Lakers, Lakers, Lakers... :(

The Internet connection was down a couple of days ago so I wasn't able to write about the Lakers.

Game 3.
Whoooooooow!!! Lakers won! Ugly win, but a win is a win!

Horrendous free-throws by the Lakers, notably Kobe. Gasol played doo-doo the majority of the game. Thank god KG played horribly, and Pierce got stuck in the bench for almost the whole game!

Notes:
*Ray Allen was money on the 3pt line. Dude was scary. Thank god he wasn't clutch enough late in the 4th quarter to pull the Celtics back.

*Kobe Bryant is the man! Dude was cold-hearted down the stretch. He ALMOST singlehandedly carried the Lakers in the fourth... almost singlehandedly, which brings us to...

*Susha Vujacic!!! What can I say?! RISE OF THE MACHINE!? lol! This light it up in game 3! It would be great if Phil start Sasha on the next game, and put him on Pierce on the get go.

*The Lakers didn't change anything major from their game 2 plan in this game, yet they came out victorious. This shows how biased game 2 was in favor of the Celtics because of the home court. Now its in LA, and the Lakers are getting the calls. Too bad the Lakers had an awful free throw shooting night.

Well, great win! Ugly, but nonetheless great! C'mon Lakeshow, let's sweep the next two games!!

And shoot those damn free throws next time!!


Game 4.
Totally heartbreaking. No excuses for the Lakers this time. They HAD a lead as big as 25 POINTS... only to blow it and eventually lose to the Celtics!

The Lakers played a superb first half! They made the Celtics look like the Charlotte Bobcats out there. And by halftime, they were leading by 20 points.

When the 2nd half started, everything that the Lakers were in the first half was the exact opposite. Nobody is moving. The players got to cocky. They settled for jump shots instead of sticking to the game plan: take it inside. And with a star studded lineup like the Celtics, its only a matter of time before they catch up.

Here are my observations on why the Lakers had a 2nd half meltdown:

*They got too cocky and complacent. They were dominating the Celtics in the first half so they thought: "Oh, they got the lead down to 15 points. It's ok." Then its, "Oh, they shot 5 straight points. Not to fear, we still lead by 10 points." You get the drift. They seemed to have that mentality until the Celtics eventually caught up with them, then taking the lead... and the win.

*Odom disappeared in the 2nd half. He was the best player in the game during the first half. He was perfect in the field, nobody could keep up with him. Then in the 2nd half, he disappeared. Period.

*Kobe Bryant became too complacent. He saw that his Lakers teammate were dominating. He became contented on playing as facilitator. Wrong move. He should have never stopped scoring. What happened was, he had trouble going back to his "groove" when it mattered the most.

*Farmar playing more time than Fisher on the 4th. Lakers should have played the veteran Derek Fisher in the 4th. Instead, they let an inefficient Farmar suit up... only letting Fisher play with just 2 minutes remaining. Too late.

*Phil Jackson got 'out-coached' by Doc Rivers. That's all I can see in this. I can't see any other reason why the Lakers blew up their huge lead. Jackson failed to adjust. He wasn't able to adjust to Posey and House's rotation.

Plus, I was never a fan of his "let the players figure it out themselves" attitude of his. This is the championship. You're down 1-2, trying to tie the series. This is not the time for "the players figure it out all by themselves." When you see your team blew up the lead, you adjust accordingly... you tell them what's wrong. You tell them what to do! It would've been ok if they're up 2-0 in the series, but no... they're down 1-2 and you "let the players figure it out themselves."

Like I've said, no excuses for the Lakers. They fucked themselves in this game. Game 2 might be biased, but this loss is all their fault.