# Round 2, Game 4: Los Angeles Lakers (2) @ Houston Rockets (1) [5/10]



## Cris (Jun 18, 2003)

Yeah sorry about the late game thread, I was evacuated from my house a couple days ago and it slipped my mind.


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## Cris (Jun 18, 2003)

yeah this start is awful. I guess kinda expected however


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## Damian Necronamous (Jun 10, 2002)

The fact that they're now talking about the Nuggets being a better team than the Lakers is a flat out joke.

Are you ****ing kidding me?

How did this happen?

These guys are pathetic. We're not winning a title if we get down by 17pts in the first quarter to a Houston team with no Yao or T-Mac. Sorry folks, but it's the truth. Championship teams just don't do things like this.


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## Damian Necronamous (Jun 10, 2002)

I turned it off. This is the worst playoff basketball I've seen since we got manhandled in Game 6 in Boston. It's a joke that anyone on the Lakers allowed this to happen.


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## Bartholomew Hunt (Mar 4, 2003)

What the **** is this ****? Leave it to the Lakers to keep the on/off switch in the postseason.


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## Cris (Jun 18, 2003)

Bartholomew Hunt said:


> What the **** is this ****? Leave it to the Lakers to keep the on/off switch in the postseason.


this is like having the power turned off after not paying your bill. Forgetting turning the switch off.


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## Bartholomew Hunt (Mar 4, 2003)

I expect a win. No bull**** in the second half.


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## Luke (Dec 7, 2008)

We suck; In no way do we deserve to be here right now. 

But I sure as hell hope we can wake up and steal this one.


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## Damian Necronamous (Jun 10, 2002)

Bartholomew Hunt said:


> I expect a win. No bull**** in the second half.


There is a 0% chance that we win this game. You don't all of a sudden not give a **** about the game, come out with no effort, and then decide to care more than the other team and play good basketball.

We'll lose by double digits. Our bench is awful. They and Fisher are the reasons we aren't going anywhere. How is it that we went from "the deepest team in the league" to a team with only two options: Kobe and Pau...?


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## Basel (Mar 31, 2005)

Worst first half of the year.


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## jazzy1 (Jul 16, 2002)

this is embarrasing and likely the reason why we won't be champions. We don't have many tough as nails warriors on our team. We have skilled precision types but not the tough warriors. The Nuggets team has tough as nails types they lacked IQ for the game till this season but were always tough enough, the cavs have that now, we got a whole bunch of mentally fragile guys that need Kobe to fire them up constantly.

I feel bad that Kobe has to be the guy who always has to provide the energy and intensity to the team ut shouldn't be that way.


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## Darth Bryant (Feb 1, 2005)

Seriously? WTF is up with Phil Jackson..

Derek Fisher is horrible in this series.. Pathetic even.. The very first play of the second half.. Brooks easily runs by Fisher and lays it in... Few minutes drains a three pointer right in Fishers face... However, Farmar takes a three, and gets benched immediately. .. I mean get some ****ing consistency with your line ups you old senile loser. There is no doubt in my mind this team would be far better on both ends if we had Larry Brown running things. This zen concept is ****ing bull****. How about playing the best players on your roster instead? 

Not to mention you know going into training camp that defense is this teams weakness... Yet, they did a half *** defensive camp, but still spent the majority of time working on the offense.


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## MojoPin (Oct 10, 2008)

I just turned it off.

It's a waste of time watching.


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## MojoPin (Oct 10, 2008)

Checked the score... 27 pts....

This team isn't getting past Denver.


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## Darth Bryant (Feb 1, 2005)

So sad....


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## jazzy1 (Jul 16, 2002)

LOL it looks bad and the trends seems evident but its just a bad night. 

Fisher is horrible and a source of serious concern. He's not scoring and he can't cover anyone with an ounce of speed.


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## Ballscientist (Nov 11, 2002)

MojoPin said:


> Checked the score... 27 pts....
> 
> This team isn't getting past Denver.



If Lakers are title contender, then handicap rockets are also title contender.


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## DANNY (Aug 9, 2005)

i hope we get blown out by 40 points today lose whole damn series

this is just a pathetic effort by the lakers embarrassing

nothing has changed since the boston blowout from last year

bynum looking like one of those immobile stiff getting paid 10+ million for their sheer size

pau looks like he had a bad pre game meal. looking lazy and sluggish and playing with no fire 

fisher is a non-factor aaron brooks just tearing him apart

kobe, jordy, and sasha only three playing with any sort of passion


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## Luke (Dec 7, 2008)

Kobe doesn't deserve this.


