Official Los Angeles Lakers Thread

[podstock]

Here are Cassell's post-season stats 2004, per game:

18.9 points, 5.1 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 0.9 steals
45.6% FG, 82.5% FT in about 36.5 minutes a game


Here are Payton's numbers, per game:

8.1 points, 5.2 assists, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.2 steals
34.4% FG and 75% FT in about 35.2 minutes a game

Now, here are Bibby's numbers:
20.9 points, 6.6 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 2 steals
42% FG and 89% FT in about 41 minutes


Consider that Bibby is absolutely clutch against the Lakers; if you watched the past 3-4 playoffs years, you CANNOT deny that.
Bibby makes clutch shot after clutch shot.

Cassell is much older than Bibby, is slower, and not the player he was back when Houston won its back-to-back titles.

Thus, Payton will no doubt cancel out Cassell, whereas with Bibby, that's not going to happen.

[insanefishpossay]

Cassell and Payton may cancel each other out during the first three quarters, but you'd better watch out for Sammy in the fourth.

Originally posted by podstock
6. The X-factor is Troy Hudson, who burned the Lakers left and right in last year's playoffs. Guards who are quick give the Lakers trouble.

Lucky for you guys, Hudson is out for the playoffs, he had ankle surgery.

[stalking_WOLF_21]

yeah you can keep voting out cassel.
but you guys aren't seeing the the good part about him he's like 39 or 40 and he has scored 40 pionts in two games this year

sprewell is struggling every three or four games he scores 30 but in the games he dosen't he scores 6

troy hudson is out

wally
needs to step now that he is back so does the candy man if they were to play the lakers

shaq
watch ot theres 340 pounds of fat coming your way!!! yeah you know who i'm talking about OLIVER MILLER
he'll help big time when it come to shaq because it will giv ervin johnson AND THE CANDY MAN RESTING TIME

[minew_m]

What a game last night. The Lakers dominated. Half the time I didn't even notice the Spurs were playing. The Lakers played perfect ball.

Shaq and Kobe ran the show again. Within the last minute Kobe had a dunk over Duncan which gave the final blow to the Spurs. Kobe scored 26 and have 7 rebounds and 7 assists. He actually shot 50%!!!!

Shaq had an awesome night. 17 points, 19 boards, and five blocks.

Looks like the hack a Shaq doesn't work all that well. I think Shaq said it best, he makes them when it counts. He was something like 1 of 7 before the hack a Shaq started with three minutes in the 4th. He made 6 of 8 to end the game.

[cardbuyer66]

Well put, great game by LA and the dunk did end it.

in my honest opinion the clock wasnt done right at the end of the game, should have been .3, and or started the least bit late which ended that game. I feel the series should be 3-3 and they should be getting ready for game 7

LA moves on though, I hope they lose the next series, but dont see it happening

LA and Pacers in the finals :-) Pacers/Nets are 2 teams I really like, Im looking forward to seeing the finals. Ill stick with either of them to upset LA and win the title. GO EAST! :-)

Someone knock off LA before the finals :-)

[podstock]

Originally posted by insanefishpossay
Lucky for you guys, Hudson is out for the playoffs, he had ankle surgery.

oh, I wasn't aware of that.

that's too bad, b/c Hudson was destroying the Lakers in last year's playoffs.

He was like Mike Bibby, albeit with less experience, and he definitely would've helped the Wolves this year vs. the Lakers

[podstock]

Originally posted by cardbuyer66
Well put, great game by LA and the dunk did end it.

in my honest opinion the clock wasnt done right at the end of the game, should have been .3, and or started the least bit late which ended that game. I feel the series should be 3-3 and they should be getting ready for game 7

First of all, to paraphrase Tom Hanks in A League of their Own: THERE'S NO CRYING IN BASKETBALL

Second....the Washingpost.com, ESPN.com, and CNNSI.com did a frame by frame freezing of the shot clock after Duncan's shot, and there should have been 0.9 seconds left.

The refs didn't even bother to look at replays to confirm this, and instead left it at 0.4

Third...Duncan made 2 lucky shots. If YOU watched the game, perhaps you will remember that with about 3 minutes to go, Duncan went up for a shot, Shaq went to block it, Duncan double-clutched and then banked in the shot. Immediately after Duncan shot the ball, he ran in as if to rebound it.

we ALL know that ballplayers, once they release the ball and start running toward the basket - that means they know the ball was shot badly.

And we all know about the 2nd lucky shot, a 22-footer, fadeaway, fall-down hurl shot.

EVEN GREG POPOVICH ADMITTED THAT DUNCAN'S 2 SHOTS WERE AS MIRACULOUS AS FISHER'S 1 SHOT.

Fourth.....game is over, and you can't cry about it. Spurs, after game 1 & 2, were dominated in games 3-6. Even in game 5, the Lakers outplayed the Spurs to the tune of a 16-point lead before fading out in the 4th quarter.

And, while the Lakers made the adjustment defensively to crowd Parker into the lane, allow other Spurs to shoot wide open 3-pointers, and muscle up on Duncan.

The Spurs, had they shot 45% from the field, would've won the series. Instead, they were shooting in the low to high 30%.

This was a game that the Lakers made the defensive adjustments in games 3-6...whereas the Spurs had no counter for that.

And in game 6, Spurs missed wide open shots after wide open shots.

Parker needs to develop a consistent jump shot. Devin Brown needs to work on his shot, as he did very well.

THERE IS NO CRYING OVER SPILLED MILK.

oh, and did you see Bruce Bowen trying to trip Kobe every time Kobe went right past him in games 4, 5, and 6?

Kobe has a deep gash on his right leg that was hidden by a large Lakers leg brace -- that came from one of Bowen's trip.

In short...Lakers advance b/c they made offensive and defensive adjusments. Spurs go fishing and golfing b/c they couldn't counter the strategy.

[minew_m]

Well put Pod. I heard about that .9 thing and no one seems to mention it. They also forget to mention the Duncan shots also which are pretty darn lucky. As Shaq said "One lucky shot deserves another!"

[stalking_WOLF_21]

for entertainment i would pick lakers wolves but if a wanted an easy win for the spurs i would pick the spurs

[insanefishpossay]

Originally posted by podstock
First of all, to paraphrase Tom Hanks in A League of their Own: THERE'S NO CRYING IN BASKETBALL

...

THERE IS NO CRYING OVER SPILLED MILK.

And you'd be sounding pretty hypocritcal had that one post of yours not been deleted.

You remember, right? After the lakers lost the first game? I'd say that was pretty close to "crying", although it was hard to tell with all the profanity.

Good to see you're all climbing back on the bandwagon.