2013 NBA Playoffs |OT| Lakers started from the bottom, and they still there

East
MIA (1) over MIL (8) in 4
BOS (7) over NYK (2) in 7
IND (3) over ATL (6) in 5
BRK (4) over CHI (5) in 7

West
OKC (1) over HOU (8) in 5
SAS(2) over LAL (7) in 5
DEN (3) over GSW (6) in 6
LAC (4) over MEM (5) in 6
 
East
MIA (1) over MIL (8) in 4
NYK (2) over BOS (7) in 5
IND (3) over ATL (6) in 4
ChI (5) over CHI (4) in 7

West
OKC (1) over HOU (8) in 6
SAS(2) over LAL (7) in 4
GSW (6) over DEN (6) in 6
MEM (5) over LAC (C) in 6
 
Marcus Smart on not declaring said:
“First thing this morning I hear Skip Bayless say I had to go,” Smart said during a news conference announcing his draft intentions. “In my mind I'm like, ‘No disrespect, but why?' He says it's because the draft class is weaker this year than next year. Well, that's telling me, from a competitor standpoint, you have no respect for my game and my ability to compete with those guys.

“You tell a competitor that, it just fuels his energy to go out there and prove him wrong. It got me fired up. I wanted to go out there and start working out right then. And it definitely fueled my energy to come back here and start preparing for next year and getting better.”

The 2014 draft class is expected to be rich with talent, led by Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker.
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I admire the fire, but being a third year guard is going to make it pretty clear what his ceiling is. If he doesn't produce a lot more than he has then his stock is going to drop like a rock.
 
Dark FaZe said:
I admire the fire, but being a third year guard is going to make it pretty clear what his ceiling is. If he doesn't produce a lot more than he has then his stock is going to drop like a rock.
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He has lots of room to improve, specifically when it comes to perimeter shooting and turnovers. A lot of that will be helped by coming back to a strong team next year, and we've got a solid recruiting class as well. This guy more than lived up to the hype and took a mediocre-at-best squad to the verge of a conference title.

And what do you mean by "third year guard?" He's gonna be a true soph.
 
Smart went from top 5 to mid/late lotto. I like his intangibles, but it won't be enough for him to beat out Wiggins/Vonleh/Parker/Randle/Harrison/Hezonja/Gordon/Young/etc.
 
Tragicomedy said:
I KNOW I shouldn't do this, but I wanted to reply to this from the previous thread.

It has nothing to do with stats. Stats are merely the reflection of what we're able to see with the naked eye. The Lakers are a more dangerous team without Kobe. They have far better team cohesion, better ball movement, better defense, and actually look like they're enjoying the game instead of serving as a red carpet for the Kobe Stats Show.

Also, don't try and bring Kobe's assist stats into this argument. Before going down to an injury, Rondo led the league in assists. I'd argue he wasn't making his teammates any better, since those resulted from him dominating on the ball every play.

I seem to recall games earlier this year where Kobe would pass up easy shots just to register an assist as a way of sticking up his middle finger to his critics. In doing so, he's just proving our point. It's always been all about him and his legacy, and always will. I wasn't scared one bit of the Kobe-less Lakers. The Dwight Howard Lakers give me a pause, especially if Nash can get healthy (a big if, mind you). Best case scenario for the Kobe Lakers was to maybe win a game in a series. You think the current iteration can't do better than that?
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You're not a kobe fan. So clearly when you watch a team play without Kobe, to your naked eye, it looks better.


The team has been without Kobe for 2 games. As anyone with any semblance of NBA Basketball understands, teams in the regular season take about 5-10 games to figure out how to attack a talented team that's missing its superstar. Once one team figured out how to shut out the Lakers offensively, every other team would copy cat that and the Lakers would go down. Steve Blake even alluded to this.


As for all that "cohesion" nonsense. LA is a much worse offensive team without Kobe on the floor. They are probably a better defensive team, but we'll see how those defensive numbers stay up with Nash back in the fold. As an offensive team however, they are far worse in their production without Kobe. So all that ball movement and cohesion you love so much doesn't mean a damn thing if it doesn't translate to points.


The Lakers might be playing a brand of basketball you and guys like Emwitus like more. But that doesn't make them better. Get those basic fundamentals in your head.


And Lulz if you think the Kobe Lakers would only take one game on this gimp SA team, but a Kobe-Less Lakers can do better. And I'm glad you're a psychic and know when Kobe's passing up shots to get an assist. It's funny that "Check My Stats" Lebron who does that regularly doesn't get the same criticism from you. And no, for Kobe it's always been about winning. Not about his personal stats.

