Blood thirsty for victory (Magic Lakers close look):

Blood thirsty for victory (Magic Lakers close look)

 

The Matchup Problems:

Jameer Nelson/Raefer Alston:

Rebounding and three point porcentage gives us a close look to go to the regular season games there are plus 7 rebounds all in all in every matchup mainly caused by dwight howard. in all those meetings jameer nelson was the leading scorer.Derek Fisher has trouble with speed caused mainly by his age and athletisism, in the regualar season match ups he was able to guard jameer nelson but there is raefer alston who is able to shoot three´s and to get to the paint and even kepping other people involved with his ability to stretch the floor. As we can see from the numbers from nelson during the regular season although fisher did a good job of keeping him away from the paint he realised somehow he´s unguardable. Jameer Nelson possible return is able but he not able to decide on his own, the doctors will do. If the Magic will play with Jameer on the pouint guard position the lakers would have real problems on this position in terms of matchups and they are even more tested, the magic will have more weapons to go over which maybe causes more turnovers cause the ball runs through so many hands (celtics) rhis gives the lakers an uppertunity to run more fastbreaks if they ´re able to defend the people the right way although every says that the lakers could win  this champoinship easily I think if Nelson is playing on a good level the magic would have a great chance of winning everything.

D12 and DEFENSE:

 

At the last game of the eastern conference finals, he was a beast making postmoves and stayed out of foultrouble Lewis stretched the court Z has to go out to guard Lewis so there is more space

immediatly for Dwight Howard allthough he was also able to get his shots down even with contact, cause he ´s the most quickest and most athletic player at the center position in this league he was able to go around his defender with his approved footwork. This is for me the main mathup problem the lakers have to deal with. Allthough Pau Gasol is probabbbly one of the most skilled player down on the block with great finesse and very good footwork he´s more able to stand in front of dwight howard.He is able to play great basketball side by side of kobe bryant and and Point Forward Lamar Odom. He doesnt have the power and athletisism to guard him and with a not fully recovered andrew bynum who is able to get a body on him caused by his phisicall statue but that´s not enough.So both of them (Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum will face a very hard task to accomplish in this series. The defensive presence given by dwight howard in the paint will force those people to go out and shoot from outside wnd will limit bigger guys just as Andrew Bynum from scoring.

Lebron is a player who loves to go into the paint and create missmatches but through the cleveland magic series he faces the defensive player of the year and as we seen at the end of the first game he wqs completelly exsausted.He was forced to shoulder the team complettely (offense and defense) no one was able to be as effective as he was during the regular season. Lebron was still all alone throughout this series that´s the main faktor for the magic to win this series.There was no defensive movement the magic and Alston were able to be wide open to shoot the ball cause no one got on him.

 

 

 

Mickael Pietrus:

He can defend, shown in the series between the cavs, where he was forced to guard Lebron, he was able to let him take some really bad shots at the end of the game. He ´s able to get into the paint and get some easy points so the big mans should keep an eye on him.But the can´t really take him out of the game, there is still dwight howard comming through every time if he wants to.

 

 

Trevor Ariza vs. Hedo:

 He can defend a lot of people and helps you with his energy on the defensive end and his ability to go to the basket strong with his athlysism paired with some shooting abilities from outside 50% from three point land. He´s gonna be a big faktor in this finals series. He will face a very dirrty palying Hedo who is able to spread the floor.With his height, he´s able to get his shoots down over smaller defenders just as he does with delonte west defending him in the cle-magic series ariza is able to bother him a little bit more then west does before.He has to go to the paint to create miss matches if he does get switched to Kobe he has to play a lot of defense. 

 

 

 

 

 Lamar Odom:

Energy and effort in this last two games were a big factor of winning these games allthough he´s hurt caused by his back injury. He is maybe starting cause with him they are able to match up with both Rashard and Hedo right from the beginning of the game.

 

 

 

 

Kobe Bryant vs. WHO??:

 

„Jesus would have problems covering him“

 

He lost some of his athletisism during the last years but he´s now more of a shooter, he has better range a lot of experience and a better jumpshot he´s aguy who simply unguardable with his ability to shoot out of every position out of every angle this is the difference beetween kobe and lebron lebron is able to go to the basket every time with his body and power he uses to get over smaller and even some taller defenders but as we have through his career his three point shooting is his main factor he has to work on to get better allthough he improved his outside shooting this year he´s not able to rely completely on his outside schooting just like kobe can. with his shooting abilities he able to spread the floor and to get open passing lanes for his teammates he´s now counting on. The La Lakers have the more talented team to work with.Some great players with athletisism speed and defensive intesity given by kobe bryant who´s the best defender on his position and sascha vujacic ( who´s maybe ha ving a new haircut if the y win this series) with heart and power comming of the bench.They have the greatest mixture of winning champoinship with a superstar(Kobe) great supporting cast who knows how to contribute with their skill for winning the Game(Odom,Bynum,Gasol) and a bench with some roleplayers and young players who are showing some heart and power on their own. This means that Kobe is able to rest more than he does last year cause he´s not forced to play, others will do their job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You must be physically guarding Kobe, you have to get a hand in his face, just getting him into foul trouble which is not as easy said than done. So players guarding him will be exsausted and limited offensivelly.

The Playbooks:

With their all around team they have, Phil Jackson is able to run trough many plays offensivelly and defensivelly he´s able to react differently and better then other coaches just becuase he´s able to relly on his players who are able to run through many plays , he taught them.

