Real time game thread- Lakers at Hawks
February 6, 2008 | 4:06
pm
It's the second go round for Pau Gasol as a Laker, and a potential trap game for his new team. The Hawks are all bouncy and young, and run around a lot. They've also just capped off a 4-11 January. Still, they've won two straight, and are 14-9 at home. All in all, it's a game the Lakers should win, but they need to pay attention.
Remember, KCAL viewers, stay away from this one. And the Internet in general, until 5:30.
BK
The team looked tired last night. Very little energy to the game, especially when we went up by 8, the fellas got lackadaisical thinking the game was over. You just can't do that on the road, or at home for that matter.
Al Horford gave out the most energy and it equaled out to 20 boards and a win.
But, and this is a big but, the good teams win the games they are supposed to win. Our guys better step it up, talent alone doesn't win games.
If Kobe can't be Kobe, maybe he should just run the offense when we need a score in crunch time.
I thought Sasha had made the right play at the end there until I realized we didn't have any timeouts. I'm sure Sasha was thinking the same thing. That's a learning experience for Sasha, I'm not worried about that. Sasha is pretty clutch with his shot and we'll need him out there in those situations. So I don't mind him making a mistake in that situation, I know he's beating himself up over it and probably won't do it again.
I'm not really worried about this game because we've always played down to our competition during the Phil Jackson era. I don't know why that is. Maybe Phil manipulates the game to create those clutch situations for his players. I didn't really see any evidence of that yesterday, but it just seems to go that way a lot of times.
Go Lakers!
Posted by: Rocky | February 07, 2008 at 08:04 AM
I like LO, but he doesn't seem to have the biggest vocabulary on the team.
Posted by: Xodus | February 07, 2008 at 08:31 AM
Rocky,
I thought the same thing. I didn't mind Sasha driving to the hoop until I realized we didn't have any timeouts left.
I also think Kobe should have sat this game out. We may or may not have won the game, but at least his finger may have been a little better against Orlando tomorrow.
Hopefully keeping his finger wrapped up and iced today will help him for tomorrow night.
Posted by: Xodus | February 07, 2008 at 08:55 AM
everyone talks about shaq that is too old for a long game ....same is FISH ...and yesFarmar had 3-4 bad games .... from the moment Java left.
out point gard situation as effort and defense is a big FFFFFF
Posted by: Zin Master | February 06, 2008 at 06:37 PM
I completely agree. I think we will sorly miss Crit and I hope when his contract ends he can become FA and we gert him back. I bet if Crit was on Lue he would have stayed with him and with his size would have blocked or altered those shots. That is why he was so valuable, size, speed, court vision and creates shots for himself and others. He was developing special bondwith Bynum. Well again maybe he would not have guarded Lue because as usual PJ would not let him play.
We could have had a backcourt of Farmar and Crit each pushing each other, when Fish retires.
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This game means nothing
Kobey 4-16
Gasol 5-14
no bench and we still almost won
also
Hawks played as good as they could
Lakers played poor and we lost by 3 on the road
I can live with that
Posted by: shneurson | February 06, 2008 at 06:42 PM
I can't live with that. Another pointless loss costing us positioning in playoffs. I think it was a team loss especially blame to PJ. I don't know why V Rad was not played in the 2nd half as he was hot. I did notice that when he left the game he was grimacing as if in pain and was holding his shorts in the groin area. Hopefully he did not pull a groin muscle. PJ had shot rotation for b2b game. Why little of Turiaff and no Mbenga. At least he could have helped on rebounding.
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One thing I did like very much: Kobe's reaction after Sasha's brain cramp. Very calm. Very understated. The look on his face was very much "what the #@^% were you thinking, dude?" And I'm sure he asked Sasha something along those lines. But he didn't getting visibly agitated or tear into him. In the past, Kobe might have. Very good leadership on his part. Sasha knew immediately that he effed up and the last thing he needs is to be reminded in harsh terms.
Good showing by 24 under frustrating circumstances.
AK
Posted by: Andrew Kamenetzky | February 06, 2008 at 08:00 PM
I saw that but also think another Vet like Fish should have given that same disgusting look and speech when he tried to dribble behind back and turned the ball over. He too makes mistakes and should be reminded of that to keep his head in the game. Don't try to do too much when you are injued.
Posted by: JustaLakerFan | February 07, 2008 at 09:14 AM