Tue. 6/9 - Lakers @ Orlando - Game 3 - Predictions/Comments

Oh well I thought the Magic would win this game in my overall series prediction. However I felt like the Laker were going to steal this one once Lewis missed that shot with 37.6 left.

Make your free throws and tighten up the defense they will be fine in Game 4. NO WAY Orlando can shoot that well again.

If you think the Magic shot well and can't get as hot again, I think they're just warming up. Lakers getting cold. Potential blowout in game 4. If they win game 5, it could be 2006 all over again for Van Gundy. What a waste of good effort because I thought most of the Lakers played hard and well (and they may never play this well again) except for you-know-who who cost us this game.

We'll win game 4, believe me when I say this.

LakerEricR wrote:Oh well I thought the Magic would win this game in my overall series prediction. However I felt like the Laker were going to steal this one once Lewis missed that shot with 37.6 left.

Make your free throws and tighten up the defense they will be fine in Game 4. NO WAY Orlando can shoot that well again.

no guarantee Lakers will shoot 53% either. it goes both ways, face it, we blew a golden chance tonight to seal the series, there's no way sugar coating it.

i actually thought the rest of the team played well, aside from kobe. who know's what this does to their psyche. the bad news is the next 2 games are in orlando as well and i think they're just warming up.

Hate to say it but for a second game in a row Kobe screwed the 4th quarter up forcing stupid shots, turning the ball over and making stupid plays. Tonight he even missed his free throws.

Someone else needs to distribute the ball in the end of games he's just not getting it done. Running around wasting the clock getting rejected and throwing the ball away isn't smart basketball. I'm also tired of everyone thinking of him as a 4th quarter only player who just *has* to close the game. Give the ball to a point guard and go run the base line and get an open shot it's ridiculous trying to split the defense in traffic and drive right into Howards face one on one which he also got cleanly blocked on and bailed out.

Phil needs to start coaching before we have another Phoenix 3 games in a row upset.

Good Kobe's blaming himself, he better not blame anyone else as bad as he messed up at the end. I love Kobe though he'll redeem himself the next game, Lamar will redeem himself, Trevor and Andrew.

I think Orlando wins the next one. But Lakers win Game 5 going away in dramatic fashion.

BadCoaching wrote:Hate to say it but for a second game in a row Kobe screwed the 4th quarter up forcing stupid shots, turning the ball over and making stupid plays. Tonight he even missed his free throws.

Someone else needs to distribute the ball in the end of games he's just not getting it done. Running around wasting the clock getting rejected and throwing the ball away isn't smart basketball. I'm also tired of everyone thinking of him as a 4th quarter only player who just *has* to close the game. Give the ball to a point guard and go runt he base line and get an open shot it's ridiculous trying to split the defense in traffic and drive right into Howards face one on one which he also got cleanly blocked on and bailed out.

Phil needs to start coaching before we have another Phoenix 3 games in a row upset.

there isn't any checks and balance on this Laker team. it's kobe's team, he can do no wrong, none of the teammates or even coaches will stand up to him when he's in his me against the world mode. before we had Shaq to keep him in check, now we have Gasol? this is the problem with this team, when kobe plays perfect team ball and winning games, everyone going home happy; but when he decide to deviate from the team and plays like he did tonight, i don't think anyone on the team will even criticize him in the locker room. this team puts too many chips on kobe.

Any one who believes lakers might lose championship because of this game you should stop watching and stop posting as well. We turned over the ball a lot. We made a lot of mistakes at the end. Orlando made and kinds of adjustments to catch us off guard, what you do think they would? I only said it on the other thread we're everyone seems to be celebrating game one and two victories. Geez, everytime we lose, its the same old s^%$ again. We just have to make adjustments, that's why it's a 7 game series and coaches. Don't worry about Kobe, I'm sure phil and the team will chat and watch the replays. We will bounce back! book it again! Yes it was disappointing because we could of won. Just get over it. Focus on Thursday!

