Lakers at Spurs, 2002 WCSF, Gm 4

5-12-2002. Game 4, 02 Semis, Lakers up 2-1. I've never recapped any of the 2002 Spurs series in 13 years as a YT subscriber, believe it or not. I figured it was well-covered by others, but lately I've asked myself why I give a shit about others' versions if I have my own SELF-recorded versions to show everyone that I was indeed a fan at the time of said games. I remember taking all the keys off of my keyboard and cleaning all the dustbunnies out of it whilst watching this game (random look into NPZ's life on 5/12/02). Why do EYE gotta be the person to look out for other posters who put this up in lesser quality? Other people recap games I've had up for years, so screw it. I wanted to recap some of my own SELF-RECORDED games in MY distinct NPZ style. I know you peeps are widdit. I'm not gonna do em in chronological order, like the entire 2004 run all in order, but I might sprinkle 1-2 gms in there from time to time. Plus, this is a well-known game and a key part of Lakers' semi-recent history.
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Lakers take it back to that big ol Dome. Each game in this series was pretty close to very close, so each W or L could come down to a play or two or a screw up or two or the refs. You get the idea. Those 2 Laker losses, whateva happened there.

[@lucashenderson2775]

What always frustrates me when people talk about this era of the Lakers is how many people, even up to now, discount just how much Kobe did for these teams because he didn't win Finals MVP in any of these years. He always seemed to save his best games for their toughest Western Conference opponents, such as the Blazers in 2000, Kings and Spurs in 2001 and again in 2002. To me, what makes his play in those years even more impressive was all the teams I listed were better than their eventual Finals opponents. Shaq rightfully gets his credit, but I still feel like people shortchange Kobe to a degree because it wasn't seen as "his" team.

[@dcshow]

Agreed. Don’t entertain the casual amateur fans notion that “Shaq carried Kobe.” We know what it really was and you said it perfectly.

[@lucashenderson2775]

@@dcshow Yup. I forgot to mention it in my original, but IIRC, that was by design too. Phil wanted Kobe to do more against the West to conserve Shaq's energy so he didn't run out of gas.

[@dvgomane6787]

It’s frustrating of course that the accolades went to Shaq. When even Shaq himself stated multiple times that Kobe was the best player on the team and the league. But Kobe never played for individual accomplishments. He was always about championships and team success.

[@ernestboykin3rd706]

REAL TALK BEANS was as instrumental as Shaq Diesel was in that great Lakeshow Dynasty💯💯

[@manuginobilisbaldspot424]

Kobe benefitted from having the most dominant player in the league in a way not only none of his wing peers with similar #'s did (T-Mac, Vince, even Grant Hill), but all time. To imply they carried equal weight on this team, is ridiculous. If you swapped Shaq with Alonzo Mourning or Dikembe Mutombo, I'm not sure the Lakers win a single title. You swap Kobe with Vince or T-Mac, I think the Lakers still win. People rank him a GOAT when the majority of his team accolades came as the second fiddle. It's not about 'carried', it's about the reality that his 'winning' came absolutely as a result of riding shotgun to Shaq. Hell, the rare times the Lakers LOST during this dynastic stretch, it was when Kobe was shit (4 for 20 vs Indiana Gm 5 2000 Finals, 7 for 22 vs Philly Gm 1 2001 Finals, 8 for 24 vs Sac Gm 3 2002 West Finals). James Worthy was often the Lakers leading scorer in '87 and '88 but no one put him on equal footing with Magic...AND HE WON FINALS MVP one of those years, something Kobe never sniffed with Shaq. So there's levels to this.

[@Lettersfromhome18]

How fitting for the Lakers to shut the Alamodome down in much the same way the the Spurs shut down the Forum in 1999.

[@ShaadsComicsandBeers]

Yeah that was definitely fitting

[@michaelrobinson540]

The last year of NBA on NBC. Marv and Chick are the greatest announcers.

[@chrisuncleahmad]

Final game at the Alamodome

[@Theterminato2013]

The Lakers got revenge from the Spurs winning the last 2 playoff games at the Forum by winning all 4 road games vs the Spurs at the Alamodome 2001 and 2002 and shutting the Alamodome down.