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## jazzy1 (Jul 16, 2002)

wow what a pathetic way to end a quarter.


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## Damian Necronamous (Jun 10, 2002)

Unbelievable. It's like this is a movie, and things just keep on getting more and more depressing.

This game is actually making me hate our team. Why do they have no heart whatsoever? Kobe is the only one who really cares and wants to WIN. Does anyone else even know they're in the playoffs? I feel like the rest of them don't really care about winning the title.


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## Damian Necronamous (Jun 10, 2002)

DANNY said:


> bynum looking like one of those immobile stiff getting paid 10+ million for their sheer size


Yeah, aside from Fisher, this is the saddest part. He looks immobile and very out of shape. I'm worried about him. By losing him and Fisher, we lost our 4th and 5th best players. Odom and Pau are playing like ****, leaving only Kobe and the rest of the guys.


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## DANNY (Aug 9, 2005)

what pisses me off the most is the fact that we're getting killed on the board. so much for having tallest two 7 footers and a 6-11 SF. getting killed by 6-6 hayes, 6-9 landry and 6-9 scola? just WOW


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## Luke (Dec 7, 2008)

Damian Necronamous said:


> Unbelievable. It's like this is a movie, and things just keep on getting more and more depressing.
> 
> This game is actually making me hate our team. Why do they have no heart whatsoever? Kobe is the only one who really cares and wants to WIN. Does anyone else even know they're in the playoffs? I feel like the rest of them don't really care about winning the title.


Co-signed.


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## Damian Necronamous (Jun 10, 2002)

DANNY said:


> what pisses me off the most is the fact that we're getting killed on the board. so much for having tallest two 7 footers and a 6-11 SF. getting killed by 6-6 hayes, 6-9 landry and 6-9 scola? just WOW


Yeah, and we have gotten progressively worse on the boards since the start of the postseason.

It's as if they haven't practiced rebounding, or haven't emphasized it at all. We are getting destroyed on the boards by Houston, and it's why they just blew us out.


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## azn kobe jr (May 6, 2006)

Why Lakers why?


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## jazzy1 (Jul 16, 2002)

Phil Jackson has fierce loyalty to Fish and I understand the notion but its clear that Shannon brown and Farmar are need to defense and play against the jitterbig quick guards. Brooks was the key to our downfall tnoight. It opened up their whole offense. 

And I'm getting progressively more sick of Gasol's act the stats will say he played well but its all a lie he allowed a 6'6 Hayes to push him around on the post thats just pitiful. 

we need to blow the Rockets off the map next game at home and go down there and wrap this up in 6.


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## Basel (Mar 31, 2005)

That was just depressing.


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## urwhatueati8god (May 27, 2003)

I don't get the outcry over Pau Gasol's game today. I watched the game and he was the only one trying down the stretch and while Chuck Hayes had 9 rebounds, Gasol had nine rebounds of his own. Additionally, Gasol did put up a negative in the plus/minus, but it was a minus six while Kobe Bryant had a -12. Combine that with the fact that Lamar Odom had a -22 and he only had six rebounds while Luis Scola had 14 rebounds of his own against Odom, the fact that nobody had a better plus/minus than Gasol out of the Lakers entire starting lineup, and the fact that the main players that went off were at the point guard and small forward spot, and I have no idea where people get the brass to blame Gasol for this game. This lies on mainly Derek Fisher, but Odom, Trevor Ariza, and even Bryant had more of a hand in this loss than Gasol did.


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## Hibachi! (Sep 18, 2003)

urwhatueati8god said:


> I don't get the outcry over Pau Gasol's game today. I watched the game and he was the only one trying down the stretch and while Chuck Hayes had 9 rebounds, Gasol had nine rebounds of his own. Additionally, Gasol did put up a negative in the plus/minus, but it was a minus six while Kobe Bryant had a -12. Combine that with the fact that Lamar Odom had a -22 and he only had six rebounds while Luis Scola had 14 rebounds of his own against Odom, the fact that nobody had a better plus/minus than Gasol out of the Lakers entire starting lineup, and the fact that the main players that went off were at the point guard and small forward spot, and I have no idea where people get the brass to blame Gasol for this game. This lies on mainly Derek Fisher, but Odom, Trevor Ariza, and even Bryant had more of a hand in this loss than Gasol did.


Gasol's numbers were super-inflated as he scored 16 points in the fourth quarter in garbage tie.


