After a debate more passionate than I've seen in quite some time, the Spurs and Lakers played two games last night. The first 2 1/2 quarters belonged to the champs, who eventually took a 65-45 lead. The last quarter and a half belonged to league MVP Kobe Bryant, who showed that the Lakers have the one critical element the Hornets lacked; an elite closer.
Kobe's performance was Jordan-esque, as in the Jordan of 1991. Like Mike did during that playoff run, Kobe held back on shooting early (3 attempts in the first half) and distributed the ball. In the second, when his team needed it the most, he took over, and Bruce Bowen (or anyone, for that matter) who guarded him had no chance to stop him. Despite getting off games by Lamar Odom (8 points) and Derek Fisher (who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn yesterday), Kobe and Pau Gasol gave them the scoring necessary to win. Even more iimportantly, they proved they could win a Spurs-type game.
If you're the Spurs, you're probably thinking these things:
1. We lost a 20-point lead yesterday, but...
2. We established our tempo, and Manu Ginobili was terrible, and we were tired, so it's not completely bad.
The Spurs looked every bit jet lagged after a blistering start, and Ginobili looked the worse for ware; he was out of control (in a bad way), shooting 3-10 from the field, including missing a potential three to take the lead late. If anybody's game is predicated on energy, Ginobili's is, and he had none of it. The Lakers did an outstanding job of limiting Ginobili and Tony Parker's drives to the paint (just 10 points in the paint between them) and their defense late in the game was impressive. But the Spurs have to be encouraged by the fact they did everything they wanted to do last night. Now all they have to do is maintain that for the entire game.
The Spurs of last night reminded me, though, of the mid-to-late 90s Knicks; they can go through long dry spells during a game, and they hit that wall late, when the fresher Lakers made every key play down the stretch. Now, they face a big game 2, and though I said recently the Lakers would win the first two, if the Spurs play the same way tomorrow that they did yesterday, and Ginobili resembles the player he can be, they could easily steal this game. Tim Duncan was a beast (30 points and I think 18 boards), and if I'm Phil Jackson, I wouldn't keep putting Ronny Turiaf on him; that's akin to guarding a in-his-prime Shaq with Tom Tolbert! Nonetheless, tomorrow's game should be fun to watch.
Hoffman,
Manu is a chump! Nah just kidding, it is scary to think he had such a horrible game and they still almost won.
The double teaming on Duncan in the second half was huge because it seemed Duncan couldn't adjust agfter being comfortable the whole first half with one on one coverage. kind of threw him off a bit.
One thing I noticed about these Spurs in the playoffs this season is that they are relying a heck of a lot on the three point shooting of Ginobli and a few others. Perimeter defense will be key if the Lakers hope to win game 2 friday night.
All this mention of how horrible a game manu the flopping whale had...how about the absolutely horrible game Dfish had Odom had and everyone else not named Kobe or Pau?? Say what you want the spurs are in trouble in this series. The biggest difference is the bench. The Lakers have a younger, faster, and much more energetic bench. The spurs get even older when their bench comes in and less talented as well. There is NO silver lining in that game last night for the spurs. They can say what they want feel how they want, but they all know that defeat is as deflating as losing by 20!! Actually it is even worse than that due to their absolute collapse!!! Lakers gonna win this series and meet whomever from the east....championship number 15 coming to a theater near you!!!!
Only doubling late in the game on Timmy worked great. Sure he had 30 points, but we probably saved 6 points from 2 3s by Ginobili a 3 and a long 2 by finley.. and 2 3s by udoka.... all that can happen when Duncan is doubled. So Duncan can have 30 points as long as the rest of the Spurs are contained.
The only logical reason is that they were not able to contain the MVP when he turn his game to high gear. A precision offense can offset a good defense and that was proven by too many champion teams in the past like the MJ era.
I am David Downs, and I'm a sports nut who loves basketball and football and am open to good discussion about any sports subject. I am a Detroit sports fan, but I not a homer. Expect frequent vents on subjects that irritate me, and also expect the utmost respect for anybody's opinion, even if they disagree with me. Because, after all, that's what these blogs are all about, aren't they?
