Rejoice!

Fines for flopping!

Lots of happy people, outside of San Antonio, and perhaps Cleveland and Utah. I wonder what the odds are on who will be the first? I'd have Varejao as the favorite, with Manu close behind. We shall see. Now all we need is a Laker win tomorrow to top a solid 24 hours.

Lookalikes! Sasha Vujacic & Rafael Nadal

The Machine meets The Machine on clay. Sasha Vujacic and Rafael Nadal, respectively.

Post game Thoughts - Lakers - Spurs Game [It was not a foul, What has Pop been Thinking............]

• Spurs have no reason complaining on that last play. Miller and Smith made great points on 'Inside The NBA.' Barry should have leaned in to make the foul more obvious. Even then, it should have not been a two point game. The play just before it, it looked like the ball hit the rim before going off of the corpse of Robert Horry. Thus, the Lakers should have had the ball with 5.6 seconds left, with the Spurs forced to foul. Even a play or two before that, LO's block looked fairly clean. Finally, the Spurs got generous calls the entire game until then. If they could not capitalize on that, why should they have to be bailed out?
• Looks like Pop followed what me [and others] have been saying and played Barry more in place of the corpse of Finley. I am just confounded as to why it took Pop this long to make such adjustment. I'd assume Finley is about -90 total for this series by now.
• Also, why does Pop not play Kurt Thomas? He can defend, shoot, and rebound better than Horry, and would not pass up an open 4 footer........
• I was really impressed with the maturity of the Lakers. Luke Walton affirming that he was struggling even though he was scoring in the first half, and Kobe noting that he took the shot too early with about 28 seconds left.
• Odom and Fish had decent bounce back games and provided the momentum killing plays when needed.

Pregame Notes - Lakers - Spurs Game 4

[Random thoughts before the game..............]

• Right, left! - Even though its been duly noted that Manu is a left hander, and that The Machine has been one of the few people to actually realize this, Ginoblii still lit up Los Angeles in Game 3. However, he did a lot of the damage on step back threes, and Sasha should continue to play the left. If he is going to continue hitting contested threes at a 72% clip, the Lakers simply have to accept it.
• Early success inside - Lamar Odom seemingly has the psyche of a 5 year old. As such, he needs to have early success for him to gain confidence. Thus, look for the Lakers to be in trouble if Lamar continually misses easy shots inside, early.
• Energy is the name of the game - The bench, ignoring the resurgent Farmar, was simply not very good. Even if they are being outscored, the Laker bench, the 'bench mob,' needs to be energetic on defense, and hopefully cause some turnovers. Furthermore, on offense, off the ball cuts, and an inside out game are necessary for success with Kobe on the bench.
• Pop not Doc - My criticism for Doc Rivers has been well documented. However, I was critical of Pop for his substitution patterns in game two, and Pop responded by showing that he was no Doc Rivers. Look for more usage of the effective Barry if one of the corpses, such as Finley, is struggling.
• Focus on Tony - As much the average viewer would like to focus on Eva, the Lakers need to focus on keeping Parker outside. Good things happen for the Spurs when Parker can penetrate effectively.

Suns Coaching Search Update

I am sure many out in the desert are wondering what Steve Kerr will do after essentially having [made the mistake of] chasing out Mike D'Antoni.

[Author's Note: As much as I dislike the Suns, I have always found SSOL very entertaining, and do believe it has revolutionized the NBA in that teams averaging 100+ is much more common. Perhaps there is no better object in which the result of SSOL can be seen as vividly as in the 2 free taco promotion at Laker games. Before D'Antoni, it used to be the Lakers had to win and hold the opposing team under 90. whereas now, it is that the Lakers have to hold the opponents to only under 100]

Well, KTAR has the update.

Personally, I feel that Mark Jackson may be good fit, PR wise. He has been well embraced by the media, and the blogosphere for the most part, and will bring excitement, while not matching that in the SSOL era, could still hold expectations and results high. One of the criticism's of D'Antoni was that he was not tough enough with his players with regards to practice and defense, and Jackson could definitely right that.

Another intriguing candidate is Brian Shaw. I think he may be a good short term fit in Phoenix as, from as far as I have garnered, his offense is stylistically loose, which would allow Steve Nash the flexibility he would need to be the great play maker. Furthermore, Shaw too, would probably have no problem confronting players, even though he has generally been well liked by players.


And as always, I have no doubt that you can not go wrong with Spurs' or Pistons' top assistants. I would assume these two would not shy away from using the Suns bench, such that the starters would not be consistently tired late, and since it would allow players to be capable when they are forced to come in. [More D.J. Strawberry please!]

I suppose we will find out in mid june.

Kobe Jumps Over Pool of Snakes

The Machine's Head Band

ESPN's Shelly Smith is reporting a peculiar origin for the head band for the one known simply as "The Machine." Apparently, it was given to Sasha by the captain of the Laker girls. No wonder why I've heard of stories where people of both sexes were jealous of his hair.