RealGM

dangermouse wrote:Refs rigged the game and the Lolkers STILL couldnt win.

I laughed so hard i nearly choked.

Kobe looked so mad heading to the locker room. Sure Dwight wasnt playing, but it didnt look like he was really taking the game seriously on the bench. They got problems.

The game really came down to the last few minutes. Specifically during a 2 on 1 fastbreak that MWP took upon himself. He bricked a layup that should have been a bounce pass to Kobe to either tie or cut the lead to one (can't remember at the moment).

By some fortune, they get the offensive rebound, the ball is kicked to Kobe who is trapped in the corner and passes it to MWP who, again, decides to take matters into his own hands and drives into a crowded lane and gets rejected and embarrassed by Duncan as San Antonio gains possession.

Next Lakers possession, the ball is mishandled and pops into MWP's hands on the wing. Instead of realizing how he's single-handedly killed 99% of the Lakers' momentum and passing it up, he decides to aim for the 1% of the momentum they still had and kill it with a forced fadeaway 3 from the corner which is promptly bricked and recovered by the Spurs.

There was the game right there, ladies and gents.

montestewart wrote:

hands11 wrote:Hey, whoever the GM is at LAL needs fired. Team spending 100M and they are five games under .500 What kind of pile of crap talentless roster is that ?

Hey, whoever the GM is at WAS needs fired. Team spending 65M and they are twenty-three games under .500 What kind of pile of crap talentless roster is that ?

hands11 wrote:Hey, whoever the GM is at LAL needs fired. Team spending 100M and they are five games under .500 What kind of pile of crap talentless roster is that ?

Didn't detect green font so... I'll tell you that Kupchak (their idiot GM) has been there since 2000 and has 5 NBA championships under his belt. Of course the Shaq signing and Kobe trade happened under Jerry West's watch but the rings came under him. If he goes, then I don't know under what pretenses EG gets to stay.

This stat on espn's daily dime jumped out at me:

"The 3 most efficient shots on a basketball court are the layup, the free throw, and the 3 pointer. 102 of Denver's 108 points came in the paint, from the line, or from beyond the arc."

Durant is averaging 28 ppg with a TS% of 65%. That is just ridiculous.

pancakes3 wrote:

hands11 wrote:Hey, whoever the GM is at LAL needs fired. Team spending 100M and they are five games under .500 What kind of pile of crap talentless roster is that ?

Didn't detect green font so... I'll tell you that Kupchak (their idiot GM) has been there since 2000 and has 5 NBA championships under his belt. Of course the Shaq signing and Kobe trade happened under Jerry West's watch but the rings came under him. If he goes, then I don't know under what pretenses EG gets to stay.

But 100M dollar is the most in the league by 13M plus all the associated luxury tax.

What kind of massive failure to be the 19th placed team in the league and 5 games under .500

What excuse can be used to explain that away ?

hands11 wrote:

pancakes3 wrote:

hands11 wrote:Hey, whoever the GM is at LAL needs fired. Team spending 100M and they are five games under .500 What kind of pile of crap talentless roster is that ?

Didn't detect green font so... I'll tell you that Kupchak (their idiot GM) has been there since 2000 and has 5 NBA championships under his belt. Of course the Shaq signing and Kobe trade happened under Jerry West's watch but the rings came under him. If he goes, then I don't know under what pretenses EG gets to stay.

But 100M dollar is the most in the league by 13M plus all the associated luxury tax.

What kind of massive failure to be the 19th placed team in the league and 5 games under .500

What excuse can be used to explain that away ?

They have a plan, hands11, and it's working like kraftwork. Give it time, wait until everyone's healthy. The key is Jodie Meeks. He needs to be more consistent from beyond the ark (he averages .400 from the 3 in wins, only .329 in losses). If he can become the player they hoped for and so many of us here were predicting he would be at the beginning of the year, put a lock on the Lady Byng Trophy.

Hmm, waiting on a Jodie to save the day. Are we sure that isn't Joe D because not sure a Jodie can do it though I think I will lock my back door when I leave the house.

But they have Nash, Kobe, Howard, and Paul Gastol and the leader the men AJ.
Support players of MWP and Jordan Hill

And they are 5 games under .500

Maybe its the coach.

montestewart wrote:
What excuse can be used to explain that away?
They have a plan, hands11, and it's working like kraftwork. Give it time, wait until everyone's healthy. The key is Jodie Meeks. He needs to be more consistent from beyond the ark (he averages .400 from the 3 in wins, only .329 in losses). If he can become the player they hoped for and so many of us here were predicting he would be at the beginning of the year, put a lock on the Lady Byng Trophy.

Don't worry, the green font wasn't necessary

hands11 wrote:What excuse can be used to explain that away ?

They play no defense whatsoever. Kobe and Metta are horrible at leaving guys open for uncontested shots, they don't help the helper, and they don't hustle. Their younger guys play hard and hustle (Hill, Clark, Meeks, Morris), Howard isn't himself, and Gasol isn't the same guy he was even this past summer in the Olympics.

Mike Brown had the Lakers play some inspired defense last season and they were pretty solid... they just couldn't score. I think they'd be a middle of the pack defensive team if they kept him and just let Nash be the offensive coordinator.

After they unfairly fired Brown after only a handful of games with a new roster and many injured players, the guy I thought had the Lakers playing well is Bernie Bickerstaff. Just like Brooklyn and Indiana before them appear to be sticking with the interim coach, I think the Lakers would have been better off keeping Bickerstaff as head coach.

FAH1223, they would have done just as well as they're doing now overall with Mike Brown. I agree. They were hard to watch at times offensively, but they did care about defense under Brown.

