I've got to go with Kobe on this one

Go f yourself Pierce!

Hmrhed,

"Go f yourself Pierce!"

I take that means you're still feeling "pissed off." haha

AK

I'M SO PROUD OF KOBE!!

Even though he called the "redemption" thing cheesy he has been very patriotic. His country rocks and he rocks for acknowledging it. He is not a millionaire whiner.

THIS IS IMPORTANT

People like Kobe play for pride. The USA team has shown that all other country's leagues are d-leagues. If Kobe moved to Italy and they won a Euro-championship, no one would respect that. I don't think Kobe wants to play in the D-League. If you want real legacy, if you want to be tested, if you want a meaningful championship, you have to stay in the USA / NBA!!!!

Perhaps he'll play in Italy and dominate it when he's 40! Until then . . .

GOOOOoooOOOO USA!!! GOOOOoooOOOO LAKERS!!!!

Gary C,

I actually hadn't seen that piece. But thanks for the heads up. I've since linked it into the post itself.

AK

I guess Ray Allen still thinks he's Jesus Shuttlesworth. Btw I liked that movie.

At least Pierce gave Kobe his credit, probably got too many hate mail around the world for his words.

Hobbit, like I said trying to convince Mr. Teniente to not be as insane would be like trying to make Kwa-may Brown turn into David Robinson in one night. Very low probability of him doing that, both Kwa-may and Mr. Teniente. Mr. Teniente will always write his posts in his ways (90% of it just plain wrong), and don't worry, any obscene post that he or anyone in that matter might make The K bros, will block. In other words, my advice is try to talk more about basketball rather than what Mr. Teniente does or thinks. And I would guess he would trade David Robinson for Kwa-may Brown any given day.

LOL!

"my response: Is Kwame *GOOD* enough to do it without
picking fouls?"

I would say he would be spending more time in the bench. Because once they see Kwa-may's poor skills Coach Michael Curry would be having McDyess again starting at the 4 while Rasheed must bleed will be back at the 5.

"Is that if Sasha plays the same or is that if
Sasha gets better? I would argue that Sasha has gotten
better over the last two years. I would argue that he'll
be better next year. He's a .437% 3 pt. shooter who
plays pesky defense. IF he his ppg goes up 20%, putting
him ~ 10 pts per game and his defense gets 20% better,
that gives us a reasonable defender at the 3. Why
doesn't that get us out of the West?"

Sasha has gotten better but until Kobe gets around 38 Sasha will be a sixth man at best. His defense is good and improving but not yet there.

And don't take anything for granted. Who would have thought the New York Football Giants would have not only made it to the Super Bowl but also frustrate Mr. Tom Brady and the Brady Bunch? Who would have thought both the Hawks and the Cavaliers took the Celitics to 7 games? And who would have thought Rasheed must bleed gave up after Game 5? Who would have thought that the Lakers were to be the 1st Seed in the West and who would have thought we traded the Mr. Butterfingers Soft Marshmallow scrub Kwa-may Brown for Pau Gasol? My guess is that the Lakers again make it to the Finals but who can sure for 100% probability?

"you quoted Jerry West as saying: they are both too slowfooted and will eventually get burned in transition?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyc7EbLrISg

beats Amare StoudeWHINER and The Big Mistake Shaq.

"Gasol is damaged goods"

More like Kwa-may is overrated and Gasol is one of the top 5 power forwards in the league. (After Duncan, Garnett, and maybe Elton Brand). Gasol wins more than Kwa-may.

P.S. This may have been for Lebron, but hey it fits what sort of skills Kwa-may has. Also misses the free throw, like Kwa-may the damaged tin foil can does as well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTmydNz4KE0

Cheers!

GO LAKERS!

I actually watched Kobe and Paul play in Philly back in 96'. It was kind of like watching Errol Flynn go toe-to-toe with Basil Rathbone. Only a very skilled eye could tell the difference. Kobe may have edged him in the dunkadelic category but looked kind of like a jive turkey when he collected a trillion.

Just my take.

