WMC 12/13: Mercy kill. (0-4)

Forward Three wrote:

puffyusaf#2 wrote:Oh and my major WMC (or opinion): The Heats so-called super Defense. All they do is shove on traps. They hit our guys low all game. They pushed guys off the block all game and yet really couldn't stop us. I wasn't impressed like Reggie and crew was that is for sure.

They certainly get away with a lot of pushing and shoving, Lebron's block against Clark for instance, he pushed off Clark's back. It's reminiscent of the Celtics '08 defense that was given the narrative of "it's tough and hardnosed" which was code for "they foul a lot and get away with it". The fact that touch fouls were being called for Lebron and Wade on the other end just makes it that much more annoying. The league needs to seriously decide what they are trying to do with fouling. There's this concept of "once defenders are set we're going to let them wrestle, but if someone is moving we're going to call a foul on the gust of air that hit their jersey". I think the game has morphed to protect and reward dive to the basket and-ones at the expense of back-to-the-basket postups. It's no great coincidence it's such a guard dominated era of NBA right now.

Could unravel that into a bit of a conspiracy theory(largely about the casual fan liking fast breaks and charging dunks more than good footwork), but whatever the reasons or motivations, it certainly doesn't do the Lakers any favors.

FabFourLakers wrote:I think of it this way....as bad as we played...we were 2 free throws away from this game going our way. Dwight has to make one of two...he cannot miss both. That really hurts us. Ray Allen took a TOUGH fade away jumper OVER howard and he made it. I don't think Miami really dominated like most thought they would...I thought they just made tougher shots and we didn't execute down the stretch. I hope this team isn't discouraged because they shouldn't be. Great all around effort and like others have said, we played with the same intensity from the past couple of games. We need to string together 5 or 6 straight games of WINS though...I thought only 2 wins in a row coming into this game wasn't enough for us to overcome a team like Miami...although they played the night before so we should have won this game.

Forward Three wrote:

puffyusaf#2 wrote:Oh and my major WMC (or opinion): The Heats so-called super Defense. All they do is shove on traps. They hit our guys low all game. They pushed guys off the block all game and yet really couldn't stop us. I wasn't impressed like Reggie and crew was that is for sure.

They certainly get away with a lot of pushing and shoving, Lebron's block against Clark for instance, he pushed off Clark's back. It's reminiscent of the Celtics '08 defense that was given the narrative of "it's tough and hardnosed" which was code for "they foul a lot and get away with it". The fact that touch fouls were being called for Lebron and Wade on the other end just makes it that much more annoying. The league needs to seriously decide what they are trying to do with fouling. There's this concept of "once defenders are set we're going to let them wrestle, but if someone is moving we're going to call a foul on the gust of air that hit their jersey". I think the game has morphed to protect and reward dive to the basket and-ones at the expense of back-to-the-basket postups. It's no great coincidence it's such a guard dominated era of NBA right now.

Could unravel that into a bit of a conspiracy theory(largely about the casual fan liking fast breaks and charging dunks more than good footwork), but whatever the reasons or motivations, it certainly doesn't do the Lakers any favors.

puffyusaf#2 wrote:

Forward Three wrote:

puffyusaf#2 wrote:Oh and my major WMC (or opinion): The Heats so-called super Defense. All they do is shove on traps. They hit our guys low all game. They pushed guys off the block all game and yet really couldn't stop us. I wasn't impressed like Reggie and crew was that is for sure.

They certainly get away with a lot of pushing and shoving, Lebron's block against Clark for instance, he pushed off Clark's back. It's reminiscent of the Celtics '08 defense that was given the narrative of "it's tough and hardnosed" which was code for "they foul a lot and get away with it". The fact that touch fouls were being called for Lebron and Wade on the other end just makes it that much more annoying. The league needs to seriously decide what they are trying to do with fouling. There's this concept of "once defenders are set we're going to let them wrestle, but if someone is moving we're going to call a foul on the gust of air that hit their jersey". I think the game has morphed to protect and reward dive to the basket and-ones at the expense of back-to-the-basket postups. It's no great coincidence it's such a guard dominated era of NBA right now.

Could unravel that into a bit of a conspiracy theory(largely about the casual fan liking fast breaks and charging dunks more than good footwork), but whatever the reasons or motivations, it certainly doesn't do the Lakers any favors.

And thats my problem... The refs let them get away with what we couldn't. Call the game the same and its all good. How many phantom calls did they get? A TON. THose guys rotate quickly, they do talk and we didn't cut like we should have. All that being said, we were just as aggressive, moved much better and talked too yet we were getting called for the touch fouls.

