LAKERS -at- WARRIORS - 4/6 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Do Not Disturb... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

As the Lakers doze off with a bad case of the Three-peat-itis, the rest of the league goes about its business. Unfortunately, that means several more games for the lifeless version of this Laker team.

With the lightswitch still in the off position, the Lakers let the Warriors have their turn at winning their "championship." They promptly took it 95-87 to the delight of their fans.

Lazy ball often comes in the form of perimeter shooting. It's the easiest thing to do. The Lakers fired up early offense bricks, which is just great if you are on the smaller Warriors squad. Not pressing their advantage inside meant lots of long rebounds and up-tempo ball -- a pace that the Warriors want to play at and that Phil was trying to get his team to control.

The Lakers got out-rebounded by the Warriors, giving up 18 offensive boards. That's probably all that needs to be said, but here's Kobe and Pau:

"We look a little heavy, a little sluggish, look a little fatigued," Kobe said.

"We're doing it to ourselves," said Pau. "We're choosing the hard way. So be it."

So be it.

Three-peating ain't easy.


Kobe -- -- Tap that snooze alarm. When Vlad blows past Kobe for a layup, you know you've got some issues. Kobe again didn't really throttle it up until it was too late in this game. It wasn't as bad as the previous night's late waking game, but by the time he got it going, the game was pretty much out of reach. Just no room for error when you are down big and you decide to turn it on. When the Lakers switch gears to the Pau/Lamar lineup, we need more help on the glass from Kobe. He's tended to watch a bit (hard not to when Drew is in there). But it's kind of the same problem when others watch Kobe offensively and don't stay active doing other things or putting our stamp on the court on that end. Last year this time, all we heard was Kobe was done. He looked worse because of the injuries and the long season's wear on the knee. Still, he turned it on and won the ring. When he gets the taste for blood in the playoffs, this team will look entirely different. The Stats: He scored 25 points on 10-20 shooting (1-5 from three, 4-6 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 2 assists, 4 steals, 3 turnovers and 1 foul in 32 minutes. He was a +2. The Action: He probed and swished a 10-footer in the lane. He threw a kickout away. He swiped a pass and hit a pull-up, 19-footer in transition. He was blocked on a drive off a hesitation dribble (shouldn't have tried to reverse that). He hit a step-back jumper from the low post. He missed a wing jumper. He couldn't finish a layup, rushing it under the hoop off the Pau feed. His cross-court pass was picked off. He sank a step-back face-up jumper from the post. He split a double in the post with a spin and scored a layup. He had 10 points on 5-9 shooting. He missed a corner three. He posted up and was fouled on the turnaround, he made one FT. He let Vlad blow past him for a layup. He had 1 point in the second quarter. Second Half: He hit Drew on the screen-roll with a jump pass for an And-1. He hit Pau in the paint for a score. He attacked and drew FTs, making just one again. He missed a quick-fire turnaround out of a timeout (slow it down). He attacked baseline, drew contact, hung and reversed before going to the floor on the And-1, he made the FT. He missed a pull-up badly. He sank a long wing three (tired possession, but he hit it). He missed the three next time down (you know that one was flying). He iso'd next time down and scored an And-1, getting hit from behind, he made the FT. He sank a long jumper thinking he was behind the three line on the next trip. He attacked a gap and scored a layup to cut it to 8 with 2 minutes left. He didn't get inside position and fouled on a defensive board to give up FTs. He airballed a long three. He missed a layup through traffic.

