Team Kobe crashes and loses to the Clips

Clips beat up me ball and win going awaqy in the 4th when Kobe tries to do it all. Odumb goes after Griffen down 9 with 6 seconds to go. Griffen owned the lakes in the second half. Odum Gets tossed along with Artest and Coach Phil still prefers his team play its way out of this.

Clueless and Classless

beat

Cow

watched a lot down the stretch. Kobe was 1 for 7 from 3. Lakers were3 for 20 from long range too. Gasol with only 9 shots the whole game.

Griffen had only 2 at the half finshed with 18.

Clips wanted it a whole lot more. Won the final quarter by 10.

this from YAHOO

the Clippers trailed by 12 points late in the third quarter before making a 16-3 run in the final minutes, taking the lead with 4:09 left on Griffin’s layup while getting fouled.

and this too

Four players were ejected from this crosstown rivalry game after a scuffle under the basket with 5.7 seconds to play.

After Lamar Odom(notes) grabbed Griffin’s jersey while fighting for a rebound, Baron Davis(notes) intervened and shoved Odom firmly in the chest, leading to more shoves. Odom, Griffin, Davis and Ron Artest(notes) all were ejected after the officials conferenced.

Always a great day when the Lakers lose and Kobe leads them to it!

beat

But, after all, the Clippers had the home court advantage!

Good news for Lakers fans is that Bynum had 18 points and 13 rebounds in 32 minutes. One would expect Gasol's figures to dip somewhat with Andrew's return, but does anyone know whether Pau is playing with anything close to the same intensity as when he was the de facto center?

In the "my favorite stat" department, The Clips assisted on 74% of their field goals while the Lakers assisted on 39% of theirs. A ratio of nearly two-to-one, as Fisher (2), Brown (1), and Blake (0) combined for three assists. I realize that a traditional playmaker isn't supposed to be as essential in the triangle as in other offenses, but 39% seems particularly low—especially since the Lakers averaged 55% last regular season and 53% in the playoffs.

I wonder how much of Kobe's resolve to keep on trucking despite obviously being hampered by the knee might be due to an assumption that they'll have next year off. Certainly 27 points are not corned beef hash, but the team may be having to adjust to the fact that he cannot perform at the level with which they've been associated for so many years.

The implications of depending on a superstar who is not completely himself can be serious. In fact, nightly concerns of how much he can be depended on can be a form of discontinuity. In some ways, having a less predictably dependable Kobe on the floor may be more of a challenge than adjusting to having no Kobe on the floor but maintaining a more predictable rotation.

I assume Kobe was guarding Eric Gordon, who went off for 30 points. Does anyone know how Kobe is looking on defense? If he's having any mobility problems, that could put a damper on Phil's practice of having Kobe hang off Rondo, be ready to double someone else, and recover if Rondo drives to the hoop.

In some ways, it seems that this season could be the most challenging of Phil's coaching career. Let's see how he handles it.

Sam

Sam

Kobe does not look as hampered as KG did last year but I think their situations are very very close to each other. Kobe can not lock anybody down on d this year. In many ways he is hurting the Lakers. I feel KG adjusted to his new body last year tho it was hard for him. Kobe so far has NOT done that and it is very clear when you watch him. He does not want to admit to anyone most importantly himself that his body has lost a step...or two.

He is def capable of picking his spots and he CAN STILL adjust his game to his new body. If he does that and uses himself as a decoy and thinks pass and include rather than save his teammates then the Lakers can still win it all this year. If he continues to swim in da nile the Lakers wont make the finals imho.

I think Kobe's defense is the worst I have ever seen it this year Sam and it is clear to me that his teammates know his limitations better than he does. It's weird to me cause the guy is a very smart dangerous hoop player but he aint PLAYING smart right now.

Jeb

Don't have anything particularly enlightening to say, but it's a great day when the Celtics win and the Lakers lose and we got 1/2 of that today, looking forward to the other half tomorrow.

Jeb,

Well, I'm sure Phil will fix it because we all know he's the greatest coach since Wells Fargo.

Sam

Sam

Unless ol Phil has a time machine along with his attitude adjuster I dont think he is gonna fix much.

Lakers Coach Phil Jackson also said Griffin was being overaggressive.

"He was just running up guys' backs," he said. "Guys get eventually tired of it."

Jackson wasn't quite done, questioning why Artest was thrown out as well.

"I don't know how they make their decisions. Whimsically, I think," Jackson said of the referees. "I can see Lamar and Griffin or whatever, but Ron … that was ridiculous."

So where is the fine for Phil?

Questioning the refs...........imagine that.

beat

Hi,
I don't watch LAL games, just bits and pieces. But it seems to me that they slide into that desperation mode more and more. I don't know why and how they can get back to being the top dog again. I'd venture to say that they need to re-adjust their core philosophy from being a dictator with politbureau to a parliament with a prime-minister (sorry, couldn't think of a simpler analogy). I doubt they will be able to do it in the next 3 months.

Sam,
Sorry, I don't get your reference to Wells Fargo?
Thanks.

AK

sinnus

maybe this will help




from wikipedia

Ben Holladay is characterized as a devoted, diligent, enterprising man who became known as the Stagecoach King. At the western end, Denver to San Francisco, the stage company was taken over by Wells Fargo due to large debts that Butterfield owed. Wells Fargo commandeered the monopoly over long-distance overland stage coach and mail service with a massive web of relay stations, forts, livestock, men, and stage coaches by 1866. Transcontinental stagecoaching came to an end with the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869.

poor phil

those refs have been so mean to him making those 3 calls again him when it mattered since 1991.

I mean just look at last year in game 7. I dont know how Phil restrains his temper.

