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[mco85]

I think this team could be damn good if Pau came of the bench. He could potentially solidly the second unit.

 

[scotthallwithapick]

even Miami looked a lot worse 2 years ago when they first joined together.

They started 9-8 before killing Cleveland and going on a huge winning streak.
You guys started 8-9 before losing a 17pt lead to the Houston Rockets.
You also have fired your coach and are having injury problems.



Just saying.

 

[nermindee]

I agree win Dantoni not taking out dwight... you DO NOT want to destroy what little confidence dwight may have left in his free throws...

Kobe is ma dude but damnnnnn... he seriously didnt help the last 3 minutes of the game...
his shot selections and decision making was eh...
and what bugged me the most was when duhon picked up kobe's man to prevent the 3 and kobe didnt rotate to duhons man who made the wide open 3... then kobe flails his arms like a disgruntled little toddler... SMH

you are suppose to lose when you give up so many offensive rebounds and commit that many turnovers... Its like the ball had kooties and the lakers didnt want any part of it.

 

[mrdozo]

I didnt like D.Howard saying "at the end of the day, we didn't lose because of my free throws".
Man up. Your 5missed shots contributed to the 2point loss. Sucker

 

[CP1708]

If we want to blame free throws, blame them on Kobe then. He missed 3, we lost by 2, there it is.

Kobe can make free throws, Dwight can not. We of all people should know this, we lived thru Shaq, we're gonna live thru it with Dwight.

But Kobe, he can't be missing 3 free throws in a game, ever. Those are musts.


Bottom line, take care of business tonight and be ready for Friday, only way to play it. Chalk last night up as a learning experience for everyone, coach, players, etc, Ton of new pieces on the floor together this year, guys in and out of the lineup, horrible training camp with Mike Brown wasting everyone's time, this is essentially our new camp. We dug the hole, gotta dig out of it now.

Hopefully it starts tonight.

 

[darthdeezy]

Its pathetic for the game when teams employ the hack a Dwight strategy.
Down right disgusting.

Remember last week we rolled into Dallas got the W and played with no mercy?
Thats whats gonna happen to the poor Hornets tonight.

 

[duba169]

How is it pathetic? Make free throws and it will never happen.

Flopping is pathetic. Hack a center is good strategy and can easily be prevented by making shots. Is leaving rondo wide open pathetic? If he hit shots wouldn't happen. You should be happy the league already changed the rules about the last 2 minutes.

 

[darthdeezy]

Its pathetic cuz these are grown men playing a professional sport and they are playing cowardly by hacking.
I wouldnt wanna spend hundreds of dollars on a ticket to watch this stuff.
Play the game. If you foul him during a play, cool but away from the ball?! Pathetic.

 

[antidope]

 

[pmatic]

I ain't even mad.

 

[darthdeezy]

So thats where that Pop thumbs up pic came from.... Hahahaaha

 

[duba169]

Its pathetic cuz these are grown men playing a professional sport and they are playing cowardly by hacking.
I wouldnt wanna spend hundreds of dollars on a ticket to watch this stuff.
Play the game. If you foul him during a play, cool but away from the ball?! Pathetic.

So write a letter to David stern. I think it's a ridiculous position and comes across as sour grapes.

What's pathetic is a grown man making millions can't hit free throws at a better rate than a 12 year old or a team mascot in a costume

 

[jbone2308]

Been riding with Kobe since '96 but the last 3 years I cannot stand how Kobe has played. Great one day doing his thing and propelling the team then the next day flat out selfish and not willing to do what it takes to win. Lack of defense is sicknening.

 

[mrdozo]

If we want to blame free throws, blame them on Kobe then. He missed 3, we lost by 2, there it is.
Kobe can make free throws, Dwight can not. We of all people should know this, we lived thru Shaq, we're gonna live thru it with Dwight.
But Kobe, he can't be missing 3 free throws in a game, ever. Those are musts.
Bottom line, take care of business tonight and be ready for Friday, only way to play it. Chalk last night up as a learning experience for everyone, coach, players, etc, Ton of new pieces on the floor together this year, guys in and out of the lineup, horrible training camp with Mike Brown wasting everyone's time, this is essentially our new camp. We dug the hole, gotta dig out of it now.
Hopefully it starts tonight.

