924 replies to this topic

[TKainZero]

we win game 4
everything is great again

[Hollywood]

We need game 4

[West Coast]

Anyone who thought we were gonna sweep Denver needs to take off those purple and gold colored glasses. The Nuggets are the athletic style team that gives us fits.

Too many threes and too many missed crucial shots where we could have gotten closer. Need a better effort in the first half from Bynum.

We'll be ready in game 4. Silver lining of all this is now Metta gets to play in at least game 2 in the second round.

[Majesty]

For all the talk about how good Bynum and Gasol are, the Lakers have been outrebounded in games 2 and 3 now. The rebounding battle wasn't even close in this game. Their defense was poor as well. Kobe can't keep forcing up shots like that. It allows for easy points on the transition.

Just a bad night all around. Just when you think the Lakers have it figured out, they come up with a clunker like this.

Rebounding and the 50/50 balls are a factor. Gasol didn't even get a rebound that came directly back to him after a missed free throw.

You can only shout and hope an official blows the whistle enough times before you have to increase your intensity. If you let Javale McGee hit post moves on you and you let Fareeq who you tower over hit jump shots over you, you are sagging on defense and not pressuring them on offense. Bynum was guilty of this too for the first half but had a better 2nd half, Pau didn't give us what we needed rebound wise at all when he was outrebounded by the point guard. Amazingly.

And Barnes bad play can't keep up. I'm about one more bad game away from saying to just move Kobe to the 3 spot and put in goudelock at the 2 if Barnes is gonna miss every wide open three he's got. He is out there for 3 purposes and that is to either push the tempo, be a defensive pest and hit the wide open shots he gets when Bynum/Kobe are double or triple teamed, if he can't hit his shots, can't play defense, and can't even rebound the ball when that's his role right now which doesn't even ask for him to facilitate in the least we may as well just put in Goudelock because he'd give us about what Barnes is giving us right now at the 2.

Then again, I'm willing to give Barnes the benefit of the doubt for one more game. Because he IS injured. However if that ankle injury is going to make him constantly play this bad we got two choices. Either Ebanks is gonna have to play big time minutes, or we're gonna have to move Kobe to the 3 and Goudelock to the 2 when the bench unit is out there which would only equal more minutes for Kobe which i DON'T want to have to happen.

So it looks like we gotta gamble with Barnes...great

[Hollywood]

If Barnes is a gamble then playing steve blake is like playing russian roulette with a loaded gun!

[Japago]

Anyone who thought we were gonna sweep Denver needs to take off those purple and gold colored glasses. The Nuggets are the athletic style team that gives us fits.

Too many threes and too many missed crucial shots where we could have gotten closer. Need a better effort in the first half from Bynum.

We'll be ready in game 4. Silver lining of all this is now Metta gets to play in at least game 2 in the second round.

True, but I thought this was the better opportunity of the 2 games here in Denver to get a win because they had 2 days of rest instead of 1 for game 4. Now, it's very likely the Lakers go back to LA tied 2-2.

[____]

Looking at the box score, Blake had 4 fouls, 3 points, 2 assists, and 1 steal, all in 28 minutes. Dude needs to skip his way into an oncoming bus while holding hands with coach Brown.

[Majesty]

If Barnes is a gamble then playing steve blake is like playing russian roulette with a loaded gun!

At the very least we have Sessions at the 1 when it comes to what Blake is going to product points wise.
We don't really have that for Barnes, we got Ebanks starting whose only real shot is that mid range jumper, he doesn't have the range to be a knockdown 3 point shooter that Barnes is supposed to be and his defense isn't quite as good. But he deserves the start over Barnes eventhough he won't give us the point production or defense that MWP does.

That is why I say as long as Artest is gone I can deal with Steve Blake having a bad 3 point 6 assist performance because Sessions can make up for that when he is on the floor in place of him or along side him. But Barnes can't keep having 4 point games when he should have had around 18 today.

This is where it screws us over. barnes when he was healthy was giving us not just points 13-18 points off that bench late in this season, he was also giving us double digits in rebounds too which was a MAJOR help with the 50-50 balls and then you have Hill who can also get us double digit rebounds and we had solved our 50/50 ball problems.