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## DANNY (Aug 9, 2005)

urwhatueati8god said:


> I don't get the outcry over Pau Gasol's game today. I watched the game and he was the only one trying down the stretch and while Chuck Hayes had 9 rebounds, Gasol had nine rebounds of his own. Additionally, Gasol did put up a negative in the plus/minus, but it was a minus six while Kobe Bryant had a -12. Combine that with the fact that Lamar Odom had a -22 and he only had six rebounds while Luis Scola had 14 rebounds of his own against Odom, the fact that nobody had a better plus/minus than Gasol out of the Lakers entire starting lineup, and the fact that the main players that went off were at the point guard and small forward spot, and I have no idea where people get the brass to blame Gasol for this game. This lies on mainly Derek Fisher, but Odom, Trevor Ariza, and even Bryant had more of a hand in this loss than Gasol did.


stats doesnt tell everything. JVG said it best when he called 4th quarter numbers as "fake stats" 

gasol is the main culprit of leading the lazy laker charge in 1st quarter. he did everything possible to piss off a coach. several key things like 1) not rotating to close out on a shooter 2) not rolling to basket fast and efficiently to give kobe more room to operate 3) not boxing out his man for a rebound 4) letting aaron brooks slide pass him for an easy deuce (seriously wtf?! you're ****in 7 footer with an enormous wingspan contest that ****) the list goes on

equally matching a 6-6 PF rebounding number shouldnt be anything to be proud of. it's flat out embarrassment. lakers should be owning the glass yet they're the ones getting owned. the rockets exposed a weakness that shouldnt even be there.


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## Lynx (Mar 6, 2004)

This game just shows Lakers aren't serious about championship this season.


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## sylaw (Nov 7, 2002)

Lynx said:


> This game just shows Lakers aren't serious about championship this season.


They aren't a championship caliber team at this point. They just don't have the heart of a champion. I would be surprised if they find it in them to give it their all.


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## ceejaynj (Oct 9, 2005)

sylaw said:


> They aren't a championship caliber team at this point. They just don't have the heart of a champion. I would be surprised if they find it in them to give it their all.


 I couldn't have said it better myself.


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## DaRizzle (May 22, 2007)

so pathetic...words cannot describe...


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## JerryWest (Jun 24, 2002)

Any Derek Fisher lovers yet? Come out, come out wherever you are.

Fisher needs to go clothesline someone so Phil can stop playing his sorry ***.


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## Darth Bryant (Feb 1, 2005)

KennethTo said:


> Any Derek Fisher lovers yet? Come out, come out wherever you are.
> 
> Fisher needs to go clothesline someone so Phil can stop playing his sorry ***.


Personally, I have no beef with Fisher in general.

I have a problem with him playing in a match up situation that makes him extremely handicapped. He simply isn't fast enough to keep up with Brooks. Loyalty or not, Phil Jackson should be playing a line up that is best suited to win. That should be Brown and Famar before Fisher all rotations in this series.

I'm also annoyed by Phil Jackson's handling of the Bynum situation. I'm not saying Bynum didn't preform, but Jackson's harsh treatment of Bynum made him go from playing bad to playing out of the NBA bad. He did this once before, and it only took Andrew that much more time to find himself and get back to his game. Considering his size will be needed if we get past Houston, it just doesn't make sense to call out Bynums defense but let Gasol go with a free pass. His double standard and rotation decisions are hurting the Laker right now in my opinion. 

Oh well, what can you do? We still got time to right the ship.


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## sylaw (Nov 7, 2002)

Phil screwed up big time. Bynum should have been out there in the 4th quarter since it was garbage time. With Odom now being questionable, we needed Bynum to get some more work in. Instead Phil buried him in the bench, which I'm sure pretty much killed whatever confidence he had left.


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## DANNY (Aug 9, 2005)

Darth Bryant said:


> Personally, I have no beef with Fisher in general.
> 
> *I have a problem with him playing in a match up situation that makes him extremely handicapped. He simply isn't fast enough to keep up with Brooks. Loyalty or not, Phil Jackson should be playing a line up that is best suited to win. That should be Brown and Famar before Fisher all rotations in this series.*
> 
> ...


agreed. it's all about matchups in the NBA. there werent any complaints about fisher against the jazz despite his shooting struggles. the reason being he did a fair enough job on deron williams. this matchup against brooks is killing fisher. it would better serve him to play against lowry who's more of a physical PG. his shooting woes are unacceptable especially for playoff time. if not draining shots, he should at least be diving for loose balls and taking charges. i suppose old age is somehow factoring into the effectiveness of fisher's play.

as for bynum, he's on the boat as fisher. players not performing in crunch time should be relegated to the bench. comparison to gasol is unfair since they're different players. if bynum did a good job sealing his man, get position underneath the basket, and make his baby hook shot at extraordinary rate, even with his defense lapses, it would awfully hard for phil to sit him down. unfortunately he's doing neither, and rightfully so seeing his minutes decrease by the day. bynum is 21 years old entering his 4th season, got his fat paycheck, there's really no point in babying him anymore. STEP IT UP BIG FELLA!


