GAME 3 LAKERS 86 @ JAZZ 88 4/23/09 TNT/KCAL

[Slava]

Actually our game would have been run n gun. Utah slowed it down to a half court game and the constant fouls didn't help either.

[MAMBAEMD]

I thought we were defintely slowing it down. In the secoond half, Lamar was slowly walking the ball into the front court, barely getting it into the front court on time. We were without a doubt slowing it down.
We don't want to get into a run & gun in Utah.

[shobe_81]

I'm sorry but it was that DUMBASS freaking Sasha who came in and let Korver get into a 3'pt shooting groove, the idiot was ball watching the whole time while his man roams to the other side for an open 3.

I cannot stand this guy anymore, he doesn't make his 3's, he fouls 25+ feet from the basket which puts the team in early foul trouble, and he ball watches on the defense!


Ahhhh FUUUUKKKKKKKKKKK

[shobe_81]

The calls on Bynum were bull. How the F*** do you pick up 6 fouls in 7 minutes?

The refs were like "Yo, who does this kid think he is? Lebron James?"

[shobe_81]

We don't sustain focus long enough.........up 13 and we relax. The Lakers must be able to focus on putting teams away period.

We've been preaching this for practically the WHOLE season, this is the same reason we lost game 4 of the Finals, same reason we lost Home-Court, and same reason it might just come to bight them back later on.

I think the problem lies within our Leadership players, Kobe/Fish/Pau/Odom, they play too "cool" going through the motions. I haven't seen any of them get in the face of our players to bring some motivation, especially Kobe! I wish Kobe would get in their face and tell them, "We need to hold our act together and stomp on these teams"

[keg0852]

We should've put Ariza or Kobe on Deron on last possession. Fisher can't guard Deron and Lakers knew the ball was gonna go to Deron. Why the hell do they put Fisher on Deron in first place ? Deron penetrates so easily on Fisher. Why don't they put Ariza on Deron and let Fisher guard Brewer or Korver ?

[semi-sentient]

Pretty frustrating game.

I thought this game was lost late in the 3rd quarter when we brought Walton and Vujacic in. It seems like whenever those guys are in the game leads tend to evaporate and our opponents start building momentum, which can be difficult to recover from particularly if you are playing in Utah. Vujacic continues to prove just how worthless he is. While Korver was knocking down his wide open shots this clown missed his with regularity. The team needs to fine him for sucking or something. I thought he was a good shooter? 1-10 in the series? I'm getting quite tired of it and I sincerely hope this idiot is traded along with Morrison next season. Shannon can take his minutes and salary.

Kobe, I thought, was taking some rather difficult shots and forcing the issue a bit. Had he made even 40% of his shots this game probably would have been in the bag for us. He needs to get his head out of his ass. 5-24? You have to be kidding me. That is downright atrocious.

Props to Odom and Pau for showing up, even though Pau's defense was kinda poopie.

Bynum with only 7 minutes? Come on kid. We need you to lock down the paint. Get your head in the game and stop daydreaming out there. Defense please.

[Sedale Threatt]

I thought this game was lost late in the 3rd quarter when we brought Walton and Vujacic in. It seems like whenever those guys are in the game leads tend to evaporate and our opponents start building momentum, which can be difficult to recover from particularly if you are playing in Utah.

I wouldn't say it was definitively lost -- we still had opportunities to win down the stretch, and would (should?) have had we played halfway decent. But that's certainly when the game started to swing back in their favor.

We missed a handful of great opportunities to push our lead up to 15 or 16 -- off the top of my head, wasting a possession by posting up Trevor Ariza (WTF was that?), squandering a 3 or 4 on 2 break, Pau missed some throws, Millsap's flop on Bynum.

Then we start integrating the bench -- or rather, any combination of Walton, Vujacic and Farmar -- and, as you noted, our momentum wanes like clockwork. It's just maddening that these guys can't come in and handle their business.

Walton, he's just a bad player, so I never expect much from him. But Sasha...ugh. If he's not hitting his shot, he's pretty much worthless. And right now he's not, so do the math. Losing track of Korver for that 3 near the end of the third was just inexcusable.

