Real Deal

Nevermind, I was going to post a funny, flaming Odom picture, but I'm not in the mood. On to Game 5.

Give me a few minutes, and I'll provide you all with my expert analysis.

He's a better defender, and a much better post player (meaning, legitimate post play). Bosh is more explosive and is better working with isolations, but if I'm looking for someone with post work, I go to Gasol every chance I get.

Just to hit on one thing: Gasol isn't THAT great at passing out of double teams. He was useless quite a bit against the Suns after they started playing zone and crowding the paint, and he struggled in Memphis for the same reasons as well.

I was going to post about this, but I really don't want to talk about it. It pisses me off.

I don't even care what this guy says anymore. He just doesn't have anything else to do.

Foul trou...I mean, oh wait... I think Fisher was ignited after what Pierce said.

Bryant took a lot of bad shots, but he also had to take some of them with the shot clock drained. It was upsetting to see the guys look to Bryant to bail them out so much. Kobe shooting 10-29 is unacceptable, but so was the entire offense. No ball movement, and without looking at the assist totals, I'm sure Boston drilled us in that statistic. When we're moving the ball, we can be unstoppable on offense.

No idea, really. It just slipped my mind.

TIME: 9:00 PM EST TV: ABC

Doc Rivers just sent a tape to the league, showing the Lakers getting away with illegal screens. You'd think I'm joking about this, but I'm not. Of all people... I wonder if we should send that tape in that shows Kendrick Perkins admitting to getting away with his own illegal screens 80% of the time, or Garnett's multiple illegal screens he has been setting every three minutes of every game in a Celtics jersey.

Well, I just came back from watching the Finals media day (where they talk to players before/during/after practice), and both Garnett and Pierce can't seem to stop talking about their limited minutes due to the fouls called on them. Garnett told the press it was the reason why he struggled in Game 2. When someone asked Pierce if Ron Artest was tougher than anyone else defending him, Pierce said no, and stated his struggles were all due to the fouls. Then, it was Garnett and Pierce both saying that Ray struggled in Game 1 because of the fouls (but I guess they forgot he shot 0-13 last night). This is the stuff I don't like. You have Pierce saying they aren't coming back to Los Angeles, saying Artest isn't causing him any trouble at all, Garnett making excuses for his struggles and saying it's hard to play together when they can't play together, and Rivers just running his mouth to no end. I know almost every non-NBA fan hates the Lakers, but we don't do this. Phil dogs the refs before every series, but we don't sit around talking about how we're going to win every game we play, how we really don't lose because the other team beat us, and that our struggles come because we don't get time on the court together.

Difference was that Bryant had three bad fouls called against him in Game 2, and Pierce's fouls were all legit in Game 3. And if I hadn't said anything about Rivers and his comments, nobody would've. Phil Jackson? Most definitely something to talk about. Maybe I should've created a topic about Rivers' comments, like most do for Jackson (stuff about Nash, for instance). But then again, yeah, it's just Doc Rivers...not that big of a deal.

Added the World Cup subforum... http://www.otrbasketball.com/forums/forum/117-2010-world-cup Slaven requested that he creates the game topics, so let him do that, please. He's been begging me to add this subforum for a month now.

Doc Rivers was whining about Pierce not getting to play tonight, that the refs didn't let him play, and that's the reason for his poor shooting. Didn't hear Rivers saying that about Kobe in Game 2. In fact, I believe Rivers stated that it was Boston's defense that hurt Bryant that game. Also, Garnett is saying he can't speak about the out-of-bounds call (Kobe/Garnett) because of "the gag order" the players have placed on them. That's odd...because the replay showed the ball flicking off of KG's fingers, even clearer than Game 2's situation with him and Gasol. Didn't hear him talking about that, though. Funny stuff.

Offensively, yes. I don't consider Dirk Nowitzki because he doesn't exactly play in the post like Gasol, Duncan, Yao and other bigs. While Gasol doesn't have the overall offensive skillset that Duncan did in his prime, he's still close.

My expert analysis: everyone left their game in LA, with the exception of Kevin Garnett, Tony Allen, Glen Davis and Derek Fisher. How that translates into a win for us, IN BOSTON, I have no idea. Kobe played very good defense, shot poorly, crashed the board well...but Fisher was KING tonight. On to Game 4. EDIT: Cobb, thanks for making the game thread. It slipped my mind, completely.

There's a limit? I had no idea. I'll have to look into that. And it depends on what videos you're embedding. We have Youtube embedding enabled, along with Google and MySpace (and I believe GameTrailers). Others aren't allowed due to security reasons, but if it's something you're going to be embedding frequently (because I notice you do stuff like this a lot haha), just let me know and I'll see what I can do for ya.

He was alright for us until Kobe missed a few games in the regular season. Brown did well in a game or two, put up some very impressive scoring numbers, his head grew too big for his brain, and now all he does is run around the court, full speed and reckless, brain freely slamming against the sides of his skull because he thinks he can run an offense. He is LeBron James without the scoring, passing, rebounding, IQ, or defense.

I'm going to move the topic to the OT forum. It's really not about the Lakers, and I think this will be more about athletes in general by the time the topic has ran its course, and geared towards smoking more than it is Bryant.

According to a ton of LA fans, Shannon Brown isn't even a Laker anymore. He needs to shut his face.

The guy that created the Member Teams modification never updated it for the 3.0 software. A lot of people were begging him to, but it just never happened. Sean, Member Teams were basically user-created groups. I've seen sports sites use them as fanbase groups (ex. Lakers Member Team). It also creates a personal group forum for each team created. Lots of things can come out of the modification.

Any additions or subtractions to the site? Post them in here, and we'll discuss them further. Obviously, we need a home page, but I'm targeting the forums at this time.

Listing the top five most valuable players for the Boston Celtics... 1) Rajon Rondo 2) Ray Allen 3) Paul Pierce 4) Kevin Garnett 5) Kendrick Perkins Agree/disagree? Make your list. Rajon is the engine...been saying it for a while now. Ray Allen spreads the floor and is still the best off-the-ball player in the NBA (Richard Hamilton comes in second, Reggie Miller second to Ray, all-time). Pierce and Garnett...not really sure between the two, but I would take Pierce because of his offensive production and his good defense (not great). Garnett isn't producing on the offensive end, at least not like he used to, and his defense has taken a hit as well, but I think he's still a bit more important out on the floor than Perkins is.

Not a bad trade, really, but I'm not sure the direction the Raptors are going with it. It looks like they would just be throwing a lot of good players into a pile, then drawing up an offense and crossing their fingers. I guess it would make more sense if they did do the Bosh/Bynum deal along with it, because it gives Toronto a true post presence down low, and opens up everything for those versatile players (Young, Williams, Bargnani), but otherwise, it's all a big question mark for me.