Once again Nomuskles took the time, so here is his live game blog.
Pregame:
Everything has been said about this game that can possibly be said. Let’s get to it!
Oh wait. I almost forgot. I think the Lakers will lose this one, although I hope not.
1st Quarter
Denver remains in their powder blues. Lakers change to their yellows since it’s not Sunday anymore (unfortunately).
12:00 – Neither bench sits again. Kleiza sports #43 and starts the game. This means the matchups are pretty normal.
11:01 – Fisher makes a great strip of Kenyon in the post. He takes it the other way and the Lakers earn 2.
10:19 – The Space Cadet gets himself started off right with a three.
10:04 – Not a good omen, Nuggets find a wide open Melo under the basket for an easy lay-in.
9:35 – Camby is wearing yellow socks.
9:24 – Fisher misses a layup. Was anyone surprised right there? He left it shorter than Tom Cruise.
8:30 – Kobe hits the faceup bank shot.
8:16 – Marv gets really excited when Kleiza beats Odom off the dribble for the two-handed slam.
7:41 – Fast break Nuggets, easy dunk. 12-9.
7:19 – Gasol is mugged in the mid post in the act of shooting. Reggie Miller says the Nuggets need to go to the zone diet and clog the middle. Exactly what Kurt said they were probably going to do. We’ll see how that pans out.
7:04 – Whoa. Kenyon Martin does a little Tasmanian devil move that is good.
6:39 – Excellent hustle by your Los Angeles Lakers leads to a Pau jump hook. 12-14 Lakers are down.
5:51 – Let me take a breath. This game is ridiculous. 16-12 Nuggets up and it’s been mostly layups, dunks, and three pointers early in the clock. Very few half court sets going deep into the shot clock. That’s not what the Lakers wanted. I’m not sure that’s what the Nuggets wanted either, but it’s working for them so far. Timeout. At this point the Nuggets are shooting 67% and the Lakers are shooting 33%. That’s not going to get it done.
4:37 – Nuggets are clearly the more aggressive team tonight. Getting inside and getting to offensive rebounds. Welcome to the worst case scenario (that doesn’t involve an injury).
4:13 – Bennet Salvatore misses a call. On the inbounds, Denver misses, but Camby gets the offensive rebound (I’m throwing things at the TV now) and puts it back. Without Kobe, the Lakers would be out of it.
3:30 – Kleiza loses the handle and Kobe gets in the open floor. AI decides he’d rather not be the other person in the sport center highlight and gets out of the way. Kobe jams with one hand. Denver calls timeout. 20-22. Nuggets still up.
2:59 – Fisher makes two free throws to tie the game up. Some token pressure after the free throws. Life with Luke fouls Melo. Kobe actually fouls Kleiza on the three point attempt but no call. Luke misses the shot at the other end. Wide open. AI makes his jumper on the other end.
2:16 – Kobe gets the seal on melo and gets the feed on the baseline side in the post, gets fouled and makes the layup. Shouts of MVP rain down. Melo practices his folding chair aerotuck, i.e. he has a seat on the bench.
2:03 – AI is having none of it. Drills the step back. 26-25 Denver up.
1:45 – Welcome to the Kobe show. He better drink his Gatorade today. He’s sweating bullets because he is carrying this team like a Timbuk2 messenger bag. 2 more free throws 27 – 26. Lakers up. On the other end, Najera outworks Luke for the rebound and converts.
0:56 – Luke sees Pau trailing the play. They are the only Lakers in a position to do anything in the offensive end and he lobs it up to Pau. Pau misses the oop part of the alleyoop (a key component, some might say) but the officials decide he missed because e got pushed in the lower back side.
0:54 – Iverson gets intimidated by Farmar’s imposing size and travels in the backcourt. Kobe hits a fadeaway jumper. I think Kobe heard everyone complaining about his terrible shooting and he got a little tired of hearing that he can’t shoot.
0:26 – Kobe hits a 3 here in transition. 30-33 Lakers are up.
0:06 – Iverson hits two free throws. I think his free throw stroke is back on tonight. Farmar struggles in the back court, he dribbles the length of the court and it looks exactly like Tyus Edney’s famous hoop except instead of laying it in and everyone going bananas, Farmar’s shot was sent via air courier into the fourth row by Marcus Camby. Other than that though, it was a carbon copy of 1995.
2nd Quarter
11:37 – Life with Luke starts off right with a straight on three. JR Smith takes it to the hole and Magic Johnson says that it’s too easy.
