Quote:
Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
was bill walton at the game tonight? did he seem disappointed with Luke?
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Luke is a joke. The guy is below average in every aspect of the game.
What is amazing about this series is that Phil Jackson has failed to make an adjustment of any kind whatsoever to the thumping his team is taking. (On second thought, that isn't amazing at all.)
It seems to me that if you concentrate all your defensive efforts on two guys on the Pistons (Hamilton and Billups), you'd be in every game. The problem is, Jackson thinks the big names he has on his team are immune from good defense and will "snap out of it," you know, like Jordan.
Pick and roll. San Antonio killed you with it for the first two games of an earlier playoff series. You seemed to adjust to that. What the fuck happened? Are you too stupid to make the adjustment again?
Payton has to go over the pick. Period. Top side. He needs to bump Billups and fight through. Create the space you need. Shaq (or whoever the guy is who is guarding the Piston setting the pick) needs to show on the other side of the pick. You can't jab step at the ball handler, especially when he knows you're not serious. Open shot every time. The problem is, the Lakers aren't a team that cares about defense. Jordan did and he made everyone else on his teams care about it too. (Btw, everyone needs to stop comparing Kobe to Michael, because it's stupid.)
The Lakers are lazy. Kobe can't guard any point guard straight up off the dribble. Payton has lost 2 1/2 steps, so he can't fight through those picks like he used to. Shaq thinks he's the best player the game has ever seen and that the ball should know that and just gravitate to his hands after a missed shot. Wallace and Sheed work for rebounds. Everyone else tries to get a hand on a rebound to tip it and try to keep it alive. And then the rest of the team hustles.
To no one's surprise, Larry Brown has thoroughly out coached Jackson. What was Jackson's brilliant play to get Kobe an open look to tie the game the other day? Inbound the ball to
Shaq (?) and have him pass it to Kobe who will get a shot off without a pick. Translation: Give it to Kobe and get the fuck out of the way.
He had the same game plan going into last night's game as he had going into game 1. I forgot who from this board said what makes a good coach in the NBA today, but Phil sure was listening, because his strategy seems to be: Manage the delicate ego of the professional athletes on his team with his brilliant zen philosphy. Pathetic. Maybe after last night's loss he handed out another copy of "The Art of War."
I hope the Pistons win in five.
TM
Confidential to Hank: Were you one of the fans outside the Lakers' hotel room the night before the game making noise to keep them up?
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