Weezy wrote:Eh, the Heat are the champs, we were in it almost the whole time, I can't really complain too much. We cut down on those turnovers, get Dwight the ball more and he makes some more free throws, Kobe doesn't shoot so terribly and Nash doesn't have such a bad game and we could have won.

dj vitus wrote:

Forward Three wrote:

puffyusaf#2 wrote:Oh and my major WMC (or opinion): The Heats so-called super Defense. All they do is shove on traps. They hit our guys low all game. They pushed guys off the block all game and yet really couldn't stop us. I wasn't impressed like Reggie and crew was that is for sure.

They certainly get away with a lot of pushing and shoving, Lebron's block against Clark for instance, he pushed off Clark's back. It's reminiscent of the Celtics '08 defense that was given the narrative of "it's tough and hardnosed" which was code for "they foul a lot and get away with it". The fact that touch fouls were being called for Lebron and Wade on the other end just makes it that much more annoying. The league needs to seriously decide what they are trying to do with fouling. There's this concept of "once defenders are set we're going to let them wrestle, but if someone is moving we're going to call a foul on the gust of air that hit their jersey". I think the game has morphed to protect and reward dive to the basket and-ones at the expense of back-to-the-basket postups. It's no great coincidence it's such a guard dominated era of NBA right now.

Could unravel that into a bit of a conspiracy theory(largely about the casual fan liking fast breaks and charging dunks more than good footwork), but whatever the reasons or motivations, it certainly doesn't do the Lakers any favors.

I would compare it to the '04 Pistons, too.

It's the whole, "that's just the way they play, and we never call it, so we'll continue to not call it. They're known for their 'defense,' so we can't just take it away from them when we never called it all season."

I didn't see much '08 Celtics (though what I did see looked more "legit," if you will, than those Pistons teams)

Pig Miller wrote:let's say we do meet the heat in the final. what is our strategy to get quality shots in the last 2 minutes?

steve can't get the ball half the time due to denial defense. kobe can't post up because james is on him. he's also not going to beat lbj off the dribble.

we throw it into dwight, and he'll go to the ft line. not necessarily a good thing.

is gasol our only option? we really don't have any elite playmakers anymore.

Weezy wrote:Eh, the Heat are the champs, we were in it almost the whole time, I can't really complain too much. We cut down on those turnovers, get Dwight the ball more and he makes some more free throws, Kobe doesn't shoot so terribly and Nash doesn't have such a bad game and we could have won.

Chillbongo wrote:Hill would've been nice. They had so many point in the paint.

dj vitus wrote:

puffyusaf#2 wrote:

Forward Three wrote:

puffyusaf#2 wrote:Oh and my major WMC (or opinion): The Heats so-called super Defense. All they do is shove on traps. They hit our guys low all game. They pushed guys off the block all game and yet really couldn't stop us. I wasn't impressed like Reggie and crew was that is for sure.

They certainly get away with a lot of pushing and shoving, Lebron's block against Clark for instance, he pushed off Clark's back. It's reminiscent of the Celtics '08 defense that was given the narrative of "it's tough and hardnosed" which was code for "they foul a lot and get away with it". The fact that touch fouls were being called for Lebron and Wade on the other end just makes it that much more annoying. The league needs to seriously decide what they are trying to do with fouling. There's this concept of "once defenders are set we're going to let them wrestle, but if someone is moving we're going to call a foul on the gust of air that hit their jersey". I think the game has morphed to protect and reward dive to the basket and-ones at the expense of back-to-the-basket postups. It's no great coincidence it's such a guard dominated era of NBA right now.

Could unravel that into a bit of a conspiracy theory(largely about the casual fan liking fast breaks and charging dunks more than good footwork), but whatever the reasons or motivations, it certainly doesn't do the Lakers any favors.

And thats my problem... The refs let them get away with what we couldn't. Call the game the same and its all good. How many phantom calls did they get? A TON. THose guys rotate quickly, they do talk and we didn't cut like we should have. All that being said, we were just as aggressive, moved much better and talked too yet we were getting called for the touch fouls.

Even non-touch fouls, like Gasol's "foul" on LeBron's layup midway through the 4th. Barely even grazed his jersey.

khmrP wrote:

Weezy wrote:Eh, the Heat are the champs, we were in it almost the whole time, I can't really complain too much. We cut down on those turnovers, get Dwight the ball more and he makes some more free throws, Kobe doesn't shoot so terribly and Nash doesn't have such a bad game and we could have won.

World of ifs....this is our solice everytime we lose, if this if that

odom1year wrote:Stop complaining anyone other than Kobe. This is Kobe's team. When the best player of your team missed 17 of total 25 attempts and committed team high 6 turnovers. The best player should take the responsibility and blame. And for Lebron, he is number 1 in the league, better than Durant. No question about. Kobe's just at best top 5 right now.