11;10 – Pau sets a great screen to give Lamar space to hit a long two pointer.
11:00 – Nene sighting. I’ve never been his biggest fan but we’ll see if he can be a difference maker tonight. Anthony Carter is also in. JR Smith is determined to make a mark on this game.
10:21 – Gosh, Magic Johnson is still talking. Please stop.
10:09 – Sasha misses from outside but don’t worry, a foul was called before the shot so it won’t make our horrid FG% worse. Oh my. That was unsightly. Farmar’s shot from outside is a long wedge shot and Mbenga tracks it down. Note to Jordan: stop hanging out so much with Luke, start hanging out with Sasha and Vladrad. After something else happens (I missed it), Lakers get a loose ball foul and the ball will come back the other way the Lakers on top by 4, 40-36.
9:37 – AI misses a three. Sorry, not every entry can be exciting.
9:26 – Mr. Walton gets an offensive foul trying to establish position in the post. Not something that happens very often.
8:43 – Lakers get a turnover from AI who got caught in the air and it leads to a Sasha….. miss…make…miss…make. Make! It rattled home. Lakers up 43-36. Timeout. On-Star seems intimidating. That Ashton Kutcher/Cameron Diaz movie looks awful. I won’t even be bitTorrenting it.
8:15 – Najera is poking us full of non-mortal wounds with his offensive rebounding. But enough non-mortal wounds, and you know what they say.
7:47 – Kobe still feeling it apparently. Strokes it. 45-36.
7:20 – Great play by Kobe and Farmar! Kobe runs the break. Both defensive Nuggets stop at the free throw line and Kobe passes to Farmar over the top. Farmar leaps in and somehow slips through the collapsing defenders to get the reverse layup. Those kinds of plays give the fans a huge boost. Timeout Nuggets. Lakers up 11.
7:01 – Umm… How is Radman not able to stay with Nene off the dribble? He fouls him earning the blocking foul.
6:32 – Close call as the ref says Sasha stepped out across the end line before passing it across. And the replay says the refs are good today.
6:17 – Melo takes the technical foul free throw for illegal defense. general boos this time. For someone of his stature, Melo doesn’t get to the line very much.
5:57 – Kobe for three! 50-39 Lakers are up. Radman says, “Thanks for getting me an assist Mr. Kobe.â€
5:40 – Fisher is very close to violating the league policy on not showing enough sock. That sentence could have easily gone wrong.
5:04 – Pau is back in the game. Kobe’s double teamed. Throws it to Pau if Pau were 13 feet tall. Lamar tracks it down and throws up the prayer to beat the clock and nothing. Nuggets can’t convert the free possession.
4:28 – Lamar is looking to help his sickly field goal percentage. He does a little market research and the early results say that if he drives from the top of the circle straight to the rim, he can dunk for 99% efficiency. The Nuggets take notes and nod their heads enthusiastically at demonstration.
3:47 – A JR Smith three pointer bounces on the rim a couple times and Fisher is able to box Camby out. That was pretty awesome. Shows how strong fisher’s lower body is. Fisher never jumped.
2:52 – 45 -52 as we go to timeout. JR Smith found his way to the rim with the Lakers refusing to help off their men. It’s hard to fault them when just a month ago, their biggest problem was leaving shooters to help with penetration. Mr. AC Green is in attendance. What a great thing for him to be able to make an appearance. No Jheri curl or short shorts, though.
1:53 – Denver has been playing zone and the Lakers haven’t been punishing them inside. Radman doesn’t see why they should and hits a three pointer. AI comes back with an easy layup after driving baseline on Fisher.
1:06 – Denver has 10 offensive rebounds. How many do you think the Lakers have? If you said 2, you’re the next contestant on The Price is Right.
0:49 – Kleiza takes an awkward spill under the hoop. Let’s hope he’s okay. Misses both of his free throws. Something is wrong with his arm I suspect.
0:13 – Lakers had gambled on defense but it somehow pays off. They get an easy layup by Luke.
0:00 – as time expires, AI gets a good look that misses and Kleiza gets a chance at a putback slam and he grabs his arm again. He’s going to need treatment at halftime and after the game.
Halftime
I haven’t seen any stats but Kobe is doing his Kobe thing. AI is doing his AI thing and Lakers are up by 10, 59-49. I’m not sure any of the other Lakers are really going to have to do more than they are doing now. Just play consistent and hit a few jumpers here and there and if Kobe keeps it up, he’ll take care of the rest. Usually the Lakers don’t like that plan, but it’s working tonight so far. The biggest improvement the Lakers need to make is preventing offensive rebounds by all the Nuggets except AI.
