Yes, Spurs controlled the tempo in the first half. I thought it was great that it seemed to be a run up & down type game many times. Then in the second half the shots stopped falling and the Lakers took control of the tempo. Big win for the Lakers as they hold their home court.
Special props to Kobe who hit some fantastic shots with defenders in his face and the shot clock running down. He was forced to work hard but kept coming up with unbelievable baskets. As Duncan said afterwards you got to hope that the odds balance out. Sooner or later those acrobatic shots are going to bounce out instead of in.
Looking forward to game 5.
:ph34r:
That is a very interesting observation BBF. The Spurs shot the lights out in the first half and as incredible as they were from beyond the arc, LA went into it with the same philosophy they did in game 3, make them beat us from outside, and as scary as it was looking, they didn't deviate from the plan and I never saw panic in the Lakers, even with the 3's raining down from everywhere. They stuck to it until they stopped falling in the second half. If I had a problem with the scheme, it was that the Lakers almost acted like couldn't have cared less about even rotating out to contest the shots, Turkoglu was so wide open it was ridiculous, in fact, his 2 misses were both with defenders at least rushing toward him. It's all well and good to make a team beat you from the perimeter, but at least TRY to get back to your man. Just as Duncan hoped eventually Kobe would start missing those shots, the Lakers hoped the outside shots of the Spurs would dry up, I'm just glad LA's hopes were realized. There is no defense short of taking Kobe out with a super hard injury type foul that would stop him, or anyone else for that matter, who can drive and score in traffic like that, you just simply can't defend it. What an incredible game he had last night, he didn't even turn the ball over once with all that crazy inside stuff he was doing.
LA didn't come out with the same energy as game 3, but with virtually the same plan, take Duncan and Parker out of the equation and make the role players beat you, Turkoglu and Ginobili were the only ones to step up, but the outside shooting just disappeared in the 3rd, and Bowen had a completely meaningless and miserable game.
LA totally rode Kobe and Shaq, the Spurs bench outscored LA's 23 to 10. Again though, (are you listening x3?) the Laker defense completely took away the post game and strangled Parkers ability to operate in his comfort zone, they forced him high up the frontcourt and trapped on several occasions and the Spurs seemed unable to break it. Duncan looked lost and confused, he has played against double and triple teams hasn't he?
This was a game of patience by LA and inability to adjust by the Spurs. Defensively, the Spurs did all they could to shut LA down and except for Shaq and Kobe, did a good job, but the dynamic duo was unstoppable, literally, but they did nothing to adjust to LA's defense. LA's patience with their defensive plan and lack of panic when it looked like the Spurs couldn't miss from outside, especially from 3 point range was great to see, I was nearing panic myself.
Overall very good game, by both teams, hard fought and exciting.