Your post is essentially. I hate Kobe. He Sucks. This is why his team is better than him regardless of what his team is actually doing. They're better because he's not there and he's a poo poo head
 
Vahagn said:
As anyone with any semblance of NBA Basketball understands, teams in the regular season take about 5-10 games to figure out how to attack a talented team that's missing its superstar. Once one team figured out how to shut out the Lakers offensively, every other team would copy cat that and the Lakers would go down.

.
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LMAO
 
peterb0y said:
LMAO
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Obviously if said team is having success. No one anticipated the Wade-Less, Bron-Less Heat winning the games they did against SA and the others. But I don't think that team can keep going 10-20-30-40 games in and still have the same kind of success. Teams would change up their scouting reports and copy cat whichever teams had success by looking at game film of Heat Losses.


Maybe that explains what I was trying to convey better.
 
Vahagn said:
Obviously if said team is having success. No one anticipated the Wade-Less, Bron-Less Heat winning the games they did against SA and the others. But I don't think that team can keep going 10-20-30-40 games in and still have the same kind of success. Teams would change up their scouting reports and copy cat whichever teams had success by looking at game film of Heat Losses.


Maybe that explains what I was trying to convey better.
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I just think its absurd that you think "anyone with a semblance of NBA basketball" knowledge knows this weirdly specific 5-10 game adjustment period to learn how to deal with talented teams who lost their superstars.
 
peterb0y said:
I just think its absurd that you think "anyone with a semblance of NBA basketball" knowledge knows this weirdly specific 5-10 game adjustment period to learn how to deal with talented teams who lost their superstars.
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Fair enough. 5-10 games is an example. There are plenty of teams that can pull off a few wins without their best talents on the floor. SA did it all the time this year when they sat guys out. Heat have done it. LA has done it. etc. When you sit guys out for prolonged periods of time, teams figure out how to attack them and you have the CP3-Less Clippers or the Dirk-less Mavs happening.



Rondo may actually qualify for Ewing theory because, if I'm not mistaken the offense has been better without him on the floor. The same can't be said of the Kobe-Less Lakers or the Dirk-Less Mavs etc.


Lakers won these two games by playing their guts out defensively And still managing less than a 100 points even in an overtime game. Something the Kobe Lakers did with ease.
 
East
MIA (1) over MIL (8) in 4
BOS (7) over NYK (2) in 6
IND (3) over ATL (6) in 5
BRK (4) over CHI (5) in 7

West
OKC (1) over HOU (8) in 4
SAS(2) over LAL (7) in 5
DEN (3) over GSW (6) in 5
LAC (4) over MEM (5) in 7
 
As for Valanciunas, the promising Raptors big man who's been averaging a 15-7 since mid-March, here's a true story: When Sam Presti was quietly shopping James Harden last October, he called Toronto to feel out a Jonas package. And got rebuffed. Quickly.
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I love Jonas and I think he's going to be awesome, but what.
 
I'm going to be hungover as shit on Sunday, so all these Saturday play off games are fucking awesome.

4 games in a row? Hell Yeah.
 
dIEHARD said:
I'm almost ready to start rooting for the Lakers just so the Kobe-stans will go apeshit.
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I think the Lakers can win the series IF:

A. nash is healthy
B. Parker and Ginobili aren't

Which are two things that are possible at this point given B is happening.

TBH, If Kobe was there, I think they'd win for sure, regardless. I always thought Lakers matched up great.

But nash-Pau-Dwight Lakers should beat a Spurs team with a hobbled parker and manu with or without Kobe, so it shouldn't say much to Kobe-stans.

If it was OKC or something, then sure
 
Also, I'm glad Melo got the scoring title.


Dude is too good of a player to have NO hardware throughout his entire career. He got the thing he probably was the best at. So that works.
 
Branduil said:
The important thing is that Kobe can't play, so you have free rein to make silly First Take predictions like this.
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Frankly, with out kobe, i expect them to win it all now, beat every team they didn't before.

Because a blake/meeks back court screams championship to me.

SIGN ME UP LAKERS-AGE.
 
Heavy said:
That's because Stern considers Melo a 'thug'. I'm not joking, he doesn't want his top-tier superstars to have that image and be heavily associated with rap music. KD's a saint compared to Melo, in David's eyes.
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KD has more tats then Melo does. KD is a mad trash talker when he is on fire(espn purposely avoids this ), go to an OKC game and watch how much shit KD talks. Its awesome.

I'm not a big Melo guy, but calling him a thug is stupid, Lebron is a bigger thug than Melo.
 
