Jameer is a big positive in the first half of game 1.

[WayOutWest]

He's not close to all-star form but he's better than Rafer.  Making excellent decisions and even hit a jumper.  The Lakers are making a big mistake by trying to play him tight.  They should conceed the shot and play him for the drive and dish.

Magic flinched first and sat Lewis but it was Dwight that forced the Lakers to limit the minutes of their big men because of foul trouble.  I don't know how many of you guys saw/remember the "Showtime Lakers" but you expected a 10+ point spurt from that team and I got the "spurt" feeling from the Magic durring the Boston series and it carried over to the Cavs series.  The Lakers are playing well but I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop from the Magic, it's either going to be a "spurt" or a barrage of 3 point shots.

So far a very good game but I don't like how the refs are calling the game, I hate that they switch the flow of the game by calling it tight and then letting them hack away at each other the next quarter.  IMO they have not been favoring either team but they have been changing the way they call fouls, which ever team recognizes that change and makes the quicker adjustment will have an advantage IMO.

[Joe Vancil]

Can't watch the game, but have been following it for a bit on the internet.

Howard hasn't rebounded well, and from what I'm seeing, it looks like the Lakers are covering the 3-pointers well enough to keep Orlando from taking too many.

The Lakers are owning the boards - as they should - and they've kept Howard off the offensive boards, which should limit his effectiveness.

I'm glad to see that Phil Jackson implemented my suggestion:  Fisher, Farmar, and Vujacic aren't allowed to take more 3-pointers than they have rebounds.  As it stands now, Fisher has 2 boards and 1 three, Farmar 1 and 1, Vujacic 1 and 0.

Looks like it must be the Kobe show, given that he has 18 points already.  Bynum looks like he did well in his 13 minutes, and the Lakers are getting a boost from Derek Fisher.  On the flip side, only Turkoglu seems to be putting up numbers, although it looks like Gortat has performed acceptably in his limited minutes.  Still, I wouldn't feel good about throwing only 3 turnovers in a half, being crushed on the boards, and being down by 10, with the opponent's superstar going off.

Contrary to WayOut, I *DON'T* feel Orlando is due for any run.  From what I can tell on the stat sheet, this simply looks like a game where, as is so often said, you die by the outside shot.

[WayOutWest]

Howard hasn't rebounded well, and from what I'm seeing, it looks like the Lakers are covering the 3-pointers well enough to keep Orlando from taking too many.

Lakers are not covering the shooters all that well, they are just not hitting their open looks.  One positive is they are conceeding the shot to Rafer rather than Hedo or Lewis.  Lewis has been doing ok offensively but he's getting pounded on D.

The Lakers are owning the boards - as they should - and they've kept Howard off the offensive boards, which should limit his effectiveness.

Under the boards it looks like Howard vs 3 Lakers, sometimes it's Bynum/Gasol/Kobe or Odom and Ariza helping on the boards but it always looks like 3 Lakers battling Howard, his team mates are not helping on the boards.

Looks like it must be the Kobe show, given that he has 18 points already.  Bynum looks like he did well in his 13 minutes, and the Lakers are getting a boost from Derek Fisher.  On the flip side, only Turkoglu seems to be putting up numbers, although it looks like Gortat has performed acceptably in his limited minutes.  Still, I wouldn't feel good about throwing only 3 turnovers in a half, being crushed on the boards, and being down by 10, with the opponent's superstar going off.

Kobe was amazing in the 3rd but he over did it in the last 2 minutes and actually took his team mates out of the game, but to their credit the Lakers were active everywhere else.

Contrary to WayOut, I *DON'T* feel Orlando is due for any run.  From what I can tell on the stat sheet, this simply looks like a game where, as is so often said, you die by the outside shot.

I don't know Joe, I've counted the Magic out on several ocasions and they seem to fight through it and get back into the game.

[WayOutWest]

One other thing Joe, Jameer is really hurting his team in the 2nd half.

[Reality]

Sounds like Stan Van Gundyovich did an outstanding strategic job.