The Magic are more limitted they always play the inside out game when D12 gets the ball in the paint he´s able to score with his athletisism or to kick the ball out to the great three point shooters the magic have. So the coach doesn´t have the ability Phil  Jackson (probabbly the most skilled coach in the history of the NBA) has. He able to run the ball through many hands. they should trya to get more focused the laskers should not act like gods,cause they re simply not  invincible (attitude problem).To  keep focused , and   how intense they hit the glass with rebounding will be importtant factors cause both of these teams are elite rebounding teams the lakers with their perfect muxture of big mens and the magic have one guy  dwight howard who does it all for the magics not only in terms of rebounding as I´ve mentioned

Let´s see what both teams are brinnging to the table, going into this series. I hope that it will be a hard fought series.

 

NBA where amazing happens

LET´S GET PHYSICAL!!!

Ich bin zwar auch ein Fan von krachenden Dunkings und Fastbreak Spielzügen ganz nach dem Prinzip: Hauptsache schnell.  Aber wie wir wissen wird in den Playoffs eine ganz andere Art von Basketball gespielt und es ist auch nur logisch das nach dem Maxime „defense wins champoinship“ gehandelt und gespielt werden soll.
Da wundert es einen nicht das mit den Cavs Celtics und den Orlando Magic genau diese Teams in die nächste Runde gekommen sind, die diese Aufgaben bis zur Perfektion ausüben können. Wenn sich der ballführende Spieler bewegt kommt es zu einer kompletten Bewegung des ganzen gegnerischen Teams (Boston).  Diese stehen in Verbindung miteinander und wenn einer der Spieler diese Verbindung bricht kommt es zu einer Lücke im Feld, welche  dann von gegnerischen Teams ausgenutzt werden kann. Diese Lücke wird mit engem immer in Bewegung bleibenden Stellungsspiel hier der Boston Celtics durchgesetzt und das macht sie zu einem der defensiv stärksten Teams in der Liga, selbst ohne einen Kevin Garnett , denn wie es auch ein Teamerfolg ist die Meisterschaft zu gewinnen ist es auch eine Teamsleistung derer, die alle an einem Strang ziehen, das Spiel defensiv entscheiden zu können.

Bei den Orlando Magic steht der amtierende DPOTY  (Defensive Player of the year) in den Startreihen. Bei den Cavs und Celtics spricht die komplette Mannschaft für die Defense des Teams die Celtics haben die Möglichkeit durch die richtige Mischung auf jedes mögliche „play“ des Gegners erfolgreich zu antworten und sie am Scoren zu hindern.

 Hier sind vorallem Kendrick Perkins zu nennen der defensiv jedes Spiel immer wieder eine Schippe drauflegen konnte, zusammen mit dem „floorgeneral“ Rajon Rondo konnte er defensiv mit Einsatz und „hustle plays“ oft das Spiel entscheiden, und seinen wichtigen Part dazu beitragen.

In den ersten beiden Spielen gegen die Orlando Magic schaffte er es das D12 Wurfschwierigkeiten hatte (zur Hälfte 4-10 im Spiel zwei) während Kendrick auf der anderen Seite  auch offensiv (16points first 24 minutes) glänzen konnte.

Die Wende:

Zur zweiten Hälfte jedoch drehte Dwight Howard das Spiel und konnte wieder seine Athletik voll ausspielen aber auch defensiv konnte er durch seine drei Blocks das Spiel im richtigen Moment in die richtige Richtung lenken und zwang Kendrick zu nur zwei weiteren Punkten in den letzten beiden Vierteln. Ich bevorzuge einfach Spiele die durch richtig harte Arbeit erkämpft werden, wo jeder alles in seiner Macht stehende tut um dieses Spiel zu gewinnen. wenn jedoch der „Defensivanker“ im Team fehlt (Celtics) ist diese Intensität die ein Kevin Garnett bringt nur schwer wieder zu erreichen und deswegen bemerkt man auch das sich die Celtics um einiges schwerer tun als im letzten Jahr.

Die Serie bekommt dadurch einen gewissen Charakter der mich auf jeden Fall anspricht zwar ist es auch gut einen Lebron James beim Spielen zu zusehen – aber bei ihm sieht das ganze zu einfach aus er kann den für seine Position extrem bulligen Körper so einsetzen das es fast an der Perfektion grenzt, natürlich will ich nicht abstreiten das er auch defensiv durch seine physische Überlegenheit im Gegensatz zu anderen Spielern auf der Position auf jeden Fall seinen Mann stehen kann, dennoch scoren wann er will. Diese Aussage soll keinesfalls eine Kritik an dem Können von Lebron James sein. Wenn man beachtet, dass er verdienterweise  dieses Jahr auch den MVP(Most Valuable Player) verliehen bekommen hat, muss man davon ausgehen das der jetzt schon erschreckend dominante Lebron James noch nicht sein Ende errreicht hat was die individuelle Entwicklung anbetrifft. Es wird spannend sein zu sehen in welcher Form diese Entwicklungen sich äußern werden und wie auch die Gegnerischen Teams  darauf reagieren werden.

Zurück zu den Playoffs und der momentan laufenden Serie der Hawks gegen die Cavs und dehren Defensivstrukturen:

Die Hawks haben keine guten Verteidiger eines Schlages von Bruce Bowen Shane Battier und Ron Artest, die in ihrer Serie die Aufgabe haben den besten Spieler auf der gegnerischen Seite zu verteidigen. In den Playoffs wird allgemein  anders verteidigt und durch die längeren Pausen zwischen den Spielen können zwischendurch die Punkte ausgebessert werden an denen es am Vortag gefehlt hat eien gute Vorbeteitungsmöglichkeit ist also gegeben.

Blutige Augen und Nasen sind also an der Tagesordnung selbst bei den eher als soft abgestempelten La Lakers sieht man oft Ellenboden und ähnliches durch die Zone fliegen.

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