Will Phil start Lamar in the finals?

[kevin_405]

The PF match up is the single biggest mismatch ... Bynum and Pau cannot match up with Howard and Rashad Lewis/Hedo.. so ideally it has be Lamar with Bynum or Pau in the line up..

Starting Bynum made sense if we would have had Cavs or Celtics in the finals.. but Orlando is a total mismatch..

Will Phil break from his norm and make the adjust from the first game of the series by starting Odom?

[Sofa King]

I don't think it matters who starts. I think it matters more on who gets more playing time.

I see Odom getting more minutes over Bynum when Bynum gets into foul trouble against Howard. That's no question for me.

Same could be said about Fisher. That's fine he starts as long as he doesn't get over 20 minutes a game. I rather have Farmar and Brown log in more minutes.

[hermes]

no he won't go bynum-gasol-odom no matter how many of you are begging for it

oh you mean switching lamar and bynum, probably not
like Sofa said, bynum will foul out by half time- more minutes for lamar

[iamworthy]

Phil Jacskson is pretty good at exploiting mis-matches. He will make them pay for starting 2 small forwards in the lineup. Either Lewis or Hedo will have to guard either Gasol or Bynum. However they guard please believe that Phil is going to dump the ball in down low.

[Slava]

I'll give Bynum a good honest chance against D12. If he can establish post position and keep Dwight engaged thats more than half the battle won right there. Also I'd rather not have D12 ravage Gasol right form the start.

[Erik Eleven]

I know this won't happen but I'd like to see the following starting line-up:

Bryant - Alston
Ariza – Lee
Odom – Turkoglu
Gasol - Lewis
Bynum – Howard

Let Fisher and Luke be the glue of the second unit. By doing this, we lose the luxury of always having 2 out of 3 of Bynum, Gasol, Odom, but we gain a greater advantage, in my opinion.

This starting unit can take Orlando out of what they want to do. With Fisher starting on Alston, Orlando will have their way and the games are more likely to be played at Orlando tempo, with them dictating the game and being the aggressor.

They want Alston to dribble penetrate, where he can kick it out or dish it to Dwight who either passes it out of the double team for an open shot or goes for an easy dunk. Take them out of what they want to do. With this line-up we can assign Kobe to actually take the ball out of Alston's hands, knowing that he will actually do it. Fisher can't do that.

Lee and Turkoglu can't run their offense well enough against Ariza and Odom — turnovers, transition buckets and one, ORL foul trouble etc. Turkoglu is a good ball handler and playmaker but try 40 minutes of point forwarding versus Ariza, Odom and Luke, and I think we'll see a tired Hedo making mistakes at the end of the game.

Also, we can win the rebounding game with this super tall (yet quick) line-up.

Who brings up the ball and initiates the offense? Odom, Ariza and Kobe.

/series

[TXSun]

^ no legit PG bringing the ball up? are you serious? But yes start Odom for Bynum. young Bynum is not himself right now.

[LAKESHOW]

i would like to see bynum get singleminded and forget about coming off his man. if they drive and score, so be it. but never ever leave dwight open or without a body check. always always box him out on each defensive posession.

no one else on that team can truly kill us with big points, give it to 'em. dwight can and will.

[Desiderium]

their strategy is simple. inside outside game. not hard to stop. you have 24 fouls to use between bynum, mbenga, gasol and odom. USE THEM

[KObe Bryant]

It will be a good idea because of Lewis and Turkoglu at the forwards but I worry about Gasol vs Howard matchup. Gasol now will be also at foul trouble and Howard is 2 times bigger than him. I'm really , really, really begging and demanding for that Odom-Gasol-Bynum lineup with Odom at point guard. We need to give Bynum playing time. He'll be a big factor for the Lakers.

[SashAlex]

Even if Bynum doesn't get in foul trouble, Lamar will play 30 + minutes every game. It depends on who Orlando will put on the floor. Phil might play with Bynum+Gasol combo more when Lewis will be on the bench to use the height advantage on the offensive end for easy buckets.

