LAKERS -at- KNICKS - 2/11 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Swagger... Back in the day -- in 1973 when Phil Jackson was on the Knicks championship team -- he used to have a loft on West Nineteenth Street right above the Great Bear autobody shop. It was said you could hear the noise from below and smell the fumes rising through the floorboards. He had a hammock hung from the ceiling and a dartboard with Spiro Agnew's face on the target. He was the counter-culture rebel doing things his way.

These days, he wears a suit, makes an 8-figure salary and owns more rings than any coach in the history of the game. He still carries that unique individualistic swagger and confidence even though he's come a long way from his early years playing on the hardwood of Madison Square Garden.

Tonight, however, may very well have been his last moment in the spotlight of MSG.

Of course, Phil likes to live in the moment instead of dwell on such occasions. He didn't make a big deal of it, though some sensed it might have been in the back of his mind.

"We always talk about stories. The building and when he played here," Kobe said. "I could tell it means a lot to him, but he will never say it. He will never show it. But I'm sure it meant a lot to him."

Kobe, too, has had some storied moments in the spotlight here, as well. Tonight, he pushed the Lakers out of an early slump with a 19-point, first-quarter burst that once again had the crowd buzzing.

The Lakers overwhelmed the Knicks with their size and their Kobe. It wasn't quite the 87-point defensive effort they held the Knicks to in January, but they maintained control and cruised in the fourth quarter while resting starters in the 113-96 win.

The Lakers seem to have found their swagger again. The Knicks once had it this season and now look like a team that's lost their way. Since the Lakers stole the New York swagger in that January game, the Knicks have gone just 5-12.

"The attitude is much better," Pau said of the Lakers. "The body language is better. We're more confident out there."

Four down. Orlando is next.


Kobe -- -- He knows how to put on a show at Madison Square Garden. He just lights up the Knicks on that stage (he was averaging 42 points per game in his last four at MSG). Those numbers don't matter. "He's searching for six," James Worthy said. Six rings. Kobe was an efficient scoring machine. He torched the Knicks for 19 in the first quarter and led the team in points, boards and turnovers (a few bounce passes were getting picked off). Kobe also tends to show the wide range of his skills in his MSG games. Turnarounds, drives, threes, threading the needle to teammates for dunks, it was all there tonight. Kobe got to rest in the fourth as the bench handled business. "We're more focused," Kobe said. "We understand the urgency that's involved here." In both his games against the Knicks, he's had 10 boards. The Stats: He scored 33 points on 12-17 shooting (4-7 from three, 5-8 from the line) to go with 10 boards (4 offensive), 2 assists, 5 turnovers and 2 fouls in 29 minutes. He was a +4. The Action: Not close on a bounce pass to Bynum, about 3 feet behind him, turnover. His bounce pass to Pau was picked off for a dunk the other way. Forget the passing, he drained a wing three. He was smacked on a swing-through from the corner, he made both FTs. He faced up and drained a long wing three. He got his legs under him on a catch-and-shoot three at the top of the key shortly later. He danced with the dribble, pulled up to swish the 20-footer from the left wing next time down. He missed a heat-check, sideline three with a man all over him. He hit an easy turnaround in the middle of the lane over Felton out of a timeout. He was stripped on a drive, Pau got it back, fed him, Kobe couldn't power up cleanly under the hoop, grabbed his miss and hit a short one on the baseline as he fell to the ground. He didn't match up on the other end and gave up a layup. No D again, giving up a three to Felton. He grabbed a Pau miss, ran the clock down, iso'd on Felton and hit the 20-foot turnaround at the first-quarter buzzer. He had 19 points in the first quarter. He was slapped in the lane to draw FTs, he made one. He lulled his man to sleep and hit a long wing jumper standing on the three line on the next possession. He missed a three, had it tapped to him and attacked the lane to get mugged by Amare, he made one FT. He attacked, collapsed the D and hit Pau for an And-1 dunk. He missed a long three. He shook his man on iso and whipped a one-hander off the dribble to Pau for a dunk. He had 23 points on 8-12 shooting and 8 boards at the half. Second Half: He lost his man badly on a cross-over and hit the FT jumper. He hit Lamar on the screen-roll for FTs. He swished a fallaway from the low post. He tried creating off the dribble with the clock low, fumbled the handle, backed it out, pumped and swished a jump-back three over the tight D. He missed a baseline jumper over Felton. He stepped in front of Amare in transition to draw a charge off the ball, then pointed to someone on the bench while he was on the ground (Amare then got a dumb tech, which Kobe rattled in). He took the pass from Lamar on the break, went between his legs across the lane and hit an And-1 hook, he missed the FT badly (three misses from the line tonight).

