1. The Spurs were very successful in their pick and roll offense early on. They went away from it in the 2nd half, relying mainly on Duncan's post isolation.
that's because phil changed the way they defended that play. with sasha single-covering manu (and doing a heck of a job with that), the lakes were able to be more aggressive in defending the high p&r. frenchie got confused in the 2nd half on that play, and pau started to be less tentative in stepping up to duncan.
2. Odom tried early early on to assert his speed advantage over the Spurs big men, but was unsuccessful. Oberto and Horry did a good job putting up a brick wall, resulting in numerous missed lay-ups by Odom.
i've been silent on odom, mainly because i find him to be a tease. he's too inconsistent for my taste.
3. Vujacic is an underrated defender. He was mainly responsible for limiting Manu Ginobili to 3-13 shooting.
Manu Ginobili was a none factor in today's game. He was harrassed all game long by the Laker's defense on him. He wasnt able to create and dictate the tempo he wanted. If the Laker continue to shut him down, then the series is over.
manu was shut down by sasha plus the lakers played great team defense...
yeah! sasha was my mvp of the game. his defense enabled the vital adjustments the home team made against that darn high pick-and-roll. it must be said, though, that manu is not 100%; he jammed his ankle against the suns and has been playing hurt. plus, there's a reason pop likes him off the bench -- the energy of
el contusión drops off significantly after 30 mins. of p.t.
5. Kobe Bryant must be aggressive early on. He doesnt have to dominate in scoring, but he cant do a passive 2 point first half against the Spurs again. They are too smart and disciplined to let a 20 point lead vanish again.
agree. mamba has to be more consistent throughout the game. he's courting danger with this switch-on/switch-off approach. of course, when he's on, he's
really on.
hey, how about that staples crowd! haven't seen them this energetic since the conference finals against sacto in the three-peat era.
still, i'm not going to count out the spurs, just yet. expect pop to get them to swing the ball around better to get extra space and better perimeter shots, among other adjustments.
