Lakers worst nightmare realized in loss to Cavs

The Cavs did shoot pretty damn well, especially in the 4th.

We missed a lot of FTs.

So those are silver linings? Yeah? Maybe… please?

However, if this is how this team will continue to play, I don’t even see them make it out of the west. so I’ll worry about the cavs if we/ they get there. Im hoping for a hawks upset

It just didn’t happen. It’s disappointing, sure, but at the end of the day, LA is 31-10, first in the West, first in the NBA.

It’s important to remember that this is marvelous, not mundane.

They lost this game because they just came up short in the intangibles aspect of the game. They missed a significant number of free throws, they didn’t get key rebounds, and finally, they lacked a certain toughness. Such problems can certainly be fixed and as others have said on here, it’s January. The playoffs aren’t for another few months.

If this game had occurred during the playoffs, then I would be a bit more worried. But there were times last year that the Lakers failed at doing the nitty-gritty things to win games, and guess what, they managed to correct them to win a title.

We haven’t even made it to the all-star game yet, so there is no reason to be overly worried about this team.

31-10 > .762 win %

That’s legit.

if these two do meet up with LA having the better record, the 2-0 season series will account for nothing. lakers can still have enough time to adjust and play with that championship drive that has been seldom seen this year. i thought last year’s team was hungrier to get the ring…this year’s team looks too complacent at times. plus pau had an awful off night. i’m still taking LA with the playoff experience over the cavs if they do meet up again in june.

I truly believe doubling Shaq was unnecessary, yet somehow inexplicably, there was Shaq, being double teamed by our big men.

Pau handled Dwight just fine last year in the Finals, but of course, Dwight’s offensive skills aren’t as vast as Shaq’s. Still … I think the Lakers big men shied away from contact and from bruising down low with the Cavs big men. Possibly because this is a regular season game and there’s “no need” for physical play yet.

I’m not sure what to make of this game right now. Mostly, I’m disappointed in how the Lakers crumbled in the 4th, especially down the stretch and how, they, yet again, have lost to a contender.

Losses happen . It’s a long season .
How we bounce back from this tomorrow night in NYC is the most important thing.

Props to LeBron and the Cavs they played a solid game tonight.

With a healthy and effective Pau Gasol im not betting against the Lakers.

I mean… I know Kobe was doubled aggressively all game long, but I think it’s really that finger. UNlike the pinkie avulsion (which he still has btw), this is a more relevant finger

Pau coming up small late

Just go with me for I second…. When the Cavs got Shaq, I was like whatever his old ass can’t score and can’t defend Gasol or Bynum but truth be told Lakers big men are BIG wimps, they should be dominating Shaq, out playing Shaq so the Cavs are getting exactly what they want looking forward, someone to punk our punks but anyway enough of my rant, Lakers will have a not so good team to pound on tomorrow, here’s hope that we win. See ya’ll next thread.

And came up short at the end of the game.

I mean, Pau missed two free throws down the line, we fail to box out Varejao, and all of a sudden we can’t match up against the Cavs?

LOL

Sky is falling? Sure we lost, so what. Let’s try not to shoot 38% from the freaking field next time.Let’s try and hit better than 62% at the FT line (both of these below our season). Was it defense? Somewhat. I think it was more failure time when it counted, not the whole game through.

It was a hard one to accept. I understand and agree with the notion of the significance of this loss. There is just one thing that comes to mind and maybe someone can tell me what they think. Did the Lakers’ poor shooting have more to do with having an off night or did it have more to do with the Cavs’ defense?

The Bitch in Pau Gasoft showed its ugly head. We hadn’t seen her since Boston slapped her around. You could tell he was scared as shit the whole game. Bynum played poorly by picking up fouls against LeBron instead of just letting him go. Both Bynum and Gasoft did the same dumb ass shit in the first half. If your going to foul him, foul him. If not, leave him the hell alone. Everyone knows if he is within two feet of the basket you are not going to stop him. And if you touch him, you WILL hear a whistle.

The bench went back to its old ways by just missing shots. Shannon played well but he couldn’t get a break. Farmar was rushing as usual and screwed the flow of the offense up which meant we had to go back to Fisher. For all of those who don’t think that we need Fish’s replacement now, you must be oblivious to the fact that SHAQ had as many points as Fish and Bynum combined (13).

I agree with 99bc99, it’s not the end of the world. It’s the end of my happy dream. We need more soldiers on the bench in addition to someone who can be effective from the PG position. Too many PUJITs and 3 point shots and not enough free throws.

if I don’t leave now, I’ll comment all night on this game, later ya’ll. Knicks are going DOWNNNN

They legitimately were acting like they just won the championship. Call me a sore loser but I don’t like we Lebron is pounding the floor and pointing to the the crowd with a big grin on his face while he keeps giving the fist pump.

Don’t get me wrong, Lebron played a great game and they deserved to win but I would like to see him win with more class. I guess he is the guy that dips out on post game interviews when he loses.

In conclusion, Lebron is still a kid. We will see him come June.

