[Taraz]

I was at the Nets-Lakers game last night, it was absolutely brutal. Kobe couldn't hit the broadside of a barn (as Chick would say) until five minutes left in the game and then he just went off.

Some observations:

- Vujacic and Radmanovic are awful. They can't do anything other than hit standstill jumpers and foul people. Vujacic goes hard on defense, but I'm not sure he knows how to stay in front of anybody. He pressures the ball like crazy, but he never really comes up with a steal and often just gets beat off the dribble.

- Phil Jackson has the most bizarre substitution patterns. I just don't get it, it seems random. Fisher is 6/6 from the field, yet he sits out an entire quarter when the entire team is off. And I know that he doesn't like calling timeouts so that his players can "figure it out", but that doesn't seem smart when you don't have a single starter on the floor.

- Bynum looks really good. He has really strong hands and he looks insanely comfortable with his jump hook. Kobe gave him an awful lob pass into the post and Bynum basically tore off Shawne Williams arm to haul it in. He had six or seven boards in the first quarter, but he seemed to tire quickly and stopped going as hard on the glass. The biggest thing that I noticed is that he is awful at changing direction. He can get from point A to point B quickly, but he can't really adjust on the fly.

- Vince Carter is really good at drawing fouls. He just knows how to react to contact to sell the foul and how to throw himself into the defender.