Fri. 11/5 vs. Spurs - Results Inside - Postgame comments

Lakers vs. Spurs
Friday, Nov. 5
7:30 pm
TV: ESPN, FSN
Radio: KLAC-AM 570/KWKW-AM 1330
Recap | Box Score | Photos

Spurs - 105
Lakers - 96

Rally Falls Short
The Lakers made a late run in the fourth and got within six points with less than two minutes remaining, but lost to the visiting Spurs 105-96 Friday. Kobe Bryant scored 28 points and Lamar Odom added 24.

Post all your comments here...

i'm expecting a win here....

This is going to be a defining moment for this team...

...this is going to be ugly. Look what we let Utah's inside do. Duncan is going to go for a career high and career rebounding high against us. Our frontcourt isn't rebounding and isn't playing D...it's going to be a long game. And if Rudy dares to play Chucky against Parker...may God have mercy on us. I hate to say it, but I don't see any possible way, outside of Duncan not playing, that we win this game.

I actually think this game will be a little better than the game against Utah. I think Kirilenko's defense in the beginning of the game completely threw them off and made us passive and scared around the rim. If the Lakers can get out to a steady start, it should be a respectable game. Although I do agree that I find it hard seeing us win on Friday.

San Antonio Spurs (1-0) @ Los Angeles Lakers (1-1)

Friday, November 4th
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Los Angeles
TV: FSN, ESPN

Previous Games:
Kings @ Spurs 101-85 W
Lakers @ Jazz 104-78 L

Projected Starting Lineups
SPURS

(Greg Popovich)

(Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Bruce Bowen, Tim Duncan, Rasho Nesterovic)
VS
LAKERS

(Rudy Tomjanovich)

(Chucky Atkins, Kobe Bryant, Caron Butler, Lamar Odom, Chris Mihm)

Factors off the Bench

(Brent Barry, Jumaine Jones)

Game MVPs

(Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant)

Brandon's Analysis
Expect the Spurs to walk onto the court with a lot of confidence, while the Lakers are looking for something to prove after their disaster in Utah on Wednesday.

Manu should have a huge game, partially because of the matchup problems that will occur, freeing him up for easy jumpers. Parker will have a great game against a slower Atkins, and a less-defensive Brown.

Duncan should pull down more than 10 boards in this game against a so-far disappointing Lamar Odom, while Rasho finds Mihm to be a little tougher than expected, bringing in Malik Rose for 20 minutes or so against Mihm and possibly Grant (if his knee isn't bothering him).

For the win, the Lakers are going to have to do two important things: pass the ball, and crash the boards. Obviously, a third would be to hit shots, but that's usually always an offensive "must" when playing a team like San Antonio, who has no problem trading shot for shot down the stretch.

Brandon's Prediction
As much as I'd like to see the Lakers win this one easily, they'll have to fight for it. I won't make the call for who hits the jumper in the final seconds, but I can imagine who'd get the nod to take the shot before anyone else. The Lakers are going to have BSPN and many critics trying to humiliate them for their loss against the Jazz, so a determined LA squad will want it more than the overconfident Spurs come Friday night. Lakers take this game, 92-90.

Good Call Tip: The Spurs were one of the best defensive teams last season. Lakers FG% shouldnt exceed 47%.

I think the spurs will win. i am being realistic and from what we saw yesterday i hope we dont get spanked by the spurs.

This game Lakers will win!

I dont think I have ever heard anyone call the Spurs overconfident. Boring maybe but not overconfident. That team barely shows emotion.

First of all, the Spurs are NOT 2-0. Well, they might be after they beat the Lakers.


Well, everyone (except a couple) wanted Odom at PF. Let's see how he fares against Tim Duncan.


The Lakers just had one of their worst losses in franchise history. Now, its one thing if they're old, midway through the season, and took the day off. But they are young, supposed to be competing and just got demolished by an average to above average team.

LA will NOT win this game, they at the very best will keep it close, maybe down by 6-7 throughout the game.

I'd like to see better defense though, from this team. That's one area where there shouldn't be any excuses.

Honestly, after Jazz's game, lakers is no way to win.

I hope kobe will take 40 shots.

With all this talk about our team losing...is it just me, or does anyone else realize that...

Houston is 0-2
Sacramento is 0-2
Denver is 0-1
Memphis is 0-1
New Orleans is 0-1

It's not like we are the only team to lose a game. On top of that, it was against a fresh team, in their opener, at the Delta Center...as a back-to-back game. Everything was against us.

I wouldn't have been surprised if the Spurs lost to them last night, if they were the first on their schedule instead of the Lakers.

Laker fans...let's think positive about this upcoming game against the Spurs. Tim Duncan may seem like our biggest problem, but it's really going to be the shooting of Brent Barry and the penetrations from Ginobili and Parker. I seriously think we should play zone defense. It may seem a little odd, but the Lakers didn't pick up the game fast enough last night. By the time we were hitting (well, when Kobe was hitting) and once we flipped our defensive strategy, it was too late.

