ROUND 1: GAME 7 - LA v DEN - TNT - 5/12/12 - 7:30

[Anklebreaker702]

I can't believe it, but I'm agreeing Charles and Shaq right no on Bynum.

They were spot on.

[myersia]

If Kobe played this way the entire season we might have a number one seed. He needs to continue to pick his shots and control the offense in order for us to win it all. OKC is going to try and speed the tempo and force our bigs to get fatigued/be in foul trouble. We need to keep kobe/artest on westbrook and understand that Durant will get his. But our keys to winning against OKC is controlling the paint and getting Pau to get Serge in foul trouble. We will lose this series if we allow Serge to go off. We are really going to need our bench in this series. Blake/Barnes/Hill we need you to step up! Let's go Lakers!!!!

[The Skyhook]

Pau Gasol showed me glimpses of the old 2008 - 2010 Gasol. I said this about a week ago. If Pau Gasol could step up and play similar to how he played during 2008 - 2010 then that gives the Lakers their best shot to get far in these playoffs. With Kobe, Gasol, and Bynum playing close to their best at the same time this team is nearly impossible to beat. Even with just 2/3 of them playing at their best this team is tough to beat.

[DrewBynum77]

If Kobe played this way the entire season we might have a number one seed. He needs to continue to pick his shots and control the offense in order for us to win it all. OKC is going to try and speed the tempo and force our bigs to get fatigued/be in foul trouble. We need to keep kobe/artest on westbrook and understand that Durant will get his. But our keys to winning against OKC is controlling the paint and getting Pau to get Serge in foul trouble. We will lose this series if we allow Serge to go off. We are really going to need our bench in this series. Blake/Barnes/Hill we need you to step up! Let's go Lakers!!!!

Karl was the one that let him play like that and he has been playing like that the whole series, except that yesterday blake, artest and even sessions (early in the game) were not passing off wide open 3s and then kicking it back to bryant with 5s left on the shotlock.

Not only that but they were knocking down open 3s at a good rate.

So yeh, in the NBA if your defensive scheme relies on double-teaming superstars constantly and the opposing superstar finds the open man and they do their **** job then you lose.

But if your shooters can't make the opposing team pay for their aggressive D then it's over.

Since we don't have spot up shooters and we play with 2 centers we'll always have these problems... Nothing changed, except Odom used to closeout the games due to his ability to knock down the 3,

Yesterday Brown finally told our players to stop trying to force-feed bynum in the HC. It made no sense because they would double 100% of the time and Bynum would either commit a turnover or pass the ball to one of our shooters that were scared to shoot.

So that helped us a lot because bynum still can't handle the double or even the triple team Nuggets were using on him

P.s. We won ALL the games where Blake was hitting wide open 3s consistently. It's not really that hard, if you make them pay you win, if you don't you lose.

OKC wont double team Kobe and will only double-team bynum when Porkins is on the bench so we should post up Bynum and Gasol 90% of the time until they start doubling them.

Bynum will need to a scorer against OKC... He needs average 22+ points on 55%+ FG for us to have a chance to beat them.

[DrewBynum77]

btw, what allowed kobe and artest to play pretty much 'chestonchest' D on nuggets perimeter players was the Help of Bynum and Gasol.

I just watched the game knowing the result (had a wedding party to go yesterday) and you could see they showing right on time off screens and rotating very well to scare nuggets off the penetration. Bynum had 3 blocks by the middle of the 2nd quarter if I counted right, then nuggets little guys didn't want to make him a hero like game 1.

Bynum was marvelous yesterday with his help D, too bad he looked dead tired (him and kobe), but that's on them for not finishing nuggets in the first opportunity ( game #5 at home).

Now we gonna face a hungry/young/talented team and they are all rested. And we'll have a b2b! LOL.

Kinda sad. But go lakers!

[Gek]

Poor Coach Karl. He was crying.

Legendary Hall of Fame Coach guaranteed IMO.

An hate to $#!% on Mike Brown but I wish George Karl was the Lakers coach.
You can bet he wouldn't use that ridiculous backcourt lineup (IMO) of Sessions and Blake

I was thinking that. After games 1 and 2, sure Bynum and Pau went AWOL, but some of that was due to Karl's rotation/line-up changes. He out coached us this series.

I think the thing that impresses me the most is the game we got from Kobe. But also the fact we won a huge playoff game without Kobe going into heat seeking missile mode and gunning at will. He was dead set on controlling the tempo and knew that had to be done by post ups, even by him.

I hope he uses this game as an, oh look at that ****, maybe I should try it more often! type of game. Although Blake is not hitting 3s that consistently every night, which hurts. Hopefully we can go the rest of the playoffs with either Sessions, Blake or Barnes being on every night from deep. I'm assuming MWP can go 5/11 (or w/e he was from deep) any night.

btw, what allowed kobe and artest to play pretty much 'chestonchest' D on nuggets perimeter players was the Help of Bynum and Gasol.

It was actually Artest's ability to hedge players even when he gets beat (which didn't happen much at all) and his pesky hands on the strong side that allowed Bynum and Gasol to be effective on showing on screens and controlling the hoop. I have been nailing Bynum for his inability to stop Lawson in the paint, and while some of that is still true, seeing more competent team defense out there makes a HUGE difference. Drew didn't have to do it all by himself and I think he's more comfortable with that or he'd try more often.

[semi-sentient]

Didn't get a chance to post during the game, but I just wanted to give props to our FC for stepping up to the challenge and getting us a gutsy win. Pau, Bynum, and Artest all played their part, and Blake delivered as well. Hell of a game. I thought we were going to throw it away late in the 3rd, but we kept our composure and closed the deal in the 4th quarter.

Hopefully this performance changes the teams mentality going into the OKC series, because we can't afford for anyone to take games off.

[Sedale Threatt]

Nope. We need max effort, plus a little luck, to beat these guys.

[Mamba Venom]

I hope we come together the way the Celtics did in 2008 after the 1st round 7 games Hawks series.