Let's state the obvious: Utah Jazz are in serious trouble.

[Mavs<Spurs]

Kobe Bryant shoots 5 for 24 and Utah beats LA Lakers by only 2 in Utah?

To be honest, I'm kind of surprised that Utah even won a game.

But this highlights the trouble that Utah is in.

As is every team not named Cleveland Cavaliers.

This puts a spotlight on the depth of the Lakers. They don't need Kobe to go for big points to win. This team is loaded with offensive threats. Pretty much all of their players can score and Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom make it possible for Kobe to have an off night on offense and to still win and sometimes win convincingly.

[Amaso]

Kobe shoots 20%
Pau Gasol doesn't make a free throw
Bynum didn't play

This will be over in 5.

[balli]

Ya think? Still, you can't under-state that this series isn't a good sign for LA. As the op alluded to, Cleveland would have won 3 straight if they were Utah.

[jayman2582]

Maybe if okur played and deron didn't shoot so poorly it would have been a bigger margin?

[hhml]

What makes you think game 4 will be any different? We see how teams are totally different when they're playing on the road vs at home. I won't be surprised much if the next game is like this. I place the loss on Kobe and Pau. Pau choked at the FT line and Kobe was forcing way too many shots. He wasn't playing smart. Had he made a couple of passes to the open man a few times we might have won. Bynum is pretty much non-existant in this series. Luke shouldn't be playing much, especially on the road. Sasha still forces shots. And Fisher is just bad.

[Killakobe81]

Kobe played AWFUL ...bynum was in foul trouble ...Gasol played Ok he can play much better We win Game 4 and Close it out in 5 ...trust.

[Lars]

Seeing the Jazz struggle makes me lol

[Mavs<Spurs]

Laker fans and others, is the matchup against Cleveland the same offense against defense Finals match up ?

I know that it's not that simple. Because Cleveland is now a very good offensive team because of the support that LeBron now has. And LA Lakers are a good defensive team when they want to play defense.

But still, LA Lakers are easily the best offensive team in basketball in my opinion and Cleveland is easily the best defensive team in basketball (this just seems to be almost a fact).

Can LA Lakers score the basketball in Cleveland enough to win the game.
Obviously, a tough place to win.

I say all of this because it is just so apparent and obvious to all of us that LA Lakers are clearly the class of the West by an enormous amount and the Cavs are significantly better than Boston (and clearly Orlando without Jameer).

So, it is difficult to avoid thinking about the inevitable Finals: Lakers vs Cavs.

I can't imagine many even casual basketball fans who won't be riveted by that Finals matchup.

I will be glued to the television and the blogs during the Finals.


:flag:

[balli]

I thought Brewer played good D on Kobe. There were times he took good shots and Brewer was right there. But yeah, in general, Kobe took some god awful shots tonight.

[portpower_11]

Deron has an off game by his standard.

You can not expect that Deron play like this every game.

A win is a win, why do UTA need to worry out it?

If Deron plays like the first two games in this series, UTA should have a good chance to take game 4.

[Dim Tuncan]

Laker fans and others, is the matchup against Cleveland the same offense against defense Finals match up ?

I know that it's not that simple. Because Cleveland is now a very good offensive team because of the support that LeBron now has. And LA Lakers are a good defensive team when they want to play defense.

But still, LA Lakers are easily the best offensive team in basketball in my opinion and Cleveland is easily the best defensive team in basketball (this just seems to be almost a fact).

Can LA Lakers score the basketball in Cleveland enough to win the game.
Obviously, a tough place to win.

I say all of this because it is just so apparent and obvious to all of us that LA Lakers are clearly the class of the West by an enormous amount and the Cavs are significantly better than Boston (and clearly Orlando without Jameer).

So, it is difficult to avoid thinking about the inevitable Finals: Lakers vs Cavs.

I can't imagine many even casual basketball fans who won't be riveted by that Finals matchup.

I will be glued to the television and the blogs during the Finals.


:flag:

The difference is the Cavs completely fall apart when LeFag goes to the bench.

The rapist is 4-25 and the Lakers lose by 2. In Utah. To a team much tougher than the Pissed-Ons.

Hate to pull a TMac while the Spurs are still in it, but I see LA beating Cleveland in 5.

[Mavs<Spurs]

Deron has an off game by his standard.

You can not expect that Deron play like this every game.

A win is a win, why do UTA need to worry out it?

