Sun. 12/18 vs. Rockets - Results Inside - Postgame comments

NBA Memorabilia Collector · by **NBA Memorabilia Collector** on Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:09 am

Kobe may have been able to lock up T-Mac down the stretch in the past, but the situations were different. He could afford to coast for an entire half and allow Shaq's dominance to carry the team and then attack late when McGrady, who had to go all-out from start to finish for his team to even be in the game, has most of his energy spent. That's how he was able to lock him up in the 4th Quarter and OT in the 03-04 LA/ORL match-up.

Times have changed... Well, this game was unique since T-Mac was playing his 4th game in 5 days with Kobe having a day's rest, but I still don't think Kobe would have been up to the task anyway. T-Mac had blown by him earlier in the game for an And1 lay-in on a similar play. Likely would have happened at the end of the game as well.

nameant · by **nameant** on Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:37 am

NBA Memorabilia Collector wrote:Times have changed... Well, this game was unique since T-Mac was playing his 4th game in 5 days with Kobe having a day's rest, but I still don't think Kobe would have been up to the task anyway. T-Mac had blown by him earlier in the game for an And1 lay-in on a similar play. Likely would have happened at the end of the game as well.

what does this have to do with anything? kobe outplayed tmac. the rockets made their final play in transition. george just happened to be matched up with tmac. if the rockets had called a timeout, you can bet kobe would've been all over tmac. the problem is, no one besides the pistons and bruce bowen are able to play tough perimeter D. therefore kobe probably would've gotten called for a foul. kobe wasnt fatigued in this game at all. he was simply playing a good TEAM game. problem is, his TEAM didnt feel like helping him out.

Ring It Up · by **Ring It Up** on Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:49 am

nameant wrote:
KB8@CL wrote:Kwame has a nice form on his FT but he shoots them really terrible. Dude doesn´t take the time to concentrate at all, its all automatic and its always off. Damn it he can´t hit 50%? WTF, He was a 67% shooter 2-3 years ago.

the only thing holding kwame back from being a GREAT basketball player is CONFIDENCE and PATIENCE.

And skill.

NBA Memorabilia Collector · by **NBA Memorabilia Collector** on Mon Dec 19, 2005 11:42 am

nameant wrote:what does this have to do with anything? kobe outplayed tmac.

No. T-Mac outplayed Kobe.

He was in his 4th game in 5 days on the road without his second best player and a swingman to help out on defense like Kobe had in Devean George, and the Rockets STILL won. I don't give a damn about numbers. McGrady led his team to victory on Kobe's homecourt with everything stacked against him. Fact.

the rockets made their final play in transition. george just happened to be matched up with tmac. if the rockets had called a timeout, you can bet kobe would've been all over tmac.

I doubt it.

Kobe was hardly seen on T-Mac in the whole 4th quarter.

kobe wasnt fatigued in this game at all. he was simply playing a good TEAM game. problem is, his TEAM didnt feel like helping him out.

Yeah, I know he wasn't fatigued. He had a day's rest unlike McGrady who was playing his 4th game in 5 days.

And, Kobe had a much better squad out there with him than T-Mac did, and still couldn't get it done.

T-Mac outplayed Kobe in this game. Period.

Lakers Dynasty 2000 · by **Lakers Dynasty 2000** on Mon Dec 19, 2005 12:10 pm

Don't come in here with the pity "4th game in 5 days," we went through the grueling schedule and came out pretty well at 5-1 on that road trip.

Anyways, here is a GREAT breakdown on the... well breakdown of the last play:

Mike@LG wrote:All were late.

Smush stepped out and reached. He was beyond late. Sorry, I'd rather have David Wesley burn me behind the arc than McGrady for a layup.

Lamar Odom stepped out late and was too far under the basket. What's his excuse? Who was he defending? Whatever, I'd rather have that guy beat the Lakers than McGrady for a layup.

Kwame Brown was next to the plane of the backboard defending Howard. Sorry, still would rather have Juwon Howard burn me from midrange on the baseline than McGrady for a layup.

Watch all the replays. On the drive, EACH of the Laker players were behind 1-2 steps in providing help, and most certainly late reacting to penetration as soon as George got beat from 22'.

In the time it takes McGrady to get from the 3pt. line to the FT line, the defense should've reacted. Instead, McGrady had a 2 step headstart.

It's the entire team defensive collapse.

lakaboy42 · by **lakaboy42** on Mon Dec 19, 2005 12:39 pm

Lakers Dynasty 2000 wrote:Don't come in here with the pity "4th game in 5 days," we went through the grueling schedule and came out pretty well at 5-1 on that road trip.

