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Spurs 101
Lakers 95
In the first round of the playoffs
Spurs 101
Lakers 95
Some of you are too paranoid, this is not the same laker team, that you remember from last year. Spurs will take care of business.
This. Preferably we beat Dallas since we already have a loss to them.
This Laker team is not the same. On paper, they should be even better than last year, but it is not showing yet. It really hurts them that supercoach Phil Jackson plays Pau Gasol for nearly 40 minutes a game. His downslide in the month of December shows that.
But they are still the Champs and a W for the Spurs is not in the books yet ...
I agree. I don't expect the Fakers to struggle with motivation for this game, as they did their last game versus Miami.
WTF are you talking about? They were firing up behind closed doors for Miami. They were TOTALLY motivated, they just weren't good enough.
http://lakersblog.latimes.com/lakers...insort-of.htmlKobe Bryant speaks again ... sort of
December 28, 2010 | 11:00 am
Kobe Bryant didn't have a very fun afternoon on Christmas, his anger at a lopsided loss to Miami rolling over into a post-game sermon in which he demanded more fire from his Lakers teammates.
He was more subdued Tuesday, offering clipped phrases when asked what he hoped to see a few hours later against San Antonio.
"Just some more effort," he said.
On offense or defense?
"Everything."
Did he specifically talk with any teammates at Monday's practice?
"Nope."
Did they understand what needed to be done?
"They will."
Bryant eventually opened up as reporters began asking if the Lakers (21-9) could turn it around against the Spurs, who are an NBA-best 26-4.
The Lakers' coaching staff has been pointing toward this game for almost a week, even more so than the Miami game because the Spurs are a Western Conference opponent.
Bryant wanted to see more direction from his teammates.
"We haven't been really pointing at anything. That's been one of the problems," he said. "We don't really get too excited about anything any more. I'm excited about this game. I'm excited about the challenge of it. Hopefully the rest of the guys are too."
Bryant said the Lakers' recent malaise since an 8-0 start reminded him of the 2001-02 season, when the Lakers encountered some regular-season losing streaks on the way to eventually winning their third consecutive championship.
"We had to deal with it when we won a three-peat here last time," he said. "Same type of situation that you deal with."
That championship team went through a 3-6 skid in January 2002 and a three-game losing streak a month later but never lost four consecutive games, which the Lakers did four weeks ago.
-- Mike Bresnahan
I hope Spurs win but I think Lakers will win tonight. Like was previously stated, they rarely lose 3 in a row (though they had a 3 game losing streak recently), they will be motivated after two sub-par performances last week and most important, they are still the Lakers....the team 2 neat & the team ALL WC must go through to get to the championship.
So, spurs fans, if the lakers win tonight, please no whining, no excuses....it's just one game in a long season.
The Lakers will definitely be fired up for this one: an old rivalry, going against one of the best teams in the league right now (record-wise), having lost two in a row. It could very well be that this game is more important to LA than it is to SA.
I would really like to see some 20 or so minutes of Splitter, just for him to get the feel of what going against one of the best frontcourts in the NBA is like. But as others here have already pointed out, I doubt it is going to happen.
I like your MO TD 21. If the Lakers win, you can shower us with your "I told you so" comments, but if the Spurs win tongiht, you can come back and say the Spurs won despite Pop's bad lineups and just got lucky. You got it covered, well done.
The Lakers were playing very well two months ago…What has changed? They traded away Sasha…I fear that the heart & soul of this Lakers team is now playing for New Jersey…
The part of the Kobe interview about the Spurs - elogious as usual from Kobe -:
Bryant was very complimentary of the Spurs, calling Manu Ginobili one of his favorite players and crediting Gregg Popovich as a defensive-minded coach.
He marveled the most at this particular Spurs team's ability to shoot the 3. San Antonio is shooting a league-best 40.8 percent on 3-pointers this season.
"I can't remember a team shooting it this well this late into the season," Bryant said. "They're all shooting it lights out."
Jackson said that minding the 3-point line was only part of the Lakers' focus on stopping the Spurs.
"It's the tempo they play the game at, I think, more than anything else," Jackson said. "Their 3-point shooting has gone really well, but their tempo is high."
Bryant allowed a smile to crack through his concentrated glare when informed the Lakers had a slight edge -- 38 wins to 37 wins -- over Tim Duncan and the Spurs in the 75 games the two franchises have played since the start of the 1998-99 season.
"It's good basketball," Bryant said. "It's basketball being played the right way -- guys moving the ball unselfishly, playing defense the right way -- it's been fun to be a part of. We went through a couple down years, they were still rolling, and we got back on top and now the rivalry is here again, so, it's fun."
Dave McMenamin covers the Lakers for ESPNLosAngeles.com. Follow him on Twitter.
http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angele...ory?id=5963593
One thing is for certain; Despite their recent bad stretch, the Blakers are still considered a threat, because they still have the pieces to win, and we just hope they don't have the will.
So the most we can hope for is that they don't try hard, otherwise we are lost?
Laker guards were 11 for 47, with Kobe taking 27 of those shots.
Good defense....
Imagine how good it gets when your players get healthier....
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