Basketball (NBA, College, etc.)

Finals starts tonight.... Lakers in six, I think. :fingerscrossed:

Lakers in 5, me thinks. :grumble:

Too big, tall, and athletic offensively the Lakers will be against the overmatched Magic.

Lakers up 53-43 at halftime. Bryant leading the way with 18 pts. and 6 assists, and there was an Andrew Bynum (8 pts. 6 rebs.) sighting early in the game.

Kobe's unstoppable tonight, and the Lakers have a 25-point lead at this point. Wow.

deseipher wrote:Kobe's unstoppable tonight, and the Lakers have a 25-point lead at this point. Wow.

If this was a fight, they'd stop it. But as schizo as the Lakers have been all year, I'm not popping any champagne corks yet. [/list:u]

gaijinmark wrote:But as schizo as the Lakers have been all year, I'm not popping any champagne corks yet. [/list:u]

So true, and it is just one game after all. I'm just hoping the Lakers somehow keep this up. :fingerscrossed:

gaijinmark wrote:But as schizo as the Lakers have been all year, I'm not popping any champagne corks yet. [/list:u]

I think Kobe knows it as well: his post game interview was more like a wake.... I mean the guy could've be a little more personable. :sweat:

adub2adub wrote:Lakers in 5, me thinks. :grumble:

Too big, tall, and athletic offensively the Lakers will be against the overmatched Magic.

LOL, you have more confidence in the Lakers than the rest of us SoCal-ers. :beaten:

Shaquille O'Neal: Once a punk, always a punk: http://tinyurl.com/shaq-is-a-punk

bmwracer wrote:Shaquille O'Neal: Once a punk, always a punk: http://tinyurl.com/shaq-is-a-punk

Kareem said it best:gSometimes I wonder about his maturity,h Kareem Abdul-Jabbar told Yahoo! Sports on Friday.[/list:u]

gaijinmark wrote: Kareem said it best:gSometimes I wonder about his maturity,h Kareem Abdul-Jabbar told Yahoo! Sports on Friday.[/list:u]

Yup.

Shaq is like 36 or 37 years old and is still a petulant little troll.

bmwracer wrote:LOL, you have more confidence in the Lakers than the rest of us SoCal-ers. :beaten:

That's true ... unfortunately. :grumble:

Orlando has not given me any reason to feel otherwise.... as they Magic-ally disappeared in Game 1. Hopefully they'll bother to show up tonight. :fingerscrossed:

Shaquille O'Neal: Once a punk, always a punk

People wonder why Shaq & Kobe could not co-exist ....

You could not have more differing personalities: Kobe - the serious, intense loner VS Shaq - the constant goofball that liked to slack off. :doh:

adub2adub wrote:People wonder why Shaq & Kobe could not co-exist ....

You could not have more differing personalities: Kobe - the serious, intense loner VS Shaq - the constant goofball that liked to slack off. :doh:

Yup.

I think Shaq joined the Lakers more because of Hollywood and the media coverage than anything else... :shakehead:

As expected, game two was a much tighter affair, with the Lakers prevailing over the Magic in OT, 101-96. :sweat: :victory:

bmwracer wrote:As expected, game two was a much tighter affair, with the Lakers prevailing over the Magic in OT, 101-96. :sweat: :victory:

Courtney Lee was so close to winning the game for the Magic at the end of the 4th. I'm glad it didn't go in though. With the next three in Orlando, going there with the Finals at 1-1 would have worried me a bit.

deseipher wrote:Courtney Lee was so close to winning the game for the Magic at the end of the 4th. I'm glad it didn't go in though. With the next three in Orlando, going there with the Finals at 1-1 would have worried me a bit.

The Lakers were EXTREMELY lucky... It was very poorly defended: they should've known that with such little time that a play had to be directed near the basket.... :shakehead:

bmwracer wrote:
The Lakers were EXTREMELY lucky... It was very poorly defended: they should've known that with such little time that a play had to be directed near the basket.... :shakehead:

From reading the postgame stuff, it looks like you're right about the play being poorly defended. Phil Jackson warned the team about the play and sure enough the Magic ran it. In the Lakers' defense, 0.6 left gave Orlando a chance for a quick jumpshot, so they had to stick to their man. Regardless, a Laker win is a Laker win :victory:

deseipher wrote:From reading the postgame stuff, it looks like you're right about the play being poorly defended. Phil Jackson warned the team about the play and sure enough the Magic ran it.

Yup, a backdoor screen. :sweat:

If it were someone taller, he could've practically dunked it.

In the Lakers' defense, 0.6 left gave Orlando a chance for a quick jumpshot, so they had to stick to their man. Regardless, a Laker win is a Laker win :victory:

True... Though I keep replaying that in my head more than anything else in the game... :sweat: :sweat:

Lakers don't play enough defense (Magic shot over 62%) and they lose to Orlando, 106-104.

Game 4 tonight.... A must-win for the Lakers, I think. :sweat: