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On June 03 2009 10:12 XaI)CyRiC wrote:Show nested quote +On June 03 2009 08:10 igotmyown wrote:
I don't think Dwight Howard should foul Gasol much. Gasol's main post move is a turnaround jumper, using his ridiculous length to shoot over the opponent. He won't be creating too much contact.
It's the guy who moves over to power forward who will create the problems. I imagine that the Lakers will be looking to get Howard into foul trouble via drives to the basket by the rest of the team and not through 1on1 offense from Gasol. The Lakers have quite a few players capable of getting into the lane who may end up drawing fouls on Dwight.
Yes, everyone questions Laker's D on the Magic's O (and rightfully so), but seem to overlook the flip side of that coin.
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Cayman Islands24199 Posts
On June 03 2009 02:03 Jibba wrote:Show nested quote +On June 02 2009 23:58 oneofthem wrote:On June 02 2009 13:44 Jibba wrote:On June 02 2009 13:17 igotmyown wrote:
My opinion is the media who are forcing their own fantastic standards upon the players are the arrogant ones. Lebron pushes himself to play the best basketball of his life for the series. He's not making excuses or qualifying the Magic's victory. And people have the gall to insist on demanding that he shows Jordanesque competitiveness to expecting Dalai Lama-esque graciousness in losing. It doesn't have to be fake sportsmanship either. The Celtics and Pistons were always good with each other after the series and the reason the Pistons left the court against Chicago was because Jordan had talked shit about the Pistons the day before. Him and Dwight played all summer together, you'd think he'd show some support like Carmelo did with Kobe. Talking to the media might suck, but the media is also the reason he's a hundred million dollar endorsement guy. The story is definitely overblown, but he should've shaken hands, he should've talked to the media and he shouldn't have given that ridiculously terrible explanation today. You're not going to shake someone's hand after fighting them? What do you think MMA fighters and boxers do? I guess playing basketball takes more out of you than getting punched in the face. Lebron would agree with all of this. he just had a momentary lapse of judgment that can happen to anyone. this is not to justify what he did, but he is not perfect and just an emotional young guy, i don't see what is so out of place in this situation. Because his lapse of judgment carried into the next day. You'd also think it'd be a moment that you'd want to share with your teammates, rather than run off alone with your mom. I felt that he had a moment of serious reflection there. normally he just goes with the script, without much reconsideration of what he want to do because everything in his world is in order. but then he lost the perfect script with the loss and that sent him into a tailspin. he came out of that thinking, why should i pent up my emotions so much just to act out an image, i'm good enough to take a break from that, come hell and high water.
i'm not saying it is not a moment of weakness or shows that he is less mature than he wants to portray himself to be. i just don't think that it is a big deal given his age and everything he has gone through. it is not a scandal and it does not pigeon hole his character. it merely shows that he does keep up appearances as a matter of routine, and here he had a lapse and acted like himself for a while. it might be a growing experience, we'll see when he writes his memoir.
+ Show Spoiler +to be honest, i am just giving him a pass in part because what he is likely considering is his future in cleveland.
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On June 03 2009 10:12 XaI)CyRiC wrote:Show nested quote +On June 03 2009 08:10 igotmyown wrote:
I don't think Dwight Howard should foul Gasol much. Gasol's main post move is a turnaround jumper, using his ridiculous length to shoot over the opponent. He won't be creating too much contact.
It's the guy who moves over to power forward who will create the problems. I imagine that the Lakers will be looking to get Howard into foul trouble via drives to the basket by the rest of the team and not through 1on1 offense from Gasol. The Lakers have quite a few players capable of getting into the lane who may end up drawing fouls on Dwight. the more i think about it the more i doubt that the lakers present much of a foul threat. i think howard can cover kobe without fouling, or at least avoid fouling when he has to, kobe generally doesn't drive all the way these days unless theres an opening so he doesn't draw as many fouls as he used to. although he should be able to beat whoever's guarding him off the dribble. i've noticed ariza gets a lot of his driving openings on the break or in broken possessions, not too many half court sets where howard will be waiting in his way. odom has the ability to draw fouls but he settles for little hooks etc so often, also he has a back injury. they don't really have anyone else who's gonna be worth telling to consistently drive at howard imo. tbh i don't think pau is that much of a threat to get him to foul either, but he has the biggest chance to present a consistent threat imo, especially if he hands it off to a cutter and howard fouls on the late contest, after all fouls are created when players are caught out of position
the major problem for the magic is the dual 7fters, when bynum goes out dwight can cover pau ok and lewis can cover odom so the lakers lose a major advantage there. forcing lewis to guard a 7fter is a great situation for the lakers, or they force the magic to play gortat more than they want to. who knows maybe lakers will just start odom and make it easier on everybody (except pau gasol). of course bynum has to play at least OK to present a threat, if he fouls out in 10 minutes he's not much use
thinking about this makes me even more convinced that the lakers can't win if they rely too much on kobe creating a lot of his own offense. the magic are arguably as well equipped to guard kobe as celts were last yr, lee and pietrus are both OK defenders and the rest of the team has length and contesting ability, but they don't have the defensive positioning that celtics had. he'll win them a game or 2 but they can't make him carry them. if they can stay hot from 3 i'm leaning more and more towards the magic the more i think about it, but phil jackson is a great coach with a versatile team, they should be able to come up with something
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LOL saw this on another forum, deserves to be spread:
"Kobe, have you seen my one Eastern Conference Championship hat?"