So Kobe cant miss any, but Dwight can? How about we blame both. It is a team effort, win or lose. I mentioned Dwight because he missed his during the last 3minutes of the game. Both both should make their free throws.

So write a letter to David stern. I think it's a ridiculous position and comes across as sour grapes.
What's pathetic is a grown man making millions can't hit free throws at a better rate than a 12 year old or a team mascot in a costume

Its pathetic cuz he doesnt make them, and then doesnt claim any responsibility in the loss. Man-up and atleast say the team has to make their free throws.

Lakers are not winning a 'chip this year. Doesnt matter what Nash will do.

 

[CP1708]

Dozo, in terms of being realistic, Dwight is a 50% shooter, is he not? You know this, yes? As do we all. Dwight is ALWAYS going to miss A LOT of free throws, ala Shaq.

Kobe, is a great free throw shooter. He should never miss them, and if he does miss 1, then he damn sure better not miss another, and so on.



I'm confused why you guys are all upset about Dwight missing free throws. We've done this before, have we not? Ya'll forgot about Shaq or somethin? This is going to happen for the length of Dwight's career. We have to overcome it, and the first part of that is even if he is missing free throws, we get a chance to set our defense, rest, reset, etc. Even if he makes only 1, or both, or misses both, our defense should always be set, ready, and organized. Get stops, it don't matter how many he misses.

In this game, last night, when you have the lead, the win in hand, without 2 stars, I felt D'Antoni should have nutured the win out by sitting Dwight for a short stretch to keep them from hacking. 1 minute, that's all I was asking, so the Lakers could run a regular offense for an extra couple possessions. Mike should have done that, at least, but I understand why he didn't want to open that can of worms. I get it. If this was a playoff game, I bet he would have handled it differently.

 

[pmatic]

Cover your eyes if you value defense:

Defense lets Lakers down against Rockets

Rockets 107, Lakers 105

So ... the Lakers are 8-10. Let me repeat that: the Los Angeles Lakers are 8-10.

For the second straight game, the other team's decision to intentionally foul Dwight Howard will obscure the Lakers' real problem: terrible defense. On this night, Howard went 5 of 10 from the line in the fourth quarter, including two big makes with 2:09 remaining to give the Lakers a two-point lead. Five points in five possessions isn't great, but it's far from awful. With better defense, the Lakers could have made the Rockets pay for this strategy.

Alas, that didn't happen. The Rockets got great shot after great shot, and the Lakers' breakdowns were across the board. Let's take a look at a few in particular.

PLAY 1: On this play, Howard and Metta World Peace fail to communicate on a circle cut by James Harden, allowing the Rockets' star to get an easy layup. Take a look:

Does Howard help World Peace? Nope, think again.

PLAY 2: Harden curls out to the left wing, and Antawn Jamison decides he should leave his man to go cover him even though World Peace has locked and trailed him well.

This forces Howard to guard two people, and Greg Smith easily gets a layup.

PLAY 3: This is what happens when Kobe Bryant cheats so blatantly to stop Carlos Delfino from getting open in the right corner. Delfino simply readjusts his route and Kobe is nowhere to be found.

Harden passes to Delfino, and Chris Duhon is supposed to guard two people. Here's what results.

PLAYS 4 AND 5: These two decided the game, and they both just so happened to feature World Peace letting Harden go right to the basket using his strong left hand. Howard has to help once Harden beats World Peace off the dribble, and Harden just dumps the ball off to Smith for easy shots.

You can't blame those breakdowns on Howard's free throw shooting, nor can you expect them to magically go away once Steve Nash gets back. The Lakers need to get their defense in order, and fast.

Link

A good amount of trolling in this article, but it's worth a read:

What does Pau Gasol have left?

Pau Gasol is seemingly being written out of the Lakers' championship plans. Is that smart of L.A. to do? A look at what's fueled the Spaniard's fall from grace.

It's all a bit stunning. Mike D'Antoni has thrived with skilled big men. He basically turned Boris Diaw into an NBA player, and pretty much all Diaw ever had going from him was skill. (Those first two seasons of success in Phoenix basically won Diaw $54 million in NBA contracts.) Pau Gasol is quite possibly the most skilled big man of this era, with Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki and DeAndre Jordan also vying for that honor. Add in that the Lakers have a (man who was recently an) elite defender at center and a brilliant scorer at two-guard, and this should work. D'Antoni knows how to yank all the value out of his big men. Pau knows how to do things. This is a good core, even with Steve Nash on the shelf. This can work!