Gasol -- -- If our bigs don't bring energy, they play small. That goes for Bynum and Lamar, too. When they bring it, like Bynum has, their size is tough to beat. Granted, we did a poor job of taking full advantage of it offensively, but you can see defensively where this occurs. When were getting beat badly on points in the paint, Pau can't have just 1 foul. Challenge those shot! Go after boards with aggression. Rare when we see Lamar play more minutes than Pau. Happened tonight. Pau had the least minutes of the trio and looked a bit disgusted with the outcome of this one during the fourth quarter. His freethrow shooting was horrible tonight, couldn't put two in a row together. The Stats: He scored 18 points on 7-11 shooting (4-8 from the line) to go with 7 boards (1 offensive), 1 turnover and 1 foul in 27 minutes. He was a -2. The Action: He scored a layup off the Fish pass while working the screen-roll with Kobe. He faked middle, went back baseline and swished a jumphook. He hit a short jumper off the interior feed from Drew. He swung through on the face up to draw FTs, he made one. He was blocked on a face-up jumper in the paint. He couldn't finish a 2-footer over a shorter man. He gave up a putback to his man (too much of that lately). He was fouled on an elbow jumper, he made one FT. Ron swiped a pass and hit Pau for FTs, he made just one again. He had 9 points on 3-5 shooting and 4 boards. Second Half: He tipped in a missed Bynum FT. He hit a short turnaround on the pass from Kobe. He dunked off the drive and dish from Ron. He swished a wing jumper on the next possession. He had an offensive board ripped from him to give up FTs. He lost the handle trying to go up. He drew FTs and promptly made just one again. He missed a jumphook off an offensive board. He airballed a face-up wing jumper.

Bynum -- -- Bynum dominated the glass and could have done a lot more damage to the Warriors had he been given the ball. Look, he doesn't have to be a No. 1 option, but when everyone else on the team has more shot attempts than him, that's not good. Especially when Drew isn't missing or is drawing fouls. He had some lightweight defenders on him. We'd go to it a couple times, then forget about it. It's like we checked that off our list of "To Do's," then decided to do whatever else looked appetizing. No one had fewer field goal attempts than Drew. If you want to slow down the game, feed your post. If you want to take your bigs out of the game, let the speed game get dictated to you by your own shot selection. On the other end, once again, the Laker interior D was MIA whenever Drew was out of the game. Pau and Lamar play small when they play lazy. Others also don't help out like they should. On the bad side, Bynum's passing out of the backcourt has been ridiculous of late. He had a couple more picked off in this game. He also missed too many freebies. The Stats: He scored 13 points on 5-5 shooting (3-7 from the line) to go with 17 boards (4 offensive), 3 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers and 4 fouls in 35 minutes. He was a -2. The Action: He grabbed an Artest miss, reset the offense, got it back and hit the jumphook in the lane. He hit Pau with an interior feed for a short jumper. Poor outlet and it was swiped in the backcourt. He threw another outlet away in the backcourt, this resulted in a score. His jumphook from the left block was goaltended. He had 9 boards in the first quarter. Sloppy corner entry sequence and he couldn't get control of the pass. He grabbed an offensive board, then traveled after pulling it out. He had 6 points on 2-2 shooting, 13 boards (4 offensive) and 3 turnovers. Second Half: He scored an And-1 layup on the screen-roll from Kobe, he missed the FT. A rare low-post touch, he overpowered his man with ease and drew FTs, he missed both. He two-handed shoved his man on the other end for a foul. Nice challenge on Curry's drive to get a stop. He slammed off the Lamar pass rolling to the hoop. Out of a timeout, we got the ball to him and he just missed an And-1 at the front of the rim, he then made just one FT. He worked the post and hit the lefty jumphook off glass.

Artest -- -- On the good side, he had some nice passing sequences to create for teammates. On the bad side, pretty much everything else. I love how we start the second half with an early offense jumper from Ron standing on the three line. Obviously, this is what was stressed at halftime, right? In the playoffs, the Lakers will work to understand the nuances of each opponent. They will know what shots to avoid, what to go after. In the regular season, when they aren't locked in. When fatigued or lacking the sense of urgency, they just play on instinct no matter whom the opponent is. That's when you see the consistently low hoop IQ. The team also will have it's issues when Ron and DFish struggle, of course. Could have used an even heavier dose of Barnes tonight. Blake wasn't making any kind of case to replace Fish. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-7 shooting (0-2 from three) to go with 2 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 25 minuets. He had a +/- of 0. The Action: He attacked and missed a layup. He missed a wing three. He missed a wing jumper, got it back with a backcourt steal, then he set up Pau for FTs. Second Half: He missed a long jumper standing on the three line to start the half, poor execution right out of the gates. He somehow bullied his way to the rim and scored a layup on the next possession. He attacked the paint and shoveled a pass to Pau for a dunk. He missed a corner three up against the shotclock. He wanted to back his man down in the post, but Kobe came over to muck up the spacing and Ron missed in a crowd.

