Game 77: Battle of Los Angeles Part 4

[mkwest]

Gordon with a big 3 from the corner. Down 2 with 5.8 left.

[clipperfan4life]

gordon should've taken the shot instead of zach!!! >:[

[PlinkingPanda]

Damn what a big shot.

[mkwest]

Fisher 1 of 2 at the line. 5.2 left in the game. Clipper ball.

[thanumba2clippersfan]

88-85, 5.2 seconds to go. All we need is a good shot. I'm glad that this game finally got interesting and that we came back.

[PlinkingPanda]

What kind of play was that..

[Sofia]

We had another time out....

[clipperfan4life]

ugh we lose! good game to watch though

[mkwest]

Baron bricks at the buzzer. He was not the one that needed to take the shot. The Lakers escape by the skin of their teeth. For as much as the game sucked earlier on, it was pretty good down the wire despite that other LA team winning.

[thanumba2clippersfan]

Ariza had good D on Baron, Lakers escaped with a win and I'm glad that we made it interesting. I'm still hoping for a few more wins and I think we can. Even though we lost I was happy with our effort in the fourth.

[playaloc916]

What a game. It looked like Gordon got mugged by Odom on the last play as he was trying to get open. Could've called a foul there, but since it was a Laker's home game, they probably just let it go. Would've like to see more ball movement, instead of Davis just trying to shake off his defender, which resulted in a heavily contested, low percentage shot. Oh well, it was a fun game to watch, well in the 4th quarter at least.

The one play that stuck out in my mind, was when Taylor went all playground on Luke. Too bad he missed the shot.

[mj_shoefanatic]

4th qtr was fun no doubt

[mkwest]

"It was like we didn't play basketball at the end," said an incredulous Gordon. "It was like WWF or something. Wrestling.

"That whole team, they play physical. I don't know what to say about it. I just couldn't believe what was happening -- before the play even started, grabbing. It was crazy."

Said Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy: "It's not easy when you've got Kobe, hand-to-hand combat. It's just part of the process."

Lisa Dillman, LA Times

What Bryant said, according to Gordon was, "I'm going to hold you. No way you're getting the ball."

Bryant's response

This was Pure Veteran, with Bryant aware NBA officials are loath to call touch fouls off the ball at the end of games.

Bryant, told what Gordon said, smiled.

"There's no way," said Bryant. "There was no way I was going to let him get the ball."

And the art of holding just enough to tie Gordon up without getting called for a foul?

"He's just not getting the ball, it's as simple as that," said Bryant. "If I'm going to be a lock-down corner, I'm going to be a lock-down corner."

Mark Heisler, LA Times

[mkwest]

What a game. It looked like Gordon got mugged by Odom on the last play as he was trying to get open. Could've called a foul there, but since it was a Laker's home game, they probably just let it go. Would've like to see more ball movement, instead of Davis just trying to shake off his defender, which resulted in a heavily contested, low percentage shot. Oh well, it was a fun game to watch, well in the 4th quarter at least.

The refs could have called the foul and given us the free-throws plus the ball out of bounds, but that definitely wasn't going to happen to the Lakers.

[illastrate]

What Bryant said, according to Gordon was, "I'm going to hold you. No way you're getting the ball."

Now that's respect. Kobe recognizes how good EJ is. He must've been excited to get that kind of respect from his idol. And in a couple years, I hope EJ will get the type of calls(or non-calls) that Kobe, LeBron, D-Wade gets.