3rd Quarter
Frank Hamblin says the team defense was good in the second quarter but the defensive rebounding needs improving. He also says the Lakers need to know the individual tendencies. JR Smith and Kleiza both want to dribble right, so look for the Lakers to make that adjustment.
11:37 – Fisher starts it off right by getting a steal on the first defensive possession.
11:27 – Lamar looks like he has an open dunk and Denver shows some spunk that was missing in the first game and Kleiza blocks the shot. Denver needs to keep doing that.
11:09 – Melo tries to stuff it home one handed and comes up short. Maybe he shouldn’t have had those last five cheeseburgers. Camby also misses the point blank layup.
10:21 – Camby makes a very difficult layup here and brings Denver within 10. 51-61.
10:09 – Kobe’s brain runs out of the necessary amounts of sodium and potassium. His brain locks up and he made a terrible pass into the middle that was straight to the Nuggets. This earns Kleiza two points.
9:40 – Kobe makes the three.
9:31 – Kenyon martin uses one hand to finish the alleyoop.
9:02 – Again, we’re playing too fast. Pau makes the first misses the second on his free throws here. 65-57.
8:47 – AI misses the three and I’m more than happy letting him shoot that. But do you remember the finals against the Sixers? He would’ve hit that. It seemed like he couldn’t miss.
Missed time – Kobe feeds Pau on the bounce pass and Pau drops in the beautiful finger roll.
7:54 – Laurence Tanter calls out Anthony’s name as he puts in a triple. Nuggets within five. Lakers get a second chance and Radman can’t convert.
7:11 – Lamar is trying to pick up a technical foul. The refs don’t oblige him. Melo grabbed a rebound (after some tango lessons with RadMan) and put up a jump hook. I’m not sure where the Lamar-induced contact was but it’s a foul nonetheless.
6:52 – After Kobe missed the three, Camby takes it strong to the rim in transition. Lots of velocity and draws the foul on Pau. Pau doesn’t like the call. Sorry Pau. It’s a foul. 66-67 Lakers up after the free throws. Lakers are super cold.
6:24 – Fisher draws a nice charge from Ai on a two on one break. That’s not execution by Denver. I’d be willing to bet my house that if that were Shaq, Fisher would not have made the same play. He’s brave, not stupid.
6:00 – Lakers need to call timeout as a Kleiza dunk in transition gives the Nuggets the lead. Ugh. 67-68.
5:40 – Life with Luke somehow gets the runner in the lane to go as he attacked the middle of the zone.
5:08 – Fisher gives the Lakers the lead again after Kmart got himself a dunk which gave the Nuggets the lead.
4:57 – Fisher hits Allen Iverson’s neoprene sleeve in the act of shooting. 71-71.
4:33 – Kobe uses his quickness to dribble left against Kmart. As the defense collapsed Kobe found Luke with some space. Luke had to use his body and some quickness to get the layup to fall as Camby was trying to block him from behind. Camby ends up picking up a foul. Luke converts the three point play. Atta boy Luke. 74-71 Lakers up.
4:08 – Kleiza outjumps Kobe for a rebound but because Mamba is a superstar, Kleiza gets a loose ball foul. If you think players don’t care about the game, watch Kleiza walk down the court after this play. He is more than a little bit annoyed with these so-called impartial officials.
Lakers have an inbounds on their own end Kobe at the top of the circle and jumps to shoot but the space cadet cut to the basket and Kobe finds him in one motion. The resulting play won’t win the dunk contest, but I’m smiling.
3:19 – A play that has most American saying, “that’s not fair.†Luke inbounds the ball over the top to Pau who’s camped out in the lane being guarded by Najera. Since Najera gives up so much height, it’s a huge mismatch. Pau takes his time and hits the jump hook. On the defensive end, this isn’t going to work for Denver. They’ve got to have Camby or Nene guarding Pau. Lakers up 71-78.
2:43 – Kobe’s penetration leads to collapsing Denver defense. Luke makes them pay with a three pointerrrr. I gotta hand it to Luke, he’s found the rejuvenation machine at the right time of the year. Timeout by Denver.
Honestly, Denver isn’t playing poorly tonight. Lakers are playing just well enough to stay in front, but not spectacular. Let’s see how they finish out the quarter. I’m sure Doug Collins would be talking about how good teams close out quarters if he were broadcasting the game. Instead, we’ve got Joel telling us not to forget to enter for a chance to win a trip to Malaysia.