Fisher -- -- It is one of those puzzling things that makes you shake your head. A vet guard should lead by example and help floor general the team. Yet, Fish was one of the guys with his hand caught in the cookie jar when it came to indulging in early offense jumpers. Worse yet, he was stone cold. Bad, Fish! Bad! Go sit in timeout. Frustrating hoop IQ on display. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-9 shooting (0-1 from three, 2-3 from the line) to go with 1 board, 3 assists and 2 fouls in 31 minutes. He had a +/- of 0. The Action: Sweet feed off the Kobe/Pau screen-roll to find Pau in the lane for the layup. He drained a long wing jumper off the pinch post with Drew. He bricked a wing jumper. He missed a sideline pull-up jumper. Nice help D on the baseline to draw a charge on Ron's man. He was backdoored badly for a layup. He passed up an open three, an open jumper and instead bricked a contested one. Second Half: He missed a challenged wing jumper in early offense. Another long jumper in early offense and he missed. He attacked the paint and threw up a prayer, not answered. He hit a bank shot off a missed Kobe three. He bricked a corner three. He was fouled on a three, he made two.

Lamar -- -- The Khloe Lamar Bakery opened up today. A variety of turnovers -- six to be exact -- were served up to the Warriors, who feasted off them. Very, very sloppy game from Lamar. The Warriors gamble for steals and love to get out on the break, but a lot of Lamar's turnovers really were just poorly executed plays. When the Lakers were up against the wall late in the game, he seemed to kind of figure some things out and helped hit teammates for scores. You hope he can help carry that through to fine tuning some of the really, really ugly bench play lately. They need some hoop IQ out there. The game quickly shifted when the second unit gave up the first quarter lead instead of finding a way to grind it out and bury the Warriors. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 3-7 shooting (2-3 from three) to go with 8 boards, 5 assists, 1 steal, 6 turnovers and 2 fouls in 32 minutes. He was a -13. The Action: He bricked a turnaround from the elbow. He bricked a 17-footer, not close again. He missed a 21-footer, got it back and charged on a drive and dish. Sloppy pass in transition to Blake who was trying to vacate the area, turnover. Another sloppy pass, turnover again with a telegraph. He sank a wing three on the next possession. He lost the handle, got it back and scored a layup. He had 3 turnovers, 1 board and was a -15. Second Half: He missed a corner three. He was stripped in the paint. Another bad pass, behind a cutting Barnes, turnover. Poor recognition, he outlet the ball late and it was picked off by Curry. He hit Bynum cutting for a dunk. He found Barnes next time down for a short jumphook. He sank a wing three.

Blake -- -- Some of the second unit's better moments occur when Blake is floor generalling. Unfortunately, when he's not (which is too often), we have guys chucking long shots instead of fine-tuning their ability to play to the bench's strengths. They need to explore the two-man sequences more. They need to get the ball to the post more. Instead, we have random, purposeless ball. And with that, leads are lost. It's a matter of focus and being careful with each possession. When he's not doing those little things which are a huge strength of his game, then the hideous perimeter shooting like tonight really hurts the team. He brought nothing to the table offensively tonight as a result. The Stats: He didn't score on 0-5 shooting (0-4 from three) to go with 2 boards, 1 steal and 1 turnover in 17 minutes. He was a -8. The Action: He missed a wing three in transition. His kickout pass was swiped (no one got back in transition D, either). He missed a three, got it back and missed again from the corner. He poked the ball loose from his man. Second Half: He bricked a mid-range frozen rope. He missed a three on a Lamar kickout (three for the Warriors on the other end).