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On June 03 2009 10:47 unknown.sam wrote:Show nested quote +On June 03 2009 09:14 tonight wrote:
The likely hood of nelson coming back is slim to nill. and it's not like coming back would help the magic either
Making the assumption that his heatlh is the factor. Otherwise, he torched LA during the regular season.
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lakers had been very inconsistent in the playoffs, they seem to be getting their acts together in their last 2 games through
but I think magic definitely have the edge in this one
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United States4471 Posts
On June 03 2009 19:23 no_comprender wrote:the more i think about it the more i doubt that the lakers present much of a foul threat. i think howard can cover kobe without fouling, or at least avoid fouling when he has to, kobe generally doesn't drive all the way these days unless theres an opening so he doesn't draw as many fouls as he used to. although he should be able to beat whoever's guarding him off the dribble. i've noticed ariza gets a lot of his driving openings on the break or in broken possessions, not too many half court sets where howard will be waiting in his way. odom has the ability to draw fouls but he settles for little hooks etc so often, also he has a back injury. they don't really have anyone else who's gonna be worth telling to consistently drive at howard imo. tbh i don't think pau is that much of a threat to get him to foul either, but he has the biggest chance to present a consistent threat imo, especially if he hands it off to a cutter and howard fouls on the late contest, after all fouls are created when players are caught out of position
To be fair, I wasn't really saying that the Lakers would be a foul threat, only that if they did, it wouldn't be through 1on1 post scoring from Gasol. It's more like that if they get DHow in trouble, it'll be through breaking down the ORL defense and having all their players attacking the basket, i.e. Kobe, Odom, Ariza, Bynum, Gasol, etc. Not saying it will happen, but that's how I think it would happen.
the major problem for the magic is the dual 7fters, when bynum goes out dwight can cover pau ok and lewis can cover odom so the lakers lose a major advantage there. forcing lewis to guard a 7fter is a great situation for the lakers, or they force the magic to play gortat more than they want to. who knows maybe lakers will just start odom and make it easier on everybody (except pau gasol). of course bynum has to play at least OK to present a threat, if he fouls out in 10 minutes he's not much use
I agree that the Lakers' post play will be a significant factor in this series. How long Bynum can stay on the floor and make things not easy (difficult is a bit much to expect) for Dwight? The longer he can stay on the floor, the longer the Lakers will have a legit 7-foot post scorer being guarded by Shard (should lead to easy buckets) or Gortat (Shard being subbed out is a victory by itself). Gasol's ability to follow Shard around the perimeter will also factor into this. How well will Odom be able to attack Shard on offense and not leave him open for 3s while helping on defense? Odom could potentially shut down Shard AND dominate him in the post, and that could be huge for the Lakers.
thinking about this makes me even more convinced that the lakers can't win if they rely too much on kobe creating a lot of his own offense. the magic are arguably as well equipped to guard kobe as celts were last yr, lee and pietrus are both OK defenders and the rest of the team has length and contesting ability, but they don't have the defensive positioning that celtics had. he'll win them a game or 2 but they can't make him carry them. if they can stay hot from 3 i'm leaning more and more towards the magic the more i think about it, but phil jackson is a great coach with a versatile team, they should be able to come up with something
Kobe doing everything on offense is not something the Lakers ever want (except when everyone else is completely out of it... it happens), and it's almost always an alternative for when everything else breaks down. I'm certain the Lakers' goal is to get everyone involved, especially their post players, because the Magic have already shown that they know how to handle an offense that is dominated by one player. On the other hand, I don't think the Magic have a player who can guard Kobe well. Lee is too small and inexperienced, Pietrus has been getting killed by Kobe for a few years now (including his GS days), Turk is way too slow, and Redick... yeah. I think Kobe should be able to create offense for everyone while scoring at will much like he did in the the Denver series, and this time both him and his team will already have that a series worth of experience in doing so going in.
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I got like 1000 of my posts in the NBA/Playoff threads. What am I going to do once basketball season is over? Watch baseball? I'd rather steak knife my eye balls.
