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Author Archive for Jonny

TLN’s Playoff Preview: Lakers vs. Spurs [Game 2]

Published by Jonny on May 22, 2008 in Jonny's Game Preview. 49 Comments

Dear Hornet,

That’s how you don’t give up at home.

Dear Chris Paul,

That’s how you take over at the end of the game

Dear Spurs,

HAHAHA! 44-20! HAHAHA!!!

Seriously though, did anyone else watch the game last night think “my god, Ginobili is really slow today?” I mean, he looked like Zydrunas Ilgauskas on some of his drives.

Alright, now that I’m done talking smack to people who will never read my stuff, let’s get straight to the Preview…

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Vladimir Radmanovic: The Answer?

Published by Jonny on May 20, 2008 in Jonny's Take. 34 Comments

Before everyone skips the rest of this article and goes straight to the comments section to admonish me about overvaluing our severely under-performing small forward please, I beg you, hear me out…

In the first two game of the New Orleans/San Antonio series, the Spurs offense looked lethargic, their defense looked suspect, and their defensive stopper Bruce Bowen looked, well, vincible

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is a great coach and, after going down 2-0, he made two key adjustments that helped turn the series around. One of the key adjustments was to switch Bowen off of Chris Paul and to put him on Peja Stojakovic, who had previously been lighting them up in the series. Needless to say, this switch changed the whole complexion of the series and eventually allowed the Spurs to squeeze the life out of the Hornets over the next 5 games.

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Jonny’s Prediction Update #2

Published by Jonny on May 18, 2008 in Jonny's Take. 9 Comments

First off, big thanks to all those participating in the Lakers Post-Season Prediction Fantasy League!

(You can still join if you want, go to this post and look under Statistical Predictions to find out what you need to do.)

Don’t forget the that winner gets a special prize from the sponsor of “EJ’s Neat-O Stat of the Night.”

[Important Notice]
Still seems like nobody realizes that they can post predictions for the games previewed by varsityoptimism.
[/Important Notice]

Updated Standings (current as of Game Six win over the Jazz) -

1. Machinehead18: 25.4 (he got pretty lucky with the point margins)
2. LakersAllDay: 14.9
3. BringDFishBack: 9
4. The Mamba: 8.3
5. Lakerfan4life: 8.2
6. SiKWiDIt: 7

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TLN’s Playoff Preview: Lakers vs. Jazz [Game 6]

Published by Jonny on May 16, 2008 in Jonny's Game Preview. 34 Comments

2:34 into this clip, a player finally doesn’t do something that we’ve seen him do all series. We see him not do something that he really has no excuse to do every time he touches the ball.

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, Farmar did not pick up his dribble at the 3-point line. All series long, he would stop his dribble at the 3-point line and look to pass. This, more than anything else in the series, really pissed me off. This was Derek Fisher’s backup. This was the guy that we needed to be productive so that Fisher didn’t have to play 3 out of every four quarters.

So kudos to Farmar becauses, as Marc Jackson says “you’re better than that.”

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TLN’s Playoff Preview: Lakers vs. Jazz [Game 4]

Published by Jonny on May 10, 2008 in Jonny's Game Preview. 48 Comments

Double Yew-Tea-Eff, mate!

What’s gone wrong with Farmar? He’s afraid to shoot, he’s afraid to pass, he even seems afraid to dribble, as he picked up his dribble under no pressure on more than one occasion on Friday.

To a certain extent, Sasha had a terrible game too, and a little production from either of these two would have probably given us enough to come back against Utah but, as the phrase Lion King made famous goes, “you gotta put your behind in the past.”

Shout out to Farmar: Watch this! Remember this, Be better, WE BELIEVE!

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TLN’s Playoff Preview: Lakers vs. Jazz [Game 2]

Published by Jonny on May 7, 2008 in Jonny's Game Preview. 29 Comments

Usually when you out-rebound a team 25-8 on the offensive boards you win the game, you know that, I know that, Boozer knows that. That’s probably why, as Jonathan Abrams wrote so expertly in his article for the LA Times, he still sounded confused when giving his interview after practice on Monday.

On Bryant’s free throws and stopping him from getting to the line, Boozer said at Monday’s practice…

“I think we have to send more people at him. Try to make some other people score as opposed to having Kobe shoot the ball. We know he’s a great player. We all know that. But him shooting 23 free throws hurts us.”

OK. And later, on defending Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom…

“We do a good job of defending [them] one on one. But the problem with Lamar and Pau isn’t guarding them one on one, it’s helping out with Kobe, that’s when they get all their stuff because he draws so much attention.”

So, the Jazz can either send the house at Bryant and try to stop him and free up space for others. Or let Bryant go to work — from the floor or the free-throw line”

Oh, in other news, Coby Karl was NOT named MVP, just in case anyone was confused.

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Jonny’s Prediction Update

Published by Jonny on May 2, 2008 in Jonny's Take. 4 Comments

First off, big thanks to all those participating in the Lakers Post-Season Prediction Fantasy League!

(You can still join if you want, go to this post and look under Statistical Predictions to find out what you need to do.)

Don’t forget the that winner gets a special prize from the sponsor of “EJ’s Neat-O Stat of the Night.”!!!

[Important Notice]

Nobody seemed to realize that they could post predictions for the games previewed by varsityoptimism. YOU CAN!

Also, don’t be afraid to predict “no one” (i.e. in game 1 nobody shot 3+ 3-Pointers).

[/Important Notice]

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TLN Playoff Preview: Lakers vs. Nuggets [Game 3]

Published by Jonny on April 26, 2008 in Jonny's Game Preview. 15 Comments

The Denver Nuggets have played good offense at times in the first two games, an they will be hoping to get a boost from the home crowd tonight. Overall, I expect a tighter game that may go down to the wire, but I ultimately can’t see the Lakers dropping this one.

Still, just as it’s up to the Lakers to play defense worthy of winning the series, it’s up to me to revise the match up predictions.

Marquee Matchups -

Point Guard - Derek Fisher and Jordan Farmar vs. Allen Iverson: A.I. has been the better performing of the two Nuggets Superstars, but even he has been settling for jump shots far too often. Farmar needs to increase his drives to the basket during second unit duties.

Advantage: Nuggets.

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