Miami Heat Vs. Lakers
Pau Gasol imo has to get out of LA, he has lost all confidence and aggression in his game and it started with that playoff run last year, in particular how Dirk Nowitzki tore him to pieces offensively, and even defensively Dirk held his own and more. He needs to go back to a small market team and try to revive his career and start being a number 1 option again.
As soon as Miami decide to start running, you can kiss the Lakers goodbye. They're too slow. They want to play a half court game, which really fits right into Miami's defenses' hands.
I expect the second half to be a lot of Kobe going one on one, but if he REALLY wants to win this game, he'll light a fire under Bynum and Gasol to dominate the inside.
shooters are supposed to keep shooting but when you are 6% from the 3 for the season you stop! Yep Pau needs to go, OR mike brown needs to run more sets through him where he wants the ball. Right now brown has him catching 15-22 ft out, he's 7'0 with post game, thx coaching staff.
And all that BS about kobe catching the ball in places where he can score, no not buying it. He's having to take his man 1-on-1 with the double team coming or zoning, he rarely ever catches the ball in catch-n-shoot situations like the wise coaches in Boston set up for Ray, Paul, KG. Sure they could all go iso, but thats when the offense fails.
and leave D.Morris at the hotel, we'd have better chances w/out him.
Lakers not hustling... Offense looks terrible. Can't defend Chalmers and Anthony in the pick and roll. Miami running the same play everytime and Lakers still have no answer. Bynum is defending Anthony on the pick and roll like Anthony can shoot. Sad.
It's the new offense that has hindered Gasol so much. The triangle was really great for Gasol because it allowed him to be a second or third option yet post up in his spot and at times they ran the offense through Kobe whenever the ball didn't go to Kobe. The traditional offenses with dominant 2 guards like Kobe and MJ usually had 5s posting, but not 4s. They really need to get him going in a groove soon, even though he is making shots today.
We may put Eddy Curry as a joke when it comes to weight issues but this guy still is an offensive threat at the post... He produced big numbers with the Bulls and Knicks AND is still in his prime... He's definitely a big lift off the bench for the Heat and they do look scary come playoff time...
I don't think Gasol's skill has regressed at all... He's still the most skilled big in the league.
The problem is he doesn't always play hard or hustle... He's back to the soft Gasol.
With that said, the problem wasn't Gasol tonight. Bynum, Gasol and Kobe were solid. The problem is they get nothing from anybody else. They need upgrades at the point and small forward BAD. They need some speed and athleticism.
You feel good saying that a prime LeBron is better than a 33 year old Kobe lol?
To be honest, this shouldn't even be a debate at this point. The fact that it is, just goes to show how good Kobe is.
You have to give the Heat's defense credit though... They did a good job bringing the extra defender over to Kobe. Lakers defense on the other hand was garbage defending the pick and roll. LeBron got free almost everytime.
Curry will struggle on defense though.
Nah check since I been a member bra I been saying Lebron been the best player in the NBA since he was 21 years old, I'm not a bandwagon fan, Lebron my guy I feel he been the best player in the league the last 5-6 years this aint nothin new my dawg.
Lebron was 20-21 years old averaging 31.4 PPG 7.0 RPG and 6.6 APG that's when I was like he the best player to me and I been riding wit him ever since.
Nice try tho
"Thank you have a nice day Kobe LOVERS"
Your whole post screamed defensiveness. IF you felt LeBron was the best player by far, you wouldn't even have felt the need to post that with as much pride as you did lol. Like when MJ beat Magic in 1991, MJ fans weren't screaming how much greater MJ was than Magic because it was CLEAR MJ was leaps and bounds better.
Fact is that Kobe is still very much in LeBron's league despite being 33 years old and in his 16th season.
Lol yea ok Kobe lover idc wat you say, you can claim im defensive if you want.
Lebron just blew Kobe out on national tv and almost had a triple double while doing it, what I got to be defensive for? This is your 2nd fail of the night, 3 strikes your out brother.
