LAKERS -at- HORNETS - 11/12 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

Shaber · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 10:39 am Post subject:

Kobe does not deserve the smoking red face. It's understandable that your shot does not fall every night. That happens. But he had too much to do with the fourth quarter letdown - as explained already.

And it's noteworthy how the Hornets run starts right after Bynum got pulled out of the game in the middle of the third....
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Lakers depth chart

PG Johnson / Goodrich
SG Bryant / West / Scott
SF Baylor / Worthy / Cooper
PF Mikkelsen / Hairston / McAdoo / Gasol
C Chamberlain / Abdul-Jabbar / O'Neal / Mikan

Sister Golden Hair · Franchise Player Joined: 01 May 2001 Posts: 15872

Looked to me like the team just stopped running their normal offense in the fourth. I'm not sure why. When kobe goes into "force it" mode, often much of the balme can be laid at the feet of teammates who bbecome visibly reticent about shooting or being otherwise aggressive on offense. They expect to be bailed out by Kobe who, to his credit, usually comes through. But their sets in the fourth were just ugly. Lots of standing around amnd watching. You knew a run was coming because this team often let leads slip last year -- big leads -- and that habit especially came back to hanut them in the finals. Their mentality when they have a 20 point lead has to be 'let's get it up toi 30 or 40." Instead, they just go into shut-down mode and other teams crawl back into the game.

Phil wants them to develop that killer instinct and make the other team surrender mentally. NO almost did by the start of the 4th. But The lakers laid down atoo quickly after Sasha's opening steal, and you knew a Byron Scott coached-team will play until the end.

In actuality, the lakers controlled that game from the opening tap and, yes, although it's early in the season, the lakers look to be almost toying with even good teams.

They need to just maintain focus until the other team gives up mentally. NO was a good test because it taught the lakers that they can't assume a big lead is safe lead.

SGH

RCS926 · Franchise Player Joined: 05 Nov 2003 Posts: 16824

Klone_dd · Star Player Joined: 11 Mar 2002 Posts: 7330

Great win, no doubt, but the troubles in the 4th only shows that there's still room for growth or greater emphasis on stamina.

Even though we've seen him do it time and time again, Kobe's 3 ball seemed awfully lucky. The team does, too often, look to him to close out games. The offensive flow sputtered just as it did in Dallas when Stack's overplaying Kobe disrupted the tri. At this early stage, it's just another thing to be mindful of and to work on.

slippy · Star Player Joined: 02 Nov 2008 Posts: 5718

Agreed. A lot of people are talking about the defense in isolation of the offense, but people need to remember that Phil teams also rely on running their offense to facilitate their HC defense. They rely on this more than true defense-centric teams like Boston or Detroit, both teams who BTW also have problems protecting leads from time to time.

Without Bynum anchoring the middle, running the offense becomes even more important. The Lakers also weren't rebounding in the 4th (due to the bad positioning of the bigs from, again, not running their offense), and so weren't able to eat up the clock.

Again, a lot of things to work on. It isn't any one player. And that all said, Lakers were this close to destroying perhaps the 2nd best team in the West. 7-0

RCS926 · Franchise Player Joined: 05 Nov 2003 Posts: 16824

Laker's Fan · Franchise Player Joined: 27 Jun 2002 Posts: 12903

I'm impressed with how shamelessly CP3 and several other Hornets pulled the Paul Pierce (clearly jumping into the defender looking for the whistle).

I was surprised Paul didn't get called for an offensive foul on that rebound where he jumped sideways from a stand still right into Pau looking for the foul. Fortunately Bynum made him eat it

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I've seen that a lot this season. Pierce must have made it more popular by getting away with it so much last year. Brandon Roy did it all game long in the season opener.
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Austin Reaves keeps his game tight, like Kobe Bryant on game night.

jbjb · Star Player Joined: 11 Apr 2001 Posts: 5401

Lakers, coming off a hard fought game in Dallas on the second night of a back to back, came out steaming and dominated for three quarters. The Hornets are maybe the second best team in the conference playing on their own floor with plenty of rest.

Let up or no, the fact that the Lakers held them off in the fourth despite all of the above is quite a feat. Enjoy it!

RCS926 · Franchise Player Joined: 05 Nov 2003 Posts: 16824

Omar Little · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 12:39 pm Post subject:

DancingBarry · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 12:50 pm Post subject:

DancingBarry · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 12:54 pm Post subject:

DancingBarry · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 1:15 pm Post subject:

Alpha · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 2:21 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the great effort DB!

I was thinking a meltdown (even in defeat) at this point of the season wouldn't have been the worse thing. Getting the "W" and the poor ending maybe the best of both worlds. Going 6-0 and dominating the 1st half didn't do much in having the team play in the most adverse of situations. This will only help in allowing the players to understand that they have much more to learn and develop over the long season. IMO it was a good/fortunately gracious wake-up call.

mefor3 · Sixth Man Joined: 05 May 2008 Posts: 67

lazy 4th due to back to back games...at least I hope it's because of that.