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## Darth Bryant (Feb 1, 2005)

DANNY said:


> as for bynum, he's on the boat as fisher. players not performing in crunch time should be relegated to the bench. comparison to gasol is unfair since they're different players. if bynum did a good job sealing his man, get position underneath the basket, and make his baby hook shot at extraordinary rate, even with his defense lapses, it would awfully hard for phil to sit him down. unfortunately he's doing neither, and rightfully so seeing his minutes decrease by the day. bynum is 21 years old entering his 4th season, got his fat paycheck, there's really no point in babying him anymore. STEP IT UP BIG FELLA!


Where were you during all those long games with Walton playing like garbage. You never held Luke to that standard. Whats with the hate for Bynum? 

The thing about Bynum is this year he returned from at the start of the season in his best shape of his life. So even with the pain, and rust he had the confidence because of his body. 

This last time he returned a few games before the playoffs, although he looks to be in good shape, its obvious his conditioning isn't where it was because he couldn't run. So now he can't even count on his body to help him out there on the floor. So not only is he out of shape, but he's getting the rook treatment by Phil and his confidence is going straight into the crapper. 

He's very young, and has a lot of pressure being a Laker, and Phil Jackson has never been known to nurture young guys along. Thats why he has always had the label of winning because of talented teams, and not because of coaching. He inherited veterans in all of his championship teams including the best player to ever walk on the court and the most dominant big man to ever play the game, and now he has an incredibly young and immature team. Phil has not adjusted his coaching for this, and it shows.

No beef with Bynum going to the bench for the record, and playing backup. I think he should have had that role from the start, so long as he got a set rotation and a chance to develop. The problem is, Bynum is out there for 3 minutes and if he makes a single mistake and isn't in foul trouble, Phil will yank his *** and throw Gasol out there who effectiveness is doing about the same thing defensively and in some cases worse offensively. It's a double standard that Phil has always used against young players, Kobe Bryant included. 

When you take more than two months off, your near 300 pounds with a knee injury, and your being trashed by your coach for being rusty, your going to not get better. Your not going to get confidence. And your sure as hell are not going to win back your starting role. 

The sad part is, if the team of healthy players came out with a motivated and energized desire to destroy the competition, it would result in blow outs and giving Bynum more time in garbage time for development. But because the team as a whole is so inconsistent and pathetic defensively, it means that there is less time for Bynum to get his rhythm and confidence back. That doesn't go well for a potential finals run. This team isn't winning a title without Bynum playing at least decent defense off the bench.


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## DaRizzle (May 22, 2007)

Ugh..I woke up and realized this game wasnt a nightmare


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## DANNY (Aug 9, 2005)

Darth Bryant said:


> Where were you during all those long games with Walton playing like garbage. You never held Luke to that standard. Whats with the hate for Bynum?
> 
> The thing about Bynum is this year he returned from at the start of the season in his best shape of his life. So even with the pain, and rust he had the confidence because of his body.
> 
> ...


luke walton will always be the dagger to my heart. it pains me every time someone mentions his name :rofl:

i see bynum as our future go-to-guy. call me crazy but he should be in line to succeed the great lakers tradition of west-wilt-kareem-magic-shaq-kobe. but look at his pathetic play right now. the true greats don't whimper like that in playoff. i just get the feeling bynum had his ways ever since he got into the league and phil is trying to change that. it's a tough approach but it's the better way. this approach could definitely break him but i don't mind since it will only prove he's a weak minded player. and we can move on without him.

the problem with andrew's foul is that he picks up most stupidest foul you can ever commit. most of it coming from not moving his feet. if you want to blame that on his injury, that's fine. i suppose he shouldn't even be playing then. 

garbage time for bynum? the guy is cashing 10 million check! 

just want to make sure you know we wouldnt be having this debate about bynum if it were the regular season. I can live with someone trying to make stride in coming back from an injury during the regular season but a big no no in the playoff.


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## ceejaynj (Oct 9, 2005)

Darth Bryant said:


> We still got time to right the ship.


 How can the ship be righted if PJ won't admit it's sinking???


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## DaRizzle (May 22, 2007)

Ok..I think we all have vented enough..lets get a new game thread up!


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