Can The Lakers Be Beat??(Official 3-Peat Thread) (1 Viewer)

[Alex-C]

Tonight should be another wonderful game to watch, whether you're a Kings fan or a Lakers fan.

In our household, its a get a pizza, close the blinds, take the phone off the hook, crank the audio through the stereo - don't talk to me about anything else type of night.

 

[MichaelG]

I am having steaks and beer. Heck, this is the finals after all isn't it?

 

[Alex-C]

Keys to tonights game will be the usual suspects and Bobby Jackson. Kobe will be guarding Bibby...I think everyone realizes that is now a key element for the Lakers. What...did Bibby even score in the 2nd half on Sunday ?

anyway...with Kobe on Bibby, the others need to come up strong. Turk and Jackson come to mind. Christie should stick to defense and not lodge 3 pointers with

 

[KeithH]

Boy, when the Lakers are bad, they are bad. At least Horry came up big at the end. I didn't see the whole game, but the Lakers made some kind of comeback based on how the first half (especially the first quarter) went. It's 2-2 now and it's time for the Lakers to do more than show up and sleepwalk.

 

[Howard Williams]

Alex-C:

If Pedja can't help the team, why should he play? I haven't followed his injury very closely but I bet it's the doctors that won't let him, not Pedja himself. That's kinda like saying "Jamaal Mashburn is a wuss because he had stomach problems like Kobe, but Kobe sucked it up and played". Yeah, Pedja can probably still shoot, but who can he guard? Answer: Samaki Walker, that's who.

Game is starting and they just said Pedja will play but not start.

Enjoy the game everyone.

 

[Glen_L]

WOOHOOO the Kings take it in a 92-91 nailbiter. Now they just need one of the next two. Wow, they really need to practice up from the free throw line between now and Friday night.

 

[Brett Hancock]

O man. After the painful lose in game 4 where I started screaming outside of my car in my work parking lot I had to have a pillow ready to bury my head in if the Kings didn't win this one. But when they did I went crazy.

Now if only some of my home town teams could win a huge game of any kind. I will probably have a heart attack.

 

[BrandonM]

That was some of the worst officiating I've ever seen. Shaq's phantom 6th foul was absurd and Kobe's so called foul on Bibby was just as bad. I wanna know how the Kings got away with so many fouls, yet the Lakers were getting called for ticky tack fouls. It's really disturbing to see how bad officiating is in the NBA...

 

[Michael Ballack]

Brandon,
Are you Phil Jackson or something? SHouldn't the world champions be good enough to win despite bad officating? The Bulls sure did. In my opinion both Shaq and Kobe should have fouled out way earlier. Sorry folks, Kobe aint' no MJ. Down! Down! Down! Lakers going down!

 

[Brett Hancock]

Down! Down! Down! Lakers going down!

MICHAEL RULES!!!!!

 

[Paul Jenkins]

I love the moving pick they didn't call on Webber. Then again, they never call anything in the last 10 seconds of a game, do they?
I would agree, Kobe isn't Mike. Sometimes he dreams, but he isn't there yet

 

[Jefe Noche]

I love when people say "Kobe is no Jordan" . When has he claimed to be? He misses a shot (which he got fouled on twice, BTW) and every nostalgic, Laker hating, yahoo laughes and says: "You're no M.J."
Anyone remember that commercial, that M.J. talked about how many meaningful shots he missed? and that what was important was that he kept taking them.
Is Kobe as good as Jordan was? Of course not. Will he be? time will tell.
Brandon,
I'm with you, man. That "officiating" was ridiculous. Weber's "clothesline" on Fisher should have been called. Shaq picks up two fouls for moving his foot a TOTAL of an inch????????? Jackson tries to take Kobe's shirt off and then fouls him again---NO CALL!!!!
To all you Kobe haters,
Did you see him complain one bit on that last no-call? I THINK NOT!!!! Why? because he's a class act and not a whiner. He was just pissed at himself for not making the shot despite being mugged. Give him the ball at the end of Game 7 (and yes, there will be a 7th) and my $ is on him.

 

[Jed M]

Kobe aint' no MJ

That's my nomination for understatement of the year. Kobe is a great player but he isn't even Magic or Bird yet, possibly Isiah but lets not get ahead of ourselves. If I was going to vote for who was going to come closest to being the next MJ I would vote Paul Pierce but hey, I'm a Jayhawks fan so I am biased, not to mention cursed

 

[Mark Romero]

Go Kings!

 

[KeithH]

Michael said:

Are you Phil Jackson or something? SHouldn't the world champions be good enough to win despite bad officating? The Bulls sure did.

Like the Bulls didn't get a lot of calls? MJ got away with a lot. Go back to his final shot with the Bulls to beat the Jazz. Many still feel he pushed off.
All,
I'd like to stick around this thread awhile longer, but I am about to sit down to a heaping plate of crow. Mmmmm... We'll see what happens with Game 6.

