The Lakers won't give the Spurs open looks from 3

[tlongII]

I think they've realized that's the way to beat San Antonio. They get out on the perimeter and contest the Spurs' shots. It doesn't matter if San Antonio tries to then beat them off the dribble and take the ball inside since the Lakers have Bynum, Gasol, and Odom inside to protect the hoop. I think San Antonio is stuck. They won't get open threes, but they know that the only way for them to beat the Lakers is to be hot from outside.

[John Basedow]

tlong with the goods, tbh

[silverblk mystix]

Spurs will adjust...

they will work with whatever the defense is giving and since they had already planned to play like they did against Miami...they were a bit stumped when the lakers had already planned to take away the three-ball.

Next game will be a chess match...spurs will remember that the best chance will be to run...but they couldn't run today because;

#1) spurs defense was soft and didn't come to work today....

#2) Lakers hit everything they shot--which took away a spurs chance to rebound and run...

good game by the lakers but spurs will solve this puzzle...

[John Basedow]

next game won't mean shit...it's the second to last game of the season and--barring an epic collapse--the spurs will have nothing to play for

[Srupsog]

Today we looked like a jumpshooting team and when a jumpshooting team isn't hitting jumpshots they look like complete shit. In the past when the spurs weren't hitting their jumpshots they could always throw it into Tim to pull them through that doesn't seem available anymore. It didn't seem like the spurs defense was horrible, it just seemed more like the Lakers couldn't miss anything, so the loss looks more to be of the offenses fault than the D's. I still have faith in the Spurs, but today's offensive display makes me think we rely a lot more on making jumpshots than getting easy baskets to win, which makes me nervous against title-contenders in the playoffs.

What do you guys think about today's performance and our title chances going forward? . . . discuss

PS: I would of loved to see Splitter in the 1st half, his lack of use in the spurs regular rotation I think might hurt us down the line in the playoffs.

[Proxy]

next game won't mean shit...it's the second to last game of the season and--barring an epic collapse--the spurs will have nothing to play for

So... you enjoy spending an entire day on a message board?

[itzsoweezee]

I think they've realized that's the way to beat San Antonio. They get out on the perimeter and contest the Spurs' shots. It doesn't matter if San Antonio tries to then beat them off the dribble and take the ball inside since the Lakers have Bynum, Gasol, and Odom inside to protect the hoop. I think San Antonio is stuck. They won't get open threes, but they know that the only way for them to beat the Lakers is to be hot from outside.


You're exactly on point. That's why I've been saying all season that Bonner reliance is fool's gold. It won't be there in the playoffs.

I had thought that Popovich way going to be innovative and make the Spurs run the ball, but that's all but an afterthought at this point. Unfortunate because it was wildly successful in the first Spurs-Lakers matchup earlier this season.

[Obstructed_View]

Today we looked like a jumpshooting team and when a jumpshooting team isn't hitting jumpshots they look like complete shit. In the past when the spurs weren't hitting their jumpshots they could always throw it into Tim to pull them through that doesn't seem available anymore. It didn't seem like the spurs defense was horrible, it just seemed more like the Lakers couldn't miss anything, so the loss looks more to be of the offenses fault than the D's. I still have faith in the Spurs, but today's offensive display makes me think we rely a lot more on making jumpshots than getting easy baskets to win, which makes me nervous against title-contenders in the playoffs.

What do you guys think about today's performance and our title chances going forward? . . . discuss

PS: I would of loved to see Splitter in the 1st half, his lack of use in the spurs regular rotation I think might hurt us down the line in the playoffs.

Actually the Lakers were the jumpshooting team today and couldn't miss. The Spurs were going inside and missing. Some of that was due to great interior defense, but some of it was just missed shots. The biggest difference was the rebounding; the Lakers treated this like a playoff game. I guess they don't discount the Spurs as much as Lakerfans do.

[Seventyniner]

Bonner will be an important part of the offense; Gasol or Bynum can't guard him on the 3-point line and defend the paint at the same time.

Also, Gasol and Bynum won't always both be on the court. Once one of them sits down, things become much easier. It'll be up to Tony and Manu to penetrate and try to get one of them in foul trouble.

[itzsoweezee]

Bonner will be an important part of the offense; Gasol or Bynum can't guard him on the 3-point line and defend the paint at the same time.

Gasol and Bynum don't need to guard Bonner on the 3 point line. Any of the Lakers guards can do that. Did you not watch today's game?

And if Bonner is not taking and making a lot of 3 pointers, he's hurting the team.


Also, Gasol and Bynum won't always both be on the court. Once one of them sits down, things become much easier. It'll be up to Tony and Manu to penetrate and try to get one of them in foul trouble.

The Lakers have another seven footer on the bench, Odom. Heard of him?