Notice that we broke free of our slump in the 3rd quarter. I've got it on tape...we switched to a zone. I think that we'll have trouble playing man against the Spurs, but that's just a gut feeling.

Also, I really really wish we had Vlade at this point. We need him to rack up fouls against guys like Rasho, to keep them out of the game and move Duncan out of position to MAYBE do the same to him.

I'm not going to even try to guess how we're going to stop Parker at the point. If things get bad, we can play Kobe at the one like we had to last night...and it worked well, but we can't do this every game, because he'll eventually be exhausted from chasing speedy PG's all night.

If we make the necessary stops and keep Barry and Ginobili from scoring all night, we can win this game.

Triumph Jelani wrote:Its how we lost, RDBN. Of course, the team is yet to form an identity & I know Utah is rough n rugged.

Well, watching the game, we didn't start out aggressive and we weren't making as many passes per possession. We were obviously tired, and not thinking that Kirilenko would throw all of our shots into the stands.

The crowd really did play a huge role at the beginning of the game. The Jazz gained a significant amount of momentum because of AK47's performance in the first two quarters, and the shooting wasn't helping.

If you notice, once Kobe started pushing this team and scoring at will, the crowd stopped the chants and were silenced, and we stole the third quarter. I believe we actually won the third...I'm just too lazy to look at the box score right now.

But I'm optimistic...and I always have been. In Game 5 of the Pistons series, I still believed that the Lakers were going to win 3 straight at that point, but it didn't happen. Right now, this game was a loss, but that's not all. It was an evaluation of our squad. The Jazz exposed our weaknesses, and I guarantee that, with the experience and coaching abilities that Rudy T has, he's hitting on all of those weaknesses in practice today...so I expect nothing of the sort when we play the Spurs on Friday.

If it does turn out to be just as bad, then I expect improvements for the next game, and so on....

Double on Duncan and Parker, cut Manu's penetration...let the other players (Bowen, Rose etc. except Barry) beat us on the perimeter...

I predict a 2 pt. Laker win at the buzzer!

Call me crazy but after that display in post by the Lakers front court last night, I seriously doubt anyone will stopping the Spurs in the post. Also if people think the Jazz played good defense just wait until the Spurs show up. I dont have a very good feeling about this game.

My heart says Lakers by 5 but my mind says Spurs by 10.

Triumph Jelani wrote:I did it for u we won the 3rd by 2pts. Although I welcomed the weakness exposure, it was quite awful to watch. I do have a question though. With the Zone-D being quite effective throughout the league when used, do u think we could employ it 30-40% of the time & still have a stiffling effective D? If a team is shooting a high percentage from the perimeter, there's not much u can do though.

That's the problem, though. I hope Brent Barry doesn't show out on Friday. Also, Manu is very capable of scoring when he needs to (he showed this last season against the Lakers, when Tim Duncan was out).

Implying the zone for less than half of the game is a good strategy, but they need to do it much sooner...maybe really soon...because right now, it looks like it's the most effective way for the Lakers to run their defense. Also, we know that the backcourt is going to go crazy Friday against us...because Kobe can't guard both Manu and Parker...so it's going to be one helluva problem when we start the game, and that's why we should start it off by experimenting with our defense, instead of messing around all game, every game...

The Spurs are going to crush the Lakers. Manu was unreal in their season opener. Duncan is Duncan and you guys have no depth to stop this team whatsoever...

1-2.

Lakers will take it, no problem

Usually LA should be able to beat them!
Butler had some defense problems in the first 2 games but Melo and Kiri are just too big for him! He is able to shut down Gino and stay in front of him! Kobe must beat Bowen on defense if the lakers want to have any chance and i´m confident he will! Odom will be burned by Odom at the one end of the floor but i think Lamat Kobe Butler are able to use his weakness and draw a couple of fouls! If they can do that and Duncan is in foul trouble early SA is lost! Odom can eat up Horry and Mihm will be at least equal to nesterovic! Lets see how things turn out! Well Parker is hell better than our guys but so where Miller Boykins and we can shut him down by team defense!

This isn't the playoffs. This is just one game in the season. Any team can beat another team on a given night, especially early in the season. The Lakers need to get off to a fast start and create a lead so they can be able to withstand the Spurs late game runs. Mihm needs to start evaluating the defense instead of blindly going in for the shot everytime he gets the ball, or else Duncan will have a field day. Kobe can't let Ginobili get hot especially from the 3 point line. Obviously defensive rebounding will be important, they'll have to try to keep the Spurs offensive rebounding under control. I think the key to this game is Ginobili. Duncan will get his, if they can keep Ginobili under control they can win this game.

atleast we have home-court advantage!

But yea i agree, any team can beat any team in regualr season. The Clippers beat last year Lakers majoirty of the time but they got no where.