Sooooo much blame to go around for a 2-point road loss in one of the toughest arenas in the NBA, but those two certainly deserve a share.

[TylersLakers]

Pretty frustrating game.

I thought this game was lost late in the 3rd quarter when we brought Walton and Vujacic in. It seems like whenever those guys are in the game leads tend to evaporate and our opponents start building momentum, which can be difficult to recover from particularly if you are playing in Utah. Vujacic continues to prove just how worthless he is. While Korver was knocking down his wide open shots this clown missed his with regularity. The team needs to fine him for sucking or something. I thought he was a good shooter? 1-10 in the series? I'm getting quite tired of it and I sincerely hope this idiot is traded along with Morrison next season. Shannon can take his minutes and salary.

Kobe, I thought, was taking some rather difficult shots and forcing the issue a bit. Had he made even 40% of his shots this game probably would have been in the bag for us. He needs to get his head out of his ass. 5-24? You have to be kidding me. That is downright atrocious.

Props to Odom and Pau for showing up, even though Pau's defense was kinda poopie.

Bynum with only 7 minutes? Come on kid. We need you to lock down the paint. Get your head in the game and stop daydreaming out there. Defense please.

I totally agree with you regarding Walton. I wish they'd go with a Brown-Vujacic-Kobe-Odom-Gasol/Bynum look more often. Sasha gets confidence when he's playing 20-25 minutes with Kobe. He should totally replace Luke's minutes.

But I disagree on your point about Sasha. Sure, he was brutal in stretches, but he kept us in the game in the first half and not by shooting. He got some tough rebounds in a stretch where no was boarding for us. I give him props for sticking his nose in there. His shot has just been off, pretty much all season. Hopefully he can get it back because we need it more than ever.

I thought Pau played terrible on the defensive end. He showed zero toughness in this game. Losing the ball in the lane, getting owned by Boozer in the rebounding department and letting Boozer eat him up in the final moments (although there was definitely a hook). Now, I know that's not Pau's game and I think most Laker fans have to understand that, but he's done a pretty good job this season of not letting things like this happen. Hopefully he bounces back and shows Boozer what he's made of.

And I just read an article that says Odom might come back to the starting lineup.. that would be a horrible idea. We need him coming off the bench.

[Slava]

Actually I wouldn't be opposed to starting Odom and reward him for his game. Andrew fouling out really ruined our game plan last night with Pau sticking to Boozer longer than anyone would want him to. LO on Boozer would make it a tougher match up and since Bynum looks more interested in forcing his shots, he can do that very happily with the bench when there's no other legit option.

Even before he fouled out he was looking for his shots and seems disinterested in setting screens and stuff which is a terrible attitude to go with. He needs to learn to pass the ball out of the post if he's getting doubled in there. This was the most frustrating point last night other than Kobe's shot selection.

[SashAlex]

I wish the Lakers lose these series...No way they are better than the Jazz.

Sash, I've always liked you and respected you as a poster, but after losses, what the heck is up with you man? I may be disappointed in how my team plays but I'll never say "I hope we lose this series," because I want them to win a Championship. If you're a true fan, you're not going to say that. I realized expect perfection, but it's not going to happen. Utah beat us tonight, plain and simple... and you're saying that kind of crap?

I'm not starting drama or anything, because Sash, you've been a poster I liked ever since you joined the boards. I just think some fans need to just chill out after games. There's no need for bandwagon fans here.

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As far as the game.. Pau missed 6 free throws. We lost by 2. Kobe couldn't hit the side of a barn. We lost by 2. Andrew was screwed from getting on the court. We lost by 2. Carlos Boozer had the game of his life. We lost by 2.

Now, I expected them to win this game. The crowd was fired up and after Kobe missed his first two or three shots, I knew his shot wasn't going to be there. He didn't force it 30 times, which was good. He actively looked to pass and that's good.. but we need him making shots for us to win this series and win what we're gunning for.

A bad shooting night is something that happens.. but god.. all the missed free throws. Pau shoots free throws in stretches. He'll shoot close to 90% for a couple games, then drop to about 50%, and this is one of those stretches. He has to step up and make those shots.

I know ! I know ! My bad ! I'd never wish that to my Lakers, it's just anger. I got too far.