[Sean Cagney]

Bonner will be an important part of the offense; Gasol or Bynum can't guard him on the 3-point line and defend the paint at the same time.

.

As soon as I read this here I know we are fucked :lol:depressed. Bonner important part of the Offense late in the year spells doom, simply put.

[Mal]

spurs will adjust...

They will work with whatever the defense is giving and since they had already planned to play like they did against miami...they were a bit stumped when the lakers had already planned to take away the three-ball.

Next game will be a chess match...spurs will remember that the best chance will be to run...but they couldn't run today because;

#1) spurs defense was soft and didn't come to work today....

#2) lakers hit everything they shot--which took away a spurs chance to rebound and run...

Good game by the lakers but spurs will solve this puzzle...

+1

[realtimmyfan]

Who else can we rely on? TD could hardly score against Gasol/Bynum.
Blair? Dyess? Splitter?
I hate to say this but Lakers' front court players are just better.

[Nick Manning]

Who else can we rely on? TD could hardly score against Gasol/Bynum.
Blair? Dyess? Splitter?
I hate to say this but Lakers' front court players are just better.

This. If you're a rational and sane human being then this should be common knowledge.

[ChuckD]

We didn't even make them work to cover us. One player penetrating and kicking out isn't going to make the nut against the Lakers. The ball has to go into the post, come back out and reverse to the other side of the floor, and either the shot is taken or maybe you re-post on the other block. LA is long but they aren't particularly quick or athletic, and we didn't take advantage of that.

[Spurologist]

Obstructed_View with the goods, tbh

Fixed

[Capt Bringdown]

We didn't even make them work to cover us. One player penetrating and kicking out isn't going to make the nut against the Lakers. The ball has to go into the post, come back out and reverse to the other side of the floor, and either the shot is taken or maybe you re-post on the other block. LA is long but they aren't particularly quick or athletic, and we didn't take advantage of that.

Agree somewhat. It looked to me like the Spurs were trying to get Parker established early, and that resulted in too much dribbling around looking for the seam.
Still, overall it was more a matter of what they did to us, rather than what we failed to do.

This was the first time all season I've seen the Lakers play champion-caliber ball. They looked as dominant as ever.

[Harry Callahan]

Their BC outside of Bryant sucks and SA did not exploit that. I doubt Parker is close to 100% as of today. That will change.

[realtimmyfan]

LA is long but they aren't particularly quick or athletic,
Our front court players aren't particularly quick as well.

[spurtech09]

If parker was 100% parker could of murdered fisher and got more points....even with a bad leg parker was getting by fisher....to me its clear that leg is still bothering tony parker... drive and kick to the open 3pt shooters....spurs were getting some open 3's but spurs couldn't make them....just one of those nights that the shots weren't falling down

[silverblk mystix]

Who else can we rely on? TD could hardly score against Gasol/Bynum.
Blair? Dyess? Splitter?
I hate to say this but Lakers' front court players are just better.

I may be in the minority here..but give me Timmy & Dice over Gasol & Bynum in a 7 game series anyday...

I firmly believe in a series Timmy & Dice will prove to be a better tandem and a gutsier tandem than those two overrated cocksuckers that scream like little bitches before even getting breathed on...

Timmy has ALWAYS figured out the opposition in a series...you may pound your chest and dunk on him and think your something...but by game 5-6- & 7...

Timmy will have figured you out and will impose his dominance in his own time...

remember this year Timmy has a supporting cast-so give him a series against anyone in the playoffs and he will figure them out...

[Killakobe81]

Hope springs eternal ... I doubt duncan is done. I agree with those that say Duncan will be better in the playoffs. But to win a titke (let's forget the Lakers for a moment) he will need to dominate for at least short stretches. I think he has a Finals run in him left we will see if it is enough if the Lakers play like today.

[Obstructed_View]

If parker was 100% parker could of murdered fisher and got more points....even with a bad leg parker was getting by fisher....to me its clear that leg is still bothering tony parker... drive and kick to the open 3pt shooters....spurs were getting some open 3's but spurs couldn't make them....just one of those nights that the shots weren't falling down

Parker was close enough to 100 percent. His injury absolutely was not a factor.

[Ice009]

Hope springs eternal ... I doubt duncan is done. I agree with those that say Duncan will be better in the playoffs. But to win a titke (let's forget the Lakers for a moment) he will need to dominate for at least short stretches. I think he has a Finals run in him left we will see if it is enough if the Lakers play like today.

What are your thoughts on both teams overall? I tried to ask in the game thread, but I guess there was too many posts and it got lost.

Best ball I've seen the Lakers play this season. This is also the first game I've watched of the Lakers since before the All Star break.

