The 2008/2009 NBA season thread

[D]

Just saying, u are acting like LA were dominant against Orlando. They won 2 games dominantly but the other two they got very lucky.

U are acting like they were the LA team that lost 1 game the entire playoff or something.

[crow316]

Im acting like LA won convincingly and handily over another team 4-1.   Luck had nothing to do with winning or losing the series. Lucky that Orlando missed a shot with 0.6 seconds left?  Nah. Orlando was lucky they even had the attempt.  Lucky that we dominated the overtime? No. Lucky that Howard misses freethrows all the time? Nah.  Lucky that they didnt cover Fish's 3? Where does it end? If a game is so close it can swing either way, the winner isnt lucky and the loser didnt choke. If you blow a gigantic lead and are expected to win, thats a choke. That never happened in these finals. The better team outright WON.  Orlando didnt lose, they were beat.

[D]

Orlando had the game in their hands and both times had EASY shots.

LA didn't cause Lee to miss or Howard to not be able to hit 1 FT.

That is where Orlando blew it.


Now Fish hitting the shot WON it but it never should've came to that. Van Gundy's ridiculous coaching on that play helped lead to Fish getting that look.

Most 5 games series are blowouts and not competitive.

This was very competitive which is why I can't understand why u are acting like LA were dominant cause they weren't.

[Bodhi]

As soon as I saw the Orlando Magic in the NBA Finals, I could not take this series seriously...I don't  know how any of you did...

[w.axl.rose]

I was worried at all. Garry was though. He had no confidence in our home town team 

[crow316]

Im not saying it wasnt a competitive series.  It was.    But the credit belongs to the Lakers. Thats my point. They won. They beat the Magic.  It wasnt Van Gundys coaching that gave Fisher that 3. It was Kobe finding Trevor finding Fisher, it was Fisher seeing the opportunity and knocking down the shot. Van Gundys coaching decided not to foul, yeah.  But it wasnt Van Gundys coaching that told Jameer to let Fisher shoot. If they fouled, we still could have may have won, you never know how things "could" have played out.
      

[crow316]

Also, the Lakers margin of victory in the 4 wins was almost 13 points a game. Take out the blowout and its still over 8 points. So you cant say that the series came down to a couple of blown baskets. The Lakers won. They deserve the credit.

[Ignatius]

What I did say, is what a lot of people forget.  The Lakers were rolling last season before Bynum went down and we acquired Pau.

I don't think that's correct. If my memory is right, the lakers were ranked 3rd or 4th out west when they got Pau. They were 33-15. With Gasol, LA won 13 out of 15 matches and made all the way to the top of the Western Conference.

I'm not 100% sure, although I'm going to try to find those stats.

Edit.- The lakers were 25-11 before Bynum was injured in 2008. When they got Pau, they were already 28-16. With Pau the lakers won 29 games and lost 9.

Here's a link I found

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3226203

Scroll down close to the bottom and you'll see

The Lakers were one of the NBA's best teams before the 20-year-old Bynum injured his left knee Jan. 13 against Memphis, coincidentally. Los Angeles had a 28-16 record entering Friday night's game at Toronto but had lost five of eight since Bynum was injured.

This means, when Bynum got injured they were 25-11. Thay played 8 games without Bynum, they went 5-8. Then they got Gasol, and went 29-9.

Gasol's trade really made a big difference. Their W-L ratio was better with Gasol than with Bynum. 69% with Bynum, 76% with Gasol.

[faldor]

Also, the Lakers margin of victory in the 4 wins was almost 13 points a game. Take out the blowout and its still over 8 points. So you cant say that the series came down to a couple of blown baskets. The Lakers won. They deserve the credit.

You really don't have to defend how close the series was, or how much they won by.  They won, that's all that matters.  It could've gone 7 games or they could've blown out Orlando by 50 in game 1 and the Magic could've forfeited the next 3 games because they felt they had no shot.  It really doesn't matter.  They won.  A win is a win is a win, no matter how you get it.  If Orlando blew some chances the Lakers had to take advatage of those opportunities and they did.  There you have it.

[crow316]

This means, when Bynum got injured they were 25-11. Thay played 8 games without Bynum, they went 5-8. Then they got Gasol, and went 29-9.

Gasol's trade really made a big difference. Their W-L ratio was better with Gasol than with Bynum. 69% with Bynum, 76% with Gasol.

Oh, no doubt the Gasol trade was huge. I loved it. Obviously its a massive big deal. I was just clearing up misconceptions that the Lakers had "no shot" without him.  We were having a good year, was all I was trying to say.  People were already calling out the Boston-LA series BEFORE we got Pau.

[Chief]

Re: the Magic.. good team but I don't think they had the experience.

then, there is this fact:

The Magic shot 62.5% from the field and Kobe missed 5 FTs and they barely beat The Lakers in their only win of The Finals.

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Sure and u barely beat Orlando with Pau and Andrew

Take Pau off LA's team this year and they don't get past Houston

Winning in 5 is barely beating Orlando?   Thats funny.   
And whats your point about Pau?  I never said he wasnt important to this championship. Take any important starter off of a championship squad, and you can say that they "wouldnt have won if."  Point is, we do have Pau, and we did beat Houston.
What I did say, is what a lot of people forget.  The Lakers were rolling last season before Bynum went down and we acquired Pau.

