NBA 2012: Running thread

He played starters minutes. He could not do this on OKC, it would not fit. This is also what Makes him a pretty goddamn good player that he was unselfish enough to play within the team.

The team asks you to sacrifice but yet come contract time they throw it in your face, good on him. OKC should pay for this.

 

Meanwhile, Lin added 21-10-7 and Asik didn't score but grabbed 19 rebounds.

 

Harden's early start makes his performance in the Finals even more baffling. He was wretched. Forget playing like this; if he had played like he did the regular season OKC probably wins that series, even with LeBron going nuts.

 

Think we can safely say the Lakers are in trouble. It's not the losing, it's that they're getting their heads beat in during every third quarter. Mike Brown is Coach Checkers.

 

How long can they go before they HAVE to make a change? 0-5? 0-9

Problem is, do you just scrap the offense you've been working on for months and try to install a whole new philosophy? Try to run the triangle? Let Nash just push the ball and figure out the rest?

I think they have to stick with this and hope it starts to click. And as I said above, get Metta a bus ticket to New York in return for some old cable boxes.

 

Whenever the Lakers do get it going -- if? - the good news is that Kobe is still Kobe. Three games: 61 percent shooting, 30.6 ppg. Of course they're also terrible and this season wasn't supposed to be 2006.

Norrin's right. It's not just the losing; they haven't even been close to winning. 60-plus turnovers in three games as well (some I suppose you attribute to the new offense, for rationalization purposes).

The bench is bad, bad. I'd like Farmar and Sasha to return from purgatory.

I don't think Brown goes. If he does, would be fun to see who they might get: Sloan? Still hoping they can go back in time and hire Adelman.

Somehow I'm not even worked up yet. Even though it's now 13 losses and counting in a row.

 

Two games in, the Rockets seem to be setup very well. Harden seems like a superstar, Lin seems like a great compliment to finish the backcourt, Asik seems like a rebounding and defensive beast and they have a deep bench (rookies aren't even playing). They are missing that third option offensively and they have enough cap room to offer a max contract next season.

If they can someone like Josh Smith in the offseason they will be a contender. An offense run by Lin, Harden and Smith would be good and defensively they would be ridiculously good with Smith and Asik, plus people like Parsons.

 

It would seem the team is setup to have a slow, half court offense run through a center. They have no real athleticism. If they slowed the game down they wouldn't be so hampered by it. That of course doesn't fit Nash and doesn't fit Kobe.

 

The West should again be ridiculously fun this year while the East will be, well, the East. Spurs, Thunder, Grizzlies, Clippers, Lakers (hey), Denver (0-2), Rockets, Mavs if Dirk is eventually okay, Portland, and then the Wolves, who could be pretty tough if they can hang in there while Love and Rubio are out. Deep team. Kirilenko is going to be a great pickup and Roy is a 100 percent improvement over Wes Johnson, even though he couldn't hit a jumper tonight.

 

Big problem is, as some Lakers reporters noted on twitter, Kobe goes into the "Mamba offense" when they're losing. He cannot do that all the time, not at 34. They have some things to figure out.

And that bench is horrific.

 

Also Brown is apparently ready to play Kobe 38 minutes a game again all season. Argh. 42 tonight.

Bright side: 1991 Chicago Bulls started 0-3. And hey, they too were coached by a guy who had never won a title.

*grasping*

 

Never fashioned this a title team.

But thought it would at least show up. Parts don't fit right now.