[@nonplayerzealot4]

Revenge for the 95 and 99 Laker teams that went 1-4 there in the playoffs, and the sole win was the Nick Van Exel game winning trey in Game 5 of the 95 series. That win was a war from start to finish and took a couple of last second treys from Nick to put LA ahead. Tough treys, too. I hated that building. Even in the 2Ks, our playoff wins there usually came dear. This one itself was a 10 pt comeback w/ 5 mins left and a last sec stickback and a great one at that.

[@thespacesbetweenstudio3346]

The Lakers' defence over the last 6 minutes was insane. They were switching fast and hard, playing every passing lane, and sticking their hands everywhere. What an effort.

[@meharinationsportspodcast2582]

The difference in the final five minutes is nobody for San Antonio was willing to make or take the big shot, or set plays in allowing Duncan to exploit the mismatches. After Kobe tied the game with the three pointer, you noticed the tentative body language of the Spurs.

[@allengreene9954]

The Perimeter shooting for the Spurs wasn’t very good either. Tony Parker wasn’t really ready yet, Steve Smith was past his peak and Terry Porter was clearly on his last leg. They needed someone like Manu or Stephen Jackson to hit outside shots but they was about a year away.

[@Willsatx]

Derek Anderson was injured in the series against the Mavs I think a health Anderson would have helped some. Maybe another win but that’s it.

[@meharinationsportspodcast2582]

@@Willsatx Nah, that was the previous year.

[@borisabilana6836]

Lakers is the only team that stand in Spurs' way of becoming a dynasty in the early 2000's, even bigger than the Warriors. The Spurs won 3 championships from 2001-2010. they were eliminated by the lakers 4 times in the 6 years that they did not won the championship. They could've repeat a couple of times or maybe even a 3-peat.

[@nonplayerzealot4]

22:54 Great drive by Kob.

[@parkermudsen1063]

And this is the main reason why I put Kobe over Timmy. In the playoffs, Kobe owned the Spurs more times than not.

[@harinderrana9735]

He did not own the Spurs in 99 or 03.

[@parkermudsen1063]

@@harinderrana9735 but he did in ‘01, ‘02, ‘04, and ‘08.

[@allengreene9954]

Sadly this Rivalry along with many great Rivalries has been lost over the years😢😢😢😢

[@manatangitau7830]

The Lakers & Spurs is a great rivalry. The Spurs swept the Lakers in 1999. The Lakers swept the Spurs in 2001. The Lakers beat the Spurs in 2002 4-1. The Spurs beat the Lakers in 2003 4-2. The Lakers beat the Spurs in 2004 4-2. The Lakers beat the Spurs in 2008 4-2. The Spurs beat the Lakers in 2012 4-1

[@coreyortiz9913]

lakers and spurs didnt meet in 2012 they met in 2013

[@MrEOM41]

This year our weakness was the SG position we were outplayed by Kobe we needed to get younger and more athletic… hence the drafting of Ginobili eventually 😌

[@nonplayerzealot4]

40:21 Haha. Listen to the anger and frustration in Snapper's voice there. He was unbiased, I'm sure. Yeah, rite. .He was every Laker opponent's biggest fan.

[@ernestboykin3rd706]

LMAO Snapper hated the Lakeshow

[@Riles3152]

Yea he was definitely a hater but Bill Walton was actually slightly more insufferable IMO.

[@pasadena1992]

RIP Kobe Bryant & Steve Snapper Jones 🙏🙏

[@brianchua4240]

Glad you were able to post this game up! Both of my ears are enjoying this cuz in the other videos for this game, they like to make it one sided where I feel like I'm having hearing problems LMAO

[@nonplayerzealot4]

Thanks, Brian. Glad you like it, homie. And all those dudes probably have the same copy as each other if that's what yer tellin me. I've got the CHICKY version of Gm 5, btw. Done, but I'll wait to put it out tomorrow or Sun along w/ somethin else. Stay with NPZ!

[@nonplayerzealot4]

I'm pretty sure I have Game 3, too, and I think it was a Chick/KCAL game. If I'm right on that, then I defo have it because I remember recording a Chick road game, but we played SA so many times, it's hard to recall what years are what. And if I find it, I'll do it up for yall of course.