I just went back to read this article:

http://20secondtimeout.blogspot.com/2009/12/balanced-deep-cavs-push-around-lakers.html#links

Dunno what to say about this game, other than I’ll just refer to the last game.

It sucks that the group of guys that get paid millions of dollars a year to play a game and wear the uniform we like lost to those other guys.

We’ll be back again.

<trying to take a step back, trying to take a step back>

Put simply, they were put down by a better team. It hasn’t happened in a long time, probably not since the 2008 Finals, but it happened tonight, and there’s no way to dress it up.</blockquote

the way the lakers played tonight reminded me of the way the celtics kicked their asses in 2008 finals. that’s probably why i got so freaking pissed off. they beat us up, no excuses. they were the better team.

i havent gone to espn or any other sites yet…hate going to them whenver the lakers lose
cause then they write some bullshit article that the other team proved themselves…

i predicted 118 to 93 in favor of the lakers…lol well, i got one score right.

I love kobe and I know that he was trying to show the world he was still dominant… But the fact of the matter is Kobe is Banged up right now, and now more than ever he has a supporting cast that is capable handling the responsibility of scoring. He still wants to do it all himself he wasn’t looking to setup teamates towards the end. He was only thinking about answering lebron rather than helping his team win. We’ve seen the lakers play some of their best games when kobe wasn’t dominating the ball, I just think he needs to learn to balance his attack a little more. I am the first to stand up for kobe, but with the talent this lakers squad has and when the onus is put on them to play without kobe they can do it.

i am still angry about this loss. i am going to go crush a punching bag.

I was too afraid of seeing the cavs lose, especially with desecrator09 in the house. I really didn’t think we could win. You guys gave us a fight like no other. I’m so proud of my team tonight.

I know how you guys feel about this loss. We felt pretty awful after losing to you at home last year when you didn’t have bynum.

I like most of the comments I’ve been reading. You guys have been classy for the most part about the whole thing, giving the Cavs credit for winning without Mo Williams.

pau gasol. u better come out and play like a man, manana in new york.

Sometimes regular season games mean a little bit more. The coaches won’t admit it, players avoid talking about it, hell even bloggers like me try and talk it down. Deep down, though, we do know it means a little more. Tonight was one of those nights – Lakers-Cavs is one of those games.

from the cavs blogger john bena.

he’s absolutely right. this game means a little more. it’s a rivalry. kobe vs james. kinda like magic vs bird. or magic vs jordan. hakeem vs ewing. barkley vs malone.

u always want ure team to win in games like this. i think fans who say it is entirely irrelevant are missing something or they are in denial or simply downplaying it as the cavs blogger claims.

This is funny how everyone is freaking out about a road loss.

Cav’s are a good team.

Yes.

I disagree strongly about getting beaten by the better team. Tonight we got beaten by the better player.

Tonight proved that Kobe can’t Lebron with 9 fingers, he needs all 10. Lebron is a great player, not a pushover, he’s got a good team behind him, but honestly really, Lakers have a lot less to prove here. Lakers are not exactly in top form right now relax. We start loosing to EVERY good team, THEN start freaking out. If we net beat more of the best teams than loose, that’s what this game is about. Was everyone counting on sweeping the Cav’s in the finals? I’m not sure where it is even written they are getting to the finals. Does make it more interesting though.

In my mind its clear who win four in six games in a seven game series with Kobe 100% like Lebron.

(Which FYI, is not in a state of total panic and collapse like here, the implications of which I’ll keep to myself)

I think the primary frustration comes from the small mental mistakes made throughout the game, such as Walton or Artest leaving their man to double Shaq, Pau not committing to the hard double on the LeBron help in the first quarter, or not continuing to push the pace against a set of bigs that would have no business running with ours up and down the court. If you factor out the fouling in the last part of the game, we lost by two to a very good home team. It’s not the end of the world.

As Darius indicated, our biggest strength (the frontcourt) was turned into a disadvantage tonight, but that’s also where I believe we have the largest margin for improvement. Although I hate to rehash this argument that’s been said countless time, he and Pau really don’t have a lot of synergy playing off each other because they really haven’t had a lot of experience doing so. As we saw, we were most effective when we had both Gasol and Bynum out there (not Gasol and Odom for once) because we matched their size, we always gave Gasol a mismatch on a smaller player, Bynum plays Shaq far better than Gasol possibly can, and we contained their penetration much better. Bynum especially is probably key to this matchup, as there was one memorable sequence in which he absolutely overpowered Varajeo on a post-up, and I’d imagine he’d be much more effective against Illgauskas than Pau was.

So yes, it highlighted some weaknesses in this team, but it also showed where there is room for improvement, in which we have ~40 games to do so.

And yeah, to the people complaining about the comments that Gasol couldn’t stop Shaq, they were 1) from Reggie Miller who is a complete idiot and a hypocrite considering he was a toothpick for his entire career 2) completely obvious because you can name the players that are physically able to play Shaq that low in the post on two hands.

The weather gods are not pleased and are expressing their displeasure lol

Man…. I hate to say it, but damn, Pau is soft as hell. We have zero inside presence.

tomorrow is conan’s finals show!!!
wtf jay leno???