Lets see how JMAX does with good defensive guards in the game. (Like we could have had if Tay had started this one at point with Amir starting at small forward.) And lets calculate what his plus minus would have been tonight witout all the inept guard play giving them points off turns.

I won't say JMAX should start, since maybe Samb or Amir would be better starting. But compared to the likes of Mohammed, CWEBB, and now Dyess, give me JMAX any day as a starter.

Try being more specific.

That was a very good defensive effort by Kobe Bryant on Rip. Did you see how hard he was trying? He is one of the best one-on-one defenders in bball and he seemed to have a vendetta. I think that his own personal drought in the first half made him determined to at least take it away from Rip. All of Rip's makes were either quick shots or they were forced.

Also, Tay and Sheed were working extremely hard to get open, but it wasn't happening.

Give LA some credit for their effort. Farmar took it to an amazing level in the 4th. Flip couldn't handle it, so we put in Lindsey, who couldn't handle it either. I'm pretty sure Afflalo and Tay would have struggled as well. Good thing we have CB, with some of the surest handles in the NBA, and Stuckey on ice. Next time we play LA, this won't be an issue.

I'm not upset in the least by this game. The Lakers had 18 points in the 3rd quarter and 41 in the 4th. For 3 quarters of bball, we played unrealistically good defense. We finally got to see our young horses in real game time... and in a hostile environment. Amir played like a warrior, Afflalo was looking like Bowen on Kobe, and we all got a great surprise with Samb's passion and shot blocking display.

Saunders trusted the youngsters and tried to win the game by going with his vets. Not an unusual decision. But the reason it didn't work out is that the Lakers got hot and Kobe went into the zone.

__________________
"I think sometimes the last couple of years we've been a little too predictable offensively." Billups

Good news - we have some good young talent on this team. About time too.

Alfflao just helps our defense so much. He's that good. Which is why i don't see the 1st two games w/o Rip being a fluke. We were playing better with him in the line-up b/c Rip for whatever reason has been awful lately.

I'm worried Flip won't get that and only put Afflalo in the game if there's a/ foul trouble, b/a Kobe Bryant type player.

Afflalo just makes our team defense better.

The lineup we should've seen in the 4th was Amir/Sheed/Hayes/Afflalo/Tay

a mix of vets and rookies.

Rip is starting to make me nervous. I remember reading a quote in the paper, talking about how Flip was joking about putting Sheed at PG, and Sheed was like that's cool, but said to Rip that he wasn't going to run any plays for him or pass him the ball so he should just stay home LOL

so much truth in that

Rip simply cannot handle the ball. Neither can Flip Murray. Simple as that. Tay should have handled the ball tonight as Lee pointed out.

Our main guys just were bad. Sheed and Rip especially. Tay was Ok. Not sure I will blame the coach in this game except as Lee has pointed out, he has no clue about his personnel in many, many games.

Samb and Amir indeed bring some spark. Indeed, agree again, they looked better than Nazi.

We were playing without our two point guards and it showed. Hopefully, our young bigs will be good enough to address our front line weak points.

Now, about the coach...

I mentioned on the trade strand, Kobe can play big time defense. The Lakers are still a bad team. Don't be fooled by tonight.

Last night game showed me what we're all about. We're aroung 7th in the league talent wise. We need to play the kids extensively during the regular season and finish with 44-47 wins. Let's enter the playoffs as a hungry and rested team which has a good blend of experience and TESTED youth. Then we'll surprise people and make it to the finals. If this happens, then Flip is a good coach and Nazr averages about 4 minutes a game this season.

That is what happens when it is run by your third and fourth string point guards.

Honestly, I'm more happy with that loss as I am with most wins- the young players got their burn and they did well. That should happen more often and not only at times when 2 starters are injured. AJ showed he can compete at NBA level and even Samb did ok, which was surprising as I thought he'd be more far away from being at NBA level as he seems to be.

I felt the same way.............