I'll totally blame Kobe for this loss....but very little has to change as far as who has the ball in the fourth. It's Kobe's team, and without Kobe we aren't this deep in the playoffs, or even in this game today. Just remember that when you try to bring stuff about "checks and balances" and Kobe not being the best closer in the league. He is, and if I had this game to do over, I'd do it the same way again...the ball in Kobe's hands and trust in his judgment. Even the best have bad games and make enough mistakes to lose. Every failure in Kobe's career has brought him back even stronger to overcome the adversity....expect this little blip to be no different. He will come back with a vengeance on Thursday...and this time he won't miss those freethrows.

so much for our experience. When the game got close in the fourth, i knew somehow someway we'd pull out a win as a TEAM. I honestly don't have much faith in kobe heroics anymore, but i had no idea he'd literally give Orlando the victory. We as laker fans put too much faith into him always coming thru, but kobe should just run the offense, he shouldn't have to "close" every single close game.

f355 wrote:Any one who believes lakers might lose championship because of this game you should stop watching and stop posting as well. We turned over the ball a lot. We made a lot of mistakes at the end. Orlando made and kinds of adjustments to catch us off guard, what you do think they would? I only said it on the other thread we're everyone seems to be celebrating game one and two victories. Geez, everytime we lose, its the same old s^%$ again. We just have to make adjustments, that's why it's a 7 game series and coaches. Don't worry about Kobe, I'm sure phil and the team will chat and watch the replays. We will bounce back! book it again! Yes it was disappointing because we could of won. Just get over it. Focus on Thursday!

easier said than done. I hate when some people try to tell another person how to feel, when to feel this or that, and to just get over it. It's not always that simple. Some people can't just "get over it". That's what makes humans so unique, everyone has a different personality. Where you can just shake this loss off, several people cannot, doesn't make you or them right or wrong or more or less of a fan, just means you're different. Me and my girlfriend are watching the final minute of the game, Kobe turns the ball over, i'm just LIVID while she's calm, disappointed but calm. I'm mad at her b/c she isn't mad and she's mad at me b/c i am mad. But we came to understand that i'm just a bit more passionate about the wins/losses than she is, nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with people being upset with this loss.

If Orlando can't win that game, they don't belong in the Finals... And, I think we all agree, they do deserve to be here... The Lakers made them work REALLY hard for a game that should be theirs in this series. I'm pretty stoked. We get a series out of this, and the Lakers are still dictating the flow... Onto game 4.

The amazing thing is the Magic shot lights out, got the benefit of most of the calls and more importantly the non-calls, ie: Dwight Howard getting away with yet another goaltend on that LO shot and foul, Howard getting away with at least three over the back plays, Howard getting away with endless moving screens and lowered shoulders on screens, Howard getting away with numerous elbows on offensive rebounds and post moves, and that horrendous no call for Gasol's AND ONE near the end of the game in which he got hammered on that move to the hole but made the bucket (no foul!) - and yet they still BARELY won this game. 63% shooting and we still had a chance to win this thing? That's crazy stuff. How is that even possible?

kray28 wrote:I'll totally blame Kobe for this loss....but very little has to change as far as who has the ball in the fourth. It's Kobe's team, and without Kobe we aren't this deep in the playoffs, or even in this game today. Just remember that when you try to bring stuff about "checks and balances" and Kobe not being the best closer in the league. He is, and if I had this game to do over, I'd do it the same way again...the ball in Kobe's hands and trust in his judgment. Even the best have bad games and make enough mistakes to lose. Every failure in Kobe's career has brought him back even stronger to overcome the adversity....expect this little blip to be no different. He will come back with a vengeance on Thursday...and this time he won't miss those freethrows.

Agreed!!

Lakerjones wrote:The amazing thing is the Magic shot lights out, got the benefit of most of the calls and more importantly the non-calls, ie: Dwight Howard getting away with yet another goaltend on that LO shot and foul, Howard getting away with at least three over the back plays, Howard getting away with endless moving screens and lowered shoulders on screens, Howard getting away with numerous elbows on offensive rebounds and post moves, and that horrendous no call for Gasol's AND ONE near the end of the game in which he got hammered on that move to the hole but made the bucket, but they still BARELY won this game. 63% shooting and we still had a chance to win this thing? That's crazy stuff. How is that even possible?

