Flipping a switch? I don't think so.
I came to this conclusion because of two situations that came to my attention at the LA/Spurs game.
1. Lakers were in penalty early in the 4th quarter. Yet the Spurs shot nothing but jumpers.
2. Pop pulls out the only players who drive the basketball.
These two facts lead me to believe that the Spurs wanted the Lakers to win, or they are a dumb team. As a Spurs fan I am hoping that the Spurs are simply playing possum.
"Regular season." Cleveland: 2008-2010 Regular Season champions!
No.
Orlando had Jameer Nelson in the finals and he gave up a couple crucial threes to Fisher in Game 4. Not to mention Nelson isn't even that good. J-Will outplayed him a good portion of this season.
Bynum wasn't even close to 100% that series and he's way more important than Jameer will ever be.
You should hope it means nothing. 87 points a game? Won't get it done against Cleveland in a series."Regular season." Cleveland: 2008-2010 Regular Season champions!
Bynum is your Mo Williams. L.A. is good enough to win without him. They were probably good enough to beat Orlando without him, although he did provide six extra fouls against Dewey Howard.No.
Orlando had Jameer Nelson in the finals and he gave up a couple crucial threes to Fisher in Game 4. Not to mention Nelson isn't even that good. J-Will outplayed him a good portion of this season.
Bynum wasn't even close to 100% that series and he's way more important than Jameer will ever be.
A healthy Jameer Nelson put a SEVERE strain on the Lake Show defense. Who on your team could guard him?
Cleveland can throw waves at L.A.'s frontcourt, L.A. doesn't have the lead guard to exploit Mo Williams, Mo can exploit L.A.'s lead guard, Delonte can exploit L.A.'s backup lead guard, the Cavaliers have the best player on the floor and they would have home-court. Cavaliers in six.
If that were the case the Lakers would have won in 08.
Bynum played very good D on Howard in the finals and those hard fouls were by design.
Tell us more about the regular season where Orlando shot way above the mean from 3pt land.
Get to the finals first.
LOL so Andrew Bynum's 17 MPG with 6 and 3 on 46% shooting and maybe above average D was the difference between the Lakers losing/winning in 2008 and 2009?..
A healthy Trevor Ariza may have been.
Ariza >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Radmanovic
Bynum sucked ass in the PO's last year but he could have given Perkins more resistance than Gasol did. Actually, 09 Gasol would have given Perkins more resistance than 08 Gasol did.
So I guess you don't understand how matchups work?
I agree Bynum would have helped, but to say he was the difference is ridiculous IMO..this isn't even the current Bynum we're talking about, it's the ty playoff Bynum from last year..there's absolutely no way he was the difference, which is what you implied by saying the Lakers "needed" him..
Bynum wasn't healthy in last year in the playoffs. Not even close, but his presence was still felt. The alternative is DJ seeing the floor much more and Gasol playing 5-8 more minutes a game throughout the playoffs. Not convinced they get by Denver with that happening.
.There's no way Pau would have been as effective in the finals without Bynum in the lineup. He would have been riddled with foul trouble and wouldn't have been able to play as aggressively on D.
The Lakers matched Bynum up against Dwight 1v1 and he they wanted him to use all of his fouls to keep Dwight out of rhythm and away from the basket. When Pau was in there they were double-teaming Dwight hard after the first dribble.
Comparing 09 gimpy Bynum to 08 is silly. Bynum would have completely changed the dynamics of the 2008 finals. With Bynum there Boston would have to defend the lob pass and KG would be forced to defend Gasol on the block instead of soft-zoning Kobe all game daring Odom to shoot jumpers.
both 08 and 09 bynum were beasting before their injuries, especially 2009 Bynum. His playoffs were lack luster but being their to foul and give dwight a big body to deal with made a difference. Orlando isn't guaranteed to win without Bynum and would probably still lose, but it's a hard fought close 6-7 game series.
If the Lakers turn up the defense like they did in the second half against the Spurs tonight they won't be beaten.
You obviously didn't read the last sentence. Once the Celts get eliminated, I am pulling for the Cavs the rest of the postseason. Once the postseason ends, the Celts are back as my top team. Just because I am not picking LA to repeat shouldn't make you this insecure.Pretty sad. But I guess bandwagoning is nothing new for Boston fans.
Celts fans just ditching the team they're supposed to ditch.
nice D at the end. But this is deceiving.
Everyone not named Ginobili and Hill combine for 14-48 or 29%. And more than half of that were open jumpers. Lakers played mediocre. No they did not flip a switch.
exactly. Lakers simply beating a crappy team they were suppose to beat.
I don't know if you watched the same game as me but artest basically shut your whole team down and made them take horrible shot selections, not too mention gasol doing a great job on duncan. And kobe going into full beast mode the second half.. I havnt seen the lakers play this serious on both ends of the floor(mostly defense) for quite along time. They flipped a switch. The lakers really didn't give a till mid 4th when they actually seemed to start playing.
huh, there were only 2 Spurs playing last night: Ginobili and Hill. Yes Artest did a great job on them. But you can hardly conclude that Lakers flipped the switch last night.
2 guys! noone else in black was worth a .
Ginobli playing like he has been is close to un guardable.. however I think hill played great till the 2nd half when they came out in the 3rd the lakers did a great job of containing him.. the whole game i thought as a team they did a good job on all the spurs playing d.
Yep, that's what I saw. I can be pretty critical of the Lakers, but they looked great to me last night. They really seemed to want that one, Artest, Kobe, and Fisher were showing a lot of emotion. Some of Artest's antics were a little classless but I'll let that slide when he plays that hard.
It seems they still view winning in SA as something of a litmus test, as they should. These teams have squared off a lot in the POs and beating the Spurs in SA, even this weaker team, still means something. Good challenge for the team last night.
Might the Lakers' D have had something to do with that, pray tell?
I always enjoy when people dismiss a team's suckitude with "they just didn't come to play" as if that happens in a vacuum.
not when Bonner, Mason, Bogans, Duncan and RJ miss WIDE OPEN JUMPER after WIDE OPEN JUMPER
So anyone know if Ron Ron took his left hand out to dinner last night??? lmao
i dont know about that, as this has been a problem for the spurs the entire year...they cant seem to hold leads or close out games. 29% shooting in the second half is pitiful especially considering that alot of those shots were wide open, i think it was the spurs going cold like they have so many times this season rather than the lakers flipping the switch.
their recent road wins @ Phx and now @ SA are nice though especially after their 3 game skid @ Mia, Orl, and Cha.
i'm guessing you don't realize how much of an idiot bynum is.
yall still would've been owned by the '08 celts.
if the series had gone to 7, then you might've had a point. sitting clownin on cavs fans about the would've, could've, should've, when you just did it yourself.
i'm with ghazi on this guy, get this idiot off our board!
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