Lakers @ Kings Game Thread, Wed 11/3, 7:30p
- Thread starter venom_7
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I'm confident this team will learn from this loss to really get into the whole defense thing, when they dug in they got results. In other news Reke is still unstoppable when he wants to, except when the coach sticks him Kobe from the opening tip. Anyways this game was just 1 of 82 they are the champs and those guys are young giggling on the sideline with Lamar Odom during a mini beatdown.
On a positive note there are alot of good players on this team that play hard and don't quit something we haven't had in a long time. I still like our chances of improving and making some noise in the bottom half of the west this year.
On a positive note there are alot of good players on this team that play hard and don't quit something we haven't had in a long time. I still like our chances of improving and making some noise in the bottom half of the west this year.
Im really questioning the rotation at this point all this talent and there riding the bench while luther head and Jackson are on the court.Cousins are you kidding me only 20 minutes. I know his defense was not as good as Dalemberts, but why not pair them i am just lost. Not to mention the success Greene has had defending Kobe last year and you cant tell me he would be doing any worse of a job than head. I hate to say it but I think its time to get rid of Paul Westphal and his quirky rotations Im really starting to get irritated. I mean these players need to have some level of consistency if your expecting them to be consistent with there out put on a nightly basis.
I just read through some of this thread, and judging by a few of the comments, I'm hoping alcohol played a factor in not thinking clearly.
This team won the last 2 titles, and has been to the last 3 nba finals. Let's remember who our opponent was. This is exactly what the process is all about. These games are what this team needs. Tyreke was in foul trouble and it killed us, but he learned tonight. Cousins was in foul trouble as expected, but took it right at gasol successfuly a few times, and learned tonight. Omri struggled to get anything going, but he learned.
All this Westphal sucks and players need to go talk is absolutely rediculous. These are the world champs. It's game 5. They're clicking on all cylinders. This is what has to happen and is supposed to happen to young teams hoping to rise. Next time we face them we'll be a little better. And the following time a little better than the previous. This is how young teams learn.
Let's try keeping things in perspective before trading the entire team and firing the coach because we lost to the defending champs in game 5. And the idiot who said Tyreke sucks should be banned.
This team won the last 2 titles, and has been to the last 3 nba finals. Let's remember who our opponent was. This is exactly what the process is all about. These games are what this team needs. Tyreke was in foul trouble and it killed us, but he learned tonight. Cousins was in foul trouble as expected, but took it right at gasol successfuly a few times, and learned tonight. Omri struggled to get anything going, but he learned.
All this Westphal sucks and players need to go talk is absolutely rediculous. These are the world champs. It's game 5. They're clicking on all cylinders. This is what has to happen and is supposed to happen to young teams hoping to rise. Next time we face them we'll be a little better. And the following time a little better than the previous. This is how young teams learn.
Let's try keeping things in perspective before trading the entire team and firing the coach because we lost to the defending champs in game 5. And the idiot who said Tyreke sucks should be banned.
So many questions that need to be asked of the coach this game?!
Some highly questionable decisions. I feel like Westphal has been outcoached in a major way tonight. Reke on Kobe was just asking for trouble. If we had any chance to win tonight we needed to have Reke out of foul trouble and doing his thing offensively. Kobe goes for a triple double and Reke is on the bench in foul trouble.
I don't understand this Luthar Head love either. Sure the guy is a handy depth player to have but I cannot understand how he is getting so many minutes, especially in crunch time. Garcia was being productive tonight and while the game is still winnable, we have coach sticking with Head who was stinking it up!
I would have tought Greene would have been worth a go tonight as well considering that he has reasonable history on Kobe and Casspi was stinking it up as well.
It becoming increasingly obvious that you just don't give Westphal any depth players because they jump up in the rotation over better players for some fettich reason. Last year it was Udoka, this year its Head!
Some highly questionable decisions. I feel like Westphal has been outcoached in a major way tonight. Reke on Kobe was just asking for trouble. If we had any chance to win tonight we needed to have Reke out of foul trouble and doing his thing offensively. Kobe goes for a triple double and Reke is on the bench in foul trouble.
I don't understand this Luthar Head love either. Sure the guy is a handy depth player to have but I cannot understand how he is getting so many minutes, especially in crunch time. Garcia was being productive tonight and while the game is still winnable, we have coach sticking with Head who was stinking it up!
I would have tought Greene would have been worth a go tonight as well considering that he has reasonable history on Kobe and Casspi was stinking it up as well.
It becoming increasingly obvious that you just don't give Westphal any depth players because they jump up in the rotation over better players for some fettich reason. Last year it was Udoka, this year its Head!
some of the talent was on the bench due to foul trouble. head got some minutes cuz evans had 5 fouls. i mean i didnt love the fact he was chucking it but he did play some good D on kobe except for falling for that pump fake. and d-jax did fine for the minutes he played, i was just happy that landry was off the court while jackson was in. overall i didnt agree with the rotations but i understand the reason for some of them. i think its too early to want to fire a coach that had us 3-1 (should have been 4-0) and losing to the defending nba champs
There was NO reason to have Luther Head in after that badly missed 3 shortly after halftime.