EXACTLY...

Orlando shoots great... Refs Suck... L.A. keeps it close...
Anything more than that and this !sht would be BORING right now.....

Kobe screwed up with his free throw shooting and forcing his shot too much at the end (not to mention the stripped crossover move with 30 seconds left that resulted in a turnover). But still, we were right there at the end with all of that and their shooting the highest percentage FG of all time. How in the heck was that possible? I don't really get it.

Also I don't think you can totally have it both ways. Kobe played what Jeff Van Gundy said was possibly one of the most perfect quarters of basketball in the first. What goes up most often comes down. The guy singlehandedly kept us in the game during that stretch with his own magnificent play. He screwed up later, but I refuse to blame him completely. Where the hell was LO's offensive intensity for the first 3/4 of this game. He pulled another disappearing act. And don't blame that on Kobe. LO didn't really show up. That stat didn't lie - he had all of 5 points and 4 fouls a couple minutes into the 4th quarter. That's not getting done.

We got spoiled. LO has played at such a high level for 4 games in a row. I had a sneaking suspicion he was going to fall off and he did. It makes sense. And Gasol also had a stretch where he took his foot off the gas as well. It wasn't just Kobe not passing the ball to him. Gasol stopped moving to the basket. He would screen and then drop off back near the three point line. He stopped being aggressive for a good chunk of game and that did NOT help anything.

So, sure, Kobe can blame himself, or you can, but he wasn't the only thing going wrong out there and his otherworldly play for a chunk of the game was good enough to keep us close for the most part.

Ariza was all right tonight, but not stellar. Sasha didn't show up yet again. Bynum was pretty so-so. Basically if Kobe didn't have that huge first quarter we WOULD have gotten blown out.

So he doesn't take the blame alone. Farmar played pretty well shooting percentage wise but he also had some stupid plays that led to turnovers.

Some of you guys are ridiculous.

Where were all the haters when Kobe basically saved us during Game 3 of the last round. Or game 1 of this round as a matter of fact.

I don't know if someone already mentioned this, but:

1) why didn't Phil give Shannon Brown a run at guarding Rafer? Fish had arguably his best game of the series from an offensive standpoint (though he did force a couple of bad shots), but it was Rafer's penetration that killed us. I thought Farmar did a more effective job than Fish staying in front of Rafer--Phil should have tried Shannon on him during the 2nd qtr when Rafer was killing us

2) I'm encouraged by Luke's play in this series--he seems to be looking for his offense more--though he did have a careless potentially-momentum changing turnover, and a silly offensive foul...

3) Can Vujacic play any worse? He's horrible, and you saw Phil just shake his head when Sasha missed a short shot then fouled the Magic PG 35 feet away from the basket with his classic Euro-pe-an in-your-face annoying defense. I think Phil should try Shannon at the 2, like he did some in the Denver series.

I think the Lakers can take game 5--I agree with the sentiment that Orlando can't keep up this % of shooting for much longer...

Hope they could adjust fast. If not for the Game 2 overtime, they could have been down 1-2.

Good luck Lakers.....2 wins to the crown !!!

This series is ours no questions. Think about it...Orlando had to be at home, shooting 65 percent from the field, get away with pushing and shoving downlow, no offensive interference call, no double dribble call, and a late Laker turnover from Gasol to win....ONLY BY 4!

We're good.

Heavier Than Heaven wrote:This series is ours no questions. Think about it...Orlando had to be at home, shooting 65 percent from the field, get away with pushing and shoving downlow, no offensive interference call, no double dribble call, and a late Laker turnover from Gasol to win....ONLY BY 4!

We're good.

and we won game 1, wel be alright

GinoDB wrote:

Heavier Than Heaven wrote:This series is ours no questions. Think about it...Orlando had to be at home, shooting 65 percent from the field, get away with pushing and shoving downlow, no offensive interference call, no double dribble call, and a late Laker turnover from Gasol to win....ONLY BY 4!

We're good.

and we won game 1, wel be alright

Winning game 1 for the Lakers is basically law now.

Game 4?