Joe Vancil

Turnovers and assists have very little to do with each other.  You can avoid a turnover by simply chucking up a bad shot (ala Nick Van Exel).  Likewise, when you've got a Tim Duncan, you should be getting tons of assists if you have half a brain.  (See Jameer Nelson for what happens if you don't.)

  *taken from http://forums.phillyarena.com/index.php?topic=5261.msg57692#msg57692     
Re: Will the REAL "big three" please stand up.
Reply #44 on: January 09, 2009, 01:56:01 PM

Joe Vancil

The trick is not to use Nelson as the Nelson prior to the injury, but as a motivation point at a critical moment.  1 minute of game time across the entire series is *MORE* than enough to do that.  And if the Magic can't accept a less-than-passable player for 1 minute of game time across the series, then they can't win the series anyway, so no harm is done.

[WayOutWest]

I wonder if Jameer gets more playing time in the series.  He was shooting mid-range jumpers and they were air balls.  I mentioned earlier that they should conceed the shot because that's what's going to be affected most by his injury and that's exactly what it looked like.  I don't know if Jameer plays in game 2 but he's probably going play in Orlando where his emotional impact will be the greatest.

[westkoast]

He started off very well.  I wasn't that worried but I thought it was going to make the game real close.  Sadly it looked like either he got tired or his shoulder started to get a bit weak in the second half.  He was not nearly as effective.  I think had the game been closer Johnson should have played in his place.  With it being a blow out I don't think it hurts them to keep him on the floor to try to get his timing and stamina back up.

[Joe Vancil]

Guys, when I said one minute I *MEANT* ONE MINUTE, and at a time when the team needed a lift.  By playing him 22 somewhat ineffective minutes, they've already taken their "strategic boost."  They took it in a game they weren't going to win.  Absolute stupidity.

To help the team now, Jameer Nelson has to play at his All-Star level, and that isn't going to happen.

[westkoast]

Guys, when I said one minute I *MEANT* ONE MINUTE, and at a time when the team needed a lift.  By playing him 22 somewhat ineffective minutes, they've already taken their "strategic boost."  They took it in a game they weren't going to win.  Absolute stupidity.

To help the team now, Jameer Nelson has to play at his All-Star level, and that isn't going to happen.

It did work like you said it would at first.  He picked apart the Lakers defense multiple times.  That penetration from a quick guard with a solid mid range jumper has been a major problem of this team for years.  Problem is, like you said, he played entirely too many minutes.  Not only did the team get hurt but I think some of his confidence has to as well with those air balls.

Having him back doesn't look like a 'negative' for the Lakers IMO.

[Lurker]

Nelson looked rusty in the second half.  Almost like he didn't have game legs yet.  d'oh!

Van Gundy gave up on the game halfway through the 3rd quarter...telling his players in the huddle that it is a long series and that they still have time in the series.  series this, series that.  Hey Van Gundy - what about the freaking game that you are playing?

Lakers finally looked like the team that all the pundits told us they were back in October.  Good passing.  Good recognition of mismatches and double teams.  Nice defensive rotations.  Hard to fault Kobe for being "selfish" when he is being guarded in the low post by Lee.

[rickortreat]

Orlando couldn't hit an open shot last night, so they could never mount a comeback.  The Lakers did a great job late in the game running their shooters off the three point line.  Lewis in particular had a terrible shooting night.  Howard in spite of staying out of foul trouble and getting Bynum and Gasol into foul trouble early was unable to dominate the game.

Kobe was doing his best to make sure that Orlando would stay down, including a great from behind block on Gortat.

IMO, Van Gundy was right to say what he did, but it was still disappointing to see no one from Orlando step up.

Jameer looked good, but had no legs when he came back later on in the game. They could have used his help as neither Lee nor Alston could do anything, and neither could Reddick.

Worst game Orlando has played in the post-season. Big gut-check game for them this weekend. They have no chance to win shooting 30% from the field.  Lewis was overmatched by Gasol and Van Gundy didn't like what was happening, had Lewis been hitting his shots it might have been different, but the Magic were fine until the 2nd quarter when they lost the ability to hit outside shots.

