LA Lakers vs. Denver - Series LAL leads (1-0)

KobeFarmarEra · Post #901 » by **KobeFarmarEra** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:51 am

Get out the brooms.

Seriously, if you voted for the Thuggets in the poll you are either:

1) Complete Denver homer/Laker hater

2) Know nothing about basketball (makes sense considering JordansBulls pick)

JellosJigglin · Post #902 » by **JellosJigglin** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 7:01 am

Come on man. We've seen our team go up 3-1 and still lose a series. Let's at least go up 3-0 before we start talking about a sweep.

LakersSquad · Post #903 » by **LakersSquad** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 9:04 am

JordansBulls wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

No that is just called an upset. Any time you have homecourt you are expected to win the series. Whether it happens is a different story.

You flip flop more than John Kerry and skip bayless combined. Prior to game one you picked (which means you expect) Denver to win. Now you say you expect the lakers in the finals. You can't have it both ways. Either you believe they will lose before or you don't

LakersSquad · Post #904 » by **LakersSquad** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 9:06 am

KobeFarmarEra wrote:Get out the brooms.

Seriously, if you voted for the Thuggets in the poll you are either:

1) Complete Denver homer/Laker hater

2) Know nothing about basketball (makes sense considering JordansBulls pick)

I hate post like these. We won 1 damn game. 1 game lets not get ahead of ourselves.

JordansBulls · Post #905 » by **JordansBulls** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 12:18 pm

LakersSquad wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

You flip flop more than John Kerry and skip bayless combined. Prior to game one you picked (which means you expect) Denver to win. Now you say you expect the lakers in the finals. You can't have it both ways. Either you believe they will lose before or you don't

No, the team with homecourt advantage is supposed to win the series period. Just because I pick the other team to win the series doesn't mean they are supposed to win or that they are the favorite, it means I am calling an upset.

Post #906 » by **MHZ** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 4:33 pm

With Kleiza set to start over Anthony Carter, that should help at least somewhat with the horrible mismatches.

Post #907 » by **semi-sentient** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:32 pm

^^^ That'll be interesting to see. Kleiza tends to have a lot of success against the Lakers, so I'm curious to see how they respond. I guess Kobe will be guarding him? That could be a problem, since it appears the refs are not going to let either team play a lick of defense.

Deuce33 · Post #908 » by **Deuce33** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:05 pm

MHizzle wrote:With Kleiza set to start over Anthony Carter, that should help at least somewhat with the horrible mismatches.

It's interesting to some degree, but how much of a factor will Kleiza be as a starter along with Carmelo and A.I.? The shots that were available to him off the bench won't be available to him as a starter, and it'll just be a completely different roll for him altogether. I believe that he'll help somewhat defensively but not offensively, and denvers bench will suffer for this. The real important match-up is still kenyon and Kobe, with kenyon still being on Kobe, it'll still open up the interior all day to the Lakers. I think its a move they had to make, I just seriously don't think it'll be a factor as the game plays out though. The end result will still be the same no matter what as long as kenyon is guarding Kobe, and the Lakers continue to move the ball around.

Sedale Threatt · Post #909 » by **Sedale Threatt** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:11 pm

But is also pretty much forces the Lakers to guard Iverson with Fisher, which is a horrible matchup for us. Fish can't handle either Melo or Kleiza, so who else would he check?

And also, who will Kobe guard -- either Melo, who could easily get him in foul trouble, or Kleiza, who has a distinct size advantage. Also, with the way Kobe likes to roam, I could easily see him losing track of Kleiza around the perimeter.

I'm not saying this will work, but I see how it can. Denver's not going to suddenly figure out how to play defense, so why not throw all their eggs into one basket and go for broke?

tracey_nice · Post #910 » by **tracey_nice** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:14 pm

I say put Kobe on AI and fish on Kleiza

eatyourchildren · Post #911 » by **eatyourchildren** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:30 pm

tracey_nice wrote:I say put Kobe on AI and fish on Kleiza

Noo....