Gasol -- -- The Lakers size dominated the Knicks. Like the Celtics, they made their opponent stay on the perimeter in halfcourt sets. On the other end, they dominated the soft Knicks interior. Both Bynum and Pau were able to back men all the way under the hoop to get easy scores. As much as the Knicks may want Melo or think Amare is the savior, they needs some real size on the court. Pau took a little lashing from Kobe and the coaches for not closing the first half strong. He gave up a putback score at the FT line not boxing out. You could see Pau and the team put it in cruise control, but the team leadership wasn't about to let that happen. Phil gave Pau "Catch-22" as his book. The Stats: He scored 20 points on 9-16 shooting (2-2 from the line) to go with 6 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 32 minutes. He was a +8. The Action: He short-armed an easy lefty hook across the lane on the first possession. He tipped out a missed FT, and it led to a Laker score. He missed a lefty hook in the lane. He tipped out a Lamar miss to regain a possession. He missed a turnaround in the paint. He scored an And-1 layup off a seal and good Laker ball movement, he made the FT. Easy jumphook over Amare on iso with the clock low. He threw down an And-1 slam off the drive and dish from Kobe, he made the FT. He beasted his way to the hoop from the midpost and hit the short jumphook (wow, more please). He deflected a pass on the other end to get a stop. Good hands on a high-speed drive and dish from Kobe and he dunked after gathering the pass. He didn't box out, talking to the ref and allowed a tip in on a missed FT, wow. He had 12 points on 5-8 shooting. Second Half: He faced up and drained the wing jumper. He up-faked Amare out of his shoes, attacked and threw down. He missed an elbow jumper (should have gone high-low to Drew). He missed a short turnaround on the right block. He missed another elbow jumper. He took the Kobe pass and this time threw it up to Drew for the easy score (more please). He lost a dribble into a double team. He backed his man down and hit his lefty jumphook. He easily finished the oop from the wing lob play to start the fourth. He missed a reverse.

Bynum -- -- Too big, too strong. The team could have dumped the ball to him a lot more. If we didn't have Pau as a post presence, Drew could have easily gone off for big numbers. The Knicks had no answer for his size, and Drew had some overpowering moments on his few opportunities. Fun to watch. Another strong two-way game. The Lakers had multiple defenders on Amare, but when they matched up, Drew kept him on the perimeter and challenged his jumpers well. Just had to be careful on some of those up-and-down transition situations where we got beat by footspeed. Thankfully, there weren't many. The Stats: He scored 12 points on 5-8 shooting (2-4 from the line) to go with 9 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 3 turnovers and 3 fouls in 30 minutes. He was a +8. The Action: He backed his man down, drop-stepped and drew FTs getting held, he made one FT. He grabbed a Pau miss and had his putback goaltended. He was called for three seconds not powering up quickly. He overpowered Amare and slammed, just too big. He couldn't control a pass under the hoop, might have been deflected. He regained a possession crashing the glass. Great challenge on Amare's jumper to force a brick. He swiped a lob. He tapped an offensive board to Kobe. He missed a turnaround in the lane. He spun around Amare and scored a layup. Second Half: He took the interior feed from Pau and scored easily at the front of the rim. First post touch of the half and he drew FTs, he made one. He was called for three seconds when Pau over-passed. He rejected a drive. He missed a short one in the paint. He slammed when Blake found him in the lane. Poor touch on a short jumphook he should have had.

