Phillip threw the game. He could care less about winning a regular season game and he had scrubs in the start of the fourth instead of Bynum who was destroying our frontline. Both Bynum and Harrington cooled down by the fourth quarter. We were down by eight because Baron and Steve spent more time arguing calls and getting T's than actually playing D and moving feet. Beating a Kobe team with no Kobe in crunch time, is still a victory, an enjoyable victory, but just another regular season game. The Fakers missed a lot of foul shots late and we finally hit from three and that fortunate tip in from Biedrins did help. Overall, I see three positives. Ellis looks really good, his speed causes a lots of problems for PGs and really fuels our break. Secondly, Harrington has confidence. While his cohorts (pietrus, BD, Jackson) were bricking 1-5s his shooting kept us in the game. If he could only learn to rebound (yep lost cause) he would be Nellie's dream pF. Finally, we demonstrated the ability to play defense in the fourth quarter. Granted when we hit shots, our players can go back and set up the half court offense, but I will take a 21 point performance by the Fakers in the fourth quarter (after a back to back). I especially liked the defending the rim hacks by Croshere and Barnes. Playoff basketball isn't pretty but I rather have Turiaf shooting free throws than getting wide open dunks. While the Lakers have a solid 8-9 man rotation, Nellie has his top 5 (Harrington, Biedrins, Ellis, BD, Jackson) and no bench. (Barnes, Pietrus and Azu) are ok energy bench players but we are very capable of going 1-7 if we lose a starter.
