Lakers Blog

"The player the Jazz needed to show up was Carlos Boozer, who was clearly outplayed by Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol, who turned the league’s top power forward into a non-factor."

Best Forward in the League??? Boozer???? Surely you forgot about that guy that plays power forward for the Spurs with 4 rings. Hands down he's been the best powerforward in the leauge for about 10 years now.....no dig at you personally here but Boozer is not close to that Duncan guy in PF comparisons...

Posted by: jhnlannery | May 16, 2008 at 11:56 PM

complex,

With Pau at center, the Lakers have a good shot to win it all. With Drew at center, the Lakers are heavy favorites to win it all.

With Pau at center, there is parity in the league. With Drew at center, the Lakers will become the league’s dominant team.

What is funny is that none other than Charles Barkley has finally climbed aboard the Andrew Bynum bandwagon saying that the Lakers will dominate the next five years.

And I still believe there is a remote chance that we will see Drew in the NBA Finals against the Pistons or (I hope) the Celtics.

Great game. Thank God Utah couldn’t make one more 3. At least they went out shooting, which will make their summer less tortuous. Or will it? Missed opportunities that they will never see again once Drew takes over at the 5. Sloan knows it, though.

Enjoy the replay in the cave. This Laker team is the greatest ever to root for.

Tom

Posted by: LakerTom | May 16, 2008 at 11:58 PM

TO PHRED:

Point taken, we did win. The fact that we're all throwing out some criticism at certain moments or players doesn't mean we're mad, sad or suddenly turned into haters. In my case it's just a chance to discuss through posting one's personal observatiions about what we saw and what we liked and disliked about our beloved team's performance.. No harm intended here and not at all looking at the glass as half empty, very very very satisfied with the ousting of a worthy Jazz team at their gym and that we are in the WCF for the first time in the Post Shaq era for sure!!!!

Regarding who I prefer LA plays?
Honestly don't have a preference, both teams are going to be a tough series regardless of if it's NO or SA. Both present some tough matchups: Duncan and Parker particularly for SA and CP3 and West (if healthy) for NO. I just want us to rest for now and enjoy the series win and the fact we will be at home rested when game 1 comes.

Posted by: jhnlannery | May 17, 2008 at 12:09 AM

Zin Master

What does Radmanovich have to do to get consistent minutes?

Posted by: pfunk36 | May 16, 2008 at 08:34 PM

play for a different coach

That's funny............but you may be correct

chuck23,

I agree you may be right so I say get Byron Scott to coach the Lakers.

JLF
=============================================
>>>The Lakers need to start looking for a solid backup for
>>>DFish next year because Farmar lacks the fortitude to
>>>keep us ahead in the western conference.

I beg to differ. Jordan is in his second year at point guard,
which is the hardest position to play at the NBA level. And
because he has been behind a seasoned vet this post
season, and Fisher is playing VERY well, Jordan has
never been in a game for very long. He's also shot poorly
(in limited shot attempts), which has probably hurt his
confidence a bit.

In the regular season, Jordan was getting 20 minutes a
game, which is enough time to establish a rhythm & get
into the flow of the game. Thus in the regular season,
he got 9.1 points a game shooting 46% overall and 37% on
3-pointers.

Then against Denver, PJ shortened the rotation, so Jordan
got only 16 minutes a game against Denver, and then 13
minutes a game against Utah, and with each progressive
reduction in minutes, he performed poorer.

I hope the Lakers have at least one blowout game in the
WCF, as it would be nice for Jordan to get to play the
whole fourth quarter to get some shots in and get his
confidence back. The Lakers would have a much easier
time against Detroit or Boston if Jordan was playing like
he played during the regular season when the finals
roll along.

But I still say that there will be at least one game in these
playoffs when Farmar makes some solid contributions.
Remember all those end-of-quarter threes at the end of
the season and the first round? Expect to see a couple
in the next round.

Posted by: Long Time Laker Fan | May 16, 2008 at 11:40 PM

Dang LTLF a lot of words to say Farmar did not suck this series or play offs.

