has a better shooting night and the Lakers play defense from the start of the game, instead of mid-point, we should avenge this loss at home. Honestly, I saw this home and away B2B and thought split considering no Pau + AB. We can still accomplish a split which is what the Lakers should realistically aim for in matchups like these (without AB + Pau).

But boy, I don't know about the rest of you - thought that just having Ariza in there instead of Walton/Radmanovic would have enabled us to win this game. The biggest reason I find we wind up playing such poor defense against teams like GS, Por and Sacto is that they have more athleticism than us at the perimeter. Combine that with Kobe's tendency to leave his man off the ball, the Lakers get smoked at the 3-2-1 defensively way too much with the Walton/Radmanovic, Bryant/Vujacic, Fisher/Farmar perimeter rotation. LA needs a perimeter defender, or at the very least 1-2 anchors like AB. Really, games like this show why LA won't win a title unless they have AB and Ariza back in the rotation. Just too many defensive liabilities in the current rotation, though on the bright side offensively LA has more than enough to compete with anyone.

[Sage_10]

I really feel as if our bad defense did it to us again.
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"You Must Be Willing To Give Up That Which Can Be Lost In Order To Gain That Which Cannot Be Lost." - FORTUNE COOKIE

[hoopschick29]

Luke's liabilities defensively are far outweighing his benefit offensively. Vlad, unless he's raining 3s, is a huge liability for us also on the defensive end.
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So glad we gave you your flowers while you were here, Kobe.

[mike_dee23]

Do you guys feel it was the defense as much as it was poor offensive play? I mean, GS had 19 points in the first half off of turnovers. That doesn't include points off bad shot selection. In the second half, the Lakers played well defensively.
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MTFBWYA

[oaktown_dimond]

bottom line is that the warriors don't suck. the lakers were undermanned to beat the dubs. with gasol - we would have won. even ariza would have swayed the game.

obviously, we would have decimated them with bynum, gasol and ariza back in the mix

Robby

[angrypuppy]

Those first half turnovers killed us. The Warriors were treating it like a playoff game, whereas the Lakers looked careless and casual, throwing away passes and feeding the Warrior transition game with jumpers. By the time the Lakers caught them in the fourth quarter, they were too exhausted to press the advantage home.

Hopefully they learned their lesson, and play with purpose tonight. Tomorrow's headline: "No sloppy seconds!"

[BigE32]

Thanks, DB. Nice job by the guys to get back into the game, but disappointed that we got the lead only to lose it. The fact that we had no Gasol, and AB made a huge difference. That made us have a smaller lineup on the court, and I like GS's smaller lineup much better than ours. When you play GS, you've got to go inside and pound it. In the first half, just way too many turnovers which led to easy points and that was what lost us the game. Cleaner second half, but it wasn't enough. You don't want to play their style. You've got to try and control tempo. I thought that Ronny played a nice game, but sometimes he's too unselfish. On one occasion, he received the ball down on the block against a smaller player. Instead of taking a shot, he made a diagonal pass and the result was a three second violation. It really baffles me how we continue to let guys who are feeling it from the perimeter continue to have open looks. No way Stephen Jackson should have an open look from three when we're down one. I don't care if he's a couple of feet behind the line. A two point basket still makes it a one possession game. He makes a three to go up four with eight seconds left and the game's over right there. Too many breakdowns on the defensive end. It seems like we're not on the same page in crucial situations. Fish hesitated before going out to cover Jackson. Before that shot, he was fifty percent from beyond the arc. After the last make, he shot fifty-six percent from beyond the arc. Last Sunday, we continued to go under screens against Alston who made eight threes. Just inexcusable and mind boggling. Offense isn't our problem, it's playing solid D for four quarters. We don't bring it on the defensive end for the full forty-eight minutes. We play well in spurts. Tough game tonight. It's tough to win up in GS, especially since we're short handed. I feel that we're a much better team than them when we're full strength, but unfortunately we're not going to be as we head into tonight's game.

[limchrc]

Hope team plays the same level of effort as how the exerted on the 2nd half of tonight's game. Hopefully, we will get the win tomorrow.

[limchrc]

Btw, kudos to Lamar and Kobe for the tremendous effort on the boards.

[Klone_dd]

Something about those Sunday whites and giving up 70+ in the 1st half like we did to Sac 2 weeks ago. Nearly identical losses.

I'm glad I missed the first half and was shocked to see how far behind they were. Give us one more mobile big and we win this game. Nice resiliency shown by the team, but when they ran out of juice and got stuck on 99 for a number of possessions. It will only make it more difficult to win in GS's house.

[IPK]

[viperlin]

sasha's decision making was ridiculous and he scares me every time he touches the ball....UNLESS he's wide open for a spot up 3ptr.

i hope phil gets through to this guy. he's obviously caught up in his own hype right now.

[DancingBarry]