With barnes being hurt and unable to rebound OR score it hurts us a lot more at that position at the bench 3 than Blake does at the bench 1. You don't expect Blake to get 50/50 balls and get us at least 14 on a good night and 7 rebounds. We expect that from Barnes, if he can't give us that this series becomes a lot harder.

barnes said his biggest annoyance last year was getting hurt in the season when he was coming on strong and then never getting back into a groove to help us the rest of the season when he got back.

Same thing is happening here.

Edited by Majesty, May 04, 2012 - 09:25 PM.

[West Coast]

True, but I thought this was the better opportunity of the 2 games here in Denver to get a win because they had 2 days of rest instead of 1 for game 4. Now, it's very likely the Lakers go back to LA tied 2-2.

Actually I thought game 4 was our best chance. With the Nuggets being a run and gun style team, them being desperate and getting in front of their home crowd, I knew there was a possibility we could go down early by double digits because the Lakers simply find it difficult to overcome that initital surge.

Had we won this game, I thought we'd lose game 4 and still go back to LA to win game 5. Losing allows the team to refocus and pay more attention to detail.

[MDI]

We gotta win Game 4. Must win game, I would hate to come back to Denver. Just win that and wrap it up next week at our place

[L.A.K.E.R]

Having Sessions doesn't excuse Steve Blake's lackluster play at all. He played just as terribly as Barnes (even more so because he was a liability on both ends) and he gets a free pass because Sessions is there to hide his mistakes? Even while he's getting destroyed on the defensive end by Andre Miller posting up and committing stupid fouls? That's completely unfair.

Both played terribly tonight, Blake has less of an excuse because he was there to close out the game and gave us absolutely nothing. Barnes could have at least kept up with his man on the defensive end or prevented Andre Miller from destroying us in post-up scenarios.

[LakersChamps243]

The last time we won a game 4 in the first round was I believe in our 08-09 championship season so hopefully we can change that on Sunday.

[Majesty]

Having Sessions doesn't excuse Steve Blake's lackluster play at all. He played just as terribly as Barnes (even more so because he was a liability on both ends) and he gets a free pass because Sessions is there to hide his mistakes? Even while he's getting destroyed on the defensive end by Andre Miller posting up and committing stupid fouls? That's completely unfair.

Both played terribly tonight, Blake has less of an excuse because he was there to close out the game and gave us absolutely nothing. Barnes could have at least kept up or prevented Andre Miller from destroying us in post-up scenarios.

he doesn't, I said that we can survive his bad games because of having Sessions at the one
More so than we can survive a bad game from Barnes because we don't have Artest.

Barnes gave us production in terms of offense while we were closing out the season 12-14 points and even 18 offensively but he was also giving us a LOT of rebound opportunities even when he wasn't scoring. That was very very important in terms of his effectiveness, and then we had MWP out there too.

But here is the thing, a bad game by Blake where he doesn't score too much WE CAN SURVIVE MORE than a bad game from Barnes where he can't score OR rebound the ball strictly because we don't have a Ron Artest there to make up for that poor play on the boards or offensively.

So no Blake doesn't get a pass as I acknowledged his bad game, but I am saying that we as a team can survive a bad game from Blake more so than we can survive a bad one from Barnes since barnes gave us a lot more of what we needed while closing out the season ESPECIALLY with the 50/50 balls and his double digit rebounds, and then you throw in Hill and our 50/50 ball problems were solved...not so much anymore now. What Blake did in game one is something I expect from Barnes on a consistent basis, and the way that his injury has royally screwed his offense AND rebounding(4 rebounds today after 2 days rest) is much more hurtful to us as a team with the absence of Artest.

Edited by Majesty, May 04, 2012 - 09:38 PM.

[Hollywood]

all these teams going 3-0 made me exited that we could do it too lol

[Japago]

I'm just mostly disappointed in Bynum. After game 1, I thought he was going to dominate on the defensive end. He even acknowledged how good the Lakers are when he plays defense. I don't expect him to play like that every game, but these last 2 haven't been good at all.

