GM4: Los Angeles (2) @ Boston (1)

[Poe]

I guess it's going to go back to LA after all..

 

 

Also, Bynum not playing in the second half is pretty scary for LA. If he can't finish the series, Boston may have taken the advantage.

[Real Deal]

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

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

 

On to Game 5.

[Poe]

Gee, normally when the Lakers lose, the game threads overload with discussion. Common LA haters, step your game up!

[EastCoastNiner]

Ray Allen has played like [expletive], and the series is 2-2.

 

Boston should be thrilled with that.

 

 

Also, I don't like the 2-3-2 format.

[His Greatness]

Some of Davis' finishes made me do a double take. Remarkable game from him.

[ballorama]

my god. who else saw Glen Davis drooling with Nate Robinson biting his ear.. omgggg

[TheHutch]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU6nrNA-QzI

[Cobb]

my god. who else saw Glen Davis drooling with Nate Robinson biting his ear.. omgggg

Yeah, it was nasty.

[moeroadkill]

Gee, normally when the Lakers lose, the game threads overload with discussion. Common LA haters, step your game up!

not much to hate on when laker fans dont talk back

[platoon793]

It sucks that I will miss the rest of this series, as I have to leave for governor's school on Sunday and won't be back until July 11th or something like that.

 

Anyway, should be interesting to see how the Lakers will react. Kobe shot the ball particularly well (especially from 3s, 6-11, and most of these shots were just incredible) but the turnovers hurt him. Bynum's absence was definitely felt though. Injuries are part of the game, so no excuses, but without him the Lakers aren't as dominant. Two big, dominant players down low is almost impossible to contain, and easier to contain when that is just one with just Pau Gasol. As I said before Rasheed has been defending him very well in my opinon. Should also be interesting to see how his back holds up.

[Sun Tzu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU6nrNA-QzI

 

lol.

[Cobb]

Gee, normally when the Lakers lose, the game threads overload with discussion. Common LA haters, step your game up!

My game is always stepped up.

[Warren2ThaG]

Lakers have homecourt, idc. we can be down 2-3 and im happy haha.

[Cobb]

http://i45.tinypic.com/2v8nwgj.jpg

[Sky]

Real - Here you go. My take on game 4.

 

http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/4094/game4.jpg

 

Loss is mainly on Jackson. His refusal to play Mbenga in the 4th was a costly mistake. You have a team on fumes getting nothing from the bench. Nate is beating you in DP, Bynum can't play, Gasol is Mr. StayPuft. Time for DJ. He could give them what they lacked: energy, boards and swats. Boston goes 10-15 in the 4th. Why? Fumes. Why? Coach who values offense so heavily he won't value defense for its own sake even when it's needed to save the game.

[CaliCurbStomppa]

Tough game. Game 5 gonna be crazy Boston needs win bad because it gonna be hard to win one more game in LA but if theres any team that can beat the Lakers twice in there homecourt it Boston

[Real Deal]

Real - Here you go. My take on game 4.

 

http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/4094/game4.jpg

 

Loss is mainly on Jackson. His refusal to play Mbenga in the 4th was a costly mistake. You have a team on fumes getting nothing from the bench. Nate is beating you in DP, Bynum can't play, Gasol is Mr. StayPuft. Time for DJ. He could give them what they lacked: energy, boards and swats. Boston goes 10-15 in the 4th. Why? Fumes. Why? Coach who values offense so heavily he won't value defense for its own sake even when it's needed to save the game.

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.

[AllenIverson#1fan]

CELTICS WON!!!

[AllenIverson#1fan]

my god. who else saw Glen Davis drooling with Nate Robinson biting his ear.. omgggg

He's a baby what do you expect.

[AllenIverson#1fan]

Real - Here you go. My take on game 4.

 

http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/4094/game4.jpg

 

Loss is mainly on Jackson. His refusal to play Mbenga in the 4th was a costly mistake. You have a team on fumes getting nothing from the bench. Nate is beating you in DP, Bynum can't play, Gasol is Mr. StayPuft. Time for DJ. He could give them what they lacked: energy, boards and swats. Boston goes 10-15 in the 4th. Why? Fumes. Why? Coach who values offense so heavily he won't value defense for its own sake even when it's needed to save the game.

It is partly Jackson's fault, he kept the line-up in even though they were exhausted. Even if he did put DJ in not much would have changed. I doubt he can gaurd Glen and anyways. If he did a good job they always Have Rasheed, T. Allen, and Nate. The Lakers were almost option-less in the 4th Q.

[Sky]

Ivy - What changes is that Mbenga can swat, which changes Nate's game, which changes the game itself. Mbenga is a liability on O but he can anchor on D. On a night when Odom gave them nothing, Jackson had to look at alternatives but couldn't see past his offense-only biases.

 

Real - Phil is a fan of managing the score. Since the LA bench is so inept, Phil uses a lead in place of a bench. Dangerous game as you keep putting your starters on the floor in situations where they have to win on every possession. They play hard to generate a lead and then you put the bench out there, they lose the lead rapidly and the starters lost everything they just worked so hard to establish. Part of that is on Jackson, part of it on Kupchak for having such a woeful 7-12. LA has paid a heavy price for no draft picks for years. That's where 7-12 is replenished and instead it's gone bone dry.

[Poe]

Yea Phil Jackson, that dude with 10 rings... definitely the reason for every Lakers loss. They should have hired Real Deal as the head coach with Sky as the assistant. That way LAL would have been 98-0 this year.

[Warren2ThaG]

Dunno why Kobe didn't score 50 if he wants to win he needs to score way more.

[Sky]

Poe - 10 rings doesn't mean Jackson isn't infallible or beyond criticism. Look, Boston shoots 67% from the floor in the 4th. Scored on seven straight possessions. And nothing was done. Sorry but I'm gong to look to the sideline after that. Phil is a legendary coach but as Laker fans well know he's also stubborn and that has come back to bite them.

[Poe]

Poe - 10 rings doesn't mean Jackson isn't infallible or beyond criticism. Look, Boston shoots 67% from the floor in the 4th. Scored on seven straight possessions. And nothing was done. Sorry but I'm gong to look to the sideline after that. Phil is a legendary coach but as Laker fans well know he's also stubborn and that has come back to bite them.

I know that, but you guys are very quick to look Jackson's way whenever something doesn't go perfectly, and have been so throughout most of the year (from the threads I've looked at).

 

Personally, as far as the regular season goes, with a team as good as the Lakers, I'd prefer a coach that deliberately keeps games close. It keeps the players on their toes and helps better prepare them for adversities they may face in the playoffs. If a team is used to coasting through games throughout the regular season, like the Cavs for example, they won't know what the hell to do when they are confronted with a tight situation for the games that truly matter. It's the difference between a coach with a championship mentality, like Phil Jackson and Greg Popovich, and coaches that just have a good winning formula, like Stan Van Gundy and Mike Brown.

 

 

Anyway, I brought up that point to show that you can't always judge a coach by what's directly in front of you. There may have been some things that Phil Jackson is observing in the playoffs that you can't measure by statistics, and goes beyond who is on the floor at what time. The facts that stand out most to me is that Phil Jackson had ten championships in the past 20 years, has a perfect playoff series record after winning the first game, his team is back in the finals under his coaching, and they are 2-2 in a series where they have home-court advantage with a high chance of winning yet another championship. I'd feel pretty comfortable with this guy on the sidelines, no matter how questionable his decision making may seem at first.