Anyways, here is a GREAT breakdown on the... well breakdown of the last play:

Mike@LG wrote:All were late.

Smush stepped out and reached. He was beyond late. Sorry, I'd rather have David Wesley burn me behind the arc than McGrady for a layup.

Lamar Odom stepped out late and was too far under the basket. What's his excuse? Who was he defending? Whatever, I'd rather have that guy beat the Lakers than McGrady for a layup.

Kwame Brown was next to the plane of the backboard defending Howard. Sorry, still would rather have Juwon Howard burn me from midrange on the baseline than McGrady for a layup.

Watch all the replays. On the drive, EACH of the Laker players were behind 1-2 steps in providing help, and most certainly late reacting to penetration as soon as George got beat from 22'.

In the time it takes McGrady to get from the 3pt. line to the FT line, the defense should've reacted. Instead, McGrady had a 2 step headstart.

It's the entire team defensive collapse.

exactly, but what i'm pissed about is how Phil had George playing on T Mac for the last couple plays, kobe wasn't in foul trouble at that point, why not switch him over?

nameant · by **nameant** on Mon Dec 19, 2005 1:11 pm

NBA Memorabilia Collector wrote:
nameant wrote:what does this have to do with anything? kobe outplayed tmac.

No. T-Mac outplayed Kobe.

no. the rockets roleplayers outplayed our roleplayers. fact.

NBA Memorabilia Collector wrote:He was in his 4th game in 5 days on the road without his second best player and a swingman to help out on defense like Kobe had in Devean George, and the Rockets STILL won. I don't give a damn about numbers. McGrady led his team to victory on Kobe's homecourt with everything stacked against him. Fact.

see above. david wesley and luther head won this game.

NBA Memorabilia Collector wrote:
nameant wrote:the rockets made their final play in transition. george just happened to be matched up with tmac. if the rockets had called a timeout, you can bet kobe would've been all over tmac.

I doubt it.

Kobe was hardly seen on T-Mac in the whole 4th quarter.

ok, you doubt it. that makes it truth?

NBA Memorabilia Collector wrote:
nameant wrote:kobe wasnt fatigued in this game at all. he was simply playing a good TEAM game. problem is, his TEAM didnt feel like helping him out.

Yeah, I know he wasn't fatigued. He had a day's rest unlike McGrady who was playing his 4th game in 5 days.

And, Kobe had a much better squad out there with him than T-Mac did, and still couldn't get it done.

T-Mac outplayed Kobe in this game. Period.

kobe had a much better squad? dude have you looked at the boxscore? LO did nothing. Mihm did nothing. Sasha and George combined missed who knows how many 3's? Cook did nothing. The only guys who showed up on the Lakers were Kobe and Smush. George played decent D..but couldnt hit a shot to save his life. Kwame was making big plays, but when he got fouled, he just bricked FTs. like i said, the difference was "the other guys". and unfortunately for us, smush had a so so game. luther head and david wesley hit big shots all night. that's a fact.

scarface223 · by **scarface223** on Mon Dec 19, 2005 1:27 pm

wow, I really thought the Lakers would win that game. That's a really bad loss considering Rockets had no Yao, Rafer Alson, DA, Jon Barry, Bob Sura, and plus Deke got injured in the 4th!! It was just Tmac and a bunch of scrubs; and they won! And I agree with many here, I am very shocked Kobe was not guarding McGrady towards the end of the game. All this hate surrounding Tmac though, T-Wack this and that...., and he comes in and delivers the knockout blow! Karma, lol

Lakerman JSJ · by **Lakerman JSJ** on Mon Dec 19, 2005 1:33 pm

Lakers Dynasty 2000 wrote:Don't come in here with the pity "4th game in 5 days," we went through the grueling schedule and came out pretty well at 5-1 on that road trip.

Anyways, here is a GREAT breakdown on the... well breakdown of the last play:

Mike@LG wrote:All were late.

Smush stepped out and reached. He was beyond late. Sorry, I'd rather have David Wesley burn me behind the arc than McGrady for a layup.

Lamar Odom stepped out late and was too far under the basket. What's his excuse? Who was he defending? Whatever, I'd rather have that guy beat the Lakers than McGrady for a layup.

Kwame Brown was next to the plane of the backboard defending Howard. Sorry, still would rather have Juwon Howard burn me from midrange on the baseline than McGrady for a layup.

