Reply With Quote
Good win tonight.
What do you think his answer will be? The spurs will pull that card as well, but I think parker may have slightly more to worry about now that Shaq could be lurking down low.
Did shaq look tired tonight towards the end? again, I missed the game ...
Good win tonight.
Shaq will do the same thing he did to Raja.. KO him with an elbow..
He was fine at the end. His first half was terrible, but looked much better the second half. He was pulled in the last few minutes when the Suns needed shooters on the floor.Did shaq look tired tonight towards the end? again, I missed the game ...
suns with Shaq look good. They are finally not a flawed team anymore. Shaq instantly makes them a much much better rebounding team. As for defense this is as good as it gets for him.
Big win for the Lakers though. Lakeshow now holds the tiebreaker with Phoenix.
Shaq looked very tired in the second quarter, but surprisingly good late in the game (he had one stretch where he scored 9 straight on LA in the middle of the fourth).
The disparity in rebounds won't be there when Bynum gets back. Amare cannot exploit him like he can Gasol and Odom.
Ready for another D'antoni quote, Spurs fans?
"On O'Neal's future minutes, D'Antoni said, 'You know me. . . . As long as he's healthy, he can play 48 minutes for all I care. He's not old.'" (http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns...unsnb0221.html)
Or it will when Shaq is in better playing shape.
No way Bynum is a great rebounder. He will box out Shaq easily. Odom and Gasol will clean up on the court with Andrew.
not to jump offtopic, but if AMARE is exploiting them on rebounds...
what do you think Tim is going to do? I bring it up only because you said in the other thread they could keep him off the glass.
Back to the subject, I knew Shaq would have a presence on the suns. But are they going to change their playing style drastically and feel uncomfortable in the system because of shaq? I saw one person post there was far more half court possessions. Couldn't that translate into a bad thing if you're Phoenix?
Shaq looked good. I haven't seen him that animated in years. Its good to know that you still walk the walk sometimes. I'm proud of him! Good Game!
Love this Lakers team and what the future holds. They were never expected to be able to beat the best teams in the league until Bynum got back. This is turning into a special season and when Bynum and Ariza get back they will be unstoppable. Life is good!
Last edited by LakeShow; 02-21-2008 at 01:40 AM.
Amare only exploited them because Gasol had to deal with Shaq. That will change when Bynum is back.
You think Oberto and KT demand attention like Shaq does??
No. Being able to play half court offense is a good thing. That's how playoff games are played.
Good game, but D'Antoni still has terrible game management skills. I had fun watching it.
So did I
Amare continues to look really good out there and I was happy with his offensive rebounding, but he needs to keep it up vs. others in the West and when Bynum comes back.
Barbosa continues to piss me off with his terrible half-court offense. In games decided by 6 points or less, his mental mistakes are killers - i.e. stupid jumpers and bouncing the ball off himself to the backcourt.
Suns also were the victim of a few bad breaks - Bell getting hit by Shaq, the Pau jump ball being called off the Suns, and Nash missing that runner which led to a long rebound and Pau's dunk.
Also, why let the clock run down so much and not foul? D'Antoni trying to emulate Pitino's trap didn't work.
Amare is an excellent player, he will only look better next to Shaq. Barbosa is not a PG. Not his fault. As for bad breaks, the Suns were the benefit of more than a few calls. They allowed Shaq and Amare to foul away. D'Antoni sucks. He's on his way out the door.
Before Bynum went down we were the #1 team in rebounding in the NBA. Let me repeat that, the #1 team in rebounding. Trust me, he is absolutely essential to our rebounding and defensive game.
Suns did get their fare share of calls, but I was talking more about breaks - balls bouncing this way and that - near the end.
Still, I love D'Antoni's ability to make adjustments on the defensive end.... oh, wait - I mean letting Pau screen and roll for layups all game.
No , I'm a fan of the spurs, I know all about the half court set
what I'm saying is, for three years now they've been orchestrating a defenseless, uptempo style, always trying to stay away from the half court set. They get shaq, now theyre running half court sets and trying to play defense? You cant make an about face in a basketball system with 2 months til playoffs.
Things I liked:
-Amare has played like an MVP since Shaq arrived in Phoenix. I was curious to see how he'd respond with Shaq actually on the floor, and I LOVED what I saw. 37 points, 15 rebounds, 3 steals... the Amare Stoudemire Project, indeed.
-Shaq had a lot of energy and didn't look that out of shape to me. In a few weeks time, I don't think he'll have any trouble keeping up with this team.
-The crowd was electric. That's not something I've seen in Phoenix since last year's playoffs, and I can only imagine it'll stay that way the rest of the season. I went to a Suns game two weeks ago and the crowd was completely dead. This was a complete turnaround.
-Shaq played 28 minutes, and looked his best in the final minutes of the game.
-REBOUNDING--The Suns won the war of the glass, 46-33, against a competent rebounding team. I hope this is a sign of things to come, because rebounding has been our biggest problem for some time.
Things I did not like:
-Shaq's FT's: What. The. . I always knew he was bad, but I've never wanted the other team NOT to foul mine.
-I really, really miss Shawn Marion. His perimeter defense was invaluable.
-There were a couple of plays where Shaq jogged up-court, while Pau ran, which led to a couple of easy Laker buckets.
-At times, it looked like Shaq was completely lost, but that's understandable for a guy who hasn't played in so long, with brand new teammates, a new coach, in a completely new system.
Overall, I was impressed with Shaq's first game, particularly with the effect it had on the Phoenix crowd and Amare Stoudemire. The difference in rebounding was a very, very, very welcome sight. Assuming the opponents' FG% comes down from 56.5% (ugh), the Suns may start winning the rebounding battle consistently, which hasn't ever been the case during the Nash-Stoudemire era.
Also, Kobe played like a man possessed. I thought this guy had a bad pinky...?
Definitely a great game with a huge playoff atmosphere. The Lakers and Suns are now the premiere rivalry in the NBA--that's not to say they're the two best teams in the West, but there is a definite hatred between these two ballclubs. It's hard to say how they'll match up when a less-than-100% Andrew Bynum comes back and Shaq finally gets integrated into the Suns' offense. It should be fun.
If there is a God, these two teams will meet in the playoffs.
no defense
This is an important observation from the Suns' blogger in the 3rd quarter:
"Also, anyone notice that D'Antoni is sticking to a seven-man rotation? Hopefully, they pull off a deal to get another body in there. Otherwise, we'll have to strap an oxygen tank to Shaq's back."
I wish DJ Strawberry got some more burn. I loved his effort on D against Kobe during the 4th quarter. Kobe hit most of the shots against him, but they were very difficult shots.
Yeah, you can't really help it when Kobe is in assasin mode. Ross and Strawberry coming off the bench would be huge.
Then again, does D'Antoni know he has a bench?
Barbosa still angers me with stupid mental mistakes.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