Artest -- -- He had some moments in the first half. Again, having Drew and Pau on the floor with him really plants him on the perimeter, and any rumble into traffic is a tricky situation. Not the best decision making offensively, and he couldn't hit from either the freethrow line or three line. Defensively, he was active as usual. He wound up on Amare on multiple possessions and handled himself well, even swiping the ball right out of Amare's hands on one swing-through move. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-9 shooting (0-3 from three, 0-2 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 1 assist, 3 steals, 1 block, 2 turnovers and no fouls in 26 minutes. He was a +9. The Action: He threw a bounce pass away, dunk on the other end. He missed a fading bank. He missed a wide open corner three. He attacked and missed a layup. He was blocked twice in the post (can't get into the low post easily with Pau and Drew out there). He sank a turnaround from the midpost. Amare tried to swing through on him and Ron just snatched the ball away from him, not sure I've seen that. He bricked a transition three on the other end. He stripped Amare on help D a couple possessions later to force a turnover. Quick cut off the Bynum handoff and he scored a layup. Nice help challenge on Amare to get a stop on a layup. He rumbled his way on a one-man break to draw FTs, he missed both. Second Half: He fumbled away a dribble, layup in transition. He got tapped on a wing three. He blocked a Chandler three attempt.

Fisher -- -- Not a whole lot of notes on Fish's game. He didn't take a shot in the first half and only took one in the second half when he was up against the shotclock. Fish actually shoots 39 percent on games without a rest and his scoring has remained the same. I think he was more concerned with just sticking to letting our paint attack do its thing. Defensively, Felton was left open quite a bit on the perimeter, but the Lakers shut down everything else. The Stats: The Action: Soft D on Felton for a couple wide open looks. Second Half: He airballed trying to create against the shotclock.

Lamar -- -- "We're communicating on defense and it's making us a much better team," Lamar said afterward. Stitched and taped up from last night's Pau collision and Lamar was ready to go. He led the team with a +20. His ability to help spread the floor for our bigs to work down low on one end and his speed on D on the other just made for a nice fit. Those second units cruised. Lamar is right about the communication on D. We mentioned that here during some of their recent losses. When you don't talk, you can't get on the same page. Those split-second miscues were easily exploited by opponents. The Stats: He scored 14 points on 5-10 shooting (1-2 from three, 3-4 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 3 assists, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 27 minutes. He was a +20. The Action: He curled around a screen, hung in the lane and went glass nicely. He missed an elbow jumper. He spotted Luke free in semi-transition for a layup. He scored a layup off the Blake drive and dish. He drew a foul in the post and made both FTs. He drew a charge on Amare, beating him to the spot on an attack. He barely hit rim on a jumper. Second Half: He attacked off the screen-roll with Kobe and drew FTs at the rim, he made one. Nice help on Amare to get a stop. He bricked on drive left hoping for a foul. He missed a long wing jumper with the clock low. He swished a wing three with a sweet looking stroke. He faced up at the elbow, attacked and banked. He attacked down the lane, took contact and scooped in a layup. He missed a three with the shotclock low. Bad angled post entry to Drew and it went right out of bounds.