[@brianchua4240]

@@nonplayerzealot4 nice!!! You're a life savior with all these Laker games in the past!!

[@richardlim7727]

everyone was obsessed with lakers-kings at this time, but lakers-spurs was the real rivalry

[@ShaadsComicsandBeers]

Nah. It was Lakers-Kings during 2000-2002.

[@shaft9000]

whoa the saturation level in this viddy is nuts

[@oneday5572]

I was 12 years old… man I miss these days

[@TexasNightmare210]

We used to watch TV like this?

[@AustronesianMullet]

Danny "you never know about trades" Ferry!

[@JoeMama-tl4tr]

I bet Tim Duncan was thinking he would never win another title after this game

[@nonplayerzealot4]

27:21 I wasn't a fan of those spinning jumpers. That's an arguably useless flourish to a shot that makes it that much harder to actually sink. A small fake, X-over, juke or whatever and then rising up on 2 planted feet pointing at the rim is the move you need. With that spin, you don't shake the defender off anyway and you're now having to find the basket at the last split second and then you're also in a slight backward fade to boot. I'd like to know how long it took for him to realize that and ditch those shots. They look great when they go in, but in a crucial playoff game especially, that's balderdash to quote Bill W. And note that he was closer to hitting that forward-looking freakshot at the end of the 3rd than the spinning jumper.

[@ammonbakarri-o5524]

It pretty move call skill like in futbol

[@chriswalls5831]

When people say the Jordans bulls was best they forget the Lakers beat the spurs

[@nonplayerzealot4]

29:58 Bill disgustedly asks why Timmy ain't down low torching Samaki, etc. Why? Because he was a puss who didn't like contact and didn't wanna play C, his natural position, because of it. I'm sure Bill n Snapper would've poo-poo'd that answer, but I'm not the one wonderin why Timmy is demurring from the pink paint.

[@brianmao5296]

Yeah, that's something I seem to notice from those type of PF/C guys. AD has that same type of thing that Timmy has in that he inexplicably doesn't post up smaller players as often as he should. Maybe it was because he was a point guard growing up his whole life until he suddenly grew like 8 inches in his Junior year and suddenly found himself 6'11 and not quite knowing what to make of it. Going down into the post still isn't something that is natural instinct for him. Noticed it with KG as well. They're tall, but they have high centers of gravity that makes them get knocked around a lot easier than other guys.

[@nonplayerzealot4]

@@brianmao5296 Thx for the reply. Gonna argue a little for fun, so this ain't a contest here. You could be 100 percent correct, and I'm not sayin you aren't, but at the pro level, if you're a guy like Timmy especially (KG was a thin peg like Keon Clarke at best until the last few yrs of his career), you really need to bang in the paint at least half of the time you're out there. Especially in that era. He didn't have the beanpole excuse. I thought he was soft and doughy and should've thought better about pulling his jersey over his head. He never had it in his mind that he was gonna be a banger otherwise he wouldn't have been soft like that for starters. I think the mental issue, however, was still the bigger issue with him. He just didn't like contact and he could've slaughtered most of the league down low on a nightly basis. == Any rate, I gotta tamp down my puke when people call him the GOAT PF over Karl Malone. Malone was a locomotive and made opponents suffer on the area of the floor where he was born to be. He is a classic PF to me, not Timmy despite Duncan's stats. Tim was a finesseful player and was able to get by with playing out to the arc. Check that look he got that came before Fish's 0.4 miracle. I gotta wonder if Pop actually drew up a shot for him out there, a guard's type of look. At any rate, he still had enough finesse to hit the thing, too. == And also Chuck has said he was a little PG growing up and he, at 6'5", played as big as a tree on the low block. But at the same time, i can't dismiss that a coach can only force a peg into a misshapen hole so much and if a superstar makes playing out of his natural position a thing, he's gonna win out eventually. See AI-3. He makes the Duncan thing seem like no biggie. The LAST thing that dude needed to be was a shooting guard w/ a green light, but even Larry Brown eventually lost that battle.

