2013 CB Draft: Western First Round: Los Angeles(4) vs Golden State(5)

[nickagneta]

Los Angeles Lakers vs Golden State Warriors

Los Angeles Lakers
Guards: Wesley Matthews, Jose Calderon, Jose Barea, Jeremy Lamb, Michael Carter-Williams
Forwards: Dirk Nowitzki, Luc Mbah a Moute, Ed Davis, Quincy Pondexter, Carlos Delfino, Kelly Olynyk
Centers: Marc Gasol, Jermaine O'Neal
Tom Thibodeau

Presser: http://forums.celticsblog.com/index.php?topic=67438.msg1545564#msg1545564

Golden State
Guards: Rajon Rondo, Lou Williams, Brandon Rush, Reggie Jackson, DeMar DeRozan
Forwards: LaMarcus Aldridge, Andrea Bargnani, Draymond Green, Anthony Tolliver, Jason Thompson,
Centers: Roy Hibbert, Ekpe Udoh, Festus Ezeli
Coach: Monty Williams

Presser: http://forums.celticsblog.com/index.php?topic=67438.msg1546028#msg1546028


Polls open at 12 noon EST Sept. 9th. Close 11:59:59PM  Sept. 9th. Here are the voting guidelines for this round:

http://forums.celticsblog.com/index.php?topic=67476.msg1547496#msg1547496

[dark_lord]

im leaning heavily from GS, so to the lakers....convince me otherwise. i dont see how you can win, even with rondo's injury or not being 100%. convince me otherwise

[Lucky17]

im leaning heavily from GS, so to the lakers....convince me otherwise. i dont see how you can win, even with rondo's injury or not being 100%. convince me otherwise

Rondo ought to be healthy by the time the playoffs start, no?

[dark_lord]

im leaning heavily from GS, so to the lakers....convince me otherwise. i dont see how you can win, even with rondo's injury or not being 100%. convince me otherwise

Rondo ought to be healthy by the time the playoffs start, no?

as a fan of the celts, i hope so.  but even if he returns, it is unknown he will be 100% come playoff time. especially since it is a knee and he relies heavily on his speed and quickness

[Kane3387]

im leaning heavily from GS, so to the lakers....convince me otherwise. i dont see how you can win, even with rondo's injury or not being 100%. convince me otherwise

Rondo ought to be healthy by the time the playoffs start, no?

Yup.

I don’t know if you guys have ever had that injury; I have. You have to work that hard to come back. That’s a hard injury, not to come back from, it’s just a hard injury to do the rehab. When he comes back, he’ll be 100 percent. It’s just going to take time."

Doc on rajon.

http://m.espn.go.com/general/blogs/blogpost?blogname=bostonceltics&id=4706743

[AB_Celtic]

This is where GS becomes dangerous. Not only is Rondo healthy, but he becomes a top 10 player come playoff time. So I too am leaning GS, barring a great argument from the Lakers.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

Golden State.

I just think they're a deeper team. I think Dirk/LMA and Marc/Hibbert cancels each other out in a way, but there's a big X factor GSW has, Rajon Rondo. And as AB said, Rondo becomes possessed in the Playoffs.

Add Hibbert with that and, whew.

[Kane3387]

I mentioned to nick when I sent my votes I. That if I could vote for my team id say I was a 4th or a 5th seed bc I'd likely get off to a slow start with the backcourt injuries. I knew my front court could carry me till I got healthy but the west is so deep that I'd miss out on the top three seeds due to the slow start.

That being said there is no way I make the playoffs without a healthy and productive rondo! The west is deep and while I got bigs so dies a lot of the west.

Rondo is playing and chances are he will perform in an awesome manner bc it's playoff time baby with nothing but nationally televised games and rondo lives for this.

Oh and he's got some solid teammates with Aldridge and hibbert.

[nickagneta]

Probably the best of the first round series. I am expecting this to go 7. My thinking is Rondo wills GSW to victory in that 7th game but let me here why that's wrong LAL.

[ronaldo943]

I am also leaning towards GS so would like to hear from the Lakers.

[McHales Pits]

So tough...I'm thinking GS will take this, but still open to change my mind.

[rondoallaturca]

Checking in on vacation. On my phone so I apologize for referencing things I don't link and/or spelling errors.

First off congratulations to all the playoff teams as well as the non-playoff teams. A lot of teams that didn't make it are still very good and speaks to the talent of the GMs this year. Everyone deserves a big round of applause.

Surprised at the overwhelming preference for GS this series considering they're one of our easiest matchups in the West when I compared teams earlier. Btw I expect Rondo to be healthy come playoffs so voters should too.

- Clash of frontcourts: Both teams' strength is arguably their frontcourt. I believe LA wins, and in big fashion too. Let's see how Hibbert does with a finesse center who can take it out to just under the 3-pt line... Check out Hibbert's career stats vs Marc Gasol and vice versa to see Gasol's dominance of this advantageous matchup  Dirk has traditionally performed very well against LMA, maybe because LMA gets lots of Dirk comparisons - again, check out their H2H stats, particularly the playoffs two year ago when Dirk showed LMA who's boss in a 6-game victory.

- Rondo is exactly the type of PG our defense stops the best. I have repeatedly said Calderon has bad defense, but he's no doubt smart and at least positions well.  Considering the rest of our personnel, we have one of the best defenses to stop quick, penetrating PGs with two elite rotating bigs and excellent wing defenders. Our defense is set up for opponent PGs to only burn us via the three point shot, but as much as Rondo has improved his mid range jumper, we can all agree his 3 is far from game changing. (Derozan is another slashing guard who doesn't have a perimeter game.)

Just a few things to think about... Have other things to say but don't have time now. I'll let my coGM talk about some other stuff. Don't know how playoffs work but i'm not sure when i'll be able to post next so hopefully this convinced some!

[Kane3387]

The issue is la has no superstar takent any longer. Rondo and Aldridge are the two best talents in the series.

Dirk at 35 can no longer carry a team. He can't. And he's asked too when Marc gasol us the second best offensive player on the team. Calderon is 32 and can't guard a chair. Wesley Matthews is a nice role player but that's it.

[KCattheStripe]

As far as talent in the series goes, GSW has  the first and 4 th best players and LAL has 2 and 3. Gonna be close for me. Have a hard time imagining Rondo not shredding Calderon.

But Marc Gasol was just the best player on a Cnference Finals team.

[Roy H.]

Let's see how Hibbert does with a finesse center who can take it out to just under the 3-pt line... Check out Hibbert's career stats vs Marc Gasol and vice versa to see Gasol's dominance of this advantageous matchup 

I'm surprised you brought this up.

In the two most recent games they played (both last season), the stats were as follows:

Hibbert:  9.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 4.0 blocks, 1.0 steals
Gasol:  9.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 1.0 blocks, 0.5 steals

It seems like Hibbert did a pretty good job neutralizing Gasol, especially on the boards.