SUNS -at- LAKERS - 1/17 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[George W Buss]

[mike_dee23]

I think it's time to stop worrying about how sensitive Kwame is. Jordan had it right Kwame's first go-round. Ride his ass, and ride it hard. If he cries, move on without him.
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MTFBWYA

[limchrc]

Thanks for the recap. Hope we can play better on our next game.

[J.C. Smith]

I expected a loss tonight. Our biggest advantage over the Suns has been our size, but without Bynum or Mihm we're left with only Kwame as the large body and he can't be relied on offensively. We got terrible performances from Luke, Kwame and a poor one from Fisher. Odom shot poorly (but had a good overall game) and Kobe was cold in the first half and passive for half of the third quarter before he got it going. Still the fact that we had it down to a 6 point game late after being down big showed some fight.

I caught the game on the radio broadcast (Suns radio at that, ugh) but just from listening to the announcers I was getting pretty frustrated with Kwame. The turnovers and blown layups, but to hear that he got booed that badly is pretty sad. This guys psyche hangs by a thread as is, and now its the second city where hes had to have his star begging fans to not boo him. I hope he can get back on track, or else its goinng to be an ugly two months.

[targetman]

Kwame is sensitive, but he's not a rookie. Time to grow a pair or find another profession. And while you're at it, drop about 30 of those pounds you packed on. You can no longer even get up to dunk and that is a crime and a sin if you're 7 feet tall.
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Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

[VujacicFan]

At least The Machine rose.

[hi_ma]

"best" can be defined a few ways, but after last nights game IMO AB is THIS TEAMS best player
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The lakers will get prince.

[froesel]

Steve Nash was the difference. 20 assists unbelievable. Seem like Kwame didn't know how to play basketball. If AB was there we would of won again. I agree with DB, the Suns didn't impress me either.

Hope we pick up a FA big till AB get healthy. 8 weeks is along time. I would be happy if we play .500 ball. Kobe can't do it all. Fish was terrible but that is Fish, he has a couple of back to back good games and then nights like last nite happens.
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Win or lose, for better or worse, always a Laker fan.

[Texas_Pete]

Thanks DB for the write up - spot on as usual. I agree 1,000% with you: I am not impressed with the Suns. They had to put Nash back in there to secure the W. With their short rotation, they will not beat us in a 7 game series (provided a healthy Drew is there).

Amare: "It was an ugly win for us," Stoudemire said. "They weren't at full strength. We knew that, and we didn't play particularly well. We were supposed to put them away coming out of halftime, but we didn't. We let those guys get back in it and it almost bit us."

The following people disappointed me: Kwame, Fish, Ariza, and Luke. If they play even 10% better we win that game.

My appreciation for Kobe grows every time I see him lace it up. He could have gone for 60 last night - easily. But he tried to get his teammates involved - because he will have to trust them later on in the playoffs.

Almost a 20/20 game from LO . Sasha needs more minutes. Turiaf played well.

We will be ok. We just need health.

[Dr. Laker]

[Heyvoon24]

I'd trade luke before I would trade kwame. At least kwames contract expires this year, but we are left with the other overpaid garbage for 6 years.

[Mr. EiGhTy-OnE]

-phil is so stubborn with his rotations no matter how much rest we've had or are going to have(no sense of urgency)
-i hate that crit/farmar lineup against elite teams
-if sasha was healthy enough to play in the 4th, why didnt he come in earlier instead of J-Crit?
-passive Kobe really hurt us in the 2nd and 3rd quarter
-we need to start Ariza, Luke doesnt deserve to start
-where was D-fish? he may have had a bad game but he was never in long enough to develop a rhythm
-kwame deserved to be boo'd but the problem is it makes him play worse because his self esteem is so low(amare pushed him on that missed dunk)
-kobe should have came in when phx called a timeout with 9 minutes left and the lead cut to 10. phil waited 2-3 more minutes then had to call a timeout to get him in with the lead back up to 12 or 14
-i wish farmar hadnt taken that long 3 (late in the 4th)and found a way to get an easy 2 and cut the suns lead to 6
-we never took advantage of amare being in foul trouble
-what does turiaf have to do to get more minutes?
-great game from lamar (19/19)even though he missed some easy ones (he was getting fouled alot/no call) he bricked that one 3 badly though
-46 combined turnovers = ugly game
-career games from collison, now diaw, whos next?
-sign C-Webb already!
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"When (Kobe) gets you on life support, he won't give you mouth to mouth. HE PULLS THE PLUG." -stu

[DazedAndConfused]

If we pile up any more losses here I think Phil is going to HAVE to changeup that starting lineup. Farmar and Ariza are significantly outplaying Fisher and Walton at this point in time. My new rotations would be

PG: Fisher (he'll get out of his shooting funk)
SG: Kob
SF: Ariza
PF: Odom
C: Anyone not named Kwame Brown (MBenga?)

2nd unit

PG: Farmar
SG: Sasha
SF: Walton
PF: Turiaf
C: Kwame

[CorkyTomjanovich]

I want to see Luke playing no more than 20 minutes a game. He is not a starter, period.

Turiaf is going to have to get a lot more minutes. I think he can step it up.

