Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gilsch 
It's gonna be tough. Had the Lakers managed to get home court throught the playoffs, I'd bet on them winning the championship out of the West.
The Lakers beat Cleveland twice this year, but should they meet in the Finals it is going to be tough for the Lakers or whoever ends up coming out of the West to win at Cleveland.
Trumptman is right. The Lakers had their injuries as well. I think the Lakers are even better now because of the play of Brown though. Finally a 1 who can actually defend unlike that turnstyle POS Farmar.
I don't know why Bynum wouldn't "count" as an injury though.
The Rockets will be tough in a series. No doubt. Battier and Artest will combine on Kobe so we'll see how much of a toll that takes on him. I think Houston can have offensive problems. Hope I don't jinx it, but Yao has got to be the weakest big man ever. Some games they don't even go to him in the 4th quarter.
How a man that size does not dominate games is amazing.
Tough series. I'll have to go with the Lakers 4-2 if they play to their capabilities. I may have a ticket for game 2 on Wednesday as well!
I think Yao comes across weak because he appears very limited energy-wise. I'm not questioning his conditioning, it just seems he has a limit to the number of minutes he can be effective in a game and beyond that nothing works so they just take him out. I have no proof of it other than we're all built out of the same stuff and maybe at a certain point it stops scaling.
The same thing can sort of be said for Bryant, and his energy level. I think Zen Phil bugging him all these years and just the wisdom of playing has helped him to understand no matter how big "da man" you are, you pick your spots, times and places to exert that energy since we all have limits. So I don't think the ganging up thing will bother him so much since he is more aware of how to "schedule" that energy so to speak.
If anything I would worry about Artest, he clearly has talent and has redeemed his attitude to some degree, plays well but still doesn't seem to play smart. There are some nights he is shooting 20% and will still just keep chucking away. Kobe's learned there are nights you have to put the team on your back, nights you have to stop someone and nights you have to distribute. I don't think Artest understands that as well.
I still think Lakers in five just because they don't seem to crush people yet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Guybrush Threepwood
Come on, Jordan Farmar? Walton? Their injuries had no fuckin' barring on the season. Ariza and Fisher (shit, even Shannon Brown) filled those spots quite fine. I was talking about key players. If I wanted to include a Brent Barry infected hangnail or a Carl Landry wounded hamstring I could have, but what's the point?
Look, there's a reason why they have playoffs. That's why they don't hand out championship trophies to first place teams in the regular season. The Cavs and Lakers are great teams, that's a given. But for you to automatically proclaim a championship based on your regular season and your cupcake series with Utah, that's way too preemptive. There's still a month and a half left to go. There's too much basketball left, bud. You're not going to roll that easily through the playoffs. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if they won the whole damn thing. But it ain't a given...
Why should I be thankful about McGrady? I never said I was Rockets fan. I could really care less who wins...
They do have a bearing. You add minutes to a starter because of a weak reserve, then suddenly you have an injury down the line at a critical time. All this stuff has to be managed. Ariza doesn't seem to contribute any huge numbers but has a ton of intangibles. He had a broken foot last year and came back for the playoffs but wasn't in the same rhythm yet. Andrew is in that same place right now. Think about this fact, Lakers have TWO very strong seven footers to stick in there against Yao. It isn't some parlor trick arrangement either, that is the typical starting line up. Yao is going to have to exert himself and his limited energy much more than normal. Most teams do not have two seven footers and then a very flexible and powerful 6'10" Lamar Odom to dump in on top of that. Lakers can play huge and small. Houston's not going to have an answer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gilsch
Why all the indignation? Taking it a little too personally there. You must be a Kings fan or something. Aren't you?
It's a good thing you "could really care less who wins..." after reading that post.
Couple things. Fisher is a starter so he wasn't filling anyone's spot. Brown wasn't playing much
at all back then. He started getting minutes maybe in the last 10-12 games of the season.
Farmar was the leader of a bench that was playing great basketball. When he went down the bench's performance went wayyyy down and it still hasn't improved all that much. Much like Farmar's game.
And your "Bynum doesn't count" comment is
utterly ridiculous. Bynum was playing great. The last 12 games prior to his injury he was averaging 21 points and 9 rebounds per game.
Exactly. He makes it sound like Bynum wasn't even starting or something.