What is really incredible about the Lakers is that as World Peace goes, so go the Lakers. When he is on the court they are 20 points better per 100 possession.

http://www.82games.com/1213/12LAL9.HTM

With MWP, per 100 possessions the Lakers outscore opposition roughly 114-105. (+9) Without MWP they are outscored roughly 103-114. (-11) That is a net of 20 points difference. He is that much better than his replacement and they are that dependent on his good play.

montestewart wrote:

hands11 wrote:

pancakes3 wrote:Didn't detect green font so... I'll tell you that Kupchak (their idiot GM) has been there since 2000 and has 5 NBA championships under his belt. Of course the Shaq signing and Kobe trade happened under Jerry West's watch but the rings came under him. If he goes, then I don't know under what pretenses EG gets to stay.

But 100M dollar is the most in the league by 13M plus all the associated luxury tax.

What kind of massive failure to be the 19th placed team in the league and 5 games under .500

What excuse can be used to explain that away ?

They have a plan, hands11, and it's working like kraftwork. Give it time, wait until everyone's healthy. The key is Jodie Meeks. He needs to be more consistent from beyond the ark (he averages .400 from the 3 in wins, only .329 in losses). If he can become the player they hoped for and so many of us here were predicting he would be at the beginning of the year, put a lock on the Lady Byng Trophy.

Uh, wrong sport. That award go to the top porn actress of the year. You're thinking of the Kahn Smyth Trophy.

Lakers play 3-2 on defense....
Nash (defend passing lanes)
Kobe (cant tell him what to do)
Peace (play strong side)
Clark (energy...hustle)
Howard (on kobe side)
pau kobe and nash should never be on court together....lakers defensive problems solved.

deneem4 wrote:Lakers play 3-2 on defense....
Nash (defend passing lanes)
Kobe (cant tell him what to do)
Peace (play strong side)
Clark (energy...hustle)
Howard (on kobe side)
pau kobe and nash should never be on court together....lakers defensive problems solved.

Yeah, just put Jamison in there for Pau, and their defensive problems are history.

Chocolate City Jordanaire wrote:After they unfairly fired Brown after only a handful of games with a new roster and many injured players, the guy I thought had the Lakers playing well is Bernie Bickerstaff. Just like Brooklyn and Indiana before them appear to be sticking with the interim coach, I think the Lakers would have been better off keeping Bickerstaff as head coach.

FAH1223, they would have done just as well as they're doing now overall with Mike Brown. I agree. They were hard to watch at times offensively, but they did care about defense under Brown.

What is really incredible about the Lakers is that as World Peace goes, so go the Lakers. When he is on the court they are 20 points better per 100 possession.

http://www.82games.com/1213/12LAL9.HTM

With MWP, per 100 possessions the Lakers outscore opposition roughly 114-105. (+9) Without MWP they are outscored roughly 103-114. (-11) That is a net of 20 points difference. He is that much better than his replacement and they are that dependent on his good play.

Well good thing he isn't injured because it sounds like they would suck even worse. Maybe they would be like 15 games under .500 and it only cost them 100M dollars. As for Mike D'Antoni. Man, I am sure glad we didn't sign him. Sounds like he is forcing his system on them. They would be best to just give it to Nash and Kobe and get out of the way. Let them do their thing.

hands11 wrote:
But 100M dollar is the most in the league by 13M plus all the associated luxury tax.

What kind of massive failure to be the 19th placed team in the league and 5 games under .500

What excuse can be used to explain that away ?

You can't argue with the talent on the court, though obviously their production isn't anywhere near where it should be.

Hiring D'Antoni over Phil Jackson was probably the most epic blunder the Lakers FO committed.

Jackson would have formed a team out of that hodgepodge of characters. After that Knicks disaster it should have been obvious that D'Antoni isn't up to the task of team building.

The D'Antoni hire mystifies me. The Lakers' problem wasn't scoring, it was defense, and that was largely due to Howard tottering around like the Mummy and Kobe saving all of his energy for the offensive end. You can't blame Brown for that.

Credit to Kobe for playing as well as he is this year, but anyone ignoring his defensive failings has blinders on. I will say I'm amazingly impressed at how MWP has gotten his act together this year and last -- he really looked like his career was tailing off til that miracle 3 in the finals against Boston, and since then is back to nearly the same level of defensive wolverine he was with Indiana. Impressive stuff.

The offense wasn't wowing anyone either.

The problem is Kobe. Well, the biggest problem is MWP but the fixable problem is Kobe. MWP can't play any better but Kobe can play differently. Kobe refuses to budge from the top of the key where he can shoot or create. That's Nash's spot. Crowding 2 guys up top forces the PF to be in the corner in order to create space. If Kobe would go to the corner opposite the SF, it allows the pnr game to open up in the middle with the C as weakside cleanup. However, with 2 guys at the top of the key, it's too crowded to run pnrs and instead of a true D'Antoni offense it degenerates into Kobe playing (terrific) hero-ball and completely nullifies Nash.

Defensively, it's pretty simple. MWP is too slow to guard SF's, Kobe is a ball-watcher, and Nash is nash. Howard can erase mistakes but he can't be 2 places at once. There's probably very little talking out there as Howard is supposed to be the one barking out orders but he isn't due to him feeling it's not his team with Kobe out there. It's just a mess. It's a clash of egos and you need someone to sit them all down and clear the air. It's as simple as that, and it's also probably one of the hardest things ever.

Bulls just held Atlanta to 20 points....at the half. 21% shooting for Hotlanta.

Amazing.

5 points in the second quarter haw haw.