Real Deal

Finals MVP is against one team, 4-7 games. It would come down to the regular season MVP (among 400-450 players) and the championship. Sasha Vujacic has an NBA championship. While it's the ultimate goal, you can get one by doing much of nothing on the bench. A regular season MVP may not be the ultimate goal, but it is more telling, as it's played through 82 games. I'm going to say this though: does the player already have a legitimate, standout legacy? If so, it's the rings. He may not have had the best performance in the Finals in 2007, but Tim Duncan still has four, and he led the team the entire way up until the last few games of the season.

Was that Green who declined to take that three before passing it to Durant? Man, he should've taken it. While Durant is clutch, he also had a guy closing in on him, and Green is excellent shooting the three when left open (shot nearly 39% last season, before guys started covering him). Blah.

He actually takes more shots when we're losing, to get us out of the hole we get in when Phil Jackson decides to sit him for the first five minutes of the fourth, or play Sasha instead of Ron when we need him most (like today, near the end of the game), or when he sticks Kobe in there with Mbenga, Powell, Brown and Farmar and expects Kobe to play SF and score the ball all the time. Bryant kicked in a chair and was screaming at Phil the other game. Jackson is playing weird lineups, and it's putting a roadblock on Kobe's game and what he wants to do. While I don't like some of the shots Kobe takes, it's also evident that he's the only one that turns it up and tries to win, and he should be taking those shots when nobody else wants the ball.

Yeah, I agree now. Earlier, I wanted him to play this summer...but after what I saw today, enough is enough.

Hahaha, I laughed pretty hard at that.

With this Kobe Bryant, they won't need to go seven games.

You would think, watching this game. A Lakers/Blazers match-up has the potential to go seven games. While the Blazers would lose (and I'm almost 100% sure of that), we still can't win in Portland if they are healthy, and I don't want seven games in the first round. Too much going on.

Nevermind about the "small comeback" I mentioned earlier. I think I'm way behind everyone (watching it a few minutes behind on the DVR). 19 point lead now. :o

Easy to defend a bunch of players wanting to play one-on-one, and not able to draw doubles. Toronto may have a hard time capping this small comeback off.

Wow, you're right. I didn't notice that. Just checked the DVR. He's had the same free throw routine forever now.

A few Lakers fans think Phil asked the players to tank this game, to avoid Portland in the first...but I have a hard time believing Kobe would want to tank.

When do the Lakers have so much firepower? They are in the middle of the league offensively. On paper, you'd think they'd be top-ranked. Gasol doesn't shoot as much as he should when he gets the post-entry pass, and everyone else absolutely sucks shooting the ball. Take a look at Farmar and Brown today, Odom over his last 10 games or so, Fisher's 39% or less all season long, and Vujacic's pathetic shooting over 79-80 games. Bryant was shooting 49% before injuring the finger. He was at 47% before re-injuring it. Now he's struggling, so that complaint wasn't valid for most of the season. It hasn't healed for months, so I doubt it. He should've had the surgery.

Jack, Hedo and Weems are playing pretty good. Hedo is creeping in on that trip-dub already. Toronto has to contain Noah, though. They probably won't be able to stop Rose from hitting those jumpers, but Noah is too involved in the offense right now.

Not liking that call against Amir, but he can't put himself in position for it. He's had trouble picking up some bad fouls lately anyway. He's gotta work on that.

Not going to expect much more, even in the playoffs, because of the way the ball is being shot. It looks to me like Bryant is using his thumb a bit more in the shot. More balance because his index finger could be numb, or throbbing. This puts less arc on the ball, and also less distance if shot normally. There's a reason why those two free throws both fell extremely short. They barely hit the front of the rim. I busted my finger once, played through it and had the same problem. If you can't use your index finger shooting the ball, you have to rest it more on your thumb during elevation, and that alters your release. Just to put it into perspective: 5-23 vs. Utah 8-24 vs. San Antonio 8-23 vs. Portland (today) Last three games, which includes two missed free throws by Bryant at the end of the game (which has never happened in his career, I believe). He was clinching that finger near the end of the Hawks game, which was the game played before the three above, and also the game he injured his knee. If Kobe does this in the playoffs, we're done. We won't even get to the Finals.

Kobe doesn't miss free throws at the end of games unless there's something wrong. Both fell pretty short. He should've gotten the surgery on his finger and missed games a long time ago. But yeah, expected the trash-talking. As if people actually know this team, of course. It's all good.

I have no idea how he does it. Six straight points from Kobe, a mean three from deep and a layup + free throw. Terrible all game, except in the last minute or two. Don't even care.

I HATE... 1) Derek Fisher 2) Screen and rolls 3) Lamar Odom's defense

Damn man. 1) Kobe is [expletive] up. Don't play him again for the rest of the season, don't care about HCA in the Finals right now. 2) Fisher is the worst defense player starting for an NBA team. Worse than Nash, Calderon, and anyone else. 3) Gasol's pick and roll defense is pathetic, and it's killing us. If Kobe plays like this during the playoffs, we're done. Write it down. It's over.

Just take Kobe out, now.

Fisher sucks, man. Kobe isn't shooting well again. I'm a bit worried about it.

I like Weems and all of my Raptors fans, but I can't root against Hinrich and the Bulls. I gotta see them in the playoffs.

That's weird he said that, because NBA.com says otherwise, in "Playoff Tie-Break Procedures" http://www.nba.com/statistics/playoff_picture.html EDIT: Misleading by the NBA, actually. It should be the Lakers and Magic's record vs. the opposing conference in the NBA Finals, which would give LA the lock.

No we don't. They aren't in our division, so they ask for overall conference records. Orlando is 37-13 in their conference, and we're 34-15.