[msc]

When Jameer came in and immediately had two nice assists and a little jumper I thought to myself, "uh oh, I'm going to have to eat my words, this cat is going to come back and kill us!". 

BUT, it ended up turning out exactly how some of us thought it might.  Van Gundy kept him out there way too many minutes, after an initial spark, he was ineffective AND all of those minutes clearly disrupted Alston's game.  Rafer never got in to the flow and while it's possible Rafer would have disappeared with or without Jameer back, it sure seemed to disrupt his play. 

[WayOutWest]

When Jameer came in and immediately had two nice assists and a little jumper I thought to myself, "uh oh, I'm going to have to eat my words, this cat is going to come back and kill us!". 

BUT, it ended up turning out exactly how some of us thought it might.  Van Gundy kept him out there way too many minutes, after an initial spark, he was ineffective AND all of those minutes clearly disrupted Alston's game.  Rafer never got in to the flow and while it's possible Rafer would have disappeared with or without Jameer back, it sure seemed to disrupt his play. 

Regardless of how many minutes, every second Jameer was on the court in the 1st half was a huge positive.  In the 2nd half he should not have played at all, or at least not played after it looked like he was tired/hurt.  While I thought Jameer was doing well, it did not worry me because he didn't look all that good, he just looks good compared to Rafer and Johnson, heck you can throw Fisher and Farmar in there as well.  I posted early in the game and I was upset with the Lakers playing Jameer so tight, they should have given him all the space he wanted and play him for the drive.  They did not in the first half but in the 2nd half Jameer fell apart.

[westkoast]

When Jameer came in and immediately had two nice assists and a little jumper I thought to myself, "uh oh, I'm going to have to eat my words, this cat is going to come back and kill us!". 

BUT, it ended up turning out exactly how some of us thought it might.  Van Gundy kept him out there way too many minutes, after an initial spark, he was ineffective AND all of those minutes clearly disrupted Alston's game.  Rafer never got in to the flow and while it's possible Rafer would have disappeared with or without Jameer back, it sure seemed to disrupt his play. 

Regardless of how many minutes, every second Jameer was on the court in the 1st half was a huge positive.  In the 2nd half he should not have played at all, or at least not played after it looked like he was tired/hurt.  While I thought Jameer was doing well, it did not worry me because he didn't look all that good, he just looks good compared to Rafer and Johnson, heck you can throw Fisher and Farmar in there as well.  I posted early in the game and I was upset with the Lakers playing Jameer so tight, they should have given him all the space he wanted and play him for the drive.  They did not in the first half but in the 2nd half Jameer fell apart.

Really what it is, is that Derek Fisher has just fallen off that bad defensively.  Jameer had one really nice threaded pass but the other plays he made were due to the fact Fisher cannot stay in front of anyone.  Both drives towards the base line led to easy plays for Nelson.  Johnson could have made wide open 8 foot jumpers just the same.  He did in the Cleveland series.  Not taking anything away from Nelson.  Like I said I figured he would be rusty, he hasn't played in MONTHS, so that would be expected.  Based on that he looked better than I expected.  He came in right away to contribute.  Not his fault the coach left him in after he started to get tired.

Did anyone think that maybe Stan Van Gundy left Nelson in to give him real time 'practice' to get back into rhythm?  Nelson is not going to get back into the flow of the game or get his timing back sitting on the bench.  I wouldn't be surprised to see him play 20 minutes on Sunday as well for that very reason.  I am assuming Van Gundy thinks that after a few games Nelson should be enough of a threat to shred up the Lakers defense.  Based on Derek Fisher's inability to stay in front of any point guard, sloth or snail it could be a bigger problem come game 3-4-5 when they go back home.

[Lurker]

IMO, Van Gundy was right to say what he did, but it was still disappointing to see no one from Orlando step up.

Rick, I strongly disagree.  A long series; plenty of time in the series speech is one you make in the lockerroom AFTER the game.  While trying to compete in the 3rd quarter...even when the tide is against you...that speech is giving up on the current game.