But truth be told he did. I agree with assesment our #1 priority is to get an experienced pg younger than Fish and older than Farmar who can DEFEND , penetrate and dish. I think then Farmar can be brought along more slowly as you noted he is a sophmore guard.

JLF

============================================

Why is everyone whining about Jordan? Farmar has hardly been the criminal of the Bench Mob tonight.

Posted by: Rick Friedman | May 16, 2008 at 09:54 PM

Yes he has and not just tonight but entire series. See above.

JLF
===========================================

Posted by: pfunk36 | May 16, 2008 at 09:01 PM

I hate to say it, but no reason to re-sign Ronny.

Posted by: Rick Friedman | May 16, 2008 at 09:53 PM

What? No reason except hustle defense strong offense and excellant team player. I think he is very valuable and I would make him way more priority than Farmar when JF time comes. Unless of course he picks his game up a lot by then.

JLF

Posted by: JustaLakerFan | May 17, 2008 at 02:17 AM

Man, we defintely should let Farmer go, he is just another Smush parker.

Posted by: xk | May 16, 2008 at 11:06 PM

I don't know about that. We need a more experienced pg next year to back up Fish and develop Farmar more slowly.

But heck I wish we still had Critter.

Posted by: JustaLakerFan | May 17, 2008 at 02:24 AM

Finally we are the talk of the league. Who would have thought we could close the series in utah? The toughest place to play. Go lakers!

Posted by: Dice8up | May 17, 2008 at 03:31 AM

Alex,
"wtf man, utah fans throwing trash at our bench? chanting lakers suck? they deserved this loss and i'm glad their fans got a nice run at the end that fell just short. must hurt realllll bad for utah fans. "

No, it doesn't hurt for them. They can still look up at the division champs and western conference champs banners hanging from the ceiling.

Posted by: exhelodrvr | May 17, 2008 at 07:09 AM

Korey,

I stand by the ranking. This is because I don't just take into account contributing numbers, but negative contributions and KEY contributions.

Pau is at the bottom not because of his positive contributions, but because he had too many negative contributions (and too few KEY contributions) which offset whatever he did positive.

For example, Lamar is #1 not because he scored a ton of points, but because he got key rebounds, made key freethrows, and played solid defense.

Pau missed too many shots that led to transition points for the Jazz, and he made too many turnovers that did the same thing. In addition, while he had some key blocks, his defense was spotty, at best.

Posted by: troy | May 17, 2008 at 07:26 AM

nice that kobe and fisher can get some rest now. ariza will also have some more time to get conditioned. i think we'll probably try to get a backup point for competition, but that said, i think farmar will get back on track. i hope the trainers improve over the offseason. we've had way too many injuries. we will be even more amazing when drew gets back.

Posted by: bob | May 17, 2008 at 07:27 AM

Paul Lee,

You're right. Someone like you shouldn't argue when you know you'll get beat down. I back up all my contentions with careful analysis and the majority of my predictions are accurate.

Good to know who to tangle with.

Posted by: troy | May 17, 2008 at 07:28 AM

pfunk, my friend,

Overall contributions versus negative contributions is the key here. Don't be awed by Kobe's 30 point games. Now look, I'm the biggest Kobe fan here, so I'm not knocking him. But you have to say that it was Lamar doing the little things that allowed us to beat this tough Jazz team.

The best way I can think of it is this. Lamar, to me, is the fuel and Kobe is the turbo unit. You need the fuel to stay in the race, but you need the turbo to to pull ahead. Of course, if the turbo fails, then the boost of speed you counted on to win isn't there, and you lose.

Think about it.

Posted by: troy | May 17, 2008 at 07:32 AM

Gotta love how the trolls comments are edited out of this thread. I know I know, they are annoying and aggravating but I can't believe that the LA times is censoring the comments that they don't agree with, even the mormons in Utah don't do in the Salt Lake Tribune threads.

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