Lakerland is nervous. The team isn't what you thought it was 2 months ago, huh? Thankfully, Stu Jackson is of the same mind. Kobe prob would've gotten the game suspension he deserved under the rules had the Lakers gone into Houston with a 2-0 advantage. But the Lakers need him. The NBA needs Kobe. This is a business first, an entertainment medium second, and a fair competitive platform 141st.So are we going to win tonight? Vegas thinks so. Lakers are -1.5 on Bookmaker. I'm not quite so sure. There are too many questions about this team, not enough answers. For the first time in a long time, Phil doesn't seem to have them. He's been mum on who's gonna take D-Fish's spot in the starting lineup. Does he know? Farmar's seniority and experience vs. former Pac-10 rival Aaron Brooks makes him the frontrunner, and you know how we feel on that issue here at this very pro-Farmar blog (btw dave, we need to change this blog's name). Do the Lakers stand a chance against this team if he doesn't step up? Do we stand a chance against the Nuggets without him? No. I don't think there's a better candidate to match up with Houston's littles, and to provide that spark off the bench we'll need to combat a barrage of points from J.R. Smith. With Lamar in the starting lineup, Sasha looking nothing like The Machine, and.... shit our bench is weak! Farmar needs to play hot tonight, and work up some confidence in himself and in Phil for the next few weeks.
Besides the PG situation, the key to tonight's game will be limiting Yao's effectiveness. That means putting him in foul trouble. That means taking it to the rim. But who's going to get into the paint? You've probably heard all about how Kobe just isn't the slasher he used to be. Via Bill Simmons' game 1 diary:
Kobe has attempted a total of 44 FTs in six playoff games (7.2 per game). Last spring, he attempted 194 FTs in 22 playoff games (8.8 per game). For the regular season, his FT attempts dropped from 10.2 (2005-06) to 10.0 ('06-07) to 9.0 ('07-08) to 6.9 ('08-09). So, no, Kobe doesn't go to the hole as much. Let the record show MJ averaged 10.6 FTA in the '98 playoffs and Wade averaged 10.9 FTA in the '06 playoffs. I'm just sayin'.
It's Lamar time. We've heard so much about how Lamar is the man when it comes to creating mismatches, but where is it this series? I haven't seen it. LO is a combined 6-15 in the first two games here. WTF is up with that? Who's been guarding him? Scola? Landry? Whatever. The point is his effectiveness has been severely limited by the mere presence of Yao. We can't win on jump shots. No team can. It's time to take it to the rim.
Good stuff. Agreed on almost all points aside from the most meaningless -- namely, that Kobe would've been suspended had the Lakers gone into Houston up 2-0 (and despite your well-placed zinger about the NBA's priorities ... good one Sammy!).
ReplyDeleteI'm a homer, admittedly, but I try to be fair, and that play was a no-call. I have no problem with the upgraded flagrant-1, them's the breaks and the merits of the call are definitely arguable -- but in no way was that a suspendible offense. Fisher's tackle, no doubt. But Kobe's elbow? Artest was basically riding Kobe's back just prior to the elbow, and to clear some room while jockeying for position Kobe swung some elbows -- TrueHoop had a thing about the reverse angle which showed that the elbow hit on Ron-Ron's chest just above the "R." Which is not ... uh ... above the neck or shoulders ....
Oh whatever I just got bored with that.
To the game: Farmar has a rare chance here to redeem himself, and like you I hope he steps up. If he doesn't, expect a lot of Sasha/Shannon and more easy layups for the little guys in red. I actually expect a big game out of Odom -- despite all the talk about him not being a "winner," I think he tends to step up in big games (I don't remember last year's finals by the way, I had them medically stricken from my memory bank).
A lot remains to be seen, as you said, but what I think will be huge is how Bynum responds to an obvious mental handicap, compounded by Phil's obvious loss of confidence in him. Does he go hard to crash the boards? Will he be hesitant and miss easy alley-oops he would have made earlier in the year? If he gets off to a slow offensive start, will he let that effect his energy and his concentration, as so often happens these days? Does he actually play more than ten minutes? We shall see.
arik, i'm gonna text you the score every 5 minutes. cool?
ReplyDeleteI will end your life.
ReplyDelete