Man, that Jordan guy would never have won if he didn't have Scottie Pippen.

If Magic and Kareem weren't teammates in the 80's, they would have no chance.

Bird was so lucky to have Parish.  Yeah, because they would never have won.




Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda.  What a waste of time.


(Houston started doing much better after the Yao injury anyway, so I fail to see the point about us barely beating Houston, when they got better after the injury.

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

I wish I got the same channels you're getting! 

Because all I'm getting is the usual BSPN hate and reading crap articles by fucksticks (yes, I said that) like Bill Simmons and Dan Shaughnessy, who really needs to drink bleach and die.

Do you guys get a different feed from ESPN /TNT on the West coast?  Over here, all the media does is suck Kobe's dick 24/7 no matter what he does.  Whether he is raping girls or winning MVP's they are constantly kissing his ass.  Seriously, the Lakers get all the calls from the refs, David Stern loves Kobe, and ESPN just ranked the Lakers as the greatest franchise in the history of the NBA.  Watching the playoffs, if Kobe got to the free throw line on a routine drive to the basket the announcers were acting like it was the greatest play in the last 20 years.  Where is all this "hate" coming from?

Wanna trade feeds?

Old Man, do me a favor and go back a few pages when I clearly broke down game 4.  Dude, you can't say that we get all the calls because the Magic shot 20 FT to the Lakers ZERO in the fourth and OT COMBINED.  (I'm not counting Pau Gasol's flagrant foul free throws.)

Mike Breen going crazy?  Really?

Straight from the horses mouth: http://www.slamonline.com/online/news-rumors/the-wire/2009/06/mike-breen-on-jeff-van-gundys-awful-finals-experience/

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Finally got to see the destruction from the riots and who is the first person i noticed in that video??? Garry, throwing bricks at the buss windows 

I saw him flipping over cars on the National myself.

You guys are absolute sweethearts for not calling me out for my massive weight gain.

I messed up this car with just one leap.  And believe me, it's hard for my fat ass to get some air.  It was definitely the shoes.

[AxlsMainMan]

Shit son, imagine if you homies lost.

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Shit son, imagine if you homies lost.

Win or lose, with those brain-dead individuals running around, everyone loses.

I went down to the Staples Center to do my championship gear shopping, as I mentioned earlier.  It was so eerie seeing half of the giant pots in front of the arena with bushes and trees, and the other ones missing their shrubby friends.

I bought the white shirt with the purple basketball outline and the Mickey shirt at Staples, and the other items I bought at a JC Penney.  I had to go to this God-awful neighborhood called Glendale to find this JC Penney joint.  But the neat thing was that they gave me a voucher to mail in and get a 4.5 inch replica of the Larry O'Brien trophy!




And, uhhh, I need to get 2009 added on this thing. 

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Haha.

Nike Puppet Commercial, the last one methinks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ri65Spg0Ts

[Bodhi]

Wanna trade feeds?

Old Man, do me a favor and go back a few pages when I clearly broke down game 4.  Dude, you can't say that we get all the calls because the Magic shot 20 FT to the Lakers ZERO in the fourth and OT COMBINED.  (I'm not counting Pau Gasol's flagrant foul free throws.)

oh my mistake..I forgot about Game 4, which the Lakers still won.  Its takes some balls to bitch about that game, when it has been proven that the NBA handed the Lakers a title in 2002.  So in the 50 years of Lakers playoff history in which they got just about every call under the sun, there will always be Game 4 against Orlando...You guys are a major market team, bitching about the refs is absurd.  It is in the NBA's best interest for the Lakers to do well.

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Wanna trade feeds?

Old Man, do me a favor and go back a few pages when I clearly broke down game 4.  Dude, you can't say that we get all the calls because the Magic shot 20 FT to the Lakers ZERO in the fourth and OT COMBINED.  (I'm not counting Pau Gasol's flagrant foul free throws.)

oh my mistake..I forgot about Game 4, which the Lakers still won.  Its takes some balls to bitch about that game, when it has been proven that the NBA handed the Lakers a title in 2002.  So in the 50 years of Lakers playoff history in which they got just about every call under the sun, there will always be Game 4 against Orlando...You guys are a major market team, bitching about the refs is absurd.  It is in the NBA's best interest for the Lakers to do well.

Whatever, the refs kept Sacramento alive in game 6.  You gotta start seeing it both ways.

If the NBA gave two shits about the Lakers, we wouldn't be trailing Boston 2-11.  Wake up dude.

[Ignatius]

Oh, no doubt the Gasol trade was huge. I loved it. Obviously its a massive big deal. I was just clearing up misconceptions that the Lakers had "no shot" without him.  We were having a good year, was all I was trying to say.  People were already calling out the Boston-LA series BEFORE we got Pau.

Could be.

Hopefully Bynum gets his shit together like he did last year before he got injured. It's weird, but both times before he got injured Bynum was having incredible performances night in and night out. Then he gets injured and he's out for the entire season. This time he came back but his contribution was not a  key factor as everyone expected.-

Kareem seems like he's doing a good job with him, hopefully he will get him ready mentally as well...it seems like this is a guy who needs to have a few good games in a row to get going.

Oh BTW, Garry, the Micky Mouse shirt man, comon