btw, great statement by Fisher: ""Every game is different," Fisher said. "To say we recaptured the magic [in Game 5] means Thursday we'll play the same way. That's just not how this works. Thursday, we might shoot 39 percent, and you just got to play defense and rebound and hustle and take charges and figure out a way to win the game. It's going to be different than it was [Tuesday]."

eStoniaNBoY

Switzerland439 Posts

May 14 2009 18:48 GMT

#1542

Xeris,

Look what Boston had as their bench. After the Garnett and Allen trades their bench was well not the best you could have. They didn`t simply have enough players to substitute Big Three and give them rest. Big Three had to play massive amounts of minutes and worry about not getting into injury trouble.No wonder that older people like Big Three and PJ Brown got worn out. Specially against an atlethic team and young team like Cleveland and Atlanta.

Yeah they had Posey, House, Powe stepped up and Perkins also, but they GRINDED out of that hole and that showed that they have a really strong team. Both mentally and physically. They are also grinding and playing smart versus Orlando. They are a mature team that can afford to grind out of these holes unlike Lakers` who don`t put up the effort at all.

eStoniaNBoY

Switzerland439 Posts

May 14 2009 18:54 GMT

#1543

Most definetly Lakers - Nuggets will be a good series if Lakers pass Rockets. We will see if Denver cracks under the pressure or not and how they react to facing West`s number one team that they have struggled against. Denver has a legitimate shot at winning versus Lakers just based on the fact that every series is a new one and if they manage to set the tone and win the first game like Rockets did then their chanches and confidence increases a lot and it would be hard to stop them.

Game one will be a serious factor.

Xeris

Iran17695 Posts

May 14 2009 19:40 GMT

#1544

that has nothing to do with anything.. point is they barely won the first 2 rounds... but they won. Lakers might be playing shitty, but they're winning, and that's all that matters.

Quanticfograw

United States2053 Posts

May 14 2009 19:47 GMT

#1545

if you guys remember last year, pretty sure boston went to game seven in every series besides L.A. i know for sure they went 7 with the hawk and cleveland and six with l.a.

citi.zen

2509 Posts

May 14 2009 19:53 GMT

#1546

Nobody can stop LeBron this year. He's like.... Jaedong + Bisu + Flash rolled into a player who chooses random every game. GG.

Xeris

Iran17695 Posts

May 14 2009 19:59 GMT

#1547

lol Kobe stopped him twice this year.

eStoniaNBoY

Switzerland439 Posts

May 14 2009 20:11 GMT

#1548

Xeris,

Point is that they have the same attitude and the same approach like they had last year. If you make mistakes like they did last year then you fix them instead of running into the same problems over and over again.

Lakers can`t afford to think like alcoholics and drug addicts. " Tomorrow I will stop it " won`t cut it. And if they make it to the Finals then they didn`t "lose the title" like they thought they did vs Boston, but they were "fortunate to play in the Finals" a feature they might accomplish again this year.

They have young inconsistant players on the bench who don`t need to see their starting five slacking off.

eStoniaNBoY

Switzerland439 Posts

May 14 2009 20:14 GMT

#1549

Cavaliers played one of their worst if not the worst game vs Lakers when Lakers won.

XaI)CyRiC

United States4471 Posts

May 14 2009 20:29 GMT

#1550

On May 15 2009 05:14 eStoniaNBoY wrote:
Cavaliers played one of their worst if not the worst game vs Lakers when Lakers won.

Both times? Even if that were true, the fact that it occurred twice in the middle of the season suggest that maybe it's the Lakers who are making them play worse?

I think the better argument is that the Cavs didn't have Delonte in either game and that Big Z was out in the first game. However, the Lakers can sort of counter by pointing out that Walton was out and Radman was still in for the first game, and that Bynum was out in the second game. Then you can start arguing about the relative importance of those players to their respective teams, and how everything is relevant to their current state.

citi.zen

2509 Posts

May 14 2009 20:31 GMT

#1551

Well, when LAL played CLE the LA supporting cast was playing much better than today. Look at Bynum's stat line, to take but one example. Kobe was actually sub-par in both games (one with flu, other with popped finger). I think since then CLE went up and LAL supporting cast got worse.

We will see.

tonight

United States11130 Posts

May 14 2009 20:41 GMT

#1552

CLE's bench isn't very good. Let's not forget when it was DET bench vs CLE bench. DET was able to claw back into a game where they were like 25down and CLE was forced to put their starters back in. CLE puts so much space with their starters out there that their rotation is able to handle the rest.

shmay

United States1091 Posts

May 14 2009 20:54 GMT

#1553

lebron-cavs have traditionally beaten the lakers, as lebron has generally gotten the better of the matchup thus far.

bron didn't play too well this year against the lakers this year though, i wonder what difference it made having gasol and/or bynum clogging the middle

XaI)CyRiC

United States4471 Posts

May 14 2009 21:02 GMT

#1554

On May 15 2009 05:54 shmay wrote:
lebron-cavs have traditionally beaten the lakers, as lebron has generally gotten the better of the matchup thus far.

bron didn't play too well this year against the lakers this year though, i wonder what difference it made having gasol and/or bynum clogging the middle

I think the difference is their increased attention to defense this year. While it's still not great and certainly not consistent, it is something they made a concerted effort to improve upon during the offseason.

Ace

United States16096 Posts

May 14 2009 21:30 GMT

#1555

On May 15 2009 05:11 eStoniaNBoY wrote:
Xeris,

Point is that they have the same attitude and the same approach like they had last year. If you make mistakes like they did last year then you fix them instead of running into the same problems over and over again.

Lakers can`t afford to think like alcoholics and drug addicts. " Tomorrow I will stop it " won`t cut it. And if they make it to the Finals then they didn`t "lose the title" like they thought they did vs Boston, but they were "fortunate to play in the Finals" a feature they might accomplish again this year.

They have young inconsistant players on the bench who don`t need to see their starting five slacking off.

Unfortunately that won't matter because this year's Denver isn't anywhere near as good as last year's Boston.

Xeris

Iran17695 Posts

May 14 2009 21:37 GMT

#1556

What are you talking about? You can't judge their performance right now and say whether or not they would win the title. Boston played badly, but then during the Finals they tore it up. I'm not saying the Lakers will do this, but I'm saying it can happen - and you can't randomly discount a team because of some sloppy games. You also can't discount their bench, which for 1.5 years was playing out of its mind (only the past 3 months they've been slacking).... they have that potential to be practically unbeatable and there's no reason to say that they can't get into that form by the time the Finals runs around.

As Fisher said, you can't play a perfect game (I.E beating Houston by 40) every night... some nights you're just going to shoot horribly, etc... you can't judge anything off a few games, it's all about the end result. Trying to make these outlandish claims about the Lakers having no chance because of their play RIGHT NOW doesn't mean anything.