When will you Faker Fans understand, it's about the playoffs my "dear in the headlights" friends.

Pierce
Wade
O'neal
Duncan
Parker

What do they all have in common?

Finals MVP as the #1 guy on a CHAMPIONSHIP team.

Oouch, that must hurt my dear.

hobbitmage,

This what you look for. Check out the top 5 defensive teams. And by defensive teams I mean who gives up the least points.

Now this past season, Detroit, Boston and San Antonio were the 3 best defensive teams.

Detroit allowed 90.1
Boston allowed 90.3
San Antonio allowed 90.6

The next team would be Houston with 92.0.

Two points is a big difference. So the drop off from 3 to 4 is big enough to say that Houston really isn't in the class of the top 3.

But after you check that out, then go to the offense of the top defensive teams.

Detroit scored 97.6
Boston scored 100.6
San Antonio scored 95.4

Now when we talk about top defensive teams we need those teams to be a decent offensive team, too. Not the best (Boston at 100.6) but enough to stop people and still score enough to win it all.

Detroit and San Antonio weren't good enough offensively this year to win it all but they were good enough defensively to get to the WCF and ECF.

So you see how the top 3 defensive teams got to the CF for East and the West?

Now the Lakers played a completely different philosophy. They played almost strictly an offense game. They tried to outscore people.

The averaged 108.6 pts per game. But they gave up 101.3 pts a game.

The 101.3 is 19th in the league. To give up more than 100 pts a game is way too much to think you're going to win it all. When you score and give up the pts the Lakers did, then that is a philosophy.

So we had the Lakers beat the Spurs because the Spurs offense was up to par with the Lakers offense. But when the Lakers lost to the Celtics the Lakers defense wasn't up to par with the Celtics offense.

In other words: The Celtics averaged 100.6 pts per game this year. The Lakers defense allowed 100.3 pts per game.

In other words: The Celtics offense, theoretically, wouldn't be disturbed by the Lakers defense. But the Lakers offense would, theoretically, would be greatly disturbed by the Celtics defense.

The Celtics defense allowed 90.3 and the Lakers offense scored 108.6. That's a difference of 18 pts. Something would have to give.

So look at it this way:

Lakers defense allows 100.3
Celtics offense scored 100.6
Lakers offense scored 108.6
Celtics defense allows 90.3

What we have here is two completely different philosophies going at it.

OK, so for the series the Lakers score 88, 102, 87, 91,103, 92 in their games.

The Celtics scored 98, 108, 81, 97, 98,131 in their games.

The Lakers averaged 93.8 pts per game.
The Celtics averaged 102.1 pts per game.

So you can see that the Celtics defense was true to itself. They allowed a team who scored 108.6 pts per game during the regular season and brang them down to a total that was close to what they allowed per game in the regular season, 93.8

That's 15 pts off the Lakers regular season average. Just 3 pts off of the 18 theoretical points if we went off of the regular season numbers.

But the Lakers allowed the Celtics 102.1 pts per game in the finals. So the Lakers defense allowed the Celtics offense to remain the same. In other words: The Lakers defense was same as it was during the regular season in allowing the Celtics to score about the same as they scored in the regular season.

In other words: Those 15 pts the Lakers came up short in their offensive average for the series is the same as saying: THE LAKERS GOT KILLED! And it wasn't an accident.

It's defensive philosophy with a middle of the pack offense vs. a offensive philosophy with a middle of the pack defense.

The Boston defense MANHANDLED the Lakers offense, while the Lakers defense allowed exactly what the Boston offense averaged in the regular season.

mike t.

One more thing Xodus.

I know you and I have posted Pau's good defense against Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett. Know this: you already won your argument. The people who bash Pau's defense basically are making claims with no statistics backing them up. All they can say is to say personal insults to these great players just like KL did to Kobe and now Mr. Teniente does to Pau. Ooh Pau fell from Kobe or that the Lakers lost by big margins in Game 6! Boo-hoo, Kwa-may got pushed both offensively and defensively by Amare Stoudemire and even Steve Nash and the Lakers got whooped at Staples Center by the Dallas Mavericks and lost by 34 when Kwa-may was on the team.