If Deron plays like the first two games in this series, UTA should have a good chance to take game 4.

But the improvement in Kobe's play will be greater than the improvement in Deron's play.

Kobe is one of the two best players in basketball. We're talking about someone who hung 81 points on a team and Kobe's team won with him scoring the ball like that.

He outscored the entire Dallas Maverick team through three quarters before.

This is one of the greatest scorers / shooters that this league has ever seen. And Kobe is a great defensive player. He's unselfish (witness his points per game is down when he could easily score 30 + almost every night) and a leader.

So, as good as DWill is and no doubt he will play better, Kobe's improvement will probably be greater. And the fact that Kobe had such a bad game, the fact that the Lakers lost and Kobe won't want to go back to LA with the series tied and the fact that the Lakers are on the road are all likely to mean that Kobe has a huge night the next game.

I don't see Utah winning game 4 at all. I think they were lucky to get this game because Kobe was further below his best than Deron was below his best.

[Mavs<Spurs]

The difference is the Cavs completely fall apart when LeFag goes to the bench.

The rapist is 4-25 and the Lakers lose by 2. In Utah. To a team much tougher than the Pissed-Ons.

Hate to pull a TMac while the Spurs are still in it, but I see LA beating Cleveland in 5.

The way that the Pistons b team schooled the Cavs in the latter half of game 2 in Cleveland doesn't inspire confidence.

And it remains to be seen what the Cavs can do against a decent defensive team when LeBron goes out.

So, LA's loss in game 3 at Utah was more impressive than the Cavs win in game 2 in Cleveland in a way.

[The_Game]

The difference is the Cavs completely fall apart when LeFag goes to the bench.

The rapist is 4-25 and the Lakers lose by 2. In Utah. To a team much tougher than the Pissed-Ons.

Hate to pull a TMac while the Spurs are still in it, but I see LA beating Cleveland in 5.


lakers don't play good enough defense, cavs do..cavs have a good offense too...why do you think L.A will win so easily? they won't...

[UrAphag]

The difference is the Cavs completely fall apart when LeFag goes to the bench.

The rapist is 4-25 and the Lakers lose by 2. In Utah. To a team much tougher than the Pissed-Ons.

Hate to pull a TMac while the Spurs are still in it, but I see LA beating Cleveland in 5.

That was the best part of the game lol.

[Mavs<Spurs]

lakers don't play good enough defense, cavs do..cavs have a good offense too...why do you think L.A will win so easily? they won't...

Cav's defense is better than the Lakers.

But here's the thing: Against most teams, there is at least one player that the Cavs won't have to guard. There are very few playmakers on other teams.

Lakers have a bunch of players who can create shots for others or get a shot for himself.

So, it will be much harder to shut down the Lakers (tonight was an anomaly) because of that. Therefore, the Cavs defense may still have problems against LA's offense.

Kobe, Pau, Lamar can all create shots for others or for themselves. Luke is not a bad playmaker.

Bynum can create his own shot.

So, this makes it much tougher to defend, even for a great defensive team like the Cavs.

You could ask how many of the Cavs are great individual defenders? LeBron yes. Otherwise, no real standouts. Varejao is okay, but not great and can get in foul trouble or be too small. And again against most teams, that's fine because you are thinking of team defense.

So, you might say that team defense is what matters. But that's less true when every member of the opponent's team is a threat to score. There can be less help and even good rotations will fail eventually. The team defense is weakened when every other player on the opponent's team is capable of breaking down the individual defender's defense.

Think about how easy that teams have it defending SA for a contrast (Bruce, Oberto, ...)

[hhml]

Like you mentioned, other than Kobe and Pau, Lakers don't have anyone to create/set up for others. Lamar does it from time to time but not consistent enough. And Kobe this year has been settling for jumpers more than he is looking to drive. Against the Cavs, Z's length is going to bother Bynum, and AV will be guarding Pau. He's physical so it's going to be tough for Pau. That leaves only Kobe to create but he is still shooting too many J's. If teams just pack the paint or play zone, Lakers will be in trouble. The zone have killed the Lakers every time and I don't understand why teams don't play it more often.

[iggypop123]

utah vs detroit? its a big difference. this game both teams played like trash, bynum was out there for 10 seconds since the refs decided he wouldn't play. weird game but the jazz managed to survive a victory.

