Regardless of who we play we need to change the lineup

[milesfides]

Turiaf-Mbenga-Mihm on Perkins

Gasol on KG

Odom on Pierce

Kobe on Allen

Fish on Rondo

The big advantage of Kobe on Allen should offset Pierce and KG's collective advantage over our counterparts. I think Rondo is the easiest matchup Fish has faced in the playoffs, so I think that'll even out.

bench superiority of Farmar, Sasha, Walton, Radman, Ariza, etc. should be an asset as well.

Imo, we need to somebody who can keep Perkins off the boards. That's a major priority, since Gasol has a tendency to get bullied and knocked around. Perkins is a bull. We need to get somebody who can match that physical play, thus Turiaf or Mbenga.

IIRC, Odom didn't matchup with KG very well in the past. KG just backs him down and goes for his pet move, the turnaround J. Pau has had good games against KG, or maybe his posterizing dunk is making me biased. Either way, Gasol has the height and length to stay with KG and I don't see an alternative matchup.

We might try Ariza or Walton on Pierce, but neither has the productivity of Odom. We need Odom on the floor to help out on the boards. And I think Odom can match up well with Pierce, who's a big small forward anyways.

Radman shouldn't play against the starters. I don't see anybody whom he can guard at all. Perkins? KG? Pierce? Allen, like somebody said, will get some easy shots off screens against his former teammate.

[slifersd]

I don't know how ready he is, but I think Ariza should definitely take on a bigger role in the final. He is long, athletic and good enough defensively to at least bother Pierce and Prince. I just hope he is in good enough shape to start contributing for us in the finals because I do think we might have a problem defending at the SF spot.

[10scott10]

I do recall both the nuggets have a big scoring threat at the SF position with lot of other scorers around him, who we managed to contain pretty well with luke and vlad.

i'm not saying that i wouldn't like to see ariza, but these guys have been really underrated this post-season on both offense and defense

[Tommy Trojan]

I also want to see how the first game goes before changing the lineup

[CX44]

Allen can't guard Kobe so if the Celtics put Pierce on Kobe that forces the 6'5 Allen to guard Vlad. From the offensive side I like that match up.

[Dexmor]

Yeah but what about Allen scoring over Radman? Allen can score alot more then Radman. If they started Luke he could still post up Allen.

[TommyTheCat]

i think this is a pretty (Please Use More Appropriate Word) thread. vlad's been starting for a few months now and sometimes he plays 15 min and sometimes he plays 30 min depending on the matchup. does everyone suddenly think phil's going to change his starting lineup in the finals. that's a freakin move that doc would make....................some of you are making doc look pretty smart.

[islander009]

Honestly i dont think we need to change anything. Radman will get torched by either of the east 3s. But he can provide something more on the offense so that those 3's cannot camp out on gasol. I say it would work out pretty well if we had LO on Sheed, or LO on Perk, Gasol on Mcdyess or Gasol on garnett. Radman/Luke on Prince or Radman/luke on Peirce. Kobe on chauncy or Kobe on Rondo. Fish on Rip/Chauncy or Fish on allen. (both KObe and Fish can switch it up.) If Fish plays tough defense Rondo wont continue to push it in, allen flops, rip sometimes flops, but can man up. I say Sasha should come up to D up either 1-2, Ariza as a third option on those backcourt mates, then throw in Newble who is more of a physical defender up against Prince or pierce. If i am not mistaken Newble gave pierce fits when he was on the cavs. But honestly guys Our Lakers D steps up as our offense heats up. So once we get into a rhythm Boston and Detroit will really look to get physical with us to push us out of our pace.

[f0gman]

I'm reading the comments here and if I hadn't watched the ECF I would've thought the Lakers were facing some offensive juggernauts in the Finals. They're not. The Lakers' current rotation provides good floor balance, good rebounding, and solid defense. There's no need to change it for the next round unless they get blown out in both of the first two games. Changing lineups is often a sign of desperation. The Lakers aren't desperate. Besides, the "bench mob" works with the exact personnel in it, plus now Ariza. No need to upset that balance.

It looks like the C's are in so let's look at it from that set of matchups. Obviously the Pierce/Vlad matchup is the biggest mismatch. However I remember Vlad giving a similar sized/game/strength small forward a bunch of problems in the first round. Let's see how that goes and if Pierce gets off scoring 10 points in the first quarter then we can try Ariza/Kobe/Sasha.

Allen vs. Kobe is not a situation that Kobe will shy away from, nor should Phil "save" him from running. Kobe is an elite athlete has not shown one second of exhaustion the entire playoffs (the back injury was an injury, not tiredness). Kobe and Allen have a bit of history. It'll get his juices flowing.

Then again, Van Gundy just opined that Kobe might defend Rondo. The PG matchups help the Lakers. Whether it's Fish or Kobe, they'll sag off Rondo a lot, daring him to shoot. He's quick but compared to D-Will and Parker he's clearly not in their league. That will allow the Lakers to pack the lane. Cassell's minutes have fluctuated a lot during the playoffs. The C's are shooting only 33.6% from 3-pt land in the postseason. When Posey comes in he'll cover Kobe but it also means Ray-Ray's off the floor.

That leaves the bigs. The Lakers don't have an answer for KG. All Odom can do is make him work. Gasol's excellent pick-n-roll D would be useful. I'd use Gasol on KG half the time. Perkins is stronger than anyone in a Laker uniform but Odom will run him into the ground. If Perkins takes Gasol then Pau can use the length he wasn't able to use against Duncan.

No need to change the lineup. The best thing to do is use the versatility that the current lineup provides. Hell, Phil has been putting some zone looks into practice. Why not use that some of the time if rebounding isn't too adversely affected?

[ericwill]

You guys (LA) have been in such a good rhythm all throughout the playoffs. To change things now is STUPID