The Lakers took a One-Two punch over the weekend at the hands of the Utah Jazz. After losing a close 104-99 game on Friday night, the Lakers took the Jazz to overtime before ending up on the wrong side of a 123-115 final.
The Lakers starters played well in both games, but what separated these games from the earlier victories was the lack of support from the bench. Kobe had over 30 points in both games, and Odom and Gasol contributed their usual, but our role-players were more like spectators over the weekend. With the exception of Sasha Vujacic, the Lakers bench players were non-factors, and Ronny Turiaf even found a way to get himself ejected from Game 4. That’s gonna have to change if we plan on winning this series.
Phil Jackson must’ve talked to the Lakers’ big men about the slackin’ in their rebounding game, because the battle of the boards has become a lot closer than the first two games of the series, when the Jazz were averaging over 20 offensive rebounds. But as Los Angeles improved its defense, the offense became a lot sloppier, giving up 18 turnovers on Friday night. The Lake Show just needs to regroup, identify the problem areas, and play a strong all-around game on Wednesday at Staples Center. They usually say that the big city corrupts peoples’ minds, but in this case, the Lakers lost their sense of self when they ventured away from the bright lights of L.A. and into the expanse of boredom that is ‘Utah’. I hope two days of rehab can resuscitate and resurrect the Lakers, and get this party back crackin’ (Snoop/Old School reference).
Alright, now, I’m usually a pretty objective when it comes to the character of the teams we play, but there’s always one team that I can’t stand. It’s not that I can’t stand them because they’re a good team, or because they have ugly colors; it’s usually that the combination of characters on their team makes me want to flog myself when I watch them play. Past teams with this distinction include the Steve Nash Suns, The Vlade Divac Kings, and Reggie Miller Pacers. The
Utah Jazz are coming extremely close to achieving immortality among the ranks of teams I hate watching. The mix of Kirilenko, Okur, Boozer, Williams, and especially Matt Harpring, is really difficult for me to watch; I feel like it disagrees with me on a very basic internal level.
Before, I just wanted the Lakers to advance to the next round. Now I specifically want them to demoralize the Jazz on their way to the title. It just got personal.
The Lakers starters played well in both games, but what separated these games from the earlier victories was the lack of support from the bench. Kobe had over 30 points in both games, and Odom and Gasol contributed their usual, but our role-players were more like spectators over the weekend. With the exception of Sasha Vujacic, the Lakers bench players were non-factors, and Ronny Turiaf even found a way to get himself ejected from Game 4. That’s gonna have to change if we plan on winning this series.
Phil Jackson must’ve talked to the Lakers’ big men about the slackin’ in their rebounding game, because the battle of the boards has become a lot closer than the first two games of the series, when the Jazz were averaging over 20 offensive rebounds. But as Los Angeles improved its defense, the offense became a lot sloppier, giving up 18 turnovers on Friday night. The Lake Show just needs to regroup, identify the problem areas, and play a strong all-around game on Wednesday at Staples Center. They usually say that the big city corrupts peoples’ minds, but in this case, the Lakers lost their sense of self when they ventured away from the bright lights of L.A. and into the expanse of boredom that is ‘Utah’. I hope two days of rehab can resuscitate and resurrect the Lakers, and get this party back crackin’ (Snoop/Old School reference).
Alright, now, I’m usually a pretty objective when it comes to the character of the teams we play, but there’s always one team that I can’t stand. It’s not that I can’t stand them because they’re a good team, or because they have ugly colors; it’s usually that the combination of characters on their team makes me want to flog myself when I watch them play. Past teams with this distinction include the Steve Nash Suns, The Vlade Divac Kings, and Reggie Miller Pacers. The
Utah Jazz are coming extremely close to achieving immortality among the ranks of teams I hate watching. The mix of Kirilenko, Okur, Boozer, Williams, and especially Matt Harpring, is really difficult for me to watch; I feel like it disagrees with me on a very basic internal level.Before, I just wanted the Lakers to advance to the next round. Now I specifically want them to demoralize the Jazz on their way to the title. It just got personal.
1 comment:
they wasted a monster game from my role model, derek fisher, on sunday... what a shame =/
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