2:23 – JR Smith’s arms look like tapestry pieces with the tattoo designs.
2:10 – Kobe misses the jumper. This better not be how he plays the rest of the way.
2:00 – Camby’s lower body refuses to cooperate and he runs right into Kobe. Charging foul.
1:37 – Najera picks up another offensive rebound but the Nuggets give it away. Sasha has it on the wing on the break and finds Pau running the middle and JR Smith commits the hard foul. Pau hits one of two. 82-74. Lakers up.
1:20 – Farmar is still having trouble guarding AI. His membership card is being laminated as we speak.
1:02 – Play of the game. I don’t care what happens the rest of the way. 6 seconds on the shot clock. Luke inbounds it to Pau on the wing inside the three point line, he does a half turn and Kobe run like a blur from the top of the circle on the weakside to finish a sick alleyoop with one hand over Najera. That was all Pau with a perfect feed.
0:42 – Lakers are still buzzing. Luke picks up a layup without much resistance. Has Denver given up?
0:23 – AI hasn’t. He hit’s a three. 86-79. Lakers will have the last shot…probably.
0:03 – Kobe drives with six seconds and kicks it out to Sasha in the right short corner. Splash. AI comes back and almost hits a three at the buzzer but no dice. 89-79 Lakers up. Solid finish to the end of the quarter by the good guys!
4th Quarter
10:57 – Phil Jackson folds up his portable fan and places it under his seat. At least I’m pretty sure that’s the only way to explain Marcus Camby airballing a 17 footer from the wing when no one was guarding him. Not a single Laker could have disrupted his shot if you gave them a samurai sword. That’s how open he was. I’m embarrassed for him.
10:42 – Sasha gets another three. This time from the left wing.
10:28 – JR Smith takes a really long three ball and swishes it home.
9:54 – The pace is getting too fast again. The teams are trading baskets and jumpes early in the clock.
9:27 – JR Smith this another three. 94-89 Lakers up.
9:08 – Kobe penetrates and finds Gasol for one of those dunks that were abundant in game one.
8:58 – Marcus Camby pulls a Luke Walton of last month and airballs it a foot long. To be fair, Pau Gasol rose his arm this time. Pau’s hairy armpits were probably unbelievably distracting.
8:49 – Rick Fox is being interviewed and using “we†and “us†to describe the Lakers. Sasha misses a three.
8:32 – AI gets in close and hits the layup. Stu keeps calling for one of the teams to play defense. (Both teams are a little bit lax right now)
8:08 – Pau gets the pass off the slip screen and keeps the ball high and flips it in. 98-91. Lakers still up.
7:48 – Luke was apparently paying attention in class because he realized that Kmart likes to go right. He drew the charge. No argument from Kmart.
7:14 – Melo backs himself down in the post to get a fairly easy two. 98-93. Nuggets within five now.
6:47 – Great Hustle by Sasha to track down a long miss by Pau Pau! Kobe herky jerks his way into the lane and gets the layup and a chance for a three point play. MVP MVP MVP! 101-93 Lakers up.
6:27 – I don’t think Kobe should be guarding JR smith. Kobe looks like Bambi on ice out there with JR just pulling the strings. Not many folks can do that to the Mamba. On the other end, Kobe throws up a long three that misses ugly over Melo. That might have been a heat check. Consider your heat checked Mr. Bryant.
5:47 – The cameras show my man Bobby Jones in street clothes tonight. He graduated the same year I did from Long Beach Poly, my alma mater and went to Washington alongside Brandon Roy. Jones has been with like 8 teams this season, including Denver at least twice. I hope he sticks this time. I’m sure he’ll have to improve over the summer.
5:47 – During a pair of Pau free throws, Kenyon Martin picks his ginormous nostrils with one of those yellow playoff towels. MMmmm. Tasty.
5:39 – Weird play. Fisher and Vujacic harass JR Smith as he tries to come through the lane without the ball. The play ends up being called a foul on Fisher and a technical on Smith for what? I’m not sure. Maybe for pushing Sasha a little bit. (Sasha acted like he had been hit with a telephone book, of course.) Kobe hits the technical. Still Denver ball and then Melo gets called for a clearout against Luke. So somehow the Lakers come out on top out of all that. 104-94 Lakers up 10. Luke’s had a good game. Allen Iverson picks up a technical foul. He’s got to somehow keep himself disciplined. 105-94.
