Pistios or L.A.

Originally posted by Dr. Strangelove
I might be wrong too with picking the Lakers in 6. Heres some of the problems the Lakers are having against Detroit at least in my opinion.
1. Shaq is not dominating Detroit as I thought he would. Shaq's still getting his points, but with almost no double team he should be dominating by averaging 30 to 40 points. Plain and simple Shaq is not as explosive as years ago. I thought the reason the Lakers would probably win would be Shaq's dominance over smaller opponents like the two Wallaces. Detroit has also limited Shaq's easy baskets mostly making him take one hand jumpers. One interesting move Brown has done is totally gone away from Hack a Shaq. One problem nobody ever talks about Hack a Shaq is it puts the opponent in the penalty early in the quarter which lets Kobe's game take to another level, because when he drives he will either be fouled or he will score.
2. Prince is giving Kobe fits. Ive always thought the perfect player to guard Kobe would be someone who is long and athletic and Prince pretty much challenges all of Kobe's shots. Also Kobe spending a lot of energy guarding Hamilton and Billups.
3. Detroit is the more athletic, younger and tougher.
4. Detroit probably has the best defense since the bad boys.

Too me, if the Lakers want to get back in the series Kobe has to carry them. Shaq will get his points but he will not dominate, because of his dumb temmates and his loss of his explosiveness , Malone looking more and more crippled, Gary is Gary and the Lakers have already had their surprise attack with Luke. Kobe's the only one who can win a game by himself in this series in my opinion.

the bad boys! i remember those days....shaq is gonna get his points but he's lack of dominance isnt coz his teammates are dumb or coz he's not as explosive of years past it may look that way coz detriot is doin one hell of a job on him but its coz of big ben and company....b wallace is the only player in the league who can take over a game defensively and its not a quocidence that shaq has domintated over evey center in the playoffs but him what kobe is to an offensive is what wallace is to a defense....i'll agree with you that if the lakers want to win there gonna have to put this on kobe's shoulders but thats why detriot brought in larry brown to come up with gameplans to stop that from happenin

LoL yea exactly.

I can't even sit here and make a case for the Lakers after last game.

They can't catch the ball and they are incapable of completing basic chest passes. It's like watching high schoolers play against Division One college players. And I don't think it's because of any phenominal defense...they've been seeing stuff like this for the past 2 series.

Just realize. It's only 2-1. LA was down 2-0 to San Antonio and people were counting them out. If the Lakers win one of the next two games...they get back home court advantage.

Game 1 & 3 Detroit spanked LA, but game 2 was pretty much all Lakers except for the 3rd quarter where Detroit shot 16 free throw shots. Phil really needs to find an answer for when Detroit goes with Corliss Williamson, Elden Cambell, and Ben Wallace. Those 3 players almost require you to stop resting Karl and Shaq...and then throw Slava on the court for decent size.

What's winning this game for Detroit? I don't think it's phenominal defense. I think it's solid defense concentrated on constant ball pressure and just flat hussle. Every lose ball is Detroits. Los Angeles is still getting good looks, they just aren't making shots. Kobe needs to stop settling for 20 foot pull ups on Prince because he gets like 4 inches of room to shoot. He's been successful taking the ball to the rack, but he isn't doing it. The Lakers spacing on offense is horrible, as is their FG % on open jumpers.

But their offense will come....if...and only if....they play defense. Forcing turnovers and creating pressure is what gave them a 12 point lead in game 2, yet in game 3 LA's going under picks, staying 4 feet off Billups allowing him to choose where he wants to go, and they aren't hedging the defender on the pick n' roll. It's one thing if Rasheed and Hamilton are killing you on the pick n roll. But it's an entirely different thing when it's Ben Wallace killing you instead of Rasheed.

I think LA's just mad because they had to miss Lindsey Lohan host the movie awards last night. Yah....gotta be something like that. 😆

Either that or Detroit is the only real professional team in the league, because every team should play D like that if they are getting paid millions of dollars a year.

I think a big factor was Detroit's bench:

1)Lindsay Hunter was pure hustle and IMO the best player of the game, his hustle forced turnovers, gave open looks to Rip, and frustrated the Lakers.

2) Corliss Williamson was beast, as was Elden Cambells great defense of Shaq.

3) Kobe's first shot made in the 3rd quarter is simply ridicious

4) Karl Malone's knee was pretty screwed.

5) Their 3 pointers were just shit.

Add them up and you have a Detroit win.

I think it's because of phenominal defense and bad shooting... because almost every shot was was contested and then since the Lakers are sometimes expecting someone to come over and guard them so they shoot to quick which is usually a miss. Then when they are free and wide open they miss so it's a combination of both.

Shaq...is killing the Lakers. And Payton is even worst.

Shaq isn't fighting for position by moving his feet quickly, he's relying on his huge size advantage over Wallace. This leads to a bit of a stalemate due to Ben's large upper body. On defense, Shaq isn't coming out and contesting Billups on the pick n' roll, so Billups can either take it straight to the hoop, or pull up behind the line. Payton's offense is crap...he's a good enough ball handler to drive and create off penetration, but instead he goes through the motions of the offense.

