The truth hurts...

[roycrikside]

You know what the saddest thing was about this game?

The Lakers don't even respect us enough to TRY most of the game. Seriously, Kobe was just toying with us. He played in 2nd gear for Qtrs 1-3, never really looked to score, never got too aggressive, and the Lakers STILL had a 5 pt lead going into the 4th.

When Kobe felt like playing, he just toyed with us, like a cat with a mouse. Manu, Hill, RJ, Bogans, it didn't matter who we put on him. None of them can come remotely close to guarding Kobe.

He scored 24 pts on 16 shots and never even took a single free throw. I don't know if he even broke a sweat out there. He just lets Gasol and Odom and Artest around and then in the fourth he (yawn) ho hum just takes the game over, tossing in a contested 30 footer in Mason's mug while RMJ bricks one open look after another.

, the Lakers gave Josh Powell, DJ Mbenga and Sasha Vujacic minutes in this game. Anyone think those guys will play a meaningful minute in the playoffs? Phil just looks across the sidelines at Pop and knows he can just bend him over and go to town on him.

Biggest mismatch in the whole arena.

[HarlemHeat37]

I agree that the Spurs fear the Lakers, but your points have nothing to do with it..

-Kobe always plays like that when teams send double teams..it's stupid strategy to double team him, especially when he hasn't shown he's in one of his extremely hot zones..the best strategy against him is to make him forget about his teammates, he's a great passer that can make you pay when you send a double..

-Kobe's obviously a great player, top 5 in the NBA, so pointing out that he dominated is stupid..perimeter players kill the Spurs all the time, this isn't anything new..our defensive stopper is Keith Bogans, a guy that can barely move..our other perimeter defenders are Richard Jefferson and Roger Mason LOL..Hill is a good defender when he focuses on it, but he's too small to guard guys like Kobe and Durant..

-The Lakers played those guys due to injuries to Bynum and Walton(although he's been hurt for a while)..Mbenga and Powell always play when the Lakers are missing one of their bigs, and Vujacic playing isn't a surprise..

[DesignatedT]

still hard to judge where we are as a team... especially without tony... were def not on the lakers level though.

[ulosturedge]

Has nothing to do with the Lakers. We are old and broken. Trying to make up for too many inadequacies on the court. There's only so much you can do to try and work around the defeciencies that this team has. Eventually it is pointless to keep trying. The core of our team is old, we are undersized in the middle, and our role players don't show up in important games.

[Dr. Gonzo]

The Lakers are just good. It's that simple.

[xellos88330]

The Lakers aren't that good. The Spurs just screwed the pooch. Lakers in penalty and not one single drive for around 4 minutes. Manu comes in and SURPRISE an and 1. How the did that happen?

[Dr. Gonzo]

The Lakers aren't that good. The Spurs just screwed the pooch. Lakers in penalty and not one single drive for around 4 minutes. Manu comes in and SURPRISE an and 1. How the did that happen?

Another delusional poster.

[Baseline]

You know what the saddest thing was about this game?

The Lakers don't even respect us enough to TRY most of the game. Seriously, Kobe was just toying with us. He played in 2nd gear for Qtrs 1-3, never really looked to score, never got too aggressive, and the Lakers STILL had a 5 pt lead going into the 4th.

When Kobe felt like playing, he just toyed with us, like a cat with a mouse. Manu, Hill, RJ, Bogans, it didn't matter who we put on him. None of them can come remotely close to guarding Kobe.

He scored 24 pts on 16 shots and never even took a single free throw. I don't know if he even broke a sweat out there. He just lets Gasol and Odom and Artest around and then in the fourth he (yawn) ho hum just takes the game over, tossing in a contested 30 footer in Mason's mug while RMJ bricks one open look after another.

, the Lakers gave Josh Powell, DJ Mbenga and Sasha Vujacic minutes in this game. Anyone think those guys will play a meaningful minute in the playoffs? Phil just looks across the sidelines at Pop and knows he can just bend him over and go to town on him.

