Toronto @ L.A. Lakers

[Built Ford Tough]

Derozon and Hedo the only Toronto starters who didnt rip us apart, I wonder who was guarding them?

 

It's a shame no one outside Ron and Kobe can play defense on this squad.

 

No Raptor starter ripped apart the Lakers. Bosh played pretty poorly strictly in terms of his numbers. 22 points is nice and all but that is 2 below Bosh's average on the season and he shot below 50% from the field while grabbing only 7 rebounds, which is 4 below his season average. Bargnani had a solid game with 21/8 but I would hardly call 21 points on less than 50% shooting to be ripping anybody apart. Jack is probably the closes player to have ripped the Lakers apart tonight, but he only put up 18/7/7 which is probably an improvement for the Lakers point guards on the defensive end of the floor.

 

The funny thing is that DeRozan had arguably his best game since the All-Star break tonight with 12 points on 4-6 shooting while also getting to the stripe 4 times.

 

The Lakers didn't even play all that bad defensively if you look at the numbers. Yeah giving up 107 points isn't great but considering the Raptors are one of the highest scoring teams in the NBA and average around 105 ppg, that isn't really all that bad. They held the Raptors to 44% shooting, which is around 4% below their season average. They forced the Raptors into 13 turnovers and managed to get 7 steals tonight. The only thing that would be disapointing if I were a Lakers fan is the fact that they gave up 30 free throws, but from what I saw the refs had a fairly tight whistle tonight and the Lakers managed to get 44 free throws so that more than cancels it out.

 

I know that the Lakers have struggled a bit lately and Kobe has had to bail them out on numerous occasions this season but it is really funny how it seems like every Laker game thread I read I always happen to come across a post that finds a way to downgrade almost every Laker player other than Kobe Bryant. This probably isn't the best thread to say this in considering nobody really contributed other than Bryant, Bynum and Odom (10/8/5 on 50% is nothing to complain about as far as I am concerned).

 

I know that I trash the Raptors a lot on here but at least when I do it I am trashing borderline scrubs like Antoine Wright or overpaid, underacheiving players like Jose Calderon and Hedo Turkoglu. I wish that I was able to [expletive] about players like Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom.

 

I haven't watched too many Laker games this season so I may be off base saying this and you guys have a legitimate reason to be constantly complaining about the play of everybody other than Kobe Bryant, I wouldn't know considering the amount of Laker games I have watched this season. I just felt the need to post that.

Edited March 10, 2010 by Built Ford Tough

[Real Deal]

Eyes on the championship, Sean. When guys like Gasol speak to the media about not getting their shots/touches, we expect them to step it up. For Gasol, it was his time to play like a top three power forward, and he didn't...again.

 

I wouldn't say many are trashing Bynum for his play tonight. It's just rare to see him playing that good, though. Usually, he's too busy creating mental errors everywhere on the floor, and allowing bigs to have huge nights against us.

 

Odom, same thing. We don't know what we'll get out of him. If you look at his previous games, he's all over the place. Some nights he'll play good, a few GREAT, some terrible.

 

No matter how bad Bryant is playing, we always know we can rely on him in the fourth, and for that final shot...and that's why you rarely see others bashing him. Hard to bash a guy that is playing with more injuries than everyone else on our team combined. But, he usually gives us great games to begin with.

 

Little things lose rings in June. Whining to the media hurts chemistry, loses focus, deteriorates drive. If Gasol wasn't crying about touches, at all, I probably wouldn't bring up his 4-11 shooting, because earlier in the season, he was giving us a consistent 16/10, easily, grabbing 15-20 boards at times.

 

Non-contenders take what they have. Contenders need to play like a championship team. Basically, that means our starters need to play like champs, and for the most part, there's only one of them that puts fear into his opponents.

[Built Ford Tough]

I get all of that.

 

Its just funny to me how somebody like Confidence comes into this thread and takes a shot at the entire Lakers team aside from Bryant and Artest when Bynum out played Bosh tonight. Gasol, despite his poor shooting night managed to get 11 free throw attempts which helped force Bosh to only play 31 minutes because of foul trouble. The two of them were obviously doing something right defensively if they managed to hold Bosh to just 39% shooting, only 6 free throw attempts and only 7 rebounds. Calderon only shot 27% tonight (granted he missed a lot of easy looks from what I saw) which is well below his usual 50%.

 

I'm not saying that Laker fans shouldn't hold their teams players accountable, but when I see somebody come into this thread and make the kinds of comments that were made when Bynum outplayed Bosh, arguably the best power forward in the NBA this season, on both ends of the floor and Gasol (and Bynum I imagine) managed to force Bosh to play 5 minutes less than he normally does because of fouls and things like that, I just think that that poster is complaining for the sake of complaining. In this case it just happened to be Confidence who made the post that I felt the need to respond to.

 

Don't get me wrong if I was a fan of a contending team I would hold them to a higher standard as well, but I just can't help but think that some Laker fans on here complain for the sake of complaining and nothing more.