It's not working. Pau has been yanked from multiple fourth quarters, Kobe Bryant has called him out twice, the Lakers are flailing as they depend on Dwight Howard to carry the offense late and now Gasol is sitting with alleged tendinitis. None of us know if that's a smokescreen and the team is just resting him while it considers his future, but let's just say that if the team were winning and all was rosy, Pau probably wouldn't be resting in December.

But is this all just a sign that Pau, now 32, is on his way out of the league? If the Lakers trade him, can he even offer anything to that new team ... or is he toast?

Let's look at the data.

Age is on the x axis there. I would say only four of these "box score" stats have fallen precipitously in recent years or specifically this year: field goals made, field goal attempts, free throw attempts and points. Those first three all inform the fourth. Rebounds, assists, blocks, turnovers -- all things that have helped Pau be one of the best big men in the game -- have remained rather stable, even as Gasol digs into his 30s. This is a scoring problem.

The scoring problem is that Pau has had fewer scoring opportunities, and is doing worse with them. (Gasol is shooting a career low 42 percent this season. Our review of Pau Gasol's Shooting Percentage, now playing at the Small Sample Size Theatre, will be published later this week.) But Pau's scoring was down last year, too. What's happening here?

Let's look at where Pau is getting his shots, and how he's doing with them. HoopData.com has the best source data for this type of investigation, so we can only go back to 2007. Note that I'm omitting three-pointers, because they still make up only a tiny percentage of Pau's game.

This is the third consecutive year in which the share of Pau's shots coming from the long two-pointer range has increased quite a bit. Long twos made up about 10 percent of Pau's offensive repertoire in 2009-10 (L.A.'s last championship season), but are up to more than 40 percent this season. Note that this directly impacts those free throw numbers: the further you are from the rim, the less likely you're getting a foul call. Surely, the rise of post beast Andrew Bynum and acquisition of post beast Dwight Howard have contributed. But maybe Pau has abandoned the post because he's become less effective there? Let's look at shooting percentages at those ranges.

And there it is. Pau is shooting inordinately low on short and mid-range jumpers. Shooting percentages at these ranges can have some crazy volatility -- ask Ersan Ilyasova, who shot brilliantly on them last year and is struggling this year. So Pau's scoring drop -- which has been nearly the complete source of his apparent decline in quality, with the caveat that defense is really difficult to measure on an individual basis -- is based on fewer attempts and stunningly low conversion on short and mid-range jumpers. That's all of it. Pau Gasol looks like he sucks because he's missing those half hooks, those pop-out jumpers, those extended post turnarounds. History says he shoots those pretty well. This 2012-13 drop in efficiency at those ranges was not preceded by gradual declines in this area -- it is steep, sudden and based on 17 games under three head coaches with a brand new frontcourt cohort and basically a new point guard (whether he's named Steve Nash or Darius Morris).

Pau's still got it. This is a blip. He's not getting better at this point, but he's not as bad as everyone seems to think. If the Lakers keep him, Andrew Sharp's admonition that they slide some of Dwight's supper back in front of Gasol is strong. But man do I hope the Lakers peddle Pau for spare parts and give Antawn Jamison the keys. Pull the trigger, Kupchak!

Link

 

[essential1]

That one play where Harden dishes to Smith in the basket (play 4), there's two different ways that the rotation could have happened.. Kobe slides down.

Kobe slides down, but with 20 some seconds left, Houston resets.

Or Jamison clogs one side of the lane.. Howard clogs the other half slightly cheating off his man.. Harden would absolutely nowhere to take the ball but shoot over MWP, Jamison, Howard.

But Jamison refused to go off his man, as did Kobe. But Jamison would be in position to stop the ball. Kobe would have left Delfino once the ball was kicked to Smith, no way Kobe gets there in time to break up the pass.

Play 5, the baseline player should be playing Help Defense under the basket. Leaving weak side open. But it'd be a quick catch and shoot that would be tough.