[Mavs<Spurs]

Like you mentioned, other than Kobe and Pau, Lakers don't have anyone to create/set up for others. Lamar does it from time to time but not consistent enough. And Kobe this year has been settling for jumpers more than he is looking to drive. Against the Cavs, Z's length is going to bother Bynum, and AV will be guarding Pau. He's physical so it's going to be tough for Pau. That leaves only Kobe to create but he is still shooting too many J's. If teams just pack the paint or play zone, Lakers will be in trouble. The zone have killed the Lakers every time and I don't understand why teams don't play it more often.

It's easy for them to attack the zone.

High Low Basketball and you have at least two great big man to play that game.

You place a good passing big man at the free throw line. You have another at the rim and you have shooters set to take the 3 in the corners.

You get the ball to your good passing big man. Now, it's 4 on 3. Someone is open. Your good passing big man makes the right read.

Place either Lamar or Pau as the good passing big man at the free throw line.

And you are set.

:nope

[hhml]

It's easier said than done. I've watched the Lakers all year and every time teams play zone they've been able to stop the Lakers. We don't really have any good 3 pt shooters now that Rad is gone. Sasha's been off the entire year and Fish is playing bad at the worst time. Ariza is inconsistent and he misses shots on the road. We have no one to spread the floor, which is why we've been struggling against zone.

[Mavs<Spurs]

Like you mentioned, other than Kobe and Pau, Lakers don't have anyone to create/set up for others. Lamar does it from time to time but not consistent enough. And Kobe this year has been settling for jumpers more than he is looking to drive. Against the Cavs, Z's length is going to bother Bynum, and AV will be guarding Pau. He's physical so it's going to be tough for Pau. That leaves only Kobe to create but he is still shooting too many J's. If teams just pack the paint or play zone, Lakers will be in trouble. The zone have killed the Lakers every time and I don't understand why teams don't play it more often.

Kobe will drive. And Lamar can playmake easily. Obviously, Pau can as well.

Lakers play a faster pace, push the ball and Bynum beats Z down the court every time. Bynum is younger, faster, more athletic ... Physical defense does bother Pau, but AV is too short and small to guard Pau Gasol. Gasol is about 7'1". AV is about 6'10". That's a big disparity in height. Pau can use either hand around the basket and shoot from 18 feet out and hit consistently. He has a variety of moves and can use his dribble to score on AV. That's just not a matchup that looks like the Cavs could get away with.

So, I don't see the problems that you see.

[Mavs<Spurs]

It's easier said than done. I've watched the Lakers all year and every time teams play zone they've been able to stop the Lakers. We don't really have any good 3 pt shooters now that Rad is gone. Sasha's been off the entire year and Fish is playing bad at the worst time. Ariza is inconsistent and he misses shots on the road. We have no one to spread the floor, which is why we've been struggling against zone.

Okay, so there is something of an issue in terms of 3 point pct.

Kobe isn't that great a 3 pt shooter by pct. That surprised me. Mid to low 30's if I remember correctly.

Radmanovic was an excellent 3 point shooter.

And it's true that Sasha hasn't had a great year for you all.

However, Fisher earlier in the year had been having one of his best 3 point shooting pct years ever.

Kobe can make the 3 when the game is on the line.

Luke can hit the 3.

Ariza has improved his 3 point shooting markedly.

So, while I would try to add another 3 point shooter or 2 next year, you still should be able to beat a zone because many of the 3 point shots will be pretty open and therefore, it will be easier for your 3 point shooters (even the ones who are struggling) to make them and get in a rhythm.


Obviously, just my opinion.

[hhml]

I don't know how much of a factor Bynum is going to be. He's very inexperienced and so far he's been horrible in the playoffs. He just can't keep out of foul trouble. The cavs are a very good defensive team. They're not going to make things easy for Pau. And if Pau is not scoring and Kobe not driving consistently (he hasn't done anything to show me otherwise) then we're in trouble.

[hhml]

Luke has been getting a lot of open shots and he keeps bricking them. There's a reason teams keeps leaving him wide open. Fisher's shot a good % early but lately he's been off. Ariza is undependable. So other than Kobe or Fish, we're not much of a threat from outside.

[Obstructed_View]

Utah has played great in this series, with a lot more grit than most people predicted. The Lakers have sort of gone into funks at times, and now find themselves in a series. If they don't respond pretty strongly in game 4 the Jazz might end up thinking they belong in the same gym with the Lakers, and there's no telling how long the series could go if that happens. The Lakers will still win, of course, but it might not be as easy as they'd like.