That showed to anyone with experience in the NBA that he didn't have the shooting touch tonight.
It was rather inexcusable that PW didn't yank him when he saw that, since without Head's 3-ball (which he kept getting WIDE open looks at), there is little reason to have him in instead of Cisco.
PW seems to be coaching under the assumption that he doesn't have a defensive player that can guard multiple positions available to him (Donte Greene).
What the hell happened to the Kings w/regard to Donte??!
JT's numbers belie his importance in the game - only one of those rebounds was contested, IIRC.
Anyone could have grabbed those. He did not play BEAST tonight.
DMC was VERY impressive, and the Kings put up a GREAT fight tonight. They lost the game near the end of the 1st half, though - there were multiple 4-point swings where they just couldn't score (or draw a foul) when they had the ball right at the rim and din;t convert, which led to 2 points the other way.
They should have been in the lead going into the half if they hit their normal easy shots they got in the last 6 minutes of the 2nd quarter.
That showed to anyone with experience in the NBA that he didn't have the shooting touch tonight.
It was rather inexcusable that PW didn't yank him when he saw that, since without Head's 3-ball (which he kept getting WIDE open looks at), there is little reason to have him in instead of Cisco.
PW seems to be coaching under the assumption that he doesn't have a defensive player that can guard multiple positions available to him (Donte Greene).
What the hell happened to the Kings w/regard to Donte??!
JT's numbers belie his importance in the game - only one of those rebounds was contested, IIRC.
Anyone could have grabbed those. He did not play BEAST tonight.
DMC was VERY impressive, and the Kings put up a GREAT fight tonight. They lost the game near the end of the 1st half, though - there were multiple 4-point swings where they just couldn't score (or draw a foul) when they had the ball right at the rim and din;t convert, which led to 2 points the other way.
They should have been in the lead going into the half if they hit their normal easy shots they got in the last 6 minutes of the 2nd quarter.
I agree with this assesment entirely. It always hurts more when it's the Lakers, but overall that was a pretty inspiring game. Even Luther Head, when he wasn't chucking up absolute garbage, was playing really gutsy defense against enemy no. 1. I like to see that in any player, especially if they've got a Kings jersey on. I'm curious how this one would have turned out if our players had actually gotten to play. When Tyreke and DeMarcus came back at the end of the fourth we seemed to be teetering on the edge of making a huge run for the last 5 minutes but couldn't quite break through. It always seems to go like that against LA though. Every bounce is in their favor, every questionable call is that much more annoying. If Fisher doesn't rattle off 6 straight points right then, like he always does, maybe we make it a 3 or 4 point game and pull it out. Whatever. Moral victories are key right now.
I don't like playing armchair coach, but I did have a couple of gripes in this one. I'm as mystified as everyone else that Tyreke was left to guard Kobe for that long, especially once he got the third foul. Kobe was out there trying to draw fouls, that's how he plays, and every one of us knows how often the league gives him the benefit of the doubt. Watching Tyreke slice and dice the defense and drop it in without having the refs bail him out was the perfect tonic for all that Kobe Bryant nonsense. I just wish we'd gotten to see more of it in this game. I also think Cousins should have come back sooner. He was instant offense in the first quarter and we could have used that early in the fourth. That would have been the perfect place to try out Dalembert alongside Cousins because we needed Dally's defense as well. And of course, what happened to Donte Greene? TNT put one Kings related clip in their 3 minute "NBA tour" commercial and it was his block of Kobe last year. Everyone wanted to see more of that. I hope whatever's wrong with Donte gets cleared up quick because we need him for games like this.
I don't like playing armchair coach, but I did have a couple of gripes in this one. I'm as mystified as everyone else that Tyreke was left to guard Kobe for that long, especially once he got the third foul. Kobe was out there trying to draw fouls, that's how he plays, and every one of us knows how often the league gives him the benefit of the doubt. Watching Tyreke slice and dice the defense and drop it in without having the refs bail him out was the perfect tonic for all that Kobe Bryant nonsense. I just wish we'd gotten to see more of it in this game. I also think Cousins should have come back sooner. He was instant offense in the first quarter and we could have used that early in the fourth. That would have been the perfect place to try out Dalembert alongside Cousins because we needed Dally's defense as well. And of course, what happened to Donte Greene? TNT put one Kings related clip in their 3 minute "NBA tour" commercial and it was his block of Kobe last year. Everyone wanted to see more of that. I hope whatever's wrong with Donte gets cleared up quick because we need him for games like this.