The line-up that will get the most minutes will be - Farmar( maybe Brown ), Bryant, Ariza, Odom and Gasol which is the most balanced one on both ends of the floor. I'm not sure about Farmar. Brown seems much more determined and confident to me.

Our key so success is to reduce Dwight Howard's playing time by putting him in foul trouble. When he's out, there is no space for their shooters, no double-teams anymore, which is why they're so good.

[Tommy Trojan]

Nop, why would we want to change somethng that has gotten us this far?

[daddyfivestar]

Phil Jacskson is pretty good at exploiting mis-matches. He will make them pay for starting 2 small forwards in the lineup. Either Lewis or Hedo will have to guard either Gasol or Bynum. However they guard please believe that Phil is going to dump the ball in down low.

Bingo.

Make Orlando adjust. Run the inside-out offense, which will neutralize Pietrus a bit... and more imporatantly, expose their lack of depth in the bigs.

Gortat and who? Foyle? Battie? Brian Cook (oh wait, they trade him)? This team has no bigs. The Lakers need to make them pay for not going out and getting a bigman at the trade deadline, Joe Smith, Miki Moore, McDyess, somebody...

Pound it in to Gasol, Bynum, Odom, then work it out to the shooters.

[Joe Kleazy]

I agree that Pau will have his hands full if he matches up with Howard, but he wasnt completely useless in the olympics against him. At least he tried to be phyisical and thats all we can ask for aside from hoping we dont have to put pau on him.

I would not let them get the satisfaction of forcing us to match up to them. Obviously we want to make it hard for dwight while defending the three, but our goal should be every game from the jump to put pressure on dwight so that he is not a factor for the majority of the game. After dwight goes to the bench you have 3 guys that can be considered bigs: Gortat, Foyle, and Battie.THIS is why we dont want to force jumpshots like we usually do in order to allow us to dive into our strategy of pounding it into our stable of bigs.

Dwight can run with the best of them and even though we are capable of running also, why give them a fair shot. Hit them at their weakest point which is their depth in the post. Once dwight goes to the bench they have NO CHANCE of guarding Pau and to be honest if Bynum cant punish their backups even at his diminished level of play then we again have made a disturbing investment.

Losing howard also takes away thier balance because unlike last series lewis or turk cannot post any of our wings with great success especially if they are guarding them on the other end of the court. They havent had to guard any effective bigs this whole postseason outside of maybe big baby davis and that man just got himself paid with his performance in the boston series.

This is the strategy that will put them at a disadvantage the whole series and we haven't even discussed KOBE. Its been said that Jameer may play ( Dont have any links just seen it on the bottom of the screen on sportscenter ) but regardless of the fact that he burnt our azzez both times this year if we are gonna let this dude come back after five months off and jump into a playoff battle fresh off and injury then we dont deserve it.

This is our series to lose and I have confidence that we are enough playoff tested to beat the sh** out of this team and solidify our championship this year. Smart play, Hustle, and attention to detail will lock this thing up for us. I have no doubt that this team will be confident and show effort and be extremely resilient (sp?).

WE CANNOT AFFORD TO COME OUT FLAT IN THE FINALS.WE CANNOT AFFORD TO COME OUT FLAT IN THE FINALS.WE CANNOT AFFORD TO COME OUT FLAT IN THE FINALS.WE CANNOT AFFORD TO COME OUT FLAT IN THE FINALS.WE CANNOT AFFORD TO COME OUT FLAT IN THE FINALS.

There is nothing worse than watching this team fall behind by 15-20 pts because of a lack of effort. As much as I want to say it wont happen in th finals I am not sure either way. There should be no more motivation than last years azz whippin. I still feel that sting of defeat and I hope to god phil replays that WHOLE SERIES OF MISTAKES as well as boston's celebration for them to know exactly whats at stake here.