[@alwayskul]

@@nonplayerzealot4 I can't stand Bill Walton at all. But I actually agreed with him here. It was one of those rare times where an announcer was critical of Tim Duncan. Duncan gets painted as this perfect power forward but this was one hole in his game - avoiding contact. Heck, Kevin McHale had the same build that Tim Duncan did but he wasn't afraid to bang in the low post - and he went up against more physical opponents like Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn, Charles Oakley, Charles Barkley, Moses Malone, etc. This makes me respect Karl Malone and Charles Barkley even more. Even though they didn't win championships, they weren't afraid to take punishment and they dished it out too!

[@nonplayerzealot4]

@@alwayskul Thank you. I hate that golden boy shit. The media constantly shoved the Spurs down our throats and shamed us for not being interested in their "beautiful" style of basketball. But fans knew the shit was usually boring, usually low scoring, and DRob and Timmy got touch fouls a plenty at the Alamodome. And I guarantee you those media guys/gals turned the channel on SA just like the rest of us. Please... The fouls MVP DRob drew on the Lakers in 1995 was utterly repugnant. I remember a point in Gm 5 (I have it up, search if you wanna see it) where Rob took a 5 step travel that had Chick and Stu scratching their heads. Chick was even calling some of the shit they allowed and ignored lousy near the start. Cummings knocked Vlade across the head and took the ball and no call. Stu goes, "Do you believe this?" Chick went on to agree w/ him. Good point about McHale. Not athletic, but intensely crafty and slippery. He mixed it up, you're right. Those Cs hung their hats on their front line.

[@Theterminato2013]

@@nonplayerzealot4 Another thing that some I notice some ppl failed to realized the reason Shaq struggled vs the Spurs was because the refs allowed Tim Duncan and David Robinson get away with murder in defense vs Shaq. They got away with hacking him and hooking their arms onto him as evidence to the Spurs 1999 championship dvd video. Meanwhile, everytime Shaq breathed on Duncan, the refs called Ricky tack fouls on him.

[@YR-cr9db]

KOBE is The 2nd Greatest Of All Time MJ is #1 End of Discussion

[@harinderrana9735]

I love Kobe but he ain't better than LeBron.

[@romagnuslarsson7065]

How good waS Kobe Bryant!

[@rooseveltdarbey9493]

These current players always crying about help come on, look at that team Tim Duncan had. No wonder he was the MVP this season, how did he win 50 plus games with this squad.

[@rooseveltdarbey9493]

@c m that's why I got him in my top 5

[@dongf5628]

Dude had a hof coach. Stop the excuses

[@meharinationsportspodcast2582]

All cap, this was partly the same team that made the WCF the previous season, while the New Jersey Nets were one of the worst teams before the arrival of Jason Kidd and became a instance title contender in 2002. Kidd was the real MVP of the 2002, not Duncan.

[@rooseveltdarbey9493]

@@meharinationsportspodcast2582 yeah and look at that team, same thing you had a bunch of role players with Duncan.

[@meharinationsportspodcast2582]

@@rooseveltdarbey9493 Look at the roster. I said this was nearly the same team that made WCF the president season. Danny Ferry, Terry Porter, Antonio Daniels, Malik Rose, and an aging David Robinson with a prime Tim Duncan. This was a team that was expecting to remain a title contender despite the additions of Tony Parker, Bruce Bowen, Stephen Jackson, and Steve Smith. The Nets weren't expected to become a title contender in one offseason, in fact many of the journalists and analysts didn't give them any chances despite the trade for Kidd. New Jersey was 26-56 in 2001 with Stephon Marbury as the point guard with the same roster. After the Kidd trade, the team finished with a 50-32 record and the top seed in the Eastern Conference in 2002. My point is Kidd was the true 2001-02 MVP. The Spurs were expected to contend with Duncan, while the Nets were a major afterthought. No one anticipated them to contend with Jason Kidd as the point guard.

[@kaksmirknight5318]

Shaq carried Kobe! Hahaha! Yeh right! Neen watching NBa since late 70s and I never saw a media hated player than Kobe. And he managed to silenced them no matter what odds they threw at him. It's clear in the 3 peat Shaq didn't carried Kobe. Finals MVP is just playin 4 great games to win it. What about the road to the NBA finals? Shaq can play 4 great games then who played great in the other 15 or 16 wins? Yep! Finals MVP is the most and pathetic way to crown the media darling