5:20 – Lakers start to run the offense and this feels good. Eh, it leads to a Kobe three. Good result even though the ball never went inside. Kobe does his stupid popping, waving the front of the jersey thing. 38 points for man who is hated because he’s a champion. Timeout by I’m Coby’s Dad.
4:52 – AI is very much in FU mode. He just got his shot blocked by Kobe. He came back and stole the ball preventing the Lakers from converting the fast break. He didn’t think about passing. He looked for his shot in the lane and Kobe fouled him with his body in the air. Allen stares down the official. It’s pretty easy to see that Denver is not at it’s best when AI plays one on five like this. You can feel the Nuggets’ hot anger.
4:52 – Stu is nothing if not predictable. He complains that AI falls backwards on his free throws and that Iverson should go practice with a chair behind him.
Missed time – Kobe hits an awkward bank shot around Kleiza.
4:15 – AI takes a three as soon as his teammate passes to him. Way short.
4:10 – Joel just said, “Luke, with incredible doodie (duty)…†95-111.
3:43 – Kobe blows by Kleiza and makes the reverse layup. 97-113.
3:25 – Melo does the same thing to Luke but misses the reverse. It was eerie how mirror image those two plays were back to back.
3:11 – Kobe misses a free throw and fisher and AI sprint for it. Iverson takes a hard fall and Fisher earns the foul. He gets up livid. And earns himself a technical. On the replay Fisher was mad because JR Smith held him (You can see JR look around like he got caught when the whistle blows). Iverson makes two of the three freethrows. 114-99.
2:47 – Is there anything Kobe can’t do? Kobe just shot it from about 28 feet over Kleiza and dropped it in. He had to, in order to beat the shot clock. 46 points, 10 dimes, 17/26 shooting. Much more impressive than last game wouldn’t you agree?
2:22 – Kobe takes it strong against JR, gets the foul and the basket. That was not a weak foul either. 49 points for the Kobester. The two of them contemplate sanitation engineering and talk a lot of trash. Kobe says, “you can’t guard me.†Smith says, “you can’t guard me either.†Kobe says, “yeah, but you don’t have almost 50 points.†Smith says, “good point.â€
1:09 – George’s son gets into the game. Good for him. We’ll see if the crowd patronizes him by telling him to shoot like Keanu Reeves in the Matrix.
0:00 – That’ll do it. No points for George’s son. Great job by Kobe and Luke and Pau. Lamar was a non factor with too many fouls. 2-0 series lead for the purple and gold warriors.
joe says
go lakers!!!!
Emma says
“Life with Luke” … hilarious.
fanerman says
18-27. Goodness what was Kobe’s TS% and O-Rating?
Brian Tung says
Great job as always. I admire the way you pay homage to Stu by putting up the made-up convo between J.R. and Kobe with 2:22 left in the contest.
Brian Tung says
fanerman (3): Don’t know about the O-rating, but his TS percentage was a sparkling 79.0 percent. For comparison, his TS percentage in Game 1 was a blah 49.8 percent. For the two games combined, it was an impressive 64.2 percent. (He has now scored as many points in the two games as he did in one particular game. Of course, that was one heck of a game.)
tonystarks says
good stuff.
few things:
-Melo has gotten no calls these first 2 games. With that said, though, melo-melo man is a black hole. my gosh. mr. bridges says he only has 3 moves on the block. I’m sure 1 of them is definitely not passing. he must’ve got the ball at least 10 times on the block/15 ft. out (where he likes it).
3 times (at most) he passed the ball (reluctantly – 1 for a turnover, 1 for a made AI 3, and one for an AI miss). The other 9-10 times, he’s looking to get up his own shot. I’ve seen him and Kleiza pass the ball to each other like 3 times all series. Sad.
– Turiaf must have something contagious, cuz I didn’t see him anywhere on the bench.
– Sorry Kobes, love ya, but the gun holster thing has got to go. Yes, I get the connection. You were like a gun slinger out there. But you just look so ridiculous doing it. Almost as bad as LBJ throwing up the Roc. Other than that, great game. Enver somehow took away Gasol while Odom was plagued with foul trouble and it’s safe to say you picked up the slack.
– Everyone admit: we’ve been on Luke pretty much all year, but he’s stepped it up these 1st two games.
Brian says
Reading Nomuskles “simocast” is the highlight of my day. If he talks like he writes we might finally have an heir to Chicky baby. Loved the Kobe/JR conversation. Brought back lots of great Hearn memories.
