The Lakers escaped with a game that you can bet SA won't let happen again. They went on a ridiculous scoring drout thats not likely to be repeated. The Lakers still have some issues like stopping Duncan, Parker they went off and will continue to do so, if Manu plays half way decent this game is a blowout on YOUR homecourt. As bad as the Spurs played the second half the Lakers still had to make a furious comeback and the Spurs still had a Manu 3 for the win, man that would have been great to see the Lakers reaction had he made that dagger after the great comeback. I don't think the Spurs are that worried as the matchups favor them and it pretty much showed last night.
The Spurs actually go on scoring drought like that all the time. That was one of the key weaknesses I saw in the Spurs all year. Lakers are an explosive offensive team, but they don't rely on just transition baskets to score. The triangle offense is as effective in the half court as it is in the open court. Pop knows this, which is why Popovich has never had the success against Phil Jackson as he had against Dantoni. No offense to the Suns, but Mike's offense was, for lack of a better word, "gimmicky", whereas the triangle is proven to be effective in the playoffs.
Lakers missed about 10 layups that game, ( Odom ,I counted 7, Gasol 2, Sasha 1), that's not gonna happen every game. Kobe's also not going to be completely passive for an entire half. I didn't see anything from the Spurs to suggest that they can guard Kobe. Duncan's the greatest PF in the game, but I haven't seen him consistently make that trademark bank shot of his all season. He looked like the Duncan from 5 years ago. Don't know if he can't that up all series. Maybe against Gasol he can. Parker will always comes out blazing, but in every game against the Lakers( dating back to the three peat years), he always kills the Lakers in the first half but disappear in the 2nd half. Ask any Laker fan, he does this every time. I know against the Suns, he'll kill you guys for a full game.
Manu's all banged up. He's not going to fully recover in less than 2 days. He's got groin issues, busted ankle, torn nail. etc. It's clearly effecting his game. If Kobe takes on the assignment of guarding him, he might limit his effectiveness the whole series.
The fatigue issue that people bring up for game 1 will be a concern for the Spurs the rest of the series. Every game in the WCF will be played every other day. So the amount of rest they'll get will be the same in game 1 as it is for any other game this series. The Lakers came out really rusty in game 1 as expected for a a team that hasn't played a real game in 5 days. From what I've seen in the past, the team that gets the extra days off usually comes out flat in game 1, but they usually look more fresh the rest of the series. (i.e. Detroit) The other team usually are still in game rhythm from just finishing off their prior series, but the fatigue starts to show as the series progress. Just an observation. Game 1 might have been the best opportunity for the Spurs to steal a game at Staples. Considering that they were up 20 late in the third, they really squadered a golden opportunity. They not only lost a tight game, but they lost the momentum they build for three quarters and gave the Lakers the confidence to know they can beat these guys. The momentum wll now be with the Lakers at the start of game 2, but the Spurs can easily regain mo with a strong start tomorrow night. Should be a great series.