Blake -- -- He had some high assist games back in December, but seemed to get lost after that. The triangle is never going to be assist friendly for PGs, but Blake showed some good court vision tonight. The 7 assists were a combination of seeing the Lakers get into the open court a little more and also Blake picking apart the Knicks out of the triangle. Defensively, he played a very scrappy game even until the last seconds. Blake, and the Lakers as a team, had active hands, but some of the help D reads by both were also timed perfectly. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 2-5 shooting (1-2 from three, 3-3 from the line) to go with 7 assists, 2 steals, no turnovers and 2 fouls in 23 minutes. He was a +11. The Action: Late whistle on a help D strip under the hoop. He settled for a long wing jumper instead of attacking the open lane off a pinch post and missed. He missed a wing three. He attacked off the pinch post and hit Lamar for the layup. He picked up a tech for mixing it up after the whistle under the hoop. Poor double allowing Amare to split it with a spin and score an And-1. He hit Shannon with a no-looker for the massive throwdown on the lob in transition. He stripped a man on help D and outlet to Shannon for a layup. Second Half: Great help D rotation to jump in front of penetration and force a turnover, which led to a Kobe breakaway score. He was hit behind the line on a repost kickout from Pau for three FTs, he made all three. He attacked the lane with the shotclock low and hit the short, twisting pull-up jumper. He probed, spotted Bynum and whipped a pass to him for a dunk. He slapped a ball away from Amare to force a turnover. He missed a wing jumper off the Luke between-the-legs pass. He stepped into a wing three and drilled it.

Brown -- -- Shannon had the Knicks crowd buzzing on a reach-back, alley-oop throwdown from Blake in the first half. When you have to stretch out on those, it makes for some of the more spectacular plays in the sport. When you do it in the Garden, even better. "It was a great pass. He threw it pretty hard and pretty high," Shannon said. "When I caught it I had to make sure I kept my eyes on the rim." Some good chemistry between Blake and Brown this game. They teamed up more than once. Defensively, he showed some active hands on passes, including a steal for a breakaway dunk. The Stats: He scored 12 points on 6-10 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 3 boards, 1 steal and 1 foul in 23 minutes. He was a +13. The Action: He sank a top-of-the-key jumper. He jumped the passing lane, swiped the pass and took it in for a breakaway throwdown. He missed an early offense chuck, bad possession. DVR Rewind Play of the Game: he grabbed a lob with one hand that was behind him, he brought to the rim and slammed with both hands all in one motion. He missed a pull-up jumper from the wing. He busted out on the steal by Blake and scored a layup. Second Half: He swished a wing jumper. He slapped the ball from his man. Bad shot selection with an early offense chuck (especially when we're trying to maintain a lead). He deflected a pass off a man to get a stop. He missed a quick-fire pull-up jumper.

Walton -- -- Very good game from Luke. He probably set the hardest screen of the season tonight, dumping Blake's man to the floor on a high pinch-post handoff play. He just hammered the defender to the floor and it freed up Blake to collapse the D. Luke was working the between-the-leg passes on the pinch post tonight. He must have had three of those, all to Blake. His stroke looked good, he was finding open teammates and hung in there on D. One of his best games of the season. As well as he played, Phil should have given Ebanks a few minutes in his hometown. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 4-6 shooting to go with 3 boards, 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 foul in 18 minutes. He was a +8. The Action: He choked a layup on the give-and-go play. Quick post entry to Pau who had a seal and it led to an And-1 at the rim (that's the kind of timing the team needs more of on post entries). The Knicks left him open in transition and Lamar found him for the layup. He leveled Blake's man on the pinch-post handoff screen and it led to a Laker score. Second Half: He found Pau for the dunk off the wing lob play to start the fourth. He flashed to the ball and hit his turnaround in the lane (been a while since that's fallen). He went between his legs to Blake, then got it back and swished the open 18-footer. He missed a wing jumper. He sank another of his fallaways, this time on the baseline.

Smith -- -- From a distance, I still think he looks like an old, shriveled Odom...or maybe an Oldom. It looked like the team was trying to make sure Oldom would scratch offensively. Eventually, he did when getting hit on a jumpshot. A little foul prone in garbage time. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 0-1 shooting (2-2 from the line) to go with 1 board, 1 assist, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 3 minutes. He was a -1. The Action: He did not play in the first half. Second Half: He lost the handle in the post, turnover. He fouled a jumpshooter on the other end. He missed a wing jumper. He was hit on a jumpshot, he made both FTs.

