However, we had a far greater number of those who were both critical and yet insightful at the same time. Those who were critical of the Lakers last year had some sort of insight and well-developed thoughts in their posts, such that no matter how much we may have disagreed, we still had to respect their insight.

People don’t realize that going through a Lakers season as a commenter in the FB&G community is somewhat similar to going through it as a player. Their are ups and downs, high-points and low-points. People like Kurt and Darius are like 10 yr vets; they’ve been here before. Other people are relatively new, and they’ve got their rookie excitements and emotional rides. They may be extremely talented individuals (insightful, in our case), but there is no substitute for experience. I know I haven’t been around all that long, and I had very similar emotional extremes when I first started commenting around here. But with time, I learned from the veterans. Even though I disagreed with Darius and drrayeye and The Dude Abides and other people who have been around for a while, I still read their comments and learned from their perspectives.

Given our increase in fan base, we just have a massive influx of new people, who just aren’t used to being part of an online community for an 82-game season.

If we win the championship this year I fully expect Ken to be on here complaining that we won it in 6 games instead of 4.

Anyway…another great game and shot by Kobe! It’s good to see Bynum stepping up to the challenge as well.

BynUM not BynAM.

BynUMite not BynAMite.

If you are going to critique me, at least get the spelling right. As for my comment about the Lakers playing down to their competition, that has been mostly true for this year and was one of the biggest complaints about last year’s team. The Laker are not taking the lesser teams in the league seriously since they are so talented. As for the losing record against the top 5 teams, I don’t see it being indicative of anything that will happen in the postseason. A record like that may indicate something for other teams, but I don’t think it applies to this group. Simply due to the wealth of experience on this team and the fact that this team has been to the top of the mountain (except for Ron). They understand what is required to win a championship.

Playoffs are a completely different animal than the regular season. When you have 7 game series where you are able to seriously game plan and practice for a team, that changes things significantly. During the regular season, teams do not have the luxury of several days of practice or spending days creating a game plan to counteract the schemes of other teams.

I know that yiou are doing your best, and your comments continue to be thoughtful, but the quality of responder comments don’t match yours–especially during the game.

I watched the entire game tonight, and it was interesting. The Lakers started off by feeding Bynum and Gasol, and took the lead for the first quarter. During the second quarter, they got away form this strategy–and Toronto caught fire–especially from the 3–and ended up leading at the half. The Lakers dominated the third and fourth quarter enough to win.

That’s the framework. Kobe had a great shot selection, Andrew came through, and Gasol, Odom, and Fisher all made key contributions.

Jarret Jack had a spectacular game for the Raptors, and Bosh made 2 rare three pointers–including a spectacular shot that apparently was going to send the game into overtime until Kobe–well you know. , , ,

Rather than writing thoughtfully about the game in front of them, some posters simply wrote negative emotional one liners throughout the game. Of the 127 comments, way more than half were of this nature.

I’d like to see the quality of comments during the game improve. What I saw on this thread tonight is not what we expect at FB&G

Cavs 0 and 2
Denver 1 and 2
Dallas 2 and 2
Boston 1 and 1
Orlando 1 and 1

Thats 5 and 8 aganist the best teams so i guess they are playing sideways to the best teams?

So much for having faith in the team and their improvement. Clearly there are issues with the team, but this “sky is falling” routine is old. From reading the comments without knowing the final score, any reader would assume the Lakers are absolutely terrible. That they have no chance of winning an NBA championship. I don’t even want to imagine what you guys were thinking when the Lakers were getting smacked around by Houston last year with Yao out. It must’ve seemed like 2012+Armageddon+ another terrible disaster movie. It is natural to find fault with a team that you root for. Especially when you have high expectations for the team.

Yes, the Lakers have been playing down to their competition, not executing on offense, in addition to a number of faults that have been expounded upon on this blog. However, the champion is not determined by their efforts in March. It is April, May and June that crown champions. Throughout the regular season, every champion will take its share of lumps. It is whether team takes the lessons it has learned in the regular season and applies it in the playoffs. Sometimes it takes a lesson in the playoffs for a team to finally get it and get over the hump as it did last year. The point is, I still have faith in this team to win a championship this year. The year is not over and the Lakers will be playing deep into the playoffs.

Geez, all we “optimists” ever say is that the “downers/pessimists” always make a loss into “No chance for a championship this year.” or “Fisher sucks and will lose us a championship this year.” So to clarify, we don’t hate the analysis, we hate the CONCLUSIONS, especially the far fetched CONCLUSIONS that the Lakers wont win the championship. Well, at least I do. I’ve criticized this team plenty this year. And I watch with as much passion as any of you when I don’t see the triangle being run. And to be honest, KEN, for someone who says they have been a fan for a long long time, I would think you’ve seen enough bball to know that anything can happen.

Now analysis is fine, and I’ll give my two cents. I will only comment on what I saw (missed the middle quarters), so just the 1st and 4th quarter.

Now, pointing to the last possessions. I was surprised that Phil pulled Bynum for Pau in the end. Bynum was playing really well defensively. And I thought he would finish. Far be it from me to criticize Phil Jackson (X), but that was an odd thing. That said, Pau’s shooting has been off since Kobe rejoined the team. (He played well during Kobe’s absence). But there seems to be something wrong with his … something. I just don’t expect him to go two weeks with 4 – 11 lines on the stat sheet. That being said, he did pull a game high on rebounds for us, was running the floor early, and I enjoyed the beginning of the game where Pau was looking for Bynum and fed him even though they were crowded.

Great game for Kobe. Not just with the game winner, but the fact that he scored 32 points on 20 shots. I really think that’s going to be important moving forward. The stats show that we haven’t won with Kobe shooting 30 shots a game, and I think that is a trend that will continue. So no matter if they have bad shooting nights, the post needs to get theirs in the paint, regardless of success. Like Fisher’s shooting when he’s open, it’s a necessity.

Ken, I think it would be really good to stop having so much venom for Phil Jackson. There’s a way to disagree with him without completely ragging on him. But hey, if you want to, go ahead. But I don’t because he got the Lakers 4 Titles in the 2000s, with 5 trips to the finals in that time. And I don’t think you could name anyone else you’d want to replace him. (And please don’t say Byron Scott. You know, the guy who got fired from the last two jobs he had). Sorry man, I think you’re a passionate fan, but that type of name calling should only be reserved for the Mike Dunleavy’s of the world.

Let’s see, anything else… Nope. Glad for the win. Wondering if there is any correlation with Artest going super defender and the Lakers rebounding numbers going down? With him being outside on the wing so much, is that taking away from our rebounding? Just a though as I was looking over the box score.

http://www.forumblueandgold.com/2010/03/09/lakersraptors-kobe-does-it-again/

Important game. Tough when your small forward is 4 for 25 the last 3-games. That’s a problem fans.