[::Official PHX Suns @ LA Lakers THURSDAY (1/17) 7:30pm PT TNT::]

[CP1708]

So to recap, Walton equaled nothing, Kwame less than Walton, Fish for some reason did nothing, and Bynum didn't play.

Diaw had the game of his life, Nash had 20 assists which apparently means the Suns are "unbeatable", Marion was big, Barbosa was a killer and Stathad his usual dunks over nobody and then acted like he's good. He even shook a little when Jim Gray mentioned Bynum at the half.

And the Suns were up 6 with a mintue to go in the game.

Props to the Suns, they got the win and stopped our streak. But anybody who thinks the Suns actually have a chance to do anythng this year are in denial. Afull strength Laker team waxes the Suns again and really starts their fans on some crying sprees. We'll get it next game.


Ya gotta feel bad for Kwame.......that was painful to watch. We do need that guy to step up though in Drew's absence. Hopefully he'll get a few gamesunder his belt and get a rhythm going. Have patience guys.

 

[lamarownsem]

Where was Fisher? The last time we played the Suns he kept attacking Nash, but this game he barely did anything at all.

A few of you are still mad about Odom missing his layups, but on almost all of them he rebounded them and either put them back in or kept the ball for anotherpossession.

Kobe did what he should have. Score about 30 taking 20-25 shots and trying to get everyone else involved. It's just that some of our guys didn't stepup that we needed to.

Our rotation defense was terrible. Open looks down the stretch killed us.

We have to take better shots and draw more fouls around the basket. 11 blocks is way too many. Luke kept trying to lay it up when Stoudemire was facing himwaiting to block it.

Kwame just needs confidence. He makes decent moves around the basket but he just can't finish. If the fans encourage him early on Monday, maybe he'llplay well the rest of the game. Wishful thinking.

Props to Jordan, Ronny, and Sasha stepping up off the bench.

Considering how badly we played on defense and early in the game, we only lost by 8. Had Luke and Fisher provided more, I think we would have won.

 

[flydaily]

Originally Posted by CP1708

Stat had his usual dunks over nobody and then acted like he's good.

so true

 

[cthakid]

suns put it down this time.

 

[licensed to ball]

Ok well, now that ive cooled off a bit im going to post my thoughts.

First off, hats off to the Suns and good game ZoDogg. The Suns completely out played us, by a mile. From the start it seemed like they just came out of thegates on fire, and we couldn't do anything about it. Without Andrew's presence in the middle, STAT just went to work. Our defense was just too slow, weweren't able to close down on picks and we left everyone with way too many shots.

ZoDogg, remember your reaction after the first Lakers vs. Suns game this year, at PHX? when we killed you guys, you said that it was just one of those nightsyou couldn't do anything about because players like Ronny Turiaf and Sasha Vujacic were hitting shots and when those garbage players hit shots you justdon't have a chance. Well, thats how i felt tonight about Boris Diaw. The dude is garbage, i watched the Clipper Suns game the other night and he lookedcompletely pathetic and outta sync, dude just annoys me because for some crazy reason he seems to just go on fire against the lakers and hit a whole bunch ofshots. Yes, i know he was wide open, i know he is a NBA player and making wide open shots shouldn't be a problem for NBA players, well i dont care. Diawcommitted highway robbery with his contract extension, and he is stealing money from your organization. It just makes me so angry that he was one of the keyreasons we lost last night (with Nash's help of course)

Anyways, about us...jeezus, you know things are going bad for you when your home crowd boo's you. Kwame brown...he is so pathetic, that ZoDogg didn'teven bother wasting his time addressing his garbage play. Im sure ZoDogg spit some of his beer out in laughter when he saw how stupid kwame looked out there

-Sasha? Who the F do you think you are? okay, you come in and you give us a spark, you make a couple BIG shots and you put us back into the game. But when kobecomes back in, theres a reason why he is the best scorer in the NBA and your coming off the bench. Pass the DAMN ball. Sasha just went crazy, the crowd cheereda lil bit for him and his confidence went through the roof, jacking up everything, throwin up shots from miles away and just annoying the hell outta me.