Full First Round Playoff Schedule Times:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nba/news/20130418/nba-playoff-schedule-2013/
PmQnKJu.png

EDIT: oh already posted lol


HYPE! 420 is going to be great.

SephCast said:
http://www.fbi.gov/news/updates-on-investigation-into-multiple-explosions-in-boston/photos


hmmm...white hat kid looks like Ricky Rubio.
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lol'd damn cannot unsee.
 
KingGondo said:
I think I found Trax's Twitter account.


You heard it here first, folks.
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Wouldn't matter, Meeks is going to out play Harden if they ever meet.

Sort of irrelevant.

Meeks is getting tips and coaching from kobe. And has all season. Automatically makes him atleast top 5. If not top 2.
 
giri said:
Wouldn't matter, Meeks is going to out play Harden if they ever meet.

Sort of irrelevant.

Meeks is getting tips and coaching from kobe. And has all season. Automatically makes him atleast top 5. If not top 2.
Click to expand...
Jodie Meeks First Team ALL-TIME
 
Black Mamba said:
TBH, If Kobe was there, I think they'd win for sure, regardless. I always thought Lakers matched up great.
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Not to sound overly melodramatic but that's the tragedy of Kobe's injury. They had a REALLY solid shot of beating the Spurs in round 1 and then who knows what happens after, anything can happen. Maybe they go on a post-season tear after a crappy regular season, like the NY Giants. You never know... Kobe even said a couple weeks ago, paraphrasing: "We're not afraid of anyone, not San Antonio, not OKC, nobody." Anything can happen in a series when you have this level of talent on your roster, what a fucking shame.


Anyway, i got:

East
MIA (1) over MIL (8) in 5
NYK (2) over BOS (7) in 7
IND (3) over ATL (6) in 5
CHI (5) over BRK (4) in 7

West
OKC (1) over HOU (8) in 6
SAS (2) over LAL (7) in 5
GSW (6) over DEN (3) in 7
MEM (5) over LAC (4) in 6
 
East
MIA (1) over MIL (8) in 5
NYK (2) over BOS (7) in 6
IND (3) over ATL (6) in 5
CHI (5) over BRK (4) in 6

West
OKC (1) over HOU (8) in 6
LAL(7) over SAS (2) in 6
DEN (3) over GSW (6) in 5
LAC (4) over MEM (5) in 5 (assuming Blake's back recovers in time to win game 1... if not it could go 7)
 
Heavy said:
Not to sound overly melodramatic but that's the tragedy of Kobe's injury. They had a REALLY solid shot of beating the Spurs in round 1 and then who knows what happens after, anything can happen. Maybe they go on a post-season tear after a crappy regular season, like the NY Giants. You never know... Kobe even said a couple weeks ago, paraphrasing: "We're not afraid of anyone, not San Antonio, not OKC, nobody." Anything can happen in a series when you have this level of talent on your roster, what a fucking shame.
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I can't agree more. The whole basketball world is still in mourning over it. And if the lakers didn't make the play offs, i'd assume they would have been cancelled in Kobes honor. The onyl legitimately correct action to have taken.

I mean, i still think Lakers are going to win with Koach Kobe. But it's not going to be as special.

Who cares that the spurs won the season series 2-1 and it took some particularly horrible and out of character games from spurs regular starters to win the 1 game. Lakers won. And it was with Koach Kobe. And it was the most recent game. Which is the most relevant.

Lakers, 2013 champs OR BUST.
 
Colonel Nasty said:
No way we beat the thunder but we could definitely push them to at least six.
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5 games max. We're a terrible matchup for the Rox. YNB can cover Lin, Thabo can cover Harden, and KD can cover Parsons. The Rox defense isn't very good either.

We averaged around 120 PPG over 3 games against Houston this season.
 
giri said:
I can't agree more. The whole basketball world is still in mourning over it. And if the lakers didn't make the play offs, i'd assume they would have been cancelled in Kobes honor. The onyl legitimately correct action to have taken.

I mean, i still think Lakers are going to win with Koach Kobe. But it's not going to be as special.

Who cares that the spurs won the season series 2-1 and it took some particularly horrible and out of character games from spurs regular starters to win the 1 game. Lakers won. And it was with Koach Kobe. And it was the most recent game. Which is the most relevant.

Lakers, 2013 champs OR BUST.
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I know all this is sarcastic, but regarding the season series.

Spurs won the first game on a buzzer beater
Spurs won the second game with no Howard, Pau, Blake, or Hill and it was close (3 points).

You can't discount the Laker win without discounting the 2nd Spurs game, either. Which leaves us a buzzer beater in 1 game.
 
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