NBA '08 Playoff Thread

I agree completely. If the Spurs can hold serve on their court, then this series is going seven. The Lakers are a very young team and letting the Spurs back up would hurt L.A.'s psyche.
In my opinion, the Lakers will win one of the next two, but all of us know (as sports fans) nothing is ever 100 percent.

 

If I were Pop, I would start the game feeding the ball to Duncan. He needs to shoot between 8-10 shots in the first quarter, then start having the Lakers collapse the defense to him.

That will open up kickouts to Mario and Tony who can drive at the oncoming defender.

I wonder if a half-court trap would work against the Lakers? Working as in getting the ball out of Kobe's hands.

 

Wow, shows what I know -- I figured San An would steal one in L.A. But another great game by Odom and another strong showing from my new favorite Laker Farmar off the pine. When a backup PG outscores both Parker and Manu, you've got issues.
But the same crap happened last series to the Spurs, so don't be surprised if we're at 2-2 in a flash.

 

The thing that makes doubling Kobe so tough is he usually has two shooters and two post/cutters on the court with him at all times. Double him, he's gonna find the guy for the open 3 or layup dunk. I think the best bet is to take away the open 3s, single Kobe and hope he has a bad shooting game from the field. The Lakers' most inconsistent players are Odom and Gasol (scoring wise), so singling those guys, you might get lucky and they don't go off, either.

 

Wow that's profound, if they win the next two their tied at 2.
Doesn't get much more even than that.

 

Yes where could the Celtics ever find a guy, to say, completely take over a decisive game in a series, and drop, oh I don't know, about 41 points. I'm not saying they'll win the series, but I think they've at least answered some questions thus far.

I think it goes seven, but if it doesn't I agree with Rube that they'll all at least be close games; maybe one blowout, but that's at the max.

And I've never been to a game in Detroit, but is it really that much tougher to play there than anywhere else? Do they not have the same annoying PA announcer that everyone else has? Do that not pump up the crowd via inane jumbotron graphics? Do they not pipe in rap and rock music during the timeouts? I find it hard to believe that any crowd can really intimidate a veteran NBA player, and at this point in the season everyone is a vet.

 

We'll soon see, Boobie. A team like the Celtics, which has stars on the wrong side of 30 with little history of winning playoff series, might only have so many bullets in its gun.

Does Paul Pierce have another great game in him? Maybe.

With two series in the can, the only question they've really answered is "After dominating the regular season, how will they do against inferior competition in the playoffs?"

The answer to that, of course, is "They will struggle." Yes, I know . . . "A win is a WIN!!!!!" Not with an older, top-seeded team facing a very down conference.

Now we see what they really bring. I think they'll be found wanting in Detroit.

 

Believe me the first two rounds have been a bit disconcerting. Obviously the aura of invincibility was long ago shattered, and expectations have certainly been adjusted. But I think they have skewed too far the other way now. The dirt has been kicked on the grave many times in the past month and they're still standing. This is a HUGE game tonight. If they lose it they certainly deserve to be questioned. I just don't see the G2 loss -- I think we all knew Detroit wouldn't go home 0-2 -- as some sign of things to come anymore than the G1 win was. They need to show they can win on the road...we'll find out what they have in about 7 hours.

 

We all know the line about opinions...

I'm not losing any sleep over how you feel about the NBA. I just didn't see the point to that post. If you wanted to name something about the sport that bothered you we could have a discussion. But there really wasn't much to be gained from your post IMO.

 

But then it's a three game series with the Lakers holding home court. So it's not even.

 

Anything worse than these NBA introductions? I'm guessing Mason's next gig will be MC'ing in hell.

 

Boston bench and reserves really stepping up here tonight -- something that was absent really in G1 and G2 ... 18 minutes away from its first road win as Detroit can't seem to get anything going against some outstanding C's D.