-lamar, *sigh*, i dunno i guess you played pretty well tonight. Of course on paper, people will come in and say how can you not be impressed with Lamar...blahblah blah... well, i dont mean to be greedy but we NEED MORE than what we gave us. Yes, i know its a lot to ask, but if hes going to wear that Star on his headfor one third of the season (which im glad to see he doesn't have anymore)...then he needs to start playing like one.
-Kobe, you did all you can do man. Im not going to act like you played perfect though, far from it, but you tried your hardest. Kobe's defensive energykept giving us chances to turn things around and turn up the intensity, but it never quite happened until it was too late. Look guys, im usually a level headedfan, and i offered unbiased, fair, balanced criticism about everyone, but i just cant quite criticize kobe this game. I will be the first person to say that hedidnt play well if it was the case, but the man tried his hardest to have confidence in his team and carry the scoring load. His shot was kind of off, hewasn't exactly ON FIRE tonight, but he hit some big shots. Most people were probably screaming at their televisions in the third quarter, saying "Giveit to kobe, thats enough...KOBE stop passing...KOBE shoot!!!"... but the dude kept passing, he kept tryin to give confidence to his team. He kept tryin tobe a team player, and eventually he noticed that it just wasnt working, the lead was growing larger and larger, so then towards the end of the 3rd he tried totake over and score. He did a nice job, but D'antoni was quick to stop any type of momentum that Kobe was going to create. All of a sudden Kobe wasbombarded with loads of double teams and triple teams, and he could do nothing but pass (unless you want him to be a 98' kobe bryant who will still shootover triple teams...and i sure dont). So you did good kobe, you didn't do GREAT, but you did good.
-Farmar...good performance for you bro, appreciated the spark and the monster 3 at the end of the first. You played pretty well, need to be quicked on D butall said you did what you were asked to do coming off the bench...for the most part.
-Fish...where were you tonight? Did you even show up to staples?

-Luke...wtf are you thinking tryin to post up Marion? The dude just OWNS you. Marion was just beastin on defense against luke, he read everything that he wasgoing to do. Luke couldn't have telegraphed all of his moves any better. If the first three times you post up marion don't work, DONT DO IT AGAIN.

Take a jumper, pass the ball, do somethin else, Marion had you figuredout too well defensively, jeez.

Overall...I wont lie guys. We deserved to lose tonight. It hurt, dont get me wrong, it hurt a lot...but i wont front, we deserved to get our%%!$%# woopedtonight. The first 3 quarters were some of the most pathetic laker basketball ive ever seen in my entire life. It was so frustrating to watch, i had my head ina pillow, just screaming in anger. We turned the intensity up in the 4th, but cmon, thats way too late against the suns. They arent the kind of team that willjust break down and start missing shots, allowing us to come back. They will continue to consistently hit most of their shots, so its not easy to come back ina short span of time. ZoDogg, you guys should of beatin us by like 30 tonight. You guys should of been leading by 20 after the 1st quarter, but for some reasonyou guys almost let us come back in it. I wasn't impressed with that...we played some of the worst basketball in NBA history for some stretches, and youguys couldn't expand the lead past like 9 in those stretches? I mean, i know you had control of the game and thats all that matters, but damn as anoffensively explosive team such as the suns you would expect that they would capitalize on our lack of effort and intensity. Regardless though, you guys wonthe game, and you deserved to win it, but im not too impressed with the Suns. They made a lot of open shots, which is what they are expected from them, so imean...ehhh

No excuses for this game, we got our%%!$%# handed to uss...but We can still put a woopin on ya'll in full strength

 

[lalakerfan213]

We played bad defense, and the Suns were just too much for us to handle last night.