Caracter -- -- Some good activity on the offensive glass despite not getting any stats to show for it. He didn't score on his only attempt, trying to beast his way to the post. Not enough minutes to show much. The Stats: He didn't score on 0-1 shooting in 3 minutes. He was a -1. The Action: He did not play in the first half. Second Half: He missed a jumphook taking contact with no call.

Phil -- -- Quite possibly Phil's last game at the Garden... The Lakers trailed 11-3 early, too many turnovers... They cut it back to a 16-15 Knick lead when Lamar came in for Pau... The Lakers led 22-18 when Blake came in for Fish... The Lakers led 30-28 after the first quarter (Kobe had 19 in the quarter)... Phil started a Pau, Lamar, Luke, Shannon, Blake lineup... They extended to a 39-33 lead, forcing a timeout... The lead was 10 by the time Phil made a wholesale sub. He sat everyone but Lamar for Pau, running with his starters. Four-player change, but no let down... Phil sat Lamar for Pau shortly later... He sat Bynum for Lamar for a final defensive stand to prevent foul trouble... The Lakers led 62-48 at the half. The Lakers shot 54 pecent (25-46). The Knicks shot 48 percent (17-38). The Knicks had 12 turnovers, the Lakers 6. The Lakers had an 11-2 advantage on second-chance points (might have been a shutout, but Pau didn't play the last fraction of a second on a FT miss)... Kobe and the coaches got on Pau and Lamar for not playing the last second. They reminded the team of the many losses this season where they've had big leads... After the Lakers built a 16-point lead, it was trimmed to a 9 points off some lazy Laker ball, and Phil called a timeout midway through the quarter. Phil sat Pau for Lamar at that point... Up 12 and Phil sat Artest and Fisher for Blake and Brown. They extended the lead to 17... The Lakers led 85-68 heading into the fourth... Phil started a Pau, Lamar, Luke, Shannon, Blake unit... Phil sat Pau after 3 minutes for Drew, up 17. The lead was trimmed a little but they extended it to 20 and forced a timeout... Garbage-time lineups with under 3 to go. Free Ebanks in his hometown, Phil!... The Knicks shot just 5-20 from three...

[10scott10]

Thanks DB, good read as always

[Dumhead]

_________________
"We got a new universe coming and he's going to control all our universes. We're going to put our universes together" - Metta World Peace

[mhan00]

encouraging to see blake recover from a rather poor showing against the celts last night. his shot is still off, but his defense has been pretty consistent recently, and his playmaking was a thing of beauty, albeit against a TERRIBLE defensive team in the knicks. really think blake is gonna be earning his contract when we get to the post season.

[BLP711]

Money DB!! Always a great read...Thanks

[thurloly]

I nearly miss my sleep while waiting for DB's review. Now I finally can go to sleep.

Great job, Dancingbabay!

[OregonLakerGuy]

Thanks DB

[lakerjoshua]

Not sure why Oldom is filter proof, sure it won't be for too long.

As always DB. Well above average

[Arbitrary]

Thanks DB!

[MedRomLaker]

Oldom that seriously made me lol, thanks db!
_________________
11/9/12 the day the brown was flushed down!!!!!!

4/30/14 the day the ant left the building!!!!!!

[Texas_Pete]

[TooMuchMajicBuss]

Thanks DB as always!

Nice road trip so far; now Lakers beat Orlando!!

[limchrc]

thanks

[froesel]

DB, Lakerground would not be the same without your commentary of the games. I wish I had your expertize and talent. Many thanks for making me feel like I was at the games.
_________________
Win or lose, for better or worse, always a Laker fan.

[prisma8slg]

thanks DB. I missed most of the fourth when espn cut to clippers/cavs

Shannon's dunk was definitely the highlight of the game
_________________
"I define success by championships, by winning..." Kobe Bryant

"I've seen it all. Sasha dunked on somebody," Kobe Bryant said. "I'm ready to retire now."

[Purp and Yellow]

goood job guys!! knicks are a tough team and we pull out the w!

[RVCdesigns]