 

[Michael Ballack]

Sure Michael got calls. That's obvious. But guys like John Paxson and Steve Kerr were the ref's whipping boys. They would get crushed(just like Fischer) and get a foul called on them. Rodman(due to reputation he brought on himself) would breath and be called for a foul. But the Bulls still won. Teams played a lot better against the Bulls than they play against the Lakers. Everyone wanted the Bulls to lose the same as the Lakers, but the Bulls still overcame it.
THe Lakers are finally facing a team that is not afraid or intimidated by them. My critiscm on Kobe is justified. Unlike Grant Hill and Stackhouse(who the media picked as the next Jordan) Kobe was trying to be like MIke when he was a rookie. He sucked up to him whenever the Bulls faced them. Kobe should just be himself. Michael didn't try to be like Magic or Bird. He took certain aspects from Oscar Robinson and Julius Ervings' games. Kobe is also trying to be cool. Michael was just cool naturally. People like Kobe who try to be cool aren't cool. And Kobe being sick... I didn't see it. If you looked at MJ's eyes when he was sick against Utah, he looked like he was going to die. Kobe was using his damn "poisoned" excuse for game 3 and 4. FOr the Lakers... Shut up and play like the champions you are SUPPOSED to be!!! Phil and Shaq quit complaining about calls. And Kobe... Just try to be yourself.
About that moving pick at the end of the game... Get over it. It was the right no-call. Refs usually don't call fouls at the end of the game. Malone always get's away with those crushing picks.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Ok, Kobe ain't no Jordan. And I ain't no KeithH. And an apple ain't a giraffe. An orange is orange but Greenland ain't green, violets are violet so what does it mean?

Now that we've stated the ludicrously obvious, can we just let the players play? There is nothing worse than a whining sports fan. "Oh, boo-hoo, the refs did such-and-such, it's not fair." Yech.

A wonderful, wonderful game last night. The Kings' ball movement is really something to be admired. For game 6, I wonder if Shaq will be a bit more tame from fear of fouling out.

 

[Paul Jenkins]

I love when people say "Kobe is no Jordan" . When has he claimed to be? He misses a shot (which he got fouled on twice, BTW) and every nostalgic, Laker hating, yahoo laughes and says: "You're no M.J."

Jefe, personally I didn't say he claimed to be, nor am I a Laker-hater or anything else (rooting for the Lakers in this series actually). The fact remains that great players in the NBA will be compared with MJ, especially 6'6" guards with a great jumpshot, leaping ability and ability to take over the game. Kobe has even picked up Jordan's signature fade-away. You may make digusting faces when people do it, but they will, so get used to it.

 

[MichaelG]

about Kobe,

because he's a class act and not a whiner

.
I laughed when I read this. Just like Magic (maybe Bird, and ~many~ others) was a whiner Kobe is a whiner. He is the only guy I see talking to the officals at every commercial break about the plays and pointing things out. Don't tell me that Kobe gets such bad calls throughout every game he plays, horse hockey.
Shaq did stick his knee out on the last foul just a little, and I contend that if it wasn't Shaq that it wouldn't have been a foul. I say that only because Shaq is the only player that could really disrupt Bibby's momentum that way. One downfall of being so big.
Worst officiated game? What I see is that every game is the worst officiated, it's just the losing teams fans always complaining. Personally I didn't think that either team played well last night , the Kings just happened to win that one. Th Lakers played well the first quarter and the Kings played well the second quarter, after that there seemed to be some bad playing. Can someone tell me why the Kings stopped driving as soon as Shaq fouled out? It seemed like part of the game plan when he was in there (maybe to draw fouls), then after he was gone, so was that part of their game. I thought that Kobs took way too many bad shots last night too, Shaq got half his points of weird plays it seemed, give him the ball and let him play, or he can dish to an open shooter.
I expect the next game to be very entertaining, so far the series has been fun to watch.

 

[Carlo_M]

The only thing I didn't like was the moving screens that Webber sets. That's the only part of the officiating I took as very bad. And in the regular season I saw it called on Webber (vs. the Lakers) several times but I suppose the refs don't want to make that call in the post-season. I wouldn't mind the no-calls so much if they didn't call some real ticky-tack fouls on the Lakers' two superstars. If they're going to "let them play" then it's fine, swallow the whistles. But when they're calling ticky-tack fouls on Shaq and Kobe, and not on Webber (who by my count set 3 illegal screens and I didn't start counting until after halftime) then I start to think it a bit unfair.
All in all it was a great game, even though my team lost. I was impressed with Sac's poise (minus a couple of really obvious Floppey's that thankfully weren't called).
Still, I wouldn't count the Lakers out. If there's a team that *can* win 2 in a row, it's the Lakers. The Kings have to feel good because Bibby can now make a shot under pressure. There was a span of about 4 minutes (from 6 mins left in the game to about 2 mins left, right after when Shaq fouled out) where neither team was making many shots, but the Kings just looked tight, like they were ready to collapse. But Bibby got that "chokers" label off of the Kings back with a clutch shot (freed by another Webber illegal screen, his second on Fisher for the game).
Hey, we all know that towards the end of the game the refs tend to not call fouls. I actually blame Kobe for a real bone-headed play at the end. I don't know why he was just standing there letting time run out. He should have launched the shot with 3 seconds left and give his teammates a chance to crash the boards if they miss. Credit to Sac's defense for staying at home on their men and making Kobe miss the shot. Of course I don't know why Kobe didn't try to drive on Jackson immediately because he has a 6" height advantage. :frowning: