Real Deal

I had that problem once, and I just used CCleaner to remove everything from my registry that had to do with iTunes. Re-installed, and it worked. I HATE, HATE, HATE that I have to use iTunes for the iPhone. It's really the only thing I can't stand about the phone.

Leave his personal life out of the discussion, or you won't post here ever again.

So, in other words, why even question what any single NBA player does? They are the professionals, not us. They achieved something that we didn't. They are obviously better basketball players than we are...so why even question anything, ever? Never said Jordan and Kobe didn't mess up from time to time, either.

LOL.

Poe, what coach really keeps a game close, intentionally? If Phil does that in the regular season, and you consider that smart, that's probably why we lost home court advantage to Cleveland and Orlando. And if you consider THAT move smart, I don't know what to say. The Kobe/Shaq Lakers were blowing teams out every chance they got. The 72-win Bulls were doing the same. All you do is win if you're a championship-caliber coach. And definitely no knock on Phil Jackson's ability to win rings, but you have to keep in mind that he did win them all with Jordan and Kobe, the two best overall players to ever play the game (and Shaq, most dominant center ever). Jackson has coached teams that didn't even get out of the second round (Pippen's Bulls, Kobe's Lakers in 2006 and 2007, and even the dynasty Lakers lost to San Antonio in the second, in 2003). He makes as many mistakes as anyone else involved with the franchise. Many question why he delays his timeouts...so we aren't the only ones to do it. He will let the second unit struggle for two extra minutes, giving up an extra 6-7 points and destroying a lead, before calling a timeout that was LONG overdue. When have you seen that second unit actually play through it and recapture the lead, after blowing it? Never. If his plan is to develop our players, so be it...but in that case, he must be doing a terrible job at that also, because our bench is still among the worst in the NBA after all the years they've played under Phil Jackson.

He was also dominated by Glen Davis, played the absolute worst defense out of anyone on the floor for us tonight. Even Ray Allen toyed with him on the way to the hoop, at one point. And he only had one assist...and the 10 points he scored doesn't mean jack when he allowed 30 with his pathetic on-ball defense and his even worse help defense. One good game, three bad. Story of his career.

Yeah, and not only that, but Brown and Farmar were getting roasted out there in the fourth, and he kept them in, waiting for us to lose that lead. What pisses me off most about Phil...he has this thing about resting our best players until we lose the lead, then tossing them back out there to try and make some heroic comeback happen when he KNOWS Bryant has to play 43-44 minutes a game just to pull out a win. He acts so concerned about Bryant's time on the floor, but he sure wasn't worried about it against the Suns. It reminds me of the 20-point lead we had to end the third in Game 1. Same damn thing, although we didn't completely blow it. Once we get up 8-10 points and look comfortable, he lets his foot off the gas and goes into "bench practice" mode. Then, when we actually need Mbenga to come out and handle Glen Davis, he makes sure DJ doesn't get a second on the court. That's exactly why we lose games, all season long. We can sit here and smash Fisher for his defense (I did it all year), poke at how soft Gasol is, how Kobe's injury killed us in the second half of the season, how Artest's hand injury caused him to shoot 20% or so...but Phil Jackson is not exempt, as you stated. An offense is the best defense? Yes, when we had two unstoppable forces in Kobe and Shaq.

Lamar Odom just sucks, all there is to it. I don't even know why I created this topic. Hollywood Odom.

Nevermind, I was going to post a funny, flaming Odom picture, but I'm not in the mood. On to Game 5.

Give me a few minutes, and I'll provide you all with my expert analysis.

He's a better defender, and a much better post player (meaning, legitimate post play). Bosh is more explosive and is better working with isolations, but if I'm looking for someone with post work, I go to Gasol every chance I get.

Just to hit on one thing: Gasol isn't THAT great at passing out of double teams. He was useless quite a bit against the Suns after they started playing zone and crowding the paint, and he struggled in Memphis for the same reasons as well.

I was going to post about this, but I really don't want to talk about it. It pisses me off.

I don't even care what this guy says anymore. He just doesn't have anything else to do.

Foul trou...I mean, oh wait... I think Fisher was ignited after what Pierce said.

Bryant took a lot of bad shots, but he also had to take some of them with the shot clock drained. It was upsetting to see the guys look to Bryant to bail them out so much. Kobe shooting 10-29 is unacceptable, but so was the entire offense. No ball movement, and without looking at the assist totals, I'm sure Boston drilled us in that statistic. When we're moving the ball, we can be unstoppable on offense.

No idea, really. It just slipped my mind.

TIME: 9:00 PM EST TV: ABC

Doc Rivers just sent a tape to the league, showing the Lakers getting away with illegal screens. You'd think I'm joking about this, but I'm not. Of all people... I wonder if we should send that tape in that shows Kendrick Perkins admitting to getting away with his own illegal screens 80% of the time, or Garnett's multiple illegal screens he has been setting every three minutes of every game in a Celtics jersey.

Well, I just came back from watching the Finals media day (where they talk to players before/during/after practice), and both Garnett and Pierce can't seem to stop talking about their limited minutes due to the fouls called on them. Garnett told the press it was the reason why he struggled in Game 2. When someone asked Pierce if Ron Artest was tougher than anyone else defending him, Pierce said no, and stated his struggles were all due to the fouls. Then, it was Garnett and Pierce both saying that Ray struggled in Game 1 because of the fouls (but I guess they forgot he shot 0-13 last night). This is the stuff I don't like. You have Pierce saying they aren't coming back to Los Angeles, saying Artest isn't causing him any trouble at all, Garnett making excuses for his struggles and saying it's hard to play together when they can't play together, and Rivers just running his mouth to no end. I know almost every non-NBA fan hates the Lakers, but we don't do this. Phil dogs the refs before every series, but we don't sit around talking about how we're going to win every game we play, how we really don't lose because the other team beat us, and that our struggles come because we don't get time on the court together.

Difference was that Bryant had three bad fouls called against him in Game 2, and Pierce's fouls were all legit in Game 3. And if I hadn't said anything about Rivers and his comments, nobody would've. Phil Jackson? Most definitely something to talk about. Maybe I should've created a topic about Rivers' comments, like most do for Jackson (stuff about Nash, for instance). But then again, yeah, it's just Doc Rivers...not that big of a deal.

Added the World Cup subforum... http://www.otrbasketball.com/forums/forum/117-2010-world-cup Slaven requested that he creates the game topics, so let him do that, please. He's been begging me to add this subforum for a month now.

Doc Rivers was whining about Pierce not getting to play tonight, that the refs didn't let him play, and that's the reason for his poor shooting. Didn't hear Rivers saying that about Kobe in Game 2. In fact, I believe Rivers stated that it was Boston's defense that hurt Bryant that game. Also, Garnett is saying he can't speak about the out-of-bounds call (Kobe/Garnett) because of "the gag order" the players have placed on them. That's odd...because the replay showed the ball flicking off of KG's fingers, even clearer than Game 2's situation with him and Gasol. Didn't hear him talking about that, though. Funny stuff.

Offensively, yes. I don't consider Dirk Nowitzki because he doesn't exactly play in the post like Gasol, Duncan, Yao and other bigs. While Gasol doesn't have the overall offensive skillset that Duncan did in his prime, he's still close.

My expert analysis: everyone left their game in LA, with the exception of Kevin Garnett, Tony Allen, Glen Davis and Derek Fisher. How that translates into a win for us, IN BOSTON, I have no idea. Kobe played very good defense, shot poorly, crashed the board well...but Fisher was KING tonight. On to Game 4. EDIT: Cobb, thanks for making the game thread. It slipped my mind, completely.