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Baseball is great, you don't have to actually pay that much attention to know what's going on. I can watch baseball while studying, reading, playing poker, and i don't miss any action
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United States22883 Posts
On June 04 2009 05:47 KOFgokuon wrote:
Baseball is great, you don't have to actually pay that much attention to know what's going on. I can watch baseball while studying, reading, playing poker, and i don't miss any action
This is exactly right. Baseball is perfect for studying because you don't need to pay any attention, but it's better than anything else on TV until after 6PM.
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From latest Bill Simmons article:
Q: Come on, if I had stormed off after a tough playoff loss like that, you would have killed me, right? Just admit it.
-- K. Bryant, Los Angeles
SG: (Searching for a comeback.)
Q. How long do you think I can keep milking this "Mr. Big Shot" gimmick without anyone pointing out my nasty habit of disappearing in deciding games?
-- C. Billups, Denver
[+] EnlargeChauncey Billups
Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty ImagesChauncey's totals against L.A.: 39.7 percent from the field, just 22 points total the final two games.
SG: Chauncey! You're alive! I thought you had died after Game 4 of the Lakers series; what a relief! Anyway, I give you credit for bringing this up. You no-showed in Games 5 and 6 of the 2003 Eastern finals (playing injured, but still); the entire 2004 Eastern finals (Detroit still won); Game 7 of the 2005 NBA Finals; Games 5 and 6 of the 2006 Miami series; and Game 6 of the 2007 Cavs series. You inexplicably disappeared for the first four games of the 2008 Boston series. And I mistakenly thought you had passed away after Game 4 of the 2009 Lakers series. That's an inordinate amount of no-shows, no? I vote that we change your nickname back to "Chauncey."
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Interesting footnote: Five soon-to-be free agents in the 2009 Finals can swing their financial destinies to alarming degrees. If the Magic win and Turkoglu has a few big moments, then they'd have to pay him gobs of money. Same for the Lakers and Odom. Trevor Ariza will earn the full midlevel with a good enough series. Marcin Gortat could get overpaid with a big performance (and might anyway). And Shannon Brown might be the single best fit for the triangle of any random player we've seen since Brian Shaw: He can make 3s, he's super-athletic, he can guard three positions, he can handle the ball, he's a quality teammate and he's tough as hell. Who knew? If he steps up in the Finals like he stepped up in the other three rounds, that puts the Lakers in an impossible position; they have $15 million committed next year to Derek Fisher, Luke Walton and Sasha Vujacic, only Brown is better than all of them. What do you do? And what happens if a team with cap space like the Zombie Sonics goes after him? And did I really just spend four sentences in an NBA Finals preview on Shannon Brown?
Q: Come on, just get it over with.
-- A. Morrison, Los Angeles
SG: Really? This early? I was saving it.
Q: Yeah, just do it. We all know it's coming.
-- J. Redick, Orlando
SG: Fine, fine. You're right. Here we go …
REDICK!!!!! MORRISON!!!!! It's the NBA Finals on ABC!!!!!!
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Odom only shuts down other players on paper. The chances of Odom getting 10 rebounds is so much higher than the chance he'll shut down anyone.
I'd like to see Orlando do a Howard-Gortat lineup every once in awhile.
Every playoff game I've watched so far, Gasol's been a far superior center than Bynum. His offense is better, he rebounds better, he defends better. The only advantage Bynum has right now is that he weighs more and should be harder to back down.
Currently, Bynum's basically a more offensive Oden with worse rebounding. Yes, you can hope Bynum has a breakout game. But Portland fans also hoped Oden would as well.
The laker's biggest strength so far has not been their matchups, but their ball movement and coordination. Similarly, Orlando is stuffed with players that look like terrible matchups defensively, yet they have the #1 defense in the league. This is going to be a coach's series of adjustments and execution.
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Great Simmons article! Lawl!
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good article, but that podcast with jerry west was terrible, he answered like 1/3 of the questions with answers that were relevant
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Completely forgot Morrison is on the Lakers, is he still planning on playing or is he done?
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United States10774 Posts
On June 04 2009 09:55 Judicator wrote:
Completely forgot Morrison is on the Lakers, is he still planning on playing or is he done?
poor morrison lol. i think he's injured atm
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finally game 1 tomorrow wooohooo!!
i don't care who wins...ok maybe i do + Show Spoiler +
i just hope this series won't have any blowouts
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On June 04 2009 17:46 unknown.sam wrote:finally game 1 tomorrow wooohooo!! i don't care who wins...ok maybe i do + Show Spoiler +i just hope this series won't have any blowouts
I'm sure it will
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I can't stand baseball most of the time 
If you don't have many posts and might get bored I guess next season we could start a TL Fantasy Basketball group on ESPN. I only play H2H Total Points though, not familiar (and dont like) the other kinds of settings.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/5872/lebron.jpg)