All that said it dont get no better that this fellow laker fans

UTAH, HOUSTON, DENVER------_RIP

BOSTON, CLEVELAND, LEBRON---





LETS GET THIS DONE FOR #15

[3-Pt_Shooter]

The PF match up is the single biggest mismatch ... Bynum and Pau cannot match up with Howard and Rashad Lewis/Hedo.. so ideally it has be Lamar with Bynum or Pau in the line up..

Starting Bynum made sense if we would have had Cavs or Celtics in the finals.. but Orlando is a total mismatch..

Will Phil break from his norm and make the adjust from the first game of the series by starting Odom?

Yeah, I have no problem with Odom getting the start over Bynum. That lets us match up better right out of the gate and to have a back up center (in Bynum) when and if Gasol gets in foul trouble. But we will need Gasol to step up his defense...

One other thing to keep in mind is that Gasol is a decent perimeter defender. So, Phil could actually put Gasol (and his long old arms) on Lewis, Ariza on Turkoglu, and Bynum on Howard. The only problem is that when Lewis goes to the drive our help-defense needs to be there. With our original line-up starting the game, how would they try and guard us?

GO LAKERS... Number 15 is ours for the taking!!!

[Erik Eleven]

^ no legit PG bringing the ball up? are you serious? But yes start Odom for Bynum. young Bynum is not himself right now.

Dead serious. Once the triangle offense is initiated, all offensive positions are more or less interchangeable and no traditional point guard is needed to run the offense. Kobe will happily distribute if that's what it will cost him to get one more ring. He's by far our best playmaker, and bringing the ball up can be done by either Trevor, Lamar or Kobe.

No big set-back for the Lakers really, but it'll kill Orlando's game plan altogether because Kobe can and will keep the ball out of Alston's hands if handed that task. Offensively, they'll be at the mercy of Hedo's PG skills.

We'd also have the rebounding advantage all night long, every game. Plus, how is Lewis going to guard Gasol all by himself while Hedo guards Odom and Dwight holds down Bynum? Where's the tall help going to come from on both of those players? Dwight? Good luck to him being a step late to recover on a cutting Kobe, Ariza, Odom or a dunking Bynum.

With this line-up they will have to try single covering our bigs, and we'll make them pay every time. 1) Post up; 2) Re-post; 3) Score easy bucket over smaller man in the post (four of my starters have a clear height advantage) or; 4) Pass out of double-team for open jumpshot or cutting team mate.

All three out of Kobe, Ariza and Odom can guard all three out of Alston, Lee and Turkoglu — they're interchangeable on switches without major repercussions. On the other end of the floor, you can't say the same about those three Orlando defenders guarding Kobe, Odom and Ariza.

But again, I know Phil won't do this, so it's all a moot point.

[Wade County]

I watched the magic play a lot this year, and they have benefited from the spacing provided by lewis at the 4. In the East no team has more than one quality big man so the magic have gotten away with having lewis at the 4.

The Lakers can and should punish them for this, which no team in the east could do. I dont see how Rashard lewis can guard either Bynum or Gasol. If KG were healthy the magic would have lost in 5 during round 2.

[BBallFan72]

their strategy is simple. inside outside game. not hard to stop. you have 24 fouls to use between bynum, mbenga, gasol and odom. USE THEM

Not sure the "Hack a Shaq" strategy will work. Shaq shoots in the 50%, Dwight has been shooting in the 65-75%. Fouling Dwight anywhere near the 24 times will just allow the Magic to get set on defense even if he misses any shots.

[kevin_405]

Dwight has improved his FT shooting during the playoffs.. he is shooting better than Pau/Bynum and Odom from the line..

We will have to pay for fouling him or putting bynum on him because it will put us in penalty early

their strategy is simple. inside outside game. not hard to stop. you have 24 fouls to use between bynum, mbenga, gasol and odom. USE THEM

Not sure the "Hack a Shaq" strategy will work. Shaq shoots in the 50%, Dwight has been shooting in the 65-75%. Fouling Dwight anywhere near the 24 times will just allow the Magic to get set on defense even if he misses any shots.