KFC Bringing out the Big Guns for Sunday's game

[Allanon]

http://lakersblog.latimes.com/lakersblog/images/2009/02/17/shannon_brown_blocks_mario_west_aga.jpghttp://www.nba.com/media/farmarstart_490_090515.jpg

Farmar Brown
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - Derek Fisher was able to pull a full 82-game season out of his 34-year-old body this year, but the Playoffs have made the Lakers co-captain age like Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin in the seance scene in Beetlejuice.

After averaging 9.9 points on 42.4 percent from the field and 39.7 percent from three to go with 2.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game in the regular season, Fisher's production dipped to 9.4 points on 43.8 and 31.3 with 2.0 boards and 3.0 dimes against Utah and then flopped to 5.2 points on 29.4 percent from the field, seven percent from three with 1.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists.

In the mean time, Houston's starting point guard, 24-year-old Aaron Brooks, is averaging 18.8 points on 48.1 percent shooting and 37.5 percent from deep to go with 2.3 boards and 2.5 assists.

Before Fisher served a suspension for Game 3 for leveling Luis Scola in Game 2, we wondered if the Lakers were better off without Fisher.

Now, two days before Sunday's win-or-go-home Game 7, it appears Phil Jackson might be wondering that too.

"We really liked some of our matchups that we’ve had out there," Jackson said, referring to Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown. "They’re working well with us.

"Fish has had a little bit of a problem with Brooks, but we like his direction out there to start a game. He didn’t have a feel for it in this last game, he didn’t shoot the ball the way we wanted it or he can shoot the ball. Jordan got us going, we liked the other matchups we had on their other guards."

Then came the kicker that Jackson snuck in before jumping to the next question and left reporters wondering if they really just heard him say it:

"We’re going to have to play guys on Sunday that earn the minutes rather than just our regular rotation, so there may be a change."

Ever since starting in Fisher's absence in Game 3, Farmar is averaging 11 points, 3.5 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game while shooting 45.2 percent from the field.

[DAF86]

:lol I bet Fisher is regreting that bitch move he pulled on Scola right now.

[sook]

LOL aaron brooks was the only reason we won the games we did. We're screwed. I was hoping he wouldn't do this

[ManuTim_best of Fwiendz]

Hmm... I wonder if they'll deliver some production, or they'll crumble to the pressure of a game 7?

I don't know if they'll match the speed and strength of Houston's young guns...but it should be interesting.
I like how Phil's still trying to game plan around the Rockets still.... THREE GAMES AFTER Yao Ming is out of the line up :lol

[ElNono]

I think on this very specific game, Fish would have been the better option.
This is a very high pressure game, and Lakers know they absolutely have to deliver.
If this is a close game in the 4th, I expect Fish to be out there.

[Kai]

Elimination game, changing the regular rotation up. It's a gamble, especially since the young guy's have never faced this kind of situation.

[Allanon]

I see where you guys are going with Fish's experience but Brooks has flat-out destroyed Fisher in this series.

I'd like to see Farmar get the start with Brown coming in second. If it's close in the 4th quarter, then I'd bring in .4.

[Indazone]

Those are the big guns? :lmao

[duncan228]

Another piece on the 'young guns'.

Debacle in Houston: How did that happen? (http://www.ocregister.com/articles/game-lakers-bynum-2413337-vujacic-farmar)
Ding column: Are the Lakers ready to become champions?
Kevin Ding
The Orange County Register

HOUSTON Pau Gasol frowned the way he does when he knows what should’ve been done but wasn’t.

Lamar Odom spoke with resignation instead of inspiration. Luke Walton sat glumly a long time in front of his locker, even after being done dressing, and wound up trying to hash some things out with Derek Fisher, who has been hitting the wrong notes longer than anyone.

Where the Lakers are now after losing Thursday night in Houston weighs on those guys – veterans all and key members of last season’s Western Conference championship team. It would be no surprise whatsoever for all four of them to come up big Sunday in a do-or-die Game 7, because there’s nothing like life experience to help people deal with the prospect of death.

Then there are Kobe Bryant’s other teammates, the ones who were between the ages of 12 and 16 the last time the Lakers played a Game 7 at home in 2000. They charmed everyone this season into believing they were both good and ready, yet now there’s wonder … and we’re talking about the skeptical-that-Andrew-Bynum-can-man-up kind of wonder, not the wow-Shannon-Brown-and-Jordan Farmar-can-sure-jump-high kind of wonder.

Bynum has been the catastrophe of the postseason, even taking into account he’s coming off injury and shouldn’t have faced such lofty expectations this spring. He looks like a rookie out there with all the rushed shots and step-slow movements with a bottom-line appearance of someone who just does not really know what he is doing out there.

And considering that Odom did not require the pain-killing shot before Game 6 that he got just before Game 5 for his bruised lower back, there’s every reason to believe Odom will be better by Sunday to start Game 7 ahead of Bynum.

Indeed, the Lakers probably win Game 7 if Gasol and Odom are poised while Bynum hesitates.

If Fisher finds his rhythm, Farmar and Brown don’t have to. If Walton is strong, Trevor Ariza can be skinny. If Bryant is on, Sasha Vujacic’s Machine can stay off.

All the Lakers’ youngsters have been scared or stupid at significant times this postseason, so they might well be Sunday, too.

But they should be told this much: Whoever has the daring and focus to play great in such a tough spot will catapult his career forward. Do something no one expects you to do, and it will be noticed on a global level.

This is a series in which Houston’s Shane Battier got a text message from his former Duke teammate Reggie Love, who now is a member of President Barack Obama’s staff, to tell Battier that Obama was impressed by how Battier led his teammates to that first Yao Ming-less victory over the Lakers.

But that was Game 4. This will be Game 7. What will the Lakers’ kids do?

Will they be the kids they were in Game 6? When Ariza messed up the spacing and then the location of his pass on the Lakers’ first play intended to get Bynum an easy confidence-building basket? When Farmar was so sick of playing with Vujacic after his latest forced missed shot that he actually complained to Phil Jackson and upon seeing Brown at the scorer’s table to replace Vujacic actually nodded in relief before muttering an expletive?

The most talented is Bynum, but he looks like an overgrown eighth-grader.

The best statistically has been Brown, but he’s playing the least.

The most experienced is Vujacic, but he can’t hit a shot.

The hottest is Farmar, but he’s still getting criticized and benched by the coach.

The most useful has been Ariza, but he was right at the heart of the ridiculously slow starts in the past two losses.

Maybe none of them is ready for Game 7. If that’s the case, probably none of them is ready to become a champion.