Today's games...

[Proteus]

What the heck is wrong with the Jazz?

 

[TJ]

LA cant miss tonight.....guess you get lucky every now and again

 

[arwillan]

The Jazz defense looks incredibly vulnerable tonight. this game makes me like our chances against the jazz in the first round even more than i did before. The suns are a better offensive team than the lakers are, so we can probably make the jazz struggle with our offense too.

 

[jbeecham]

LA cant miss tonight.....guess you get lucky every now and again

LA's shooting 51% tonight......we've been shooting better than that most nights. I'm surprised that Utah is playing as badly as they are against a banged up Laker team, but I'll give the Lakers credit for playing well with the guys they have.

 

[arwillan]

Kobe saves the day again.

 

[95pro]

man..all the teams i was rooting for today, have lost.

spurs won vs bulls

boston won vs mavs

lakers won(almost over) vs jazz
if it wasnt for the lakers 3pt shooting...

spurs & lakers could lose, so we climber ever closer to the #1 seed.
for the mavs, i kinda feel sorry for them. was hoping they could get out of their funk. they have their bright spots, but its still an un-polished team so far.

does it seem like calls are favoring boston & lakers tonight???lol

 

[az1965]

Jazz defense is horrendous.

 

[Proteus]

Nice airball by Okur.

 

[TJ]

man..all the teams i was rooting for today, have lost.

spurs won vs bulls

boston won vs mavs

lakers won(almost over) vs jazz
if it wasnt for the lakers 3pt shooting...

spurs & lakers could lose, so we climber ever closer to the #1 seed.
for the mavs, i kinda feel sorry for them. was hoping they could get out of their funk. they have their bright spots, but its still an un-polished team so far.

does it seem like calls are favoring boston & lakers tonight???lol

Why do you want the Mavs to win???

Lakers always get their calls....and them some

 

[arwillan]

Jazz defense is horrendous.

 

[Darth Llama]

Lakers always get their calls....and them some

Yeah right, whatever. Another typical Suns fans crying about the refs. You guys really need to give that a rest. You just sound like a bunch of Cry babies. The Lakers get screwed on calls just as much as the Suns. That's a fact.

 

[arwillan]

Yeah right, whatever. Another typical Suns fans crying about the refs. You guys really need to give that a rest. You just sound like a bunch of Cry babies. The Lakers get screwed on calls just as much as the Suns. That's a fact.

i'm not one to complain about the refs, but tonight it definitely appeared that the lakers were getting the calls.

 

[D-Dogg]

LA cant miss tonight.....guess you get lucky every now and again

It's kind of hard to miss dunks, layups and wide open threes.

 

[Darth Llama]

i'm not one to complain about the refs, but tonight it definitely appeared that the lakers were getting the calls.

It happens, yes. We also have nights where we get screwed so bad I can't even stand to watch it. I won't deny that officiating in the NBA sucks, because it does. But it sucks for everyone, including the Lakers.

 

[arwillan]

It happens, yes. We also have nights where we get screwed so bad I can't even stand to watch it. I won't deny that officiating in the NBA sucks, because it does. But it sucks for everyone, including the Lakers.

i agree, it does suck for everyone. everyone has their nights. having superstars on your team (Kobe or nash to name a couple) certainly helps your case. basketball is the hardest sport to officiate with no instant replay. I can't really blame the refs too much sometimes, but other times i want to scream because of how badly the game can be shifted with one bad call. That's the thing with the nba....officiating is so hard to do yet it is more important than in any other sport.

 

[Darth Llama]

i agree, it does suck for everyone. everyone has their nights. having superstars on your team (Kobe or nash to name a couple) certainly helps your case. basketball is the hardest sport to officiate with no instant replay. I can't really blame the refs too much sometimes, but other times i want to scream because of how badly the game can be shifted with one bad call. That's the thing with the nba....officiating is so hard to do yet it is more important than in any other sport.

Well said sir!

 

[nash2crosby]

Then there's Tim Donaghy; his reffing depended on who his money was on.

 

[mojorizen7]

Then there's Tim Donaghy; his reffing depended on who his money was on.

off topic:
The NBA has managed to distance itself from the referee scandal nicely in less than a year. Brilliantly done Sterno & co.