 

[thegoldenchild]

Been riding with Kobe since '96 but the last 3 years I cannot stand how Kobe has played. Great one day doing his thing and propelling the team then the next day flat out selfish and not willing to do what it takes to win. Lack of defense is sicknening.

so, if you're kobe, what do you do? if the offense is running smoothly, great.. if it is not, what would you do? For one, you're the #1 option on offense.. your next option is howard.. who is not reliable in the 4th since he cant hit his free throws. Pau is completely lost in the offense, Jamison jacks up a bunch of threes.. and World Peace, you never know what you get from him, Nash is not playing. so the only logical thing is to take matters into your own hands.

and yeah, you're right about the Defense, it sucks balls

 

[essential1]

Probably going to miss the first half because of class today

School

 

[quik1987]

Kobe compares himself Jordan all the time bit lacks the fire MJ used to have on D

 

[tonelow]

Been riding with Kobe since '96 but the last 3 years I cannot stand how Kobe has played. Great one day doing his thing and propelling the team then the next day flat out selfish and not willing to do what it takes to win. Lack of defense is sicknening.

All of this.

 

[thegoldenchild]

Kobe compares himself Jordan all the time bit lacks the fire MJ used to have on D

do you know why?

because kobe is more involved in the offense than MJ was.. MJ used to be the player that would shoot the ball.. kobe is the facilitator.. takes more energy to get other players into the game and then also score your own points, means not much energy left for defense

 

[mrdozo]

Dozo, in terms of being realistic, Dwight is a 50% shooter, is he not? You know this, yes? As do we all. Dwight is ALWAYS going to miss A LOT of free throws, ala Shaq.
Kobe, is a great free throw shooter. He should never miss them, and if he does miss 1, then he damn sure better not miss another, and so on.
I'm confused why you guys are all upset about Dwight missing free throws. We've done this before, have we not? Ya'll forgot about Shaq or somethin? This is going to happen for the length of Dwight's career. We have to overcome it, and the first part of that is even if he is missing free throws, we get a chance to set our defense, rest, reset, etc. Even if he makes only 1, or both, or misses both, our defense should always be set, ready, and organized. Get stops, it don't matter how many he misses.
In this game, last night, when you have the lead, the win in hand, without 2 stars, I felt D'Antoni should have nutured the win out by sitting Dwight for a short stretch to keep them from hacking. 1 minute, that's all I was asking, so the Lakers could run a regular offense for an extra couple possessions. Mike should have done that, at least, but I understand why he didn't want to open that can of worms. I get it. If this was a playoff game, I bet he would have handled it differently.

Youre 100% correct, Kobe is clearly the better free throw shooter and we should expect better from him. My problem is D. Howard not admitting that the free throws are/were an issue in last nights game. Dont pass the buck and say, my missed free throws werent the reason we lost. He's not taking responsibility for that portion of the loss, thats what Im saying.

 

[sea manup]

do you know why?
because kobe is more involved in the offense than MJ was.. MJ used to be the player that would shoot the ball.. kobe is the facilitator.. takes more energy to get other players into the game and then also score your own points, means not much energy left for defense

Im a huge kobe fan but no. Hes guarding lin's back up, there is no excuse for letting douglas drop 20 on him (although scrubs have been dropping 20 on kobe for years now)

 

[tonelow]

Been riding with Kobe since '96 but the last 3 years I cannot stand how Kobe has played. Great one day doing his thing and propelling the team then the next day flat out selfish and not willing to do what it takes to win. Lack of defense is sicknening.

so, if you're kobe, what do you do? if the offense is running smoothly, great.. if it is not, what would you do? For one, you're the #1 option on offense.. your next option is howard.. who is not reliable in the 4th since he cant hit his free throws. Pau is completely lost in the offense, Jamison jacks up a bunch of threes.. and World Peace, you never know what you get from him, Nash is not playing. so the only logical thing is to take matters into your own hands.

and yeah, you're right about the Defense, it sucks balls

Id rather see ball movement, run some plays and get people involved then go to Kobe if the play breaks down. Right now, plays begin and end with Kobe with a few Dwight post ups sprinkled here and there.

When Kobe looks to pass first we win, when he tries to single handedly outscore the opposing team we lose. its that simple.

He should be making the game easier for everyone else, he does it in spots but not consistently. Thats why I think D'Antoni keeps saying things will get better once Nash gets back because he gets others into a rhythm.