Must be zen Yoga

I truly feel for the guy

Jeb

Sinus,

It was the "coach" reference and the Wells Fargo stagecoach.

Sam

As much as I'd like to say it, the Lakers aren't dead yet. And the Clippers are for real with Blake. Glad they aren't in the East right now. I liked the shoving match at the end and Blake's walk away attitude. Can't understand why he got tossed but it takes two to tango. Seems like refs are getting to the point with these reaction techs that whether they saw the first incident that started it or not, you are getting T'ed up as well.

No panic in LALA land, not with Phil at the helm. They'll be waiting for the ECF champ in June. But I liked the result last night! They are really starting to look like the 27-27 Celtics of last season. This is new territory for Phil though and he may blow a microchip here when things don't/won't turn out like the Celtics run did. I'll pay good money to see that myself.

As much as I'd like to avoid saying it, today's game in BOS is a big deal since we came up short in ORL, especially with the new look ORL. Having KG come back on this game IMHBAO is probably going to work against us more than for us given the whole re-establishing chemistry issue. But I'd much rather have him on the court anytime than not. I hope I am wrong.

I'm glad ORL won their last game coming in, lest they would be 0-3 coming to Boston and we would more than likely want that one less than ORL and have it show up in our effort. I know regular season games are no indicator of playoff action and results, but it has to play on their minds somehow. No one can completely put a losing game/effort behind them, especially if in the next game the same crap from the previous game starts to show up. The Jets were able to do it this weekend, so I fully expect the Celtics to do it tonight.

Is it just me or when MIA has one (or more) of their Big 3 out due to injury, the game and subsequent results are treated differently? For example, I can't remember who on ESPN (or when, maybe DEN game blowout would make sense) said this but these last three loses should be marked with an asterisk since LeBron wasn't available. Yet while KG is out for nine games, he's just lumped in with all the other horrendously long and unfortunate list of Celtic injuries, it's business as usual, the Celtics are just old and they just have to suck it up?

I'm clearly not an objective party, but just wondered what the rest of you thought.

Dbrown

I think "espn" has an investment in the Heat's Success and that they are going to protect that investment.

To me the best part of the almost 500 record was that the "espn" of the world were going to have to feast on crow a little early.

The Celtics are bad for business, they play team ball, they aint shiny, they seem to genuinely like and respect each other. The Heat are Paris Hilton, 50cent, Angelina Jolieand Brittny all wrapped up into one freakish, dysfunctional sandwich of "reality" tv.

dbrown

We got us BUNKER mode mentality here, and thats not a bad thing at all. We can and do adjust as the ebs and flows of the season wear on everybody. Might not get the effort or result every game but this isn't June yet either.

And ESPN and the like are all about flash and lights.

Let um have all the glitter they want. Let um overlook the painfully obvious. At least that which is obvious to us. Richard M. Nixon might not have had a lot on the stick most of the time, but his words, " I hate the media" do have a bit of meaning for us.

The lead story (Hoop) on ESPN isn't the Clippers winning........it's Lakers loosing.

Would I write them off yet? no way BUT they are far from a powerhouse and have more holes in their lineup than swiss cheese but they are the Lakers and they will make some noise in the playoffs BUT playing against the same team in a series...........those holes will be hard to plug from game to game as adjustments are made. Pacific is WEAK and the entire west is down................and what might it look like after the 25 man trade that is brewing between 10 teams one can only wonder.

Just give us realitve health and NO one can touch us.

Miami is getting a taste of reality now too. No team goes wire to wire without a taste of the injury bug as we well know. Been there.

beat

Dbrown,

On a positive note, Doc seemed amazed at how smoothly the "original" Garnett era starters worked together in practice. Like they totally remembered everything about one another. Obviously, practice isn't a game; but I'd much rather hear about practice success than practice failure.

I actually watched the entire Heat-Nuggets game the other day. So unlike me, but I have a bad chest cold, and it was either watch the game or summon the energy to use the remote. If I had felt better, I would have kept track of the number of times the the Broadcasting Buffoons mentioned the absence of Lebron. It must have been astronomical. Fortunately, when the Celtics play, I'm almost always able to watch Mike and Tommy, so I'm seldom subjected to the National Nitwits.

Sam

I'll buy that. I do love a good train wreck, though. I do like the current one they are on, injuries and all. It's almost like they (along with the whole basketball world) didn't plan on injuries. They appear to have thought that Wade, Bosh and LeBron would be around for 48 minutes a game through Game 7 of the Finals. Would like to put another nail in the ORL coffin this evening as well.

I don't have much of a problem with ESPN. They're just trying to maximize their revenue. That they are very good at. I do want to be there for the resulting crow eating session(s) at all costs.

I don't have much of a problem with ESPN. They're just trying to maximize their revenue. That they are very good at. I do want to be there for the resulting crow eating session(s) at all costs. .

DB

they would never admit that they were wrong without some sort of an excuse.

beat

Let's remember that, despite the choppiness of their recent performances, the LAL are still in second place in the west with 12 losses. They are 8-2 in their last 10 games (then again, of their opponents in the last 10 games only 3 have winning records while 7 have losing records. Going 8-2 against doormats isn't that impressive).

A little too soon the be throwing dirt on top of them, just as it was too soon to throw dirt on ours as we struggled into the playoffs last season.

bob

.

Well, clearly their current excuse for MIA losing is LeBron (and Bosh) is out.

Bobheck

No dirt but this aint the same team we have seen. It just aint. Of those teams with losing records the Lakers were just barely beating THOSE teams by 4 points.

I think its between san antone and the lakes to get to the finals. I will not be at all surprised it san antone beats them. I WILL be surprised if the Lakes win it all.

They are clearly struggling

Espn is a waste of time. I only go there to get scores and schedules.