NBA discussion thread

Cool pics Myth, must be cool to meet your hoops idols. Not much chance of that ever happening to me, unless Stern has got plans to include New Zealand in his pre-season destinations.

I love what im seeing from my Lakers at the moment, we were down against the Rocks and last season we would have continued to play soft defense and hope our offense would come round. This season we let our defense dictate the tempo and our offense comes after, that is the kind of mentality i've been harping on. We have such a long team and that strong side zone is really disruptive (even Vlade is looking sharp on D). Running the triangle properly will always get us high percentage shots but now with our new commitment to defense we can withstand droughts and look to force turnovers and get the transition game going. I love our second unit lineup of Farmar, Sasha, Ariza, Lamar and either Bynum or Pau, they really pick up the pace of the game and they do it with defense first. Lamar and Ariza have been incredible at getting steals and deflections. Our first unit slows the game down and pounds the opposition inside with Bynum and Gasol and then the bench mob comes in and runs the opposition ragged, love it.
Big games coming up with the Mavs, Hornets and Pistons. Gotta keep that hunger and intensity up, we want the best record in the league this year and home court throughout.

Pau was a monster on the glass, Kobe was key down the stretch and the game ball goes to Trevor Ariza....13 and 6 boards

Nice to see the guys knuckle down and win a close one, i agree Ariza was instrumental in the W. He does so many little things that dont show up in the boxscore, we have to lock this dude up in the offseason.
The Mavs pounded us on the boards and run us off the court for 3 quarters, but like we have done every game this season we tightened our defense instead of waiting for the offense to come round. I'd actually love to see a crunch time defensive line up Kobe, Ariza, Lamar, Pau and Drew, now that would smother some fools.
6-0, i like it. Toughest test of the season next with a back2back vs the Hornets.

Lamar has to take a pay cut and sign Trevor for many years

Lamar has already said he would like to retire a Laker and will accept less money, how much remains to be seen. If we can get him for about 10mill then i would be elated, he is really showing his versatility this season and i'd love to have him back next year. He also does wonders for our chemistry by keeping everyone together and loose.
Im not sure what Trevor will be asking for next season but we have to lock him up, he reminds me of Michael Cooper from the Showtime years. You dont lose players like that, he is still in his early 20's to.
This is by far my favorite Laker team since the Showtime years, i enjoyed the 3peat years but hated the drama. This team plays together and they follow their leaders example and work hard. All those hacks that said Kobe couldnt lead a team are eating crow now, all he needed was teammates that had the same work ethic as he does. No wonder he used to get pissed at Kwame, Cook and Smush, its amazing to think that we even made the playoffs with some of those teams.

Even $8M for Lamar be good. Showtime Lakers are my fave. Magic, Kareem and company. I loved the 3peat Lakers. Who knows what would've happen, if Shaq and Kobe stayed together

Oden is expected to play tomorrow. Unfortunately, Roy may not.

Originally posted by Myth
Nice win by the Blazers. Much prettier than the crappy way we played against the Wolves. Plus, our first road win comes nearly a month earlier than it did last year.

Also, here are some pics of me with Oden.

i need to know...

who won and what song was it? LOVE my guitar heros haha

Impressive come back for Kobve and the Lakers last night. Seems Pau is the perfect "Robin" for Kobe's "Batman"

Originally posted by vandalworks
i need to know...

who won and what song was it? LOVE my guitar heros haha

It was Hit Me With Your Best Shot and I won. Oden acted mad and said I cheated because I didn't tell him how good I was.

Getting ready for Lakers/Hornets

Great game...Lakers win...had a big lead, kobe made a key 3

Yay Fernandez! 25 points. Glad Oden got through the game, even though it was limited minutes.

You guys see Dwight's stats? 30, 19, 10 blocks! That would have been awesome if he had just one more rebound.

Incredible talent

Wow that turned out to be a lot closer than it needed to be, we nearly wasted all that great defensive work and let the Hornets back in the game. Up until the 4th we'd taken them to the woodshed and made them a totally perimeter team, but we have to keep the foot on the throat (i thought we'd have learned that from the finals collapse in game 4).
Still so much more to be happy about, the defense was suffocating tonight - the Hornets couldnt get any easy shots. Bynum is doing exactly what is needed from him, he doesnt need to score much but he is controlling our glass and altering or blocking anything that comes in the lane. That is what we were missing last year and i just hope he can stay healthy.

D12 went nuts, i cant remember the last time i saw #'s like that. It reminds me of a Wilt statline, just an absolute monster.

Good to see the kid Oden back to, hope he can put together a nice season (except when he plays us of course).

Good game....shouldn't have been though.

What the **** was Phil thinking, leaving in Odom over Bynum? We were playing our best ball with Gasol and Bynum on the court. The points were comin easy and we were playing stout defensively. Odom was awful tonight. All he did was shoot(and miss) jumpers and allow layups. Phil be getting stupid some times with his personnel moves.

True True

Kobe came thru with the 3. Day off, get ready for the Iverson Pistons. Establish the inside game, keep playing the smothering defense and another win

I agree, i would like to know Phils reasoning for leaving Bynum out at crunch time. Both Chandler and West were in the game so it wasnt for matchup reasons and Bynum was keeping the Hornets out of the paint.
Lamar is getting too jumpshot happy, he has shot better from the outside this season but he's strengths are taking it to the hole, making plays for his teammates and crashing the glass. Shooting jumpers should be his last thought.
That dagger 3 from #24, ridiculous.

I was happy Kobe made it on Posey. Posey made that 3 at Staples

Lamar's strength is driving to hole and once in rhythm his shot falls

Nothing Phil does amazes me anymore. Jordan was in the game a bit long, especially when Fish had it goin all nite

Originally posted by Myth
It was Hit Me With Your Best Shot and I won. Oden acted mad and said I cheated because I didn't tell him how good I was.

haha awesome. had to know!

dont know what to make of torontos start... showed some promise then it kinda fell apart. think we just need to get into a rythym and should do well