 

[nash2crosby]

Donaghy's in a fight with his wife for the kids and the million dollar home in a posh Florida community. She's gonna get the kids and the big home and he's going to The Big House with Clemens, Bonds and Jones.

 

[mojorizen7]

The last team to succesfully sweep the Texas triangle was The Sac Town KINGS in Nov '01. I didn't realize it was actually THAT long ago. Thats pretty crazy.
The Celt's are rolling.

 

[arwillan]

Sunday and Monday will be big days for the Suns. Monday we have a big game against Detroit, and both Sunday and Monday the Lakers will play Golden State. G.S is very tough on a back to back like that. If the lakers lose both and we win, we take over first by 1/2 a game. That would hopefully give us a little breathing room going down the stretch. The lakers may or may not have gasol for their two games. If they don't, golden state has a real shot because of the lack of an inside presence.

 

[D-Dogg]

Sunday and Monday will be big days for the Suns. Monday we have a big game against Detroit, and both Sunday and Monday the Lakers will play Golden State. G.S is very tough on a back to back like that. If the lakers lose both and we win, we take over first by 1/2 a game. That would hopefully give us a little breathing room going down the stretch. The lakers may or may not have gasol for their two games. If they don't, golden state has a real shot because of the lack of an inside presence.

You are already giving us the win tonight vs. the Sonics? Thanks!

 

[nowagimp]

i'm not one to complain about the refs, but tonight it definitely appeared that the lakers were getting the calls.

The jazz opened the game with terrible ball movement and defensive hustle, were beaten at every corner. The lakers had a ton of open shots, many in transition, in building a lead, and they moved the ball very well. In the jazz defense, Okur hadnt eaten in two days due to stomach virus, and Boozer has had a back injury and hasnt been practicing. When you arent practicing for Sloane, you are hurt. I am not suprised that PJ attacked them right out of the gate using this knowledge, and it worked like a charm as odom hit 4 of his first 5 shots, pretty much undefended. The lakers would have won anyway, and I didnt think the few calls they got mattered.

Now if you watched the mavs/celtics, there was a key point when the celtics passed the mavs as pierce came back in the 4th quarter(8 min mark?) and created two fouls that shouldnt have been called at all. He grabbed dampiers arm and went down when dampier had him sealed on the low block waiting for the entry pass, and then he did the same to stack on the next play, hooked his arm around a defenders extended arm and pulled them down. Both were obvious to me on the replay, not so much during play. The first of those fouls put the mavs into the penalty and were key. On the foul shots, made by pierce, the celtics took the lead. A few plays later Jkidd makes a clean block on pierce on the break and gets called for the foul as the refs were trailing the play and couldnt see it. Pierce kneed jkidd just after he blocked the shot(and was falling down), making it look like contact, but it wasnt until after the block that the contact was made. Those three plays created an 8 point swing that made all the difference in the game. Heck, as a suns fan I wanted the mavs to lose, but as a bball fan I wanted it to be fair. Then avery neutered the passing game of the mavs and had them do easily defensible(and predictable) isolations, and that was that, Dirk taking shots while up to 3 guys were defending him. Avery Johnson is one of the the most overrated coaches in the game, terrible.

The mavs are a conondrum unto themselves, they look like they cant decide on whether to use the passing game or do isos. When they do stick to the passing game, they looked very good, but they look like they arent so good at the isos anymore. The celtics had a much easier time defending the isos, averys way, such irony. The mavs may get better yet, but they have a schitzoid personality as a team right now. If guys like terry, stack nowitski and howard learn how to use the passing game to make defenses work, lookout.

 

[arwillan]

You are already giving us the win tonight vs. the Sonics? Thanks!

Kobe alone is better than the whole sonics team. Didn't you guys struggle somewhat when you played them earlier this year? Kobe had to score 50 or something if i remember correctly. i can't remember if that was with or w/o Bynum though. Correct me if i'm wrong i think the lakers should beat them by 10 or 15 points even without gasol

 

[az1965]

It's kind of hard to miss dunks, layups and wide open threes.

Yep, that's how bad Jazz were