[Obstructed_View]

Hope springs eternal ... I doubt duncan is done. I agree with those that say Duncan will be better in the playoffs. But to win a titke (let's forget the Lakers for a moment) he will need to dominate for at least short stretches. I think he has a Finals run in him left we will see if it is enough if the Lakers play like today.

I wonder if they're babying him too much. I'd really like to have seen the Spurs get up for this game as much as the Lakers were, especially Duncan.

[silverblk mystix]

Hope springs eternal ... I doubt duncan is done. I agree with those that say Duncan will be better in the playoffs. But to win a titke (let's forget the Lakers for a moment) he will need to dominate for at least short stretches. I think he has a Finals run in him left we will see if it is enough if the Lakers play like today.

I doubt the spurs will play like today the rest of this season and playoffs...plus duncan does not NEED to dominate for the spurs to win...

Just like kobe doesn't need to hit 40 or 50 for the lakers to win...

Duncan will do whatever helps the team to win ...

The whole team was coming off the biggest win of the year and it happens sometimes that their is a letdown--even when you are aware of this--it still happens...

[ChuckD]

Our front court players aren't particularly quick as well.

Yeah, but NOBODY on their roster is particularly quick or fast, outside of Bryant in bursts now, and maybe Shannon Brown, who plays roughly 20 minutes. Our backcourt/wings have a CLEAR advantage in that department that we failed to exploit.

More Spurs need to touch the ball on each possession. Penetrated and kick is a decent start, but the ball needs to traverse the perimeter. Make their defense rotate, preferably multiple times.

[Budkin]

One game to learn from. That's all.

[crc21209]

I think they've realized that's the way to beat San Antonio. They get out on the perimeter and contest the Spurs' shots. It doesn't matter if San Antonio tries to then beat them off the dribble and take the ball inside since the Lakers have Bynum, Gasol, and Odom inside to protect the hoop. I think San Antonio is stuck. They won't get open threes, but they know that the only way for them to beat the Lakers is to be hot from outside.

:lol Shouldnt you be in the crap forum below this one? What are you doing up here?

[diego]

I only watched the 1st quarter (had other things to do and could tell the game was over), but I dont agree at all with take that the lakers wont give the spurs open looks from 3. Yes, they matchup very well with the spurs defensively and I'd consider them favorites in a series, but in the 1st quarter I saw 2 wiiiiiide open 3 misses from jefferson and manu, and 1 wide open make from bonner. The most important problem for the spurs against the lakers is rebounding (the lakers dont take control of that 1st quarter without all the offensive boards).

[Obstructed_View]

I only watched the 1st quarter (had other things to do and could tell the game was over), but I dont agree at all with take that the lakers wont give the spurs open looks from 3. Yes, they matchup very well with the spurs defensively and I'd consider them favorites in a series, but in the 1st quarter I saw 2 wiiiiiide open 3 misses from jefferson and manu, and 1 wide open make from bonner. The most important problem for the spurs against the lakers is rebounding (the lakers dont take control of that 1st quarter without all the offensive boards).

I agree with the first part of your post. The Spurs did get looks and just missed them, both inside and out. The Lakers got a couple of blocks, and the Spurs didn't take good care of the ball either.

The second part, I sort of disagree with you. The Lakers got four or five offensive boards, but only scored six or eight extra points. Not that many, but a definite indicator that the Lakers were playing harder and hustling to spots far better than the Spurs were. The Lakers got shots and hit nearly everything, and when they didn't, they got a rebound and either points or a foul, sometimes both. In at least one case, they got the rebound, the putback, the foul, missed the free throw, got the rebound and got another putback and foul. They just dominated in every possible way. If the Spurs took care of business rebounding they still get blown out in that first quarter because they didn't take care of the ball, didn't take smart shots, didn't hit anything they put up and didn't play good defense.

[ElNono]

I thought they did gave us open looks from 3, but they were fairly selective on who and when. This is obviously a team that's not going to beat themselves, and not having a glaring advantage in the post anymore for the Spurs make everything twice as hard.

[silverblk mystix]

Another thing that happened -that I hope won't happen in the playoffs against the lakers...

is that Pop still didn't use the rotation that had been working the best...

TD,Dice, RJ, Manu & TP...this five should have started and Tiago should have entered a lot earlier...this was one of the reasons the spurs took that last game in l.a...


also...the lakers are not as deep and instead of tossing in the towel early...the spurs should go 10 deep and bring the starters back over and over to keep them fresh...

instead of conceding and thinking the game is out of reach the spurs should plan on catching the lakers at the finish line when the lakers lack of a bench will bite them in the ass...

the best thing you can do to HELP the lakers is to let the game be over in 24 minutes...then they have to play 24 hard minutes and relax...the teams that have beaten the lakers (including the spurs earlier in the season) were the teams that exposed the lakers lack of speed and athleticism and kept the lakers starters fighting the whole 48 minutes...