[Mavs<Spurs]

I don't know how much of a factor Bynum is going to be. He's very inexperienced and so far he's been horrible in the playoffs. He just can't keep out of foul trouble. The cavs are a very good defensive team. They're not going to make things easy for Pau. And if Pau is not scoring and Kobe not driving consistently (he hasn't done anything to show me otherwise) then we're in trouble.

That's the problem: keeping him out of foul trouble. And Bynum didn't do a good job of that tonight. But still it shouldn't happen that often. And the only way that Bynum should get in foul trouble is from LeBron driving to the basket. Otherwise, it shouldn't really happen. Z doesn't really like to post that much. Yeah, he has that big sweeping hook, but he's much more comfortable hitting the outside j. And AV isn't going to get Bynum in foul trouble.

So, there's no reason except LeBron that Bynum should get in foul trouble. He just has to stay disciplined, box out, move his feet and not reach for rebounds and defense and he should be able to stay out of foul trouble.

And I think that the confidence that Bynum will have knowing that Kobe is on his team as well as Pau will give him a lot of confidence.

Bynum has shown me a lot over the last several years in the improvement that I have seen in his game.

And if they put Z on Pau, Pau will eat him alive. Z is way too slow to guard Pau. Pau would put the ball on the floor and go right past him.

They could try Ben Wallace if Ben is healthy enough. But Ben is much smaller than Pau and Bynum. And he's not the same defensive force that he was earlier in his prime. And he could only guard one of them. The other one has some sort of mismatch.

[hhml]

Last year, the Jazz had a healthy squad while we were missing Ariza and Bynum and still managed to win comfortably. This year, Jazz are missing an important piece in Okur (who changes the whole dynamic of the game) while we're at full force and we managed to win the first two games by 10, with game 2 being a lot closer than it should be. This series isn't as easy as people make it out to be.

[hhml]

Bynum has a habit of getting himself into foul trouble. He did that earlier this year too. Now it's showing again. Whether or not he'll play better remains to be seen, but I hope he starts playing smarter because we're going to need him if we want to win. I think it's safe to say if we do meet the Cavs in the Finals, LBJ is going to get a lot of calls because he is so strong and is looking to attack so much.

[j.dizzle]

Bynum knows hes strong as hell but he needs to chill back. He's literally running over players. I like his agressiveness but he's just trying to be too physical & pickin up dumb fouls. Hopefully he'll learn if he watches some game tape

[crc21209]

You can't say the Jazz are in trouble so much when they won tonight with Deron Williams playing like crap also so him and Kobe off-setted each other tonight.

[Mavs<Spurs]

You can't say the Jazz are in trouble so much when they won tonight with Deron Williams playing like crap also so him and Kobe off-setted each other tonight.

Did I stutter?

:lmao:lmao

:nope

Prediction for game 4 ?

I will give you Utah and 6 points.

:wakeup

[pauls931]

Utah pulled it off? I got bored and stopped watching at halftime figuring the lakers would get in gear, but guess they never did. This should've been over in 4.

[LakeShow]

Bynum has a habit of getting himself into foul trouble. He did that earlier this year too. Now it's showing again. Whether or not he'll play better remains to be seen, but I hope he starts playing smarter because we're going to need him if we want to win. I think it's safe to say if we do meet the Cavs in the Finals, LBJ is going to get a lot of calls because he is so strong and is looking to attack so much.

That's what he has to do. He is relatively new to playoff basketball and he seems like he's in LA LA LAnd. I think Phil should bring him off the bench. The way he's picking up fouls he wont get much pt in this series. Bring him off the bench and he'll be a bigger help to the Lakers and he'll stay on the floor longer.

I picked the lakers to lose this game but I thought it would be a much bigger margin than the 2 points it turned out to be. I still like the lakers in 5.

[hhml]

I agree. We were playing much better with Pau and Lamar as the starters. Pau and Drew just clogs up to paint for Kobe (if he ever decides to drive, damn it) and limits the space for Pau to operate 1 on 1. Drew as the starter isn't working so far so why not bench him. Collins isn't a threat offensively so Pau can get away with guarding him and we can put Odom on Boozer. Pau gets overpowered by Boozer anyway and he doesn't even jump to contest. At least with Odom, we have a better chance of guarding him.