See what I mean Xodus?

Pau already has proved he is a good defender and not as soft as Kwa-may is. Let the Stoudewhiners keep up their personal insults, it's actually humorous and sometimes fun to blow up their fact-less arguments.

Lakers averaged 101 points with Pau, and 103 points with Kwa-may and if 2 points is significant then Pau is greater than Kwa-may at defense!

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/LAL/2007.html

Good day!

plus the Lakers, hobbit made their teams shoot less percentage this year than they did last year.

Lakers 2006-2007 (with Kwa-may)--46.1%, 103.4 points given up.

Lakers 2007-2008 (With Bynum then Pau)--44.5% with 101.3 points given up.

Also got more Steals and Blocks in 07-08.

Thanks for playing Hobbit!

AK - [A]ny thoughts on what would be a better nickname?
---

What we're doin' - Ream Team.
How playin ain't misbehavin - Esteem Team.

***

AK - Or were you like me and couldn't care less if Pierce believes he's better than Kobe...
---
Could care less: Pierce WHO?

Speaking of the bronze team though...

Why was no one talking of Tim Duncan? I mean dude is two time MVP, and he couldn't lead us in his game (the international game)---his game coz his squad is really more a euro team, his game included---to the promise land?

Plenty blamed AI. But I think there are certain players that deserved blame as well.

Also a note on the Triangle offense.

The triangle offense is designed to make sure after every shot whether it goes in or not that 2 people are in the back court by to prevent fast break points and to set up the defense. This is a point validated by both Tex Winter and Phil Jackson.

According to "The Last Season" Phil Jackson says this.

"So much of playing effective defense is what is linked to what happens at the other end, a point we made repatedly in Hawaii. If the triangle offense is properly executed, our players will be in a position for a balanced defensive retreat. Two players in addition to the shooter will have the opportunity to rebound any misses forcing the defense to stay home until the ball is secured. Consequently, often teams possessing quicker, younger legs, won't be able to run as freely on us." When turnovers happens like they did in that game against Memphis with Pau Gasol shutting down the Lakers with 95 points. And this was the Lakers with Kobe, Shaq, Payton, and Malone.

What happened in Game 6 was this: the offense turned over the ball over 18 timess, that is over 36 points surrendered and thats just with 2 pointers. Simply the Lakers system is for offense. Without turnovers the Lakers defense is set.

"Detroit and San Antonio weren't good enough offensively this year to win it all but they were good enough defensively to get to the WCF and ECF."

Nothing else proves my point:
Offense and Defense wins always.

It's what Kwa-may Brown could never do.

The Detroit Pistons, whom you said were also better than the Lakers last season, had a point differential of 7.4 (just barely ahead of the Lakers) and they're a team with a defensive philosophy as well.

Their 10 point differntial proves that they were among the best (single season) teams of all-time. Not that they play with a defensive philosophy. There are lots of teams with a defensive philosophy (Spurs, Pistons--the modern and Bad Boy) who never sniffed a 10 point per game differential.

HmrHed,

"dude rubs me the wrong way -- from his gang sign thing, to the phantom knee injury, to his sloppy smirk, to his hot and cold comments. I'm not a fan."

No doubt. The guy's a jerk.

I hope he gets run over by a truck, crippled and horribly disfigured (if that's possible for him).

GO LAKERS!

Full analysis about who might be better, Kobe or LeBron at NBA Gauntlet. Kobe is getting his rear handed to him right now.

Lebron Versus Kobe?

No brainer. Lebron all the way. You'll see, this isn't Starlet Bryant's league anymore. Last season is the farewell to a falling star.

Lebron has proven to be a skilled player and teammate. Kobe has proven to be a skilled player, but a horrible teammate.

When the compliment to Kobe is that "he's a good teammate this year", one needs to ask, "what about the other 12 years?".

Paul Pierce Versus Kobe?

Finals MVP baby! Need I say more? KG and Allen didn't want to play in LA with The Starlet.

