NBA Playoffs Thread

Great to see Dirk mix it up and go to the hole. I have not seen the Mavs play much this season, has been like this all year?

D Fish seems like a good guy but man does he need to retire. The fould he comitted was turrible. Lakers looked dead tonite except for Gasol finally crashing the boards with 16 seconds left, too little way too late.

 

Hate the Lakers with a passion, and I loathe Kobe Bryant like few players ever. But... I also respect them for their ability and their achievements, even with Kobe as the main squeeze. If this is the end of the line for this particular Lakers team, well, it's been a pretty good run (the bastards ;D).

 

Beyond the story of the Lakers going down, the bigger story might be the likelihood that this time they will STAY DOWN for a looong time.

Just look at their rotation--Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Ron Artest, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom--that's some VERY old overused legs with a zillion miles on the collective odometer carrying the lion's share of the load. And the one young guy in the lineup, Bynum, is notoriously injury prone with crappy knees.

Hard to see LA bouncing back next year, or anytime for quite a long time after a long rebuilding. During their last oh so brief down period after Shaq left, they at least still had the best damn player in the game in Kobe, then they add Pau in one of the more suspiciously one sided trades ever and, presto bango bongo, they're right back on top. But there will be no leftover superstars this time, looks like the Lakers might finally be in store for a wholesale rebuilding.

One of the more startling little factoids is that the Lakers haven't experienced more than two consecutive sub-.500 seasons since 1961, that's 50 STRAIGHT YEARS (http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/LAL/). Even as an avowed Laker disliker, I must say that's an astonishing record of sustained excellence, rivaled perhaps only by the record for sustained crap of their housemate Clippers.

I've a hard time seeing how they'll avoid that streak ending when the wreckage from this crew simultaneously checking out comes. And if they somehow avoid it via yet another astonishingly (and suspiciously) one-sided Wilt, Magic, Kareem, Pau type trade, I might be the one you see firing shots from the clocktower on NBA headquarters.

 

Can we please end the myth that the Pau Gasol trade was awful for the Grizzlies?

 

Still don't get the Pau hate. Odom's underachieving and he's supposed to be the guy to match up with Nowitzki. Fisher looks old and committed a stupid foul with the game on the line. Blake was decent tonight, but awful the first two games. Ditto for Brown. Barnes has been terrible. Kobe's being uncharacteristically passive.

The only one who is playing better than his usual station in life is Bynum.

I was expecting Gasol to struggle some. Not only is Dirk an impossible guard for him, on the other end, Dirk takes Gasol's biggest strength, his length. Gasol is a 7-footer with wingspan playing power forward and he can just go up over the typical 6-10 NBA power forward. He has a harder time doing that with Dirk and certainly he can't just go up over Chandler, one of the better defensive centers in the league, and Haywood. Dirk's not a great defender, but Gasol isn't equipped with the quickness to take advantage of Dirk's weakness. Dirk is slower than most power forwards, but probably a bit quicker than some centers that Gasol is quick enough to go around.

So, to me, it's a predictable struggle because this isn't the best matchup for Gasol.

The Lakers' best matchups, to me, are Bryant vs. anybody (Who on the Mavs can match up?) and Odom being able to defend and score against Dirk better than most bigs Dirk faces, thus compromising Dallas' best player. So far, neither of those advantages have worked for the Lakers. That's not Gasol's fault.

Yet, to watch Phil, to read the board and to listen to LA's fans, it's all Gasol's fault.

 

Oh, it's easy to despise the off-the-charts douche quotent that is Kobe Bryant.

 

RIP Lakers. The circle of life.

 

I can't see the Lakers being down for a long time. With that market and the owner's checkbook, they'll always find a way to entice the big time free agents to come play in Lalaland in front of all the celebs.

 

Using that logic, there are about 11,500 14-year-olds on this board rooting against the Heat.

Now THAT sounds more 14-year-oldish. Rooting for a winning team does not make you a better or more accomplished person, nor is it any reason to feel pride (how can you feel pride over something for which you had zero input and were nothing but a spectator?). It can bring more joy and satisfaction, perhaps. But that's really it.

 

Does there come a point where Scott Brooks just tells Westbrook he has to pass to Durant?

 

When did Rondo stop wearing the headband?