RealGM

Posted: **Fri Apr 25, 2008 10:48 pm**

Key Matchup:

vs.

Other than Diawara, Kmart's probably our best hope at defending Kobe. He needs to do a better job in this game and make contesting Kobe's jumpshot a higher priority.

Series:

Game 2: Wednesday April 23rd
122-107 Lakers victory
Kobe poured in 49 points on just 27 shots, along with 12 assists.
Luke Walton scored a career playoff high 18 points
Nene made a return but recorded just 2 points and 1 rebound in 7 minutes against DJ Mbenga
Jr Smith scored 20 off the bench, but there were just 6 other bench points combined.
Kleiza made his first playoff start and chipped in 10/8

Game 1: Sunday April 20th
128-114 Lakers victory
Iverson & Anthony combined to shoot 44% from the field and go 15/23 from the free throw line.
Jr Smith & Kleiza poured in 38 off the bench
Camby pulled down just 7 rebounds and was 2/9 from the field with 4 turnovers.
Gasol was 2 assists away from a triple double and scored a career playoff high 36 points.
Kobe was held to 9/26 from the field, but got to the line 14 times.

Denver : 50-32 : Trail series 0-2
Rank 11th in offense and 9th in defense
Iverson continues to play through a fracture in his right ring finger.

Keys to winning:
Sitting Anthony Carter on the bench (permanently)
Being more physical on the inside, deflecting passes, making better interior rotations, forcing passes back outside.
Getting continued bench production out of Smith/Kleiza
Playing consistently well in all 4 quarters

LA Lakers: 57-25 : Lead series 2-0
Rank 3rd in offense and 6th in defense.
Bynum's out while recovering from a knee injury.
Ariza is out and recovering from a broken foot.
Kobe Bryant is playing with a torn ligament in his pinky finger.
Derek Fisher is playing with a partially torn tendon in his foot but hasn't seemed affected.

Photos:

Game Chat:
http://nuggets.proboards1.com/index.cgi?action=chat
please no trolling.

Game Notes:
http://www.nba.com/nuggets/news/notes.pdf
http://www.nba.com/lakers/news/notes.pdf

Series Schedule:
Game 3: @ Denver - Saturday April 26th, 3:30pm mountain - TNT
Game 4: @ Denver - Monday April 28th, 8:30pm mountain - TNT
Game 5: @ Lakers* - Wednesday April 30th - tbd
Game 6: @ Denver* - Friday May 2nd - tbd
Game 7: @ Lakers* - Sunday May 4th - tbd

Posted: **Fri Apr 25, 2008 10:51 pm**

Hopefully this starts a 3-0 at home

Posted: **Fri Apr 25, 2008 10:58 pm**

statistically we're a significantly better home team that road team.
particularly defensively. it's been horrendous on the road all season (19th in the league), and great at home. don't know why....but that's the case.

33-8 at home is no joke either. better than the lakers record at staples. albeit they gave us one of those 8 losses.

Posted: **Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:03 pm**

Yeah hopefully the crowd is nice and loud on defense to hopefully throw them off their game a little bit.

Posted: **Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:31 pm**

Everybody knows if we lose this game, the season is over.
But, Nuggets did step up in "must win" games this season so hopefully they will step up in this one too.

Posted: **Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:37 pm**

GL to both teams!!!

Posted: **Sat Apr 26, 2008 12:39 am**

Kevlo_911 wrote:Yeah hopefully the crowd is nice and loud on defense to hopefully throw them off their game a little bit.

You better bele 'dat! :censored:

MAKE SOME NOISE

I will be there. I'm gonna say "D" one million times. Let's see what happens.

Posted: **Sat Apr 26, 2008 5:13 am**

We need to get this game. Step yo game up Denver! GO NUGGETS!

Posted: **Sat Apr 26, 2008 5:43 am**

Shady08 wrote:We need to get this game. Step yo game up Denver! GO NUGGETS!

Posted: **Sat Apr 26, 2008 6:11 am**

It would help if the team had more then just 12 asst as well (Iverson had 6 of them). Like the game plan says, they need more ball movement from everyone. Quit rushing things and move the ball around to try to get the best shot possible. When I think about how much more dangerous this team could be if they just had proper ball movement ( and at least decent defense) I :cry:

.

One thing Phil Jackson has the Lakers doing is they are being patient and moving the ball, they seem to have gained some great chemistry, they seem to always know where eachother is at on the floor. Maybe thats because he has his players disciplined and they are almost always in their proper positions...unlike someone like Camby, who is a center, yet manages to be at the top of the key during the start of offensive sets or dribbling the ball up the court like he's the PG of the team. :rofl:

Posted: **Sat Apr 26, 2008 8:19 am**

my prediction for the next two games are wins by the nuggets. i believe we'll win all of our home games because we seem to play much better at home.

go nuggets!

Posted: **Sat Apr 26, 2008 9:20 am**

I hope karl made the Nuggets watch the games where the teams that were down 2-0 came back to win at their home. And i know it's a lost cause but this would have been the perfect opportunity to start JR. We need to get off to a good early start and run and gun JR would have helped make that happen. Kleiza is still injured with that sore bruised elbow and he played poorly on Wednesday where as JR played great offensively that is. If we are leading by 15 or more after the first quarter i say we win. And our defense has to do a better job on Kobe double team him and then rotate back to the open man. Let's go NUGS!

Posted: **Sat Apr 26, 2008 11:01 am**

fire up nuggets!!!

Posted: **Sat Apr 26, 2008 2:27 pm**

As a Laker fan these games never get old. Kobe makes us appreciate his greatness, even if fans and media alike around the league may just stamp this game as

RealGM

Lakers @ Denver : Game 3

Lakers @ Denver : Game 3