UCSBShaw says
“Fisher is very close to violating the league policy on not showing enough sock. That sentence could have easily gone wrong.”
Plus the “contemplate sanitation engineering”, great stuff….
Mico says
Isn’t that Kobe guy supposed to be injured? hehe
jaaason says
My favorite part about yesterday is how we won (almost) easily with Lamar in foul trouble.
burningjoe says
Best kobe quote ever (when asked about JR Smith chattering with him at just before 47,48 and 49).
“Better learn not to talk to me,” Bryant said of Smith’s jabbering. “You shake the tree, a leopard’s gonna fall out.”
This Little Pinky says
I searched high and low, but I saw no signs of any elephant in the room.
Even though this win is against a poor Denver defense, it’s a great win because the Lakers did it with Lamar Odom sitting on the bench for most of the second half with foul trouble.
I thought the Lakers’ defense would get shredded without Odom, but they made the necessary adjustments to stop Denver in his absence. It was admirable and surprising how the others stepped up to fill the void left by L.O. on the defensive end of the court.
That is also the first time I have seen Kobe Bryant take a charge, and get the call (I think Marcus Camby was the offender). Nicely done, Lakers.
Nights like last night are when it’s nice to have Pau on the offensive end as opposed to L.O. You can’t keep Pau down for a whole game.
Craig W. says
Last night I watched FSW and this morning I watched TNT (I DVRed both telecasts). It really became apparent just how much better Stu & pal are than Mel & Reggie. I really like Reggie, but the TNT broadcast had so much less information about the players and so much more generic spouting. I remembered all the comments about players and how to play certain situations from the FSW crew when listening to the TNT broadcast. TNT didn’t add anything to the other broadcast and they missed a tremendous. Also, the camera work by the FSW exclusive camera (they shared several cameras) was better – expecially the Slow-MO.
After watching the game, the next best thing was Nomuskles accounting. Great stuff, great comments.
I too loved the “You shake the tree, a leopard’s gonna fall out†comment.
Now we have a game where the Nuggs held Kobe down (really!!!) and another when Lamar was handcuffed. We won both, and easily. If we don’t get big heads, this series is over.
chris h says
I think we all need to shout out LUUUUUKKKKEEEE!!!!!
really now folks, when LO went down early with foul trouble, didn’t we all check the score to see that we had a 10 point lead, and hope, hope, hope we could get out of the half with that same 10 points?
well, we did, and thanks in a large part to Luke.
then when LO goes out in the first 19 seconds, (of the 2nd half), again Luke comes in and not only holds his own, he brings an A game and that, my friends, was the difference in pulling out a W last night.
big chops to Luke!
kwame a says
Game 3 will tough. Both Enver and the Lakers know it is the Nuggets best chance to win a game. Also, Coby’s dad will use the next couple days to influence the refs into some calls for Game 3, it’s just how these things go
Brian Tung says
kwame a (15): Yeah, I agree–this is the one that will test our mettle. We’ve got to drive it hard into the zone when they play it; Denver has shown that they’re inexperienced at playing it, and there are nooks and crannies all over the place. Having a seven-footer who can catch, shoot, and dish doesn’t hurt, of course. Hopefully, Ronny will be at full strength so we can have some modicum of intimidation down there on D.
pogi wan kenobi says
fine. i will stop referring to luke walton as “12th best”. for now.
Marcus says
Wait, someone likes reggie Miller as an announcer but doesn’t like Marv Albert? Yikes. Marv’s only one of the two best play-by-play men in history. Comparing him to Joel is like comparing Kobe to Shammond Williams. The local team will know more little tidbits about the Lakers, but as far as pure announcing, they leave a lot to be desired. Reggie needs to go as well.
I do like the super slow mo though.
jodial says
Luke picked a good time to start playing his best ball of the season.
I know the MVP talk has been spun a million different ways, and everyone has their own way of framing the numbers so they promote their favorite guy, but there’s one number that Kobe has that none of the other candidates can match.
It’s 82. As in games played.
Just like KG, CP3, and LeBron, Kobe had a nagging injury to deal with (do we all remember the week of surgery-or-no-surgery hysteria that went on right around the All Star break?) – unlike everyone else, he gutted it out to play every single game. And his team needed him there for all of them.
pb says
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.
the other Stephen says
at least pau is man enough to leave his armpits unmown, unlike certain other european superstars.
Craig W. says
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.
nomuskles says
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.
Craig W. says
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.
DMo says
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.
Sushant says
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.
kwame a says
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
Kurt says
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.
Gatinho says
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.