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Its not "fire the coach" time. I don't think anyone is advocating that. However, it might be time Donte did a Hawes and complained in the media about rotations and inconsistent substitution patterns. Sure he might get yanked for a game or 2 (how is that different to not playing anyway) but it might make Westphal settle on a consistent rotation like he did last year when some players called him out publicly on it.
I dont wanna jump on the bandwagon of questioning the coach, but it's plain as day if Reke completely avoided the Kobe matchup it woulda been a different game out there. I have no doubt in my mind if Garcia was stuck on Kobe, like Ron was stuck to Reke the game would of been more competitive. Say what you want about how Reke handles the game as our lead guard, but for the most part nobody is sticking him and with our shooters we can spread the floor with that's a great thing.
The rest of the game my complaints are with the guys for stinking up the 1st half defensively just not an urge to try to stop the penetration out there. Once we were down 15 in the late 3rd Dally, Garcia and Beno started to dig in. All these things though I stress are fixable, there is too much talent on this team when you just look at each of our players out there we will be able to hang with anyone, provided we play consistent defense.
The rest of the game my complaints are with the guys for stinking up the 1st half defensively just not an urge to try to stop the penetration out there. Once we were down 15 in the late 3rd Dally, Garcia and Beno started to dig in. All these things though I stress are fixable, there is too much talent on this team when you just look at each of our players out there we will be able to hang with anyone, provided we play consistent defense.
its becoming obvious that landry should be our 6th man. if were gonna start cousins theres no reason to have another iso post player. start jt and see if he does what he did in the 2nd quarter tonight, just battle down low and grab boards/ keep plays alive. dalembert and landry complement eachother so well also. basically were starting 2 iso offensive players and our big guys off the bench are garbage men with basically no offensive talent.
I think Luther Head playing down the stretch makes perfect sense. He's a prime example of defense earning minutes, which is what Westphal preaches. So what if he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn? You can't emphasize defense and then yank a player who's battling with Kobe and actually doing a decent job of it. It might cost the team a game now, but the hope is that the players see the effort and realize what it takes to get in the game.
Also, I agree that Tyreke on Kobe was a mistake, but I think the aspect of it that's easily overlooked is the mental one. It seems natural that Kobe is going to try harder and be more focused against Tyreke than, say, Garcia. While that's great for the Lakers and might be good practice for Tyreke, it's not good for our chances.
Also, I agree that Tyreke on Kobe was a mistake, but I think the aspect of it that's easily overlooked is the mental one. It seems natural that Kobe is going to try harder and be more focused against Tyreke than, say, Garcia. While that's great for the Lakers and might be good practice for Tyreke, it's not good for our chances.
This is just one of those growing up pains!
After a 3-1 start, a lot of people have forgotten that this is a very young team, age-wise and chemistry-wise. Donte is not a superstar defender so stop sticking to the point "WHAT IF DONTE PLAYED". This game is a true reality check in a lot of ways.
1.) Reke on Kobe - If Reke's going to be the star player of this he needs to learn to defend against superstars too. He will deal with them a lot of times if this team wants to go up. And there's no better way than pit him direct against Kobe. Real superstars don't hide behind their teammates against legit superstars. So there you go Reke, hope this will light fire in you.
2.) This is the Lakers we are playing, the great purple and yellow bitches that ride on the zebras.
3.) This is not the end of the road. At our status right now, we'll be lucky to get that 8th seed. So let's just be happy we almost made a comeback in the 4th against the reigning champs.
This team is just tapping its potential. Cousins and Reke are young guns, if not for foul troubles this could have been a lot better.
After a 3-1 start, a lot of people have forgotten that this is a very young team, age-wise and chemistry-wise. Donte is not a superstar defender so stop sticking to the point "WHAT IF DONTE PLAYED". This game is a true reality check in a lot of ways.
1.) Reke on Kobe - If Reke's going to be the star player of this he needs to learn to defend against superstars too. He will deal with them a lot of times if this team wants to go up. And there's no better way than pit him direct against Kobe. Real superstars don't hide behind their teammates against legit superstars. So there you go Reke, hope this will light fire in you.
2.) This is the Lakers we are playing, the great purple and yellow bitches that ride on the zebras.
3.) This is not the end of the road. At our status right now, we'll be lucky to get that 8th seed. So let's just be happy we almost made a comeback in the 4th against the reigning champs.
This team is just tapping its potential. Cousins and Reke are young guns, if not for foul troubles this could have been a lot better.
Evans and Cousins got away w/ things they were Ting up just a few days ago (Evans bounced the ball moderately hard after a foul and Cousins threw his arms up after a call). The refs ignored everything tonight, including a double T on Garcia and Kobe, which some crews would've called even last year. That's going to be the standard routine starting later this month as was predicted by those who remembered the last time the league pulled this. By April, the complaining will be pretty much back to the way it was.