I'll add, Lebron and Dwayne Wade are the leaders of Team USA son.

hahaahah

BK,

>>>>>I missed the conclusion of your post about bullying- I'd ask (of you, Mike, and
>>>>>everyone else for that matter) for everyone to lay off the personal attacks.
>>>>>I realize Mike does do his best to provoke (Mike, I think that's certainly fair to say)
>>>>>but again, the arguments need to be about basketball, not somebody's
>>>>>background or personal life.

Brian, I agree and do apologize to you and to Mike. That was a cheap shot but Mike makes it so appealing that sometimes you just cannot resist. And I don’t really want to disappoint him. LOL. It’s like Mrs. LakerTom says, the trolls are the distractions that keep us from devouring each other. Ban them and then real blood would flow. LOL. Anyway, I will try to be good.

And tell Andy not to feed LGC. After all the damn lectures he gave us about trolls, he goes and gives the little runt a shout out. Now we’ll never get rid of the stupid pest until we trounce the Celtics next year.

Tom

No they didn't average 100 points per game any way you cut it. Game 6 was an aberration and the first 5 games are a much better sample size. They were competitive in each of the first 5 games, Game 6 was a game where the Lakers were entirely overwhelmed.

There's no ignoring that the Celtics averaged 96 points per game on 42% shooting unless you have an agenda.

And the Lakers CAN win a title. They could have won a title if they didn't run into a team that had a historically great defense and is the ONLY non-Bulls team in the past 30 years that had a point differential of 10 points or higher. With the loss of Posey and the age of guys like their big 3 and a bit of complacency after winning a title it's likely they won't be THAT good again.

Let's go C's

You aren't very bright are you. You don't seem to understand that if the Lakers are as bad a team as you suggest, then the Celtics are a mediocre championship team at best, considering they lost two games to the Lakers.

But you're too dumb to understand that.

squid,

The C's gave one game away and the other, Game 5, was very winnable.

I'll give your Fakers credit for beating a tough western conference, but in the end, TEAM DEFENSE and togetherness will beat out the individualistic approach of the Fakers.

The Lakers don't really play team ball. It's Kobe's playgound and he'll "give" his teammates opportunities.

Remember "I can get off at anytime and I did"? Why in the world would someone say that? How about "the team is very capable of getting off"?

Hello?

How about this one?

"I'll bet you anything that Bynum is going to need microfacture surgery."

8 months later Bynum has yet to have microsurgery. You shouldn't bet so much.

And what about this gem of a conversation between BK and Mike.

BK: "Memphis may be building around defense, but not around Kwame. He won't be on the Grizzlies next year. Or if he is, it'll be at a big, big discount. They're trying to shed payroll. Big odds say he'll be on another team next season."

Mike T: "You don't know that."

Uh, anyone without an agenda knew this.

"Brian, I agree and do apologize to you and to Mike. That was a cheap shot but Mike makes it so appealing that sometimes you just cannot resist. And I don’t really want to disappoint him. LOL. It’s like Mrs. LakerTom says, the trolls are the distractions that keep us from devouring each other. Ban them and then real blood would flow. LOL. Anyway, I will try to be good.

And tell Andy not to feed LGC. After all the damn lectures he gave us about trolls, he goes and gives the little runt a shout out. Now we’ll never get rid of the stupid pest until we trounce the Celtics next year."

_____________________________________________

Can you believe the logic of this guy? One paragraph he apologizes and the next he insults for the same type of thing he just apologized for.

What type of mentality is that?

Mike T. is a bully but then he calls me Four eyes. Four eyes is a term used by bullies in grade school isn't it?

This guy is so twisted that he doesn't even see what he's doing.

You insult the Lakers! And I'm here to defend the cause! Four eye! Pest!

And this type of logic is the same type of logic that has the Lakers scoring 120 pts per game next season. And the cold thing about that is this: He actually believed that until his own crowd told him it was impossible. Then he acted like he was exaggerating. He wasn't exaggerating. He was serious! Again: this is the type of logic that projects the Lakers to win it all next season?

mike t.