[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by pgardn

Phil does not have a consistent performer at guard besides
Kobe. And he has no point. Kobe is playing 1,2, and 3. And getting
beat up by Mellow. The Lakers would not have a chance
in this series without Kobe and Gasol. These are the only consistent
performers they have. Bynum is cannot stay with this up tempo game
the Lakers are playing. Ariza is playing fairly well, but he is playing
more at Kobe's position.

Lucky for the Lakers the Nuggets still have the flat headed
Nene and Martin.

That's been Mariano's problem though. I remember a couple of years ago in the playoffs against Phoenix and everyone could see the Lakers held a huge size advantage but instead of playing big and making the Suns adjust to them, Mariano keeps trying to match up with other teams. The Nuggets don't have the size to match up with Bynum, Gasol, and Odom all in there. The Lakers need to take advantage of them and make the Nuggets pay instead of making it easy for them by going small and easier for the Nuggets to defend them. And part of what I'm saying is that they don't have any consistency from the other guards because nobody knows what the hell their role is. It's natural that when one of them is in there, they are trying to play a little bit selfishly and produce because they want to play the next game. It's hard to play when you are constantly worried about making a mistake because you know that mistake could mean you go from 20 minutes to three in the next or in Farmar's case, to a DNP-CD. I also didn't understand why, if you are going to go small and play Gasol at the center and Odom at the power forward, why was Walton ever in there for Ariza? Ariza had it going and there was no reason Walton should have ever checked in for him. Same as when Farmar had it going. Mariano pulled him too.