[rjv]

my biggest concern is going to be blair. he just seems to play so poorly against the lakers. i think, in a series, mcdyess will have to start and splitter will have to get more time so as to try to negate their size advantage. and parker will have to really be on full time agresssion mode.

and if we are lucky and should play LA in the conference finals we 1)get an LA team coming off a rough dallas series and 2)never have to play a 2:30 game that entire time (man we suck at matinee games)

[John Basedow]

If the Lakers have HCA in the 2nd round then the series will be over in 5. The Spurs will be lucky to beat an OKC team with a healthy Perkins in as many games, so in reality you're probably not going to have the benefit of rest. Perkins wears on bigs over a series...just ask Bynum, Howard, Shaq, etc.

[rjv]

If the Lakers have HCA in the 2nd round then the series will be over in 5. The Spurs will be lucky to beat an OKC team with a healthy Perkins in as many games, so in reality you're probably not going to have the benefit of rest. Perkins wears on bigs over a series...just ask Bynum, Howard, Shaq, etc.


lakers are still 6 games back so it is very doubtful they will have home court in the 2nd round. they may not even have it against dallas. LA would probably prefer not to have to play OKC at all.

[tmtcsc]

The Lakers were absolutely on fire. They rocked the Spurs early and the rest was history.

It's easy to play one outstanding game but the Lakers haven't been consistent all year. They've now won 7 games in a row and look like they might be getting their act together. If they shoot and defend like they did yesterday, we are going to have a huge, uphill challenge. They would easily be the favorites in a matchup.

To neutralize their bigs, we'd have to go small and hit our shots.

[John Basedow]

lakers are still 6 games back so it is very doubtful they will have home court in the 2nd round. they may not even have it against dallas. LA would probably prefer not to have to play OKC at all.

The Lakers are currently 1 game out of HCA in the 2nd round, with 11 homes games to only 7 road games left.

What standings are you looking at, scrah?

[rjv]

The Lakers are currently 1 game out of HCA in the 2nd round, with 11 homes games to only 7 road games left.

What standings are you looking at, scrah?

mavs are not exactly playing poorly. it will be a race with them for that 2nd round HCA.

outside chance they can catch the spurs but they have a very small margin of error for that to happen.

[John Basedow]

mavs are not exactly playing poorly. it will be a race with them for that 2nd round HCA.

nice meth vernacular by the way.

But the Mavs are also not up 6 games on the Lakers either like you originally thought. Nice try on the recovery by the way.

Dallas' remaining sched:

http://espn.go.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/dal/dallas-mavericks

11 road games, 9 home left.

Lakers remaining sched:

http://espn.go.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/lal/los-angeles-lakers

7 road games, 11 home left. After this week it will be 11 home, 4 road left.


Sorry scrah, but we both know how this is going to end. Accept it.

[John Basedow]

No chance of catching the Spurs for HCA barring an epic collapse...the 2nd seed is more than good enough to secure our 4th straight finals berth. Winning in SA won't be a problem, especially with the plethora of Kobe MVP chants :lol

[rjv]

But the Mavs are also not up 6 games on the Lakers either like you originally thought. Nice try on the recovery by the way.

Dallas' remaining sched:

http://espn.go.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/dal/dallas-mavericks

11 road games, 9 home left.

Lakers remaining sched:

http://espn.go.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/lal/los-angeles-lakers

7 road games, 11 home left. After this week it will be 11 home, 4 road left.


Sorry scrah, but we both know how this is going to end. Accept it.

i was referring to them being 6 games back of the spurs.

[temujin]

Something is telling me the Lakers won't see Joey Crawford for crucial G3s this year, nor for 3 games in the Finals anymore.

Dallas has really put serious money into this.

Time to reward with a WCF.

The market wants new faces.

[temujin]

i was referring to them being 6 games back of the spurs.

The Lakers will probably finish second: the crucial game on March 12 will be the fifth in 7 days for Dallas.

Having said that, the Lakers have no PG, no bench and I am ready to bet, won't have Joey Crawford for key games, from the second round on.

[rjv]

The Lakers will probably finish second: the crucial game on March 12 will be the fifth in 7 days for Dallas.

Having said that, the Lakers have no PG, no bench and I am ready to bet, won't have Joey Crawford for key games, from the second round on.


yeah. LA and dallas have 2 games left against each other. it will be interesting to see how that race plays out.

[JustinJDW]

One game to learn from. That's all.This.

[Horse]

tlong with the goods, tbh
Hey Mr. laker faggot should'nt you be celebrating on a laker forum? Fuck off!