Biggest mismatch in the whole arena.

This is the best Bryant has shot the ball in a game in about five years.

You will not see him go 11-16 the rest of this year, or next year, or the following year. He's a 45% shooter. Period.

Tonight was a fluke game for him.

[SenorSpur]

This is the best Bryant has shot the ball in a game in about five years.

You will not see him go 11-16 the rest of this year, or next year, or the following year. He's a 45% shooter. Period.

Tonight was a fluke game for him.

An abberration. Still, it was Bryant that took the game over and buried the Spurs on the offesnive end in the 4th quarter. Artest did the additional defensive damage on the perimeter. These guys just showed up when it mattered most. Of course, that's always expected from a beast of a player - like Kobe. Dude is freaking unstoppable -at times.

[TD 21]

This is the best Bryant has shot the ball in a game in about five years.

You will not see him go 11-16 the rest of this year, or next year, or the following year. He's a 45% shooter. Period.

Tonight was a fluke game for him.

I don't know about that. He always shoots a high percentage against the Spurs and looks like he's toying with them most of the time. Then again, most top opposition wing scorers do when they're matched up against the centerpiece and the guy in a point guard's body as they both masquerade as the Spurs version of a wing stopper.

Odom's the other guy that always kills the Spurs, which makes sense because he's a power forward and a mobile one at that, something the Spurs have no answer for.

[SenorSpur]

I think it's a goddamn crime the Pop keeps acting as though George Hill is Bruce Bowen. Hill is a decent defender with a long wingspan, but he's just not gifted enough to challenge Bryant, who can raise up anytime he wants.

Hill should never see time against Bryant. The fact that he is is yet another flawed strategic decision by the head coach. Again, he's demonstrating his tendency to overburdens players that he likes and undervalue those that he doesn't.

[kaji157]

It's easy, we had one great player to fight of another great player.
The supporting cast of each one (Kobe and Manu) was very different.

It also helps when Manu plays all but 14 minutes of the game but rests 3 of them in crunch time. Could have rested him a lot more in the first half.

[Capt Bringdown]

Nothing to do with the Lakers?

Don't be hypocrite, or back when we were punking the Suns in every which way imaginable, did you say that it was nothing to do with the Spurs?

[Slippy]

A bit of both for me . Spurs do a good job of forcing the ball out of Kobe's hands, as did he by kicking it out to his left at the last moment to an open teammate who delivers with the three. The sucking in of about 4 defenders was done conintuously so you could call that toying. By the 4th that same play got to POp a from what i saw on tv.

This team was lacking the smarts of a championship team, lakers are the perfect example of it.

[ElNono]

This is the best Bryant has shot the ball in a game in about five years.

You will not see him go 11-16 the rest of this year, or next year, or the following year. He's a 45% shooter. Period.

Tonight was a fluke game for him.

You don't think that how we guarded him had anything to do with his shooting efficiency in this game? It's easy to chalk it up to a fluke, but we sent small defenders that he could easily shoot over, then we double-teamed when he wasn't even hot. The only difficult shot I remember Kobe taking was that drive where Bonner made him change his shot in mid-air.

[silverblk mystix]

I disagree...Pop will try a couple of different strategies...

I hope for a spurs/lakers first round...

Pop will double kOBE AGAIN---but only in certain spots--like in the 4th quarter...after the rest of the lakers have tuned off after kobe jacks up 40 shots...

I also don't think kobe toyed as much as the strategy was actually working for a little while...

Pop's mistake was just overusing it---then the spurs stopped executing offensively....

It was not a one-sided game...the lakers were OVER-celebrating at the end for a reason...they secretly fear the spurs and the overcelebrating showed me how relieved they were...

a regular season game---the lakers NEVER celebrate this much...

But, despite all that---must give props ---even if I hate them

the lakers DEFENSE---in the second half---coupled with the spurs horrible lineups and shooting...won the game...

these things will be corrected by the start of the 1st round...