 

[frenchblue23]

A better team would've blown us out of our own building, but since it was the Suns who don't play defense, we were able to come back and make it close. Kwame seriously, I would trade you for a piece of dirt right now....

Exactly what I suggested happened... to feed the ball to Kwame, but the end result, was not what I expected.

Our team defense was non-existent, and everyone was trying to create their own shot, even Luke.

Nonetheless, the Suns beat us, and they actually played like they wanted it more than the Lakers did.

Oh well, let's gear up for monday.

 

[noblekane]

Originally Posted by 23ska909red02

me:

---

Is the Lakers bench good enough to be a elite team? Nope.

Is our defense enough to make us an elite team? Nope.

Is the coaching staff enough to make us an elite team? Nope.

Is Phil good enough to make us an elite team? Nope.

But is our bench, defense, coaching staff, and Phil, along with our veterans, youth, perimeter shooting, perimeter defense, transition offense, transition defense, and post defense, good enough to make us an elite team?

Apparently, because we are.

That why I said in my original response to you: TEAM. I don't think you get that concept, because you keep trying to single things out ("Is our bench good enough?") You keep singling things out, and that's not a basketball-smart (or sport-smart) perspective; it's ignorant (uneducated).

Like the notion that if we blow the Suns out tonight, I'm right and you're wrong. Why single tonight's game out?

Why single anything out? One player, one night, one aspect of the team... anything?

That's ignorant, in terms of sports knowledge. Ask the best coaches in any sport and they'll tell you the same thing; you can't single things out. You have to see the whole, not the individual parts.

NobleKane:

---

you were saying? no really....you were saying?

= "I told you so."

I was saying that you're a basketball genius, and that you know everything about basketball because we got blown out tonight. I should listen to everything you say about basketball becuase of this one night.

This one night didn't support what I was saying earlier, so that means I know nothing, you know everything, and we should all defer to your infitine basketball wisdom.

Becuase of this one single game.

Because single games mean everything.

















I was saying that you're ignorant about basketball and any semblance of the phrases 'team concept' and 'overall picture.' Take this game tonight and chalk it up as a personal victory for yourself, on some "I told you so" tip.

Son, that was on damn game. That doesn't mean that you're right, and that the reason for our success this season is ONLY because of Kobe and Fisher. Do they play a part? Have they played a part? OF COURSE. Are they the... THE... reason for our success?

It would take a lot of ignorance to believe that they are.

all i am saying is get off your high horse dickie vitale. who are you to question my knowledge of the game....? or that what i say is ignorant anduneducated. Your opinion aint no better than mine so drop the "Kobe" act as you would put it

When the Suns are playing their game they are the best team in the NBA.
as for this comment, this is one of the funniest things ive read all year

the suns game does not include defense or any type of post game... whoever is running the suns organization needs to realize that this team will NEVER win atitle unless they fire dantoni...

 

[darthska]

^ Keep reaching.

Stop trying so hard to cut me down.

You mean to tell me you would NOT think someone was ignorant about basketball if you and this other dude just sat down to watch a game and he straight up said,"Man, who do you think's going to score the first touchdown? I hope we do. Kobe is a monster on dunking those touchdowns, huh?"

You wouldn't question that?

Sure thing, bud; keep pretending you wouldn't.

I never said I was **** Vitale. I'm not saying I have this wealth of knowledge; I'm not trying to gas myself. I'm not saying everyone needs tolisten to me because I'm great. That's all you, getting offended.

All I'm saying is that your statement that we are successful because of (not'with the help of', but 'BECAUSE OF') two players is an ignorant statement, along with DOZENS of other statements you've made over theyears that further my belief that you are ignorant towards team sports. It doesn't take **** Vitale to know certain things about the game. And one of thosethings is that success in basketball (or any team sport) does not... DDOOOOEEES... NOOOOTTT... come from two players. Anyone who thinks so... is ignorant aboutbasketball, and team sports in general.

Keep getting offended.

Doesn't change the fact.