Sedale Threatt · Post #912 » by **Sedale Threatt** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:32 pm

Fisher's strong, but not that strong. You're talking 6-1, 205 against 6-8, 250. And Kleiza isn't a creampuff like Radmanovic. He's not going to throw up a bunch of weak-ass jump hooks when presented with a mismatch. He'll take Fish down into the paint and bury him.

tracey_nice · Post #913 » by **tracey_nice** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:34 pm

Kleiza can't post Stephen Hawkings.

dingojazz · Post #914 » by **dingojazz** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:38 pm

GO NUGS!

The Jazz would love to whoop you in the second round, but I know you won't get there so at least do us a favor and wear the Lakers down a bit take this thing to at least 6 games.

We'll be waiting, resting, after we finish up the sweep of the Rockets...what a lucky break to get them in the first round.

tracey_nice · Post #915 » by **tracey_nice** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:40 pm

^^And people call Lakers fans cocky?

dingojazz · Post #916 » by **dingojazz** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:50 pm

tracey_nice wrote:^^And people call Lakers fans cocky?

Yeah I won't be so cocky against the Lakers. That series will be a battle that could go 7 games. The Rockets just don't have a chance, I think anyone in the west except the Nuggetts could take them in a 7 game series. The Jazz just caught a break to get them in round 1 while they are so banged up.

As for this Lakers Nuggetts series - bet the over in every single game! I don't think Vegas can make that number high enough.

Deuce33 · Post #917 » by **Deuce33** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:52 pm

Sedale Threatt wrote:But is also pretty much forces the Lakers to guard Iverson with Fisher, which is a horrible matchup for us. Fish can't handle either Melo or Kleiza, so who else would he check?

And also, who will Kobe guard -- either Melo, who could easily get him in foul trouble, or Kleiza, who has a distinct size advantage. Also, with the way Kobe likes to roam, I could easily see him losing track of Kleiza around the perimeter.

I'm not saying this will work, but I see how it can. Denver's not going to suddenly figure out how to play defense, so why not throw all their eggs into one basket and go for broke?

For the majority of the game, Fish did guard Iverson as Kobe got into some foul trouble early. He didn't do such a bad job on him either, it's just keeping the guy out the lane is our problem, and we all know that's more of a team effort than anything. You want to keep Iverson shooting jumpshots rather than penetrating and distributing, and we did a good job of that in the 2nd half.

Kobe also guarded kleiza in the 3rd, when Kleiza got substituted in for carter early,Kobe did a good job on him as well, he stayed alot more home on him as he had already heated up in the 2nd. I heard nothing more from kleiza that game. It's just all about Kobe respecting him. Kleiza has a clear advantage against Kobe in size, but he won't use it as he has no post game. It's just all about staying home on him, especially if he's in there as a starter, as a starter he's mostly there to shoot perimeter shots and space the floor, as a bench player he has the freedom to both shoot and penetrate frequently. He's just overall more of a threat off the bench.

Sedale Threatt · Post #918 » by **Sedale Threatt** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 7:34 pm

Good points. I suppose I wasn't paying very close attention.

eatyourchildren · Post #919 » by **eatyourchildren** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 7:46 pm

The 2nd game should definitely serve to be a more 'traditionally' defended game, although I guess we'll see KMart on Kobe still. I still don't know who's going to keep Lamar off the boards though.

I have reserved optimism going into game2, but it's going to be a fight.

tracey_nice · Post #920 » by **tracey_nice** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 9:34 pm

I've always thought that Kobe has done a great job of guarding Iverson in the past, and I don't think game 1 would have been any different. Kobe picked up 2 early cheap fouls, the offensive one? and the "block" they called; it was really just good defense. So, thats why I think we should have Kobe guard Iverson, but whatever gets the W is good with me.

LA Lakers vs. Denver - Series LAL leads (1-0)

Who will win this 1st round series?