[Arizona]

[Arizona]

[JTS]

as i entered this thread i was greeted with these words:

I WAS NOT IMPRESSED BY THE SUNS.

naturally this dancing barry's opening statement.

i will qualify, the suns' defense was surprisingly good as far as the blocked shots and the stripping of loose balls and even some of the boards they rebounded, but really hs JUNKY, SKANKY, for as SH...TTYas the lakers played i really wasn't upset about this loss.

the fact of the matter is losing someone like bynum is going to affect this team. that's like a captain obvious statement, naturally.

but really, luke, fish and kwame was as bad as bad can be and yet somehow we we still close. there was still a chance to win this game. i'm very pleased that DB's recap is a reflection of how i felt about this game.

short term this is going to very hard on this site, but longterm i truly believe that the team is going to grow stronger from this.

for those who deem it necessary, please go on and say it's the end of the lakers' season...i don't see it that way.

[minorbravo]

Thanks DancingBarry.

If we have Bynum come playoff time, the suns are going 4 and out.
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The only thing standing between me and greatness, is me.

[Mr. EiGhTy-OnE]

i know jim goldstein (creepy gator hat guy) is a fan of the nba in general, but i thought first and foremost he was a laker fan. but, after Diaw hits yet another wide open jumper to seal the game, you see goldstein clapping next to penny marshall. anyone else catch this?
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"When (Kobe) gets you on life support, he won't give you mouth to mouth. HE PULLS THE PLUG." -stu

[Rick12322]

Thanks DB, it was an awful game, but sadly expected. I haven't felt this down about the team since Magic announced he had HIV. Luke was puke, Kwame was awful(crowd booing him only made it worse, and that will not help get the best out of him). We desperately need him to hit his '06 stride.

I see certain members of the Laker team repeat a certain error adnauseum, and they almost ought to be fined every time they do it. LO did it again, even Java did it. They pass up open jumpers, charge into the teeth of the D and find someway of turning the ball over whether via a blocked shot, bad pass or low percentage forced shot. Those errors invariably lead to fast break buckets the other way.

Luke is usually successful using his body to shield the defender in the post, but not this time. It was obvious the game plan was to find somebody, anybody who could take it to the Suns in the post. Other than one move by Kwame and one by Trevor, no else succeeded in tooling the Suns where they are softest. That was a very sad sight indeed.

It was also clear from Kobe's play that Phil and he had talked about how his approach to this game would be, and why. I believe 'the plan' is to make this team function together inspite of how ugly it looks, because last year's "Kobe ball" did not "get 'r done." If we want to win a championship then we have to show confidence in every player, yes, even Kwame Brown. Thus what we saw was the team not treating anyone player with a "one and out" attitude. As Kobe said in post game comments about Kwame, we are going to give him the ball until he figures out what to do with it. It's damned if you do, and damned if you don't. By giving up on him we give up on the season. By supporting him and giving him opportunities, he can hit his '06 stride and we can escape through this until a healthy AB comes back. When he does our reserve center will be better for it.

That's the plan concocted between Phil and Kobe and unless JO's coming I don't see them veering from it. As it stands now, if we can't pick up a better option than Kwame, I agree with it.

[Mr. EiGhTy-OnE]

look at the next 4 games for both clubs

[jodeke]

As difficult as it may seem to be Phil has to experiment with his lineup. Without Bynum the potency of the starting five is limp. Juggling at this time is a decision that will determine the seasons success or failure. The fourth quarter surge should give some indication of who should be in at crunch time. It's time to give Jordan more minutes. If we can stay close enough to make the playoffs we'll be OK.
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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

[Siguy]

I was at the game, and Kwame was horrible, BUT he didn't deserve that.

A guy right behind me was leading the booing. He was a relentless, drunk jackass who shouted all game long and screamed at Kwame and started the boos whenever anything happened. Kwame was awful, but this was low-class and terrible.

You don't boo your own player every time he touches the ball. Maybe when he screws up sure, and he did screw up a lot, but they were booing him when he set screens for Kobe, when he played defense, when he did anything. How is this productive? We know he's mentally fragile, how does booing him when he does things we want him to do going to help?

Disgusting. The crowd needs to stop doing it. We're stuck with him for a while, and yes, he sucks, but the booing is giving comfort to the other team. It's actively hurting our team when we have no backup for Kwame. He needs to play 25 minutes minimum simply because we don't have any other players, so the booing has to stop. Really made me sick to watch Laker fans leading the Suns carpetbaggers at Staples in Kwame boos for every play.

[kontrast]

Start Sasha at center.

[Siguy]

One other thing: Lamar played like crap the first half and then came alive in the second.

It was one of his classic "good stats, no effort" games. Why OH WHY did he never post up Diaw?

Why in god's name do we have Luke posting up Marion when Odom has Diaw on him? Years ago Odom used to post up Marion and kill him, so why the hell wasn't he doing it this time?

Also, Farmar got really lost on the defensive assignments, getting stuck in no man's land whenever he got picked off of Nash. They'd do a Nash-Diaw or Nash-Marion pick, and Odom would end up on Nash, and Farmar would end up a few feet away leaving Diaw/Marion free to shoot or slash to the hoop. That couldn't have been the plan.