Watch all the replays. On the drive, EACH of the Laker players were behind 1-2 steps in providing help, and most certainly late reacting to penetration as soon as George got beat from 22'.

In the time it takes McGrady to get from the 3pt. line to the FT line, the defense should've reacted. Instead, McGrady had a 2 step headstart.

It's the entire team defensive collapse.

This is a solid breakdown, and the thing that got me was Kwame or Odom have to go up and challenge that shot cuz McGrady either passes it off and they probably dont get the shot off in time or he forces it and even if Odom or Kwame hack him, 9 times out of 10 they don't make that call on buzzer beaters.

Tough loss, but the biggest thing for us to remember is to not get too low on losses and too high on wins. This team is light years ahead of where I expected them to be at this point in the season and I look forward to them continuing to learn and grow. As long as we can continue to shut teams down defensively the way we have in the last 3 games, we're going to win a lot more than we lose.

KB24 · by **KB24** on Mon Dec 19, 2005 2:33 pm

What do we talk about? The Lakers played too dumb period.
When you have Gump on T-Mac 35 ft away from the basket YOU HAVE TP BACK GUMP UP because T-Mac WILL beat him off the dribble but we just had nobody. Lamar thought Smush will, Kwame thought Lamar will and Smush was just scared that his man gets open (and he gets the heat). Its the way it is, we played terrible and we CERTAINLY didn´t lose because of a big play by T-Mac. We lost because everybody (inclusive Kobe) broke down in the second half and NOBODY but Kwame did anything in the 4th. Kwame got so many offensive boards but we just couldn´t connect. Kobe, Gump, Walton or whoever tried failed. Simple as that.
Time to move on because this game is 10 steps back and I don´t want to believe it.

Lakerfan36 · by **Lakerfan36** on Mon Dec 19, 2005 2:36 pm

KB8@CL wrote:What do we talk about? The Lakers played too dumb period.
When you have Gump on T-Mac 35 ft away from the basket YOU HAVE TP BACK GUMP UP because T-Mac WILL beat him off the dribble but we just had nobody. Lamar thought Smush will, Kwame thought Lamar will and Smush was just scared that his man gets open (and he gets the heat). Its the way it is, we played terrible and we CERTAINLY didn´t lose because of a big play by T-Mac. We lost because everybody (inclusive Kobe) broke down in the second half and NOBODY but Kwame did anything in the 4th. Kwame got so many offensive boards but we just couldn´t connect. Kobe, Gump, Walton or whoever tried failed. Simple as that.
Time to move on because this game is 10 steps back and I don´t want to believe it.

KB8. sorry but it was odoms fault. when your number 2 option scores 3 points. and on top of that he played horrible defense specifically that last play. its his fault.

KB24 · by **KB24** on Mon Dec 19, 2005 2:40 pm

Lakerfan36 wrote:
KB8@CL wrote:What do we talk about? The Lakers played too dumb period.
When you have Gump on T-Mac 35 ft away from the basket YOU HAVE TP BACK GUMP UP because T-Mac WILL beat him off the dribble but we just had nobody. Lamar thought Smush will, Kwame thought Lamar will and Smush was just scared that his man gets open (and he gets the heat). Its the way it is, we played terrible and we CERTAINLY didn´t lose because of a big play by T-Mac. We lost because everybody (inclusive Kobe) broke down in the second half and NOBODY but Kwame did anything in the 4th. Kwame got so many offensive boards but we just couldn´t connect. Kobe, Gump, Walton or whoever tried failed. Simple as that.
Time to move on because this game is 10 steps back and I don´t want to believe it.

KB8. sorry but it was odoms fault. when your number 2 option scores 3 points. and on top of that he played horrible defense specifically that last play. its his fault.

I don´t say it wasn´t. I say it was not ONLY his fault. Is it his fault that Kobe goes 1-5 in the second half? Is that? Is that his mistake that Wesley makes a WIDE open 3 (in the clutch) with Kobe 30 ft away from his man? Is that his mistake that Gump loses Head on the wing and he can swish an uncontensted 3? Is that his mistake that Gump gets beaten by T-Mac? Is that his mistake that Mihm goes 0-5? Come on dude, no way it was just Odom. When you allow 34-15 in the 3rd against a sorry and pathetic lineup its the entire team that sucks. Just looking for a scapegoat is really WEAK. We sucked, as we have done the entire season at home.

Sun. 12/18 vs. Rockets - Results Inside - Postgame comments

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