Comments on: Live Blog Game 2

By: Gatinho

Gatinho — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:50:35 +0000

Some thoughts:

KB had his “Team USA I want to impress Coach K” defensive stance out last night.

In the 3rd, after Kobe missed a too quick transition 3 w/ the Nuggets down by 4, he proceeds to get assists to Luke, Pau, and Sasha on the next three possessions. Then three more consecutive assists to start the 4th. In my opinion this is where his game has grown the most over the last two years. He now has the ability to switch from aggressive scorer to play maker within the game. It is no longer a feast or famine thing.

The Nuggets used Martin, Smith, Kleiza and Najera on Kobe at certain points in the game.

We have seen two of the most amazing stat lines from 2 different players on 2 different nights.

By: Kurt

Kurt — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:40:01 +0000

27. Thanks. I just put a little post up about that.

And, a new game thoughts post is up starting the breaking down of game 2.

By: kwame a

kwame a — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:38:41 +0000

Kurt- Congratulations on your award for “Sixth Blogger of the Year” and the runner-ups in 4 other categories,

http://hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com/2008/04/2008-hardwood-paroxysms-nba-blogger.html

By: Sushant

Sushant — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:46:52 +0000

I really like the team effort yesterday.. Great props to LUKE.. he did a wonderful job defending Melo (took 2 charges), defended in post, rebounded, hit his outside shots.. pretty much an all around effort from him. I think Mbenga should also receive great props for 5 mins stint he put on in 2nd qtr. He took 5 rebounds, defended NENE and paint pretty well. Our second unit out hustled them and managed to take a 10 point lead on them, which really changed the pace and phase of game.

Kobe did a great job by scoring in the 1st qtr and didn’t let denver build up a lead. He did a great job involving all other players in the second half. His last 4 assists came in the last 6 mins of 4qtr which helped us close out the game.
Kobe is doing a lot of trash talk, which i assume is ok for him, but we should remember that its just first round and we have won our home games which we are supposed to do. We need to go hard at Pepsi center and close out this first round so that we can get good rest and build up a solid plan against denver.
I dont like the fact that in after game interviews all we talk about is controlling the pace of game but not defense. I know D is part of controlling the pace but still we need to put up a little better effort on defensive end which is seen only in spurts. If we have to go towards the path of championship we have to put a consistent effort on defense. Our offense is pretty smooth when we are moving the ball well.
In yesterdays game another ascpet was denver missing their first 10 3 pointers, camby chucking up air balls from baseline at the end. The game could have been much closer had they made those shots. Denver has a lot of positive to take from this game and i am sure they will come out really aggresive on their home.
I am looking forward to 3rd game as it will show how good our defense really us.

By: DMo

DMo — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:43:13 +0000

The problem with the Nuggets is that, for all of their talent, they are led by a bunch of knuckleheads. A.I. is crafty, but he almost never plays the percentages. Carmello is a forward who acts like a guard because it’s more fun than getting knocked around in the paint. Martin is a solid defender, but he is easily baited into cheap fouls. And Marcus Camby is a great shot blocker and rebounder who has to work much too hard in his old age to keep his team afloat. George Karl has one of the worst gigs in basketball. I don’t blame him for taking out his aggression on his assistants in the locker room before game 1.

By: Craig W.

Craig W. — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:14:35 +0000

I like Jeff Van Gundy, even if he gets carried away with himself sometimes – I think they are paid to get carried away on subjects. Hubie I find extremely knowledgeable, but Doug Collins not so much. Yeah! I know! It was supposed to be a joke.

By: nomuskles

nomuskles — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:42:58 +0000

I wonder what Craig thinks of Doug Collins and Jeff Van Gundy and Hubie Brown when they break down a game.

Lol at unmown. I had no idea Dirk Manscaped until the other day.

By: Craig W.

Craig W. — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:35:10 +0000

Marcus,
Marv Albert may have the rep, but neither he, nor Reggie has as much information about BOTH teams. I know, they are national announcers, but their game comments were not as complete, nor as interesting, as Joel and Stu’s were. I found they were spouting the same thing I have heard from them on other games, but nothing that particularly illuminated the specific game I was watching. Well, not nothing, but certainly not as good as our local guys.

By: the other Stephen

the other Stephen — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:22:08 +0000

at least pau is man enough to leave his armpits unmown, unlike certain other european superstars.

By: pb

pb — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:54:10 +0000

A great win by a great team. Although Kobe accounted about half of the Laker offense, the win was possible due to the TEAM effort. Luke, Gasol, Fish, Sasha, and even Mbenga contributed enough as a unit. I thought that the key was that the Lakers played as a team and dENVER played as five individuals wearing same colored uniforms. While our two best players were constantly looking for each other, their two best players were staring at each other with contempt. While our role players were fulfilling their roles, their role players were trying to take over their stars’ roles. It’s really sad to see such a talented group of players playing so disfunctionally together as dENVER Nuggs do. Clearly, Nuggs have talents, real talents. But the sum of their parts may actually be less than their whole. AI does his thing. Melo, too. K-Mart and Camby can rebound and defend. Kleiza and JR Smith provide spark off the bench. But this team just does not play together as a team, especially on defense. On the other hand, we have limited talent (apart from the big 3), but our role players focus on 1or 2 things they do well, so they excel, especially as a unit. I guess it comes down to coaching and commitment. I’m just glad that we’re 2-0 despite us not playing as well as we could be playing. I just hope that we start playing better defense to just get this series finished in the next two games and prepare ourselves for UTAH. But as good teams should, we should first focus on game 3, as it will be a tougher battle.