Shaq Shaq Shaq

Ask and ye shall receive. 45 pts, 11 rebs, 2 asts, 3stls, 1 blk, on ridiculously stupid percentages of 20-25 from the field and 5-8 from the line. Without Nash and Amare, the Suns needed somebody to step up and boy did Shaq ever step up. For one more night at least, old Shaq looked like the Shaq of old on Friday night. In fact, his 45 point performance against the Raptors was actually his highest output since his Laker days. With only 25 FGA and 8 FTA, despite playing 35+ minutes and the team amassing 98 FGA... Shaq probably could have gotten 50 pts easily if his teammates were looking for him even more. The last 3 min of the 1st half was especially glaring. The Raptors were making a run and instead of waiting and feeding Shaq, Barbs and J-Rich both made ill-advised drives (going 1 on 4) that resulted in bad shots while Hill committed a turnover trying to drive and kickout to Barbs instead of dumping into an open Diesel in the paint. In that brief 1:30 stretch the Raptors went on a 11-0 run to cut Phoenix’s from 12 points to 1 to close the first half. If it wasn’t for that run, the game would probably have been in the can by the end of the 3rd.

Postgame, Bosh complained about a lack of 3 second calls against Shaq. All I gotta say is that's a B.S. complaint. All you have to do is step out of the paint after 3 seconds and you can step right back in and Shaq was doing that, actively moving from side to side in the paint and sealing his man while calling for the ball. Still though, some credit (or discredit) much be given considering his "defenders" were a mix of Bosh, Bargani, and Voskul. Bosh and Bargs are two of the softer power forwards in the league and both are giving up 50+ pounds to the Diesel. Neither forwards really enjoy contact or bodying up in the paint and on most possessions, they'd just let Shaq bump and move 'em wherever the Big Fella wanted to. As for Voskul, despite being in 6 fantasy leagues, I actually didn't even know he was still in the league until Friday's game. A quick look at his profile shows that he's only played in 25 games this year and is averaging a paltry 6:30 minutes a game... so I don't feel too bad about not knowing him. He was basically a non factor as well, drawing 6 fouls and fouling out in a quick 7:30.

The Raptors as a team also played Shaq really poorly. I'm not sure if it’s the players or the coach... but with Shaq, normally you'd want to attack him in the paint and try to draw some fouls. The Raps don't really have any elite/athletic guards so that job has to fall to the bigs, but both Bargs and Bosh elected for the jump shot more often than not than to try and take the Diesel off the dribble. And on defense, despite absolutely KILLING them in the paint (Shaq was actually 20 for 23 up until the last 4:56, his last two attempts were misses), Toronto decided for whatever reason not to double Shaq for most of the game. And they couldn't really afford to waste any fouls from Bosh or Bargs so basically Shaq had his way in the paint. I would think that most other teams in the league would have sent a small in to double Shaq and commit the fouls if necessary. The fact that Shaq only had 8 attempts at the line despite the high number of touches/attempts that he got is really indicative of the Raptor's failed defensive scheme.

And I know I promised to stop lamenting about the Porter days... but it's games like this like makes me wonder why it didn't all work out and why the players couldn't have made it work. I mean, look at the evidence... the last time Nash was out and we played a bottom feeder... it was the Kings and we barely won by 2. We only had 78 FGA (even with OT), Shaq only had 15 FGA, and Amare only grabbed 5 boards. Our leading "playmaker" that game was Shaq and he only had 6 asts. Flash forward a few months and now we're scoring 133 points and hoisting 98 shots. Barbs, J-Rich, and Barnes all had 12+ FGA and Hill (in the playmaker role) had 12 asts while Amundson (in the PF role) had 20-10. And despite all that, this was as a post-up, Shaq centered game as we could get, but we still ran when we could and dumped it to Shaq when we couldn’t. Shaq had 45 but there was still lots of stats to go around. And it’s not like the Kings are better than the Raptors and I still refuse to give too much credit to new coach Alvin Gentry. But THIS is how we should have been playing all season... more so than the stand around offense of Porter and more so than the seven-seconds-or-less offense of those 140 pt. Clipper blowouts. It’s about balance and this is how we should play going forward and in the playoffs (if we make it).

Ah wells, I swear that was my very last post concerning the Porter era. Let bygones be bygones, I will not mention the name "Porter" again on this blog (unless he gets hired somewhere or something like that). Lets just be happy with Shaq's 45 points and our 20 point win. Hooray!

Speaking of hooray, the Lakers also lost badly to the Nuggets on the same night as well so it was pretty much the best Friday game night I could ask for. Hopefully we can carry some of our play/momentum into Sunday's rematch with the Lake Show. At least we're at home this time. Probably without Nash still but maybe we can steal one... or at least keep in competitive. PLEASE KEEP IT COMPETITIVE! Don’t ruin my Sunday!

And lastly, in case you missed it, here's some of Shaq's highlights from the game...