The one big adjustment the Lakers made against the Spurs between game 2 and game 3 was that they had the big player on the pick and roll come out to disrupt the guard for a few seconds. This was how they contained Parker and Duncan...and it will work with Detroit. Also, i think Gary Payton needs to increase the pressure on Billups so that Billups can't run around anywhere outside the 3 point line to set up the offense.

One of the biggest keys to both offenses is where they are able to establish themselves off the 1st pass. The Lakers are accepting the ball 3-5 feet behind the three point line. Detroit either has Billups dribble up to get position on the wing, or they have their guys catching the ball inside the 3 point line on the 1st pass.

Los Angeles' Offense will come together once they start stopping Detroit on offense. Until then....this series is all Detroit.

they tried to have shaq come out on the pick in roll but but that leaves the weak side wide open with malones gimpy knee he's not able to to help out and slava is too slow ... the detriots players are alot more athletic than the spurs players so its not the same as when the spurs would set up a pick and roll...detriot did an awesome job last night of denying kobe the ball...i'd definetily say this is phenomal defense

HURRAY 4 THE PISTONS THANK GOD THEY WON, THEY CAN ACTUALLY WIN IN 5 WOOOOOOOO, THAT WOULD BE GREAT!!! God that was the best defense ive seen in a long time, they shut down the lakers completely, if you deny shaq to a low score of 14 pts, and Kobe even lower than that to 11 then you gotta look and say that your defense in the best in the NBA

and again WOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO THEY WON

i just spent the better part of lunch pondering the Lakers weaknesses. Dude, they're freaking done this year.

Malone's knee, Fisher's knee, and Horace Grants hip are all injuries that are killing the Lakers.

Karl is still decent, but that's because he's tougher than sh!t. He's physically not able to do what he could 3-4 games ago. Fisher's knee makes him too slow for Hunter or Billups. And since Detroit has like 5 guys over 6-9...they're just too big without Ho Grant.

Kobe having to guard Corliss Williamson in the post is ridiculous. And Larry Brown is just a freakin Mastermind.

He's had the Lakers playing Detroit's game for 10 of the 12 quarters so far this series. (i count game 2's 1st quarter and 4th quarter as Laker ball)

I'll hold true to my team though. The fat lady may be warming up in the back.....she isn't quite ready to be brought out yet.

this series is far from done...i have alway showed my confidence and faith in the pistons but thats come coz i'm from detriot and have been watching them all year and already knew what eveyone is founding out...but the lakers got shaq, kobe, and phil and that says it all i'm sure fischer is hurtin but alot of people dont know that sheed has an ankle injury he's playing throw and i'm sure it cant be more signficant than fish is injury

Fisher is getting knee surgery after the season. i don't know if the same could be said about Sheed. But still that's besides the point. The seemingly tireless defense of Detroit is undoubtably the best in the League. I just figured the Lakers offense would still function without much difficulty. And so far i'm pretty damn wrong. 🙁

i dont think surgery can correct it but its very similar to the type of ankle injury that kept sczebiak from playing this season but like you said thats beside the point.....its nice to see detriot finally getting the respect they deserve 😄

Lakers are still a great team. And who knows they might pull it off. Pistons defense are just... unstoppable at the moment.

like i said before this thing is far from over...lakers got the two best players and one of the greatest coaches of all time so this series is anything but done but all you heard before the series started was lakers, lakers, lakers,...lakers got shaq lakers got kobe lakers are built for a championship....you didnt hear a thing about how rip is one of the best shooters in the league or how good a defendor wallace is or how the detriot defense is the best in the league even the announcers (al micheals and doc rivers) were so biased towards the lakers it made me want to puke

Well, people heard how good Big Ben was at defense but thats about it.

i still think that Big Ben is getting worked on defense when he's stacked up against Shaq, but Shaq isn't getting the ball enough. Shaq's field goal percentage is great against Wallace...even if you include game 3's rape-fest.

As a Laker fan, i hope for the Shaq vs. Wallace match up because that's where Shaq is most dominant. He can't be guarded by 1 man...even on the best defensive team in the NBA. Wallace is at his best when Okur, Sheed, Cambell, or Williamson guard Shaq, enabling Ben to free up for some easy help blocks, or "shot adjustments"

the one thing i cant understand is that i began to see the lakers double teaming wallace, for what reason i dont know, but was many have said the series aint over, but if Pistons take it tomorrow, which i hope they will, then i think the Lakers hope for 4 titles in 5 years is gone. As for the Lakers 2 future hall of famers, last game they were completley denied if that continues the next few games the lakers are dead, but w/ detroit's defence i find that hard for the lakers to do.

man 138 posts in 8 days, thats a hell of alot of posts

I dunno about everyone else, but personally i think we are going to see everything that the Lakers have left to offer in game 4 tomorrow. (it's 8pm saturday)

They got their 2 days off to make adjustments to what Detroit has done so far. They got a form of motivation from game 3's ass whipping. Karl and Fisher's knees both got an extra day to relax. And Shaq's stats after getting 2 days rest are almost +10 pts per game as oppose to the games when he only gets 1 day rest.

If the Lakers aren't able to take game 4 away from Detroit. Then this series is over. Being down 3-1 is just too much to come back from.