spurs may well pinch the next game... or it'll at least be another very close game. but lakers looking hot favourites now. celtics lakers dream finals. how would the pistons match up against them though? no bad player but no really huge player either. all capable of huge nights but normally they're all solid. celtics however would be a good matchup.
Nah. Lakers will send the Spurs home on Thursday
Match up with Detroit. They have no one to guard Pau. He should dominate 6'6" Maxiel. Bench play will be good. Stuckey got the best of Farmar, but hey Trevor is back and Sasha will continue to get better
Celtics beat us 2-0. Andrew seemed afraid of Garnett. Lakers have Pau. Ray Allen is putting up bricks. He's not an issue. Kobe has always had Pierce's number
Lakers play as a team. Lakers win the title
Dude.... with Oden and Aldridge inside and Roy penetrating, having a shooter like Miller would have REALLY helped Portland. Whereas Outlaw is the type of player that will be average for his career and the 13th pick won't add much except for more youth to an already young team. Portland should have JUMPED on that offer. If they had a higher pick, like 6 and higher, I say no. Otherwise they should do it.
Originally posted by SpaceMonkey
Dude.... with Oden and Aldridge inside and Roy penetrating, having a shooter like Miller would have REALLY helped Portland. Whereas Outlaw is the type of player that will be average for his career and the 13th pick won't add much except for more youth to an already young team. Portland should have JUMPED on that offer. If they had a higher pick, like 6 and higher, I say no. Otherwise they should do it.
I agree, the Blazers should have done the deal.
Originally posted by Myth
Memphis offered Portland Mike Miller for Outlaw and the #13. I'm definitely glad that Portland declined.
I agree with you man, Outlaw really improved last season offensively and he has been a solid defender for a while. He can make the mid range jumper now and there's no reason to think he wont extend that to 3pt range in the off season. Plus you have Webster who is a good shooter. Miller is a one dimensional gunner, he is one of the top shooters in the league but the Blazers are obviously looking to keep defensive minded players around. That fits Nate McMillans coaching style to a tee and with Roy, Outlaw, Aldridge and Oden they have some serious defensive potential.
Onto the Lakers, i cant belive we are one win away from being back at the finals. At the start of the season i knew we had a good team if we stayed healthy but this was beyond my wildest dreams. Great hard fought win on the road, the fact that we didnt give up the lead all game shows how poised and focused we were. Yes it was a foul on Fisher, but Barry traveled first. Also if we are gonna talk blown calls then you have to bring up the Fisher shot that hit the rim and should have given us a new 24 and i lost count of how many steps Duncan took on that dunk in the 1st quarter. Bottom line, you dont decide a game like that with a "questionable call" like that and i respect the Spurs for not whining about it and moving on.
Kobe is playing at another level right now, even if you dont like him you should really appreciate what he's doing in these playoffs. Nobody has controlled the game like this (at this level) since Jordan, i know that may be hard for the haters to deal with but we are seeing it with our own eyes. Sure Shaq was dominant during the 3-peat years but he wasnt clutch like Kobe, sure Duncan has been great for years but he cant pass the ball to himself. Kobe has been playing within the offense making the correct decisions (nearly all the time) and coming up with big play after big play. Thats why i get the Jordan flashbacks, when the Bulls had a good team around him this is how Jordan played. Probably the most pleasing thing for me is the trust Kobe now shows in his teammates, its not easy for someone who is so obsessively competitive as Kobe to relinquish control and let others decide the outcome. His natural instincts tell him to win by himself because in the past thats been the only person he could trust, now like Jordan did he is letting his teammates try. Sometimes they fail but they are learning how to win in the process and i think that they are a much more seasoned team because of this adjustment by Kobe. To illustrate the kind of personality that Kobe has when it comes to winning heres a link to an article that i was reading the other day that says it all:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/chris_ballard/05/27/kobe0602/index.html?eref=T1 (a must read for all Kobe fans and those who dont "get" him).
Props to Lamar also for a huge bounce back game and some big time clutch plays, he was money at the line after being off the previous game. Pau did a great job making Duncan work for his pts to, we need to keep that if we are gonna close this out.
GO LAKERS !!!
Duncan did the cripwalk to the basket no call, Fisher's shot hit the rim, but the shot clock didn't reset, Barry traveled and Odom cleanly blocked Parker's layup, yet they called goaltending. Not to mention Kobe didn't get to the line a single time in this game, what were the refs trying to prove? They kept the Spurs in the game and I was literally sick to my stomach watching it. I'm glad we were able to hang on, but I don't ever want to see a game officiated like that again. Made me want to just stop watching. And the NBA has the nerves to comment on that non call, after the amount of times Kobe was fouled driving to the lane without a single call and the amount of ticky tack fouls we got called against us. Fact of the matter is, if the refs did their job right, we wouldn't have been put in that situation.
Originally posted by koolruningz
I agree with you man, Outlaw really improved last season offensively and he has been a solid defender for a while. He can make the mid range jumper now and there's no reason to think he wont extend that to 3pt range in the off season. Plus you have Webster who is a good shooter. Miller is a one dimensional gunner, he is one of the top shooters in the league but the Blazers are obviously looking to keep defensive minded players around. That fits Nate McMillans coaching style to a tee and with Roy, Outlaw, Aldridge and Oden they have some serious defensive potential.
Glad to see somebody agrees with me. Outlaw has improved every year he has been in the league. Miller is 4.5 years older than Outlaw and is already at his peak. With Outlaw's work ethic and how much time he has left, I am 90% sure he will end up being better than Mike Miller (not at 3's but overall). Outlaw's goal this next year is to make the all-star game. Will he do it? Doubtful, but I love how he sets expectations high. As nice as it would be to have a solid 3 point shooter, defense is going to be just as necessary at the SF position, and Outlaw already has Miller beat there. And all that is not even considering what the pick may bring us.
Koolruningz, great sig, first of all. Second, I agree with all your Lakers writings. I think I am more excited about next season than next serie, however. The thought of a full year with this squad and a healthy Bynum brings tears to my eyes. LOL
I have to disagree on the no-trade of Portland, however. I will not offer more input than I already have into this, but come next April, Blazers fans will think, "If we only had a pure shooter we'd be in the play-offs."