[Majesty]

all these teams going 3-0 made me exited that we could do it too lol

New York and Dallas both almost missed the playoffs. There's a reason they are losing 3-0. But Dallas could be 2-1 right now against OKC and they would be our next opponents should we get out of the first round. So that's the 3-0 I'm more excited about continuing

[Wilfred]

Brown's press conf is hard to listen to ...

He goes on a very teethy monotonous ramble ...

[GP1_KB24]

Loss.

Expected it. Win the next one though.

[L.A.K.E.R]

he doesn't, I said that we can survive his bad games because of having Sessions at the one
More so than we can survive a bad game from Barnes because we don't have Artest.

Barnes gave us production in terms of offense while we were closing out the season 12-14 points and even 18 offensively but he was also giving us a LOT of rebound opportunities even when he wasn't scoring. That was very very important in terms of his effectiveness, and then we had MWP out there too.

But here is the thing, a bad game by Blake where he doesn't score too much WE CAN SURVIVE MORE than a bad game from Barnes where he can't score OR rebound the ball strictly because we don't have a Ron Artest there to make up for that poor play on the boards or offensively.

So no Blake doesn't get a pass as I acknowledged his bad game, but I am saying that we as a team can survive a bad game from Blake more so than we can survive a bad one from Barnes since barnes gave us a lot more of what we needed while closing out the season ESPECIALLY with the 50/50 balls and his double digit rebounds, and then you throw in Hill and our 50/50 ball problems were solved...not so much anymore now. What Blake did in game one is something I expect from Barnes on a consistent basis, and the way that his injury has royally screwed his offense AND rebounding(4 rebounds today after 2 days rest) is much more hurtful to us as a team with the absence of Artest.

Did you honestly expect him to continue grabbing double digit boards for an extended period of time? That's very unrealistic. He's not much of a scorer either. His ceiling is as a defensive pest who can chip in a few points and rebounds on a nightly basis while hustling on the floor. I don't think it's reasonable to expect him to be knockdown shooter for us or some double-double threat when he plays for us.

We can't handle either of them being this ineffective for long stretches of time. Barnes' lack of efficiency can be forgiven because of his hustle on the floor. He may not finish all the time (I really have no clue why he misses so many layups), but at least he's going towards the rim with the intention of scoring. Blake doesn't even do that. Every drive into the paint from Blake seems to result in a pass to someone else on the other side of the court or him picking up the dribble in an awkward position. There were numerous instances in the game tonight where he just took terrible three point shots or made stupid fouls, both of which took away momentum.

Barnes can at least play adequate defense if he's having an off night with his shooting. I don't expect him to lockdown a player, but I do expect him to at least frustrate them and make them work off the ball. Blake can't do that and he got extremely fortunate in Game 1 that he made that barrage of 3 pointers in that tiny stretch of the 1st half. Other than that, he's been awful for us in the postseason.

The playoffs are all about exploiting mismatches, and Denver is having its way when Steve Blake is on the floor. Karl simply plugs in Andre Miller and Steve Blake is unable to do anything once Miller gets to working him in the post. Sessions can at least make Miller work on the defensive end by taking him off the dribble, but Blake is too tentative to do that. When he's unable to make open shots and refuses to attack the basket, he's a completely liability on the floor in this series. We can't afford to keep playing him if he's going to continue being as ineffective.

Barnes makes up for his terrible showing on the offensive end by hustling on the defensive end and putting in work off the ball. Blake does none of that and hurts us FAR worse every minute he's on the floor having to defend either Andre Miller or Ty Lawson. Forget offensive production, we're going to have a tough time this series if Blake continues to see big minutes going up against Andre Miller because he has no chance at guarding him.

We're better off playing Barnes at the 2 at that point considering that he's big enough to deal with Miller's size and 2 inch vertical, he actually plays defense, as he's not as tentative on the offensive end. Miller has no real speed advantage either, so I don't really see any negatives to just sticking Barnes upon Miller and forcing Denver to match up with our size on the perimeter if they insist on running a Lawson/Miller backcourt at us for extended stretches.

[pointguard11]

Considering almost everyone had a bad game I would have thought we would lose by at least 20. Offense sucked pretty bad, too many threes especially when you miss them. They will go pound it inside on Sunday and the world will be alright.