Post Up: All Together Now

I thought Phil Jackson was never at fault.

happy day for a celtics fan yesterday. everyone pretty much had it going. even shaq who fouled out after 12 minutes managed to squeeze in six boards and two blocks. love massive the rebounding advantage for the celtics, since that was their achilles heel last year. as for the lakers, it’s tough to give kobe the bulk of the blame. the guy had 41 points, and he took good, efficient shots. the problem is that he came out firing and looking to establish himself early rather than getting his teammates involved. he’s not wrong for doing that, but it seems like when he does that, the rest of the teams stops thinking about what they need to do and starts watching kobe go to work. give credit to the celtics bigs, though, for keeping pau and bynum from becoming major factors. that garnett-gasol matchup was looking like ’08.

Ugh. Every situation is different and needs to be analyzed separatly, there’s no magic formula that can be applied across the board. (and this has nothing to do with Bron, why is he even being mentioned?) Kobe had an excellent shooting night yesterday but Boston can’t be beat by one guy. Taking 11 shots in a row is just too much, every one that has ever played organized basketball know that you need to let a big get his touches if you want him to defend, rebound and play aggressively for you. Bigs aren’t like guards, they can’t get touches unless they’re fed. It’s Kobe’s responsibility as the leader of the Lakers to feed his bigs.

so… noone knows the Heats “big three” individual records against Melo? i’ll help u out, there all below 500

Thanks for that, LaLa.

T, 11 shots in a row is only too much if you’re not making them all! Seriously though, you’re correct, run an offensive play, and get a good shot instead of taking high degree of difficulty contested jumpers. All that said, I still maintain that the Lakers lost because the Celtics are a better team.

Diesel, all I’m saying is that when the playoffs roll around, if the bigs aren’t clicking and Kobe goes into eff it mode and scores 50 a game… LA will still lose. You ain’t winning without your bigs so it would it be in LA’s best interest to get them going by any means. If that means sacrificing a shot here and there, that’s the right play!

I get EBoy’s point that the leader assumes blame for losses. But the Lakers didn’t lose solely because Kobe took 29 shots. Being outrebounded by 13 and out-assisted by 24 were bigger factors in the outcome. Plus, the bigs running uphill on defensive transition plays didn’t help either.

I think the Lakers lost because they were out of rhythm and were playin horrendous defense. I mean, Boston shot 60%, outrebounded LA by 13. Kobe shooting so much sure doesn’t help get anyone in rhythm but they just weren’t up to snuff anywhere last night. Doesn’t really matter, they will be fine in the playoffs.

Diesel, you took the high road? For real? I took the high road. Let’s not revise silly commenting history. You said there’s desperate people that wished they were SLAM writers and you referenced them as morons. You were told you were incorrect in your assumptions. You threw my name out and said you didn’t mean me. Whatever, Diesel. It’s all good. I’m done with it too.

i don’t remember who i was talking about this with, but whoever it was, the is why LeBron should be Miami’s closer and not Wade, right there in that last play. Wade is probably just as clutch a scorer as LeBron, but when it gets down to that point that’s what he is going to do, LeBron on the other hand is just as likely to find a wide open teammate. Which is why IMO LeBron should, already is, and will be Miami’s closer. Even if it takes Wade a while to come to grips with it

nbk, there’s the flip side though….if he takes the shot and misses it, he’s not clutch, he’s a piece of sh*t, he should have passed it to a wide open Eddie House. You’ve got to take what’s there. He made a great basketball play. Like he did in the famous instance when he gave up the ball to a wide open Donyell Marshall (who missed) in a lat-game situation. He’s a better facilitator at an end of game moment. He will pass the ball to an open teammate. Dwyane is looking to score. He’s in that Michael/Kobe mode in that moment. Who’s the better option. Depends on how you like your basketball, I guess.

@AllBall: actually, Eboy brought up LeBron.

Nice win by Boston. Not sure LA should panic, but they do have a tougher schedule in the 2nd half. We’ll see…

To change it up for a second….prayers to Stuart Scott and his family. Just read he’s having to fight cancer again for a second time. He may be annoying sometimes, but the dude is a broadcast staple and a part of our NBA watching world.

LONG… LIVE… THE KING!

I saw that article, nbk. Kobe lovers must have either committed on-line suicide or chose to ignore it. But again, stats are misleading…..unless it benefits your favorite player!

My favorite player is Gilbert Arenas lol, I know that stat doesn’t benefit him

I read that crap and its silly. But its not suprising finding that it came from ESPN and the guy who wrote it isn’t a big Kobe fan. Further proof that some stats are just ridiculous. Anyone who watch bball know who clutch Kobe is in the end of a game. i.e last season he had like six buzzer beaters. But people will believe what they wanna believe. I trust my eyes more than I do some stupid stat.

Diesel: House was wide open. It’s Eddie House, one of the quickest trigger in the NBA – the defender didn’t bother that shot one bit. If you want to get on Bron for deferring to a better 3-point shooter than him in that situation, feel free. I thought it was the right play, regardless of the outcome.

Kap: I’ll preface my comment with saying that I actually believe that Kobe IS clutch. Now, he takes 100% of the crunch time shots for LA unless he’s REALLY trapped. Which means that all of LA’s buzzer beater opportunities will go to him and every single one of his makes will be remembered and none of his misses will be. What I mostly give props to Kobe for his always WANTING that shot. His ability to hit it in that situation however is not remarkable, in the sense that he doesn’t hit the fadeaway with more accuracy in the clutch than at any other time in the game.

When Bron passed to Damon Jones for a game winner in the play-offs way back, I was loving it. That was back when I was in awe of Bron. That was after he had told Arenas he was going to hit the winning shot.
Now I see Bron as someone who cares about stats and reputation, over winning.

examples of garbage we’ve signed with the mid level exception: Steve Blake, Ron Artest, Sasha Vudkfja;lsdh, Luke Walton, Vlad Rad.
I have a question, how is Steve Blake an upgrade over jordan farmar? Sure Farmar was shorter and not a great defender but its not like Blake is locking ppl up and Farmar was younger. Its like their thinking was “sure blake is older, but he makes up for it by being slower and less athletic. Makes sense if you don’t think about it” And Blake is a downgrade offensively too. Farmar could create his own shot and he wasn’t afraid to attack. All blake does is pop 3s n he’s not very good at it either

I love fish. He’s like Laker royalty, but he’s getting old. I don’t think anybody would take his contract on a trade. I just need a starting quality pg. Fish can stay on the roster but he can’t start. He gets outplayed just about every night. The only teams with a worse starting pg are probably sacramento and minnesota

Lakers fans always over react. They just won two championships in a row. Its the regular season and they can’t win forever. All good things gotta come to an end one day. But, Gasol has not been a consistent number one option this year. He plays bad on defense and he takes bad shots in the post. It’s time he starts getting blame since everyone was labeling him the best big in the game in the offseason.