Forreal I think Lebron has been better than Kobe the past three years. I would take Kobe's prime over any of Lebron's best seasons, but fact is Lebron has been a beast the last three years. He's been top 3 in ppg, he's a better passer, a better defender, rebounder and has done more with less. He has also been very clutch during his years with Cleveland anyway not so much with the Heat. Why do people compare the number of rings when talking about players? Winning a championship is a team achievement and Kobe has had better championship teams than any team Lebron has hadc though an argument can be made with him on the Heat. I feel Jordan is the best player of all time, but it isn't because he won 6 championships its because he, as an individual player, was a straight BEAST.
http://www.82games.com/CSORT11.HTM
http://www.82games.com/0809/CSORT11.HTM
http://www.82games.com/0910/CSORT11.HTM
The fact you even use the phrase "Kobe lover" just continues to scream defensiveness or something. You clearly have something against Kobe... Are you upset that Kobe won't just get old and fade away in the backround or something? It's like you feel hurt about the fact people still consider Kobe amongst the best players in the world...
And I'm not a "Kobe lover" by the way...
Look, let's end this with a fact. Lebron is the best player in the league. Period. BUT Kobe is still playing very very well, and that in its self is a big feat. Lebron has done done great things in his career, and we give him credit for it. Kobe has done great things in his career, and we also give him credit.
All Indiana Basketball is trying to say is that although Lebron is the best inthe league(Myself and Indiana Basketball clearly agree with this) is is remarkable that at the age of 33 that Kobe has thrust himself into the conversation, where some even think it's a debate. End of Story.
LeBron is definitely the best two way/overall player in the world. No doubt about it. I don't think anybody would really debate that.
He's been the best for the last few years. There's really nothing that he can't do... Just need to continue working on his jumpshot, post game, free-throw shooting, etc. Even he said HIMSELF that he wanted to come into this season as a more COMPLETE player which is what people have been criticizing.
For some reason, people tend to think that filling a stat sheet means your a complete player. LeBron has done that his whole career, while having holes in his game. He looks like a more complete player this season.
I have something against Kobe and I consider him a top 5 player lol ok like I said IndianaBasketball you do whatever you have to, to make you feel better tonight.
And basehead 23 lol what's your use in even responding to me if your a Lebron fan? Backwards.
I dunno, it looks like Gasol's skill has regressed to me. I never really watched him much in MEM, but he was putting up very good numbers, I those were probably his prime years. Ever since last season, I've been noticing how little he actually post up. Usually when he gets the ball now, he doesn't do a legit post up. He's so unaggressive, and is always look for the pass first when he gets the ball. He doesn't look very fluid dribbling the ball backing down. It seems like he's about to bobble it everytime he dribbles, and I'm haven't been seeing many post moves. You can tell he's not confident in his ability to score in the post, which is why he's so passing and drifting to the perimeter. When he's not posting up, he usually drift to the mid-post, and passes it the the baseline cutter, not matter how closely guarded they are, which usually results in a missed/blocked shot or TO.
Pau's skill set hasn't been good since the middle of last season.
"Can't believe how hopeless he is at making layups in the half-court. No acceleration. No explosiveness"
Hopeless at making layups? That is idotic. No explosiveness or acceleration? You must have missed him when he spun right by Kobe or constantly drove by Artest only to be clobbered at the rim by frustrated big men. He is by faaaaarrrrrrrrrr the best finisher in the game.
Wiz of Oz, I was one of those people who agreed with you when you said Lebron's athleticism has declined, but over the past month, his play has made me change my mind. He is getting up on dunks, and I see quite a bit of explosiveness. But I do agree that at some point last season it seemed that he lost all of his hops.
Hes done more with less than alot of people (most people), and i thought tht he may have lost some athleticism last year, not so much this year. Even if he did lose some, at one point he could get his shoulder above the rim, so lbj losing some athleticism would probably still make him the best athlete in the world for his speed and coordination to size ration alone, but he still gets his head above the rim anyways (like when he blocked Matt Barnes layup today) so its obviously not a big deal. And when you consider how much more skilled he gets every year its not big deal, at worst he'll be an excellent athlete instead of BEST ATHLETE IN THE WORLD lol
Eddy Curry checked, made his first basket. Lookin pretty nice out there.