 

Like in this thread, a shot was taken at every single Laker player aside from Kobe and Artest (who, by the way, I thought was pretty much a non factor for the entire 4th quarter, which is the only quarter I saw) despite the fact that Bynum had a great game in which he outplayed Bosh on both ends of the floor. Odom was a huge catalyst in the early parts of the 4th to help give the Lakers a lead (albeit a slight one) and even Gasol looked to have a decent game with 17/9 and 11 free throws (although I didn't see much of him), despite the poor shooting. With Bryant playing the way that he did tonight, along with Bynum having a great game, Gasol getting Bosh in foul trouble could be considered to be just as important as him putting up 25 points.

 

I don't know though, I could be way off base here, but I have been thinking this for a while now and never really felt the need to post because either I didn't care enough, watch the game or something like that. It just gets kind of annoying to read about how when the Lakers win it is all because of Kobe Bryant bailing out his teammates but when the Lakers lose it is because of everybody other than Kobe Bryant, even if Kobe has a bad game. I could just happen to stumble across these threads more often than others which gives me an inacurate opinion.

 

Anyways, enough with the rant. It is late here, I have a funeral to go to tomorrow and I definitely think that I have repeated some things in this post on more than one occasion.

Edited March 10, 2010 by Built Ford Tough

[The Regime]

I get all of that.

 

Its just funny to me how somebody like Confidence comes into this thread and takes a shot at the entire Lakers team aside from Bryant and Artest when Bynum out played Bosh tonight. Gasol, despite his poor shooting night managed to get 11 free throw attempts which helped force Bosh to only play 31 minutes because of foul trouble. The two of them were obviously doing something right defensively if they managed to hold Bosh to just 39% shooting, only 6 free throw attempts and only 7 rebounds. Calderon only shot 27% tonight (granted he missed a lot of easy looks from what I saw) which is well below his usual 50%.

 

I'm not saying that Laker fans shouldn't hold their teams players accountable, but when I see somebody come into this thread and make the kinds of comments that were made when Bynum outplayed Bosh, arguably the best power forward in the NBA this season, on both ends of the floor and Gasol (and Bynum I imagine) managed to force Bosh to play 5 minutes less than he normally does because of fouls and things like that, I just think that that poster is complaining for the sake of complaining. In this case it just happened to be Confidence who made the post that I felt the need to respond to.

 

Don't get me wrong if I was a fan of a contending team I would hold them to a higher standard as well, but I just can't help but think that some Laker fans on here complain for the sake of complaining and nothing more.

 

Like in this thread, a shot was taken at every single Laker player aside from Kobe and Artest (who, by the way, I thought was pretty much a non factor for the entire 4th quarter, which is the only quarter I saw) despite the fact that Bynum had a great game in which he outplayed Bosh on both ends of the floor. Odom was a huge catalyst in the early parts of the 4th to help give the Lakers a lead (albeit a slight one) and even Gasol looked to have a decent game with 17/9 and 11 free throws (although I didn't see much of him), despite the poor shooting. With Bryant playing the way that he did tonight, along with Bynum having a great game, Gasol getting Bosh in foul trouble could be considered to be just as important as him putting up 25 points.

 

I don't know though, I could be way off base here, but I have been thinking this for a while now and never really felt the need to post because either I didn't care enough, watch the game or something like that. It just gets kind of annoying to read about how when the Lakers win it is all because of Kobe Bryant bailing out his teammates but when the Lakers lose it is because of everybody other than Kobe Bryant, even if Kobe has a bad game. I could just happen to stumble across these threads more often than others which gives me an inacurate opinion.

 

Anyways, enough with the rant. It is late here, I have a funeral to go to tomorrow and I definitely think that I have repeated some things in this post on more than one occasion.

 

I didnt watch the game last night so my earlier statement may not be entirely correct, I just based my statement off the boxscore. I'm just frustrated. You would know where I'm coming from if you watched half the Laker games I have this season.

 

I took this shot at everyone because that's how this season has been. It was time for me to vent my anger. We won but I wasnt satisfied. Kobe is hurting yet he comes out every night and busts his [expletive] off, granted there are a few times that I see some lazy play from him. Artest as expected has been a defensive enforcer and expecially recently has really dedicated shutting down any guy he plays. You see these two guys doing their share but the rest of them team doesnt even give a rats [expletive]. I dont know wtf is wrong with Pau, he seems to be back to his soft days (aka 2007-08). He gets phsically raped by every opposing big man. Bynum actually tries to play defense every now and then but he no discipline and picks up stupid fouls. You would think that having two seven footers would have a huge impact for our defense, but no, we're depending on Kobe to bail us out every night. These games shouldnt even be close, no disrespect to the Raptors but we have far more talent. I miss our huge margin of victories from last season, and that's probabaly why I get so irritated by the smallest of things. And let's not even forget about Fish, he's the catalyst of our struggling defense. He's constantly getting beat of screens, he doesnt even try to fight through them most of the time. Heck, even if their isnt a screen Fish is blown by and alot of the time and guards penetrate to the hole and score with ease, and that's because Pau or Bynum are late getting over. There are just a whole bunch of mistakes you cant point out with these three, and that's why I made this statement.

Edited March 10, 2010 by Confidence