Barnes -- -- No Simple Luke sighting tonight. Barnes looked perfectly fine to ball tonight. Should have had him in the game last night. He was the only bench player bring his game. He was hustling for offensive boards, cutting in the offense and making things happen defensively. This was the only good thing going on for the bench tonight. He outplayed Artest and a lot of other teammates. It wasn't without a couple miscues, but those were only magnified because the Lakers had no room for error. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 4-7 shooting (1-2 from three, 1-1 from the line) to go with 6 boards (3 offensive), 1 steal, 1 block, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 23 minutes. He was a -8. The Action: He hit a floater curling into the lane to take a Bynum pass. He bricked a wing three. Second Half: He missed a layup, trying to pull it down and back up (just go strong). He rushed and choked a jumphook at the front of the rim off an offensive board. He sank a corner three off the Lamar kickout. He swiped a ball on the other end, pushed it out and scored the And-1 layup, he made the FT. He hit a jumphook in the paint off the Lamar pass. He lost a ball out of bounds, turnover.

Brown -- -- It's rare lately when he's doing something positive or right. It seems like he's on the bad end of plays on both sides of the court lately. What drives you nuts is the repeated abuse of chucking early offense perimeter shots. That's especially troublesome in a game like this where you just can't afford to play into the hands of your opponent. On the up side (I think), Shannon made his first three in eight games. March 18th was the last time he hit from behind the arc. If he's hoping for a new contract, bricking jumpers and playing low hoop IQ ball won't get that done. The shot may not always be there, but you can play smart and elevate your effort defensively. The Stats: He scored 5 point son 1-6 shooting (1-2 frmo three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 1 assist and 1 foul in 18 minutes. He was a -9. The Action: He missed a 22-foot wing jumper with 13 on the shotclock on his first attempt, uggh. He got backdoored for a layup. He pushed out a loose ball and missed a layup, wanting the foul. He sank a three from the top of the arc (overdue). Second Half: Ellis blew past him right to the rim for a layup. Early offense brick from 22 feet to start the quarter (that can't be what we drew up). He missed a pull-up in the lane, got it back and missed the lefty layup. He was saved from a wild drive by drawing FTs in the paint, he made both.

Phil -- -- The Lakers got off to an 8-0 start in the first 2 minutes feeding their bigs. This forced a Warrior timeout... Phil sat Bynum for Lamar up 17-8 ith 5 minutes left.... Up 7 and he went with the Bynum, Lamar, Artest, Kobe, Blake unit... That was the lead with 36 seconds when Phil got Brown in for Kobe... The Lakers led 23-14 after the first quarter. The Warriors shot 24 percent (7-29, 0-7 from three) in the quarter... Phil started a Bynum, Lamar, Barnes, Brown, Blake unit... They quickly lost the lead. Killer B's killing momentum. Lamar was horrible... Out of a timeout, we went to Lamar in the post to try to get some inside-out action... Down by 1, Phil brought in Fisher for Blake... He sat Bynum for Pau... Then Lamar for Artest and Kobe for Barnes... They fell apart badly... The Lakers lost the quarter 29-15 (18-4 advantage in points in the paint for the Warriors)... The Lakers trailed 43-38. They shot 40 percent (15-37, 2-10 from three, 6-10 from the line). The Warriors shot 38.5 percent (20-52, 2-12 from three, 1-1 from the line). The Lakers gave up a 10-6 advantage on the offensive glass, 11 turnovers and a 13-4 advantage on the break. They were outscored 28-18 in the paint... Coaches got on the Lakers for not keeping their energy and intensity up... The Lakers hoisted more long jumpers in early offense to start the second half. They fell back by 11 when the timeout came midway through the quarter. Phil told the team to slow things down... They fell back by 13 and Phil called a timeout with 2 minutes left... Phil went with a Pau, Lamar and the Killer B's to close the quarter. They got outplayed badly... The Lakers trailed 72-55 heading into the fourth. No effort. No W... Phil started the same unit that closed. Some better moments, but they were buried too deep... Out of a timeout, we saw the Lakers go to the post a couple of times. Must be frustrating... The Lakers gave up 18 offensive boards...

[E=MC²]

Thanks D.B.

Lakers are blowing their chances for HCA in Finals. This is not cool at all.

[LakerEric]

This team can be brilliant and just flat out STUPID!!!
_________________
Do you believe it now, Trinity? - Morpheous

[mhan00]

ugly, ugly game. the lakers have clearly checked out of these last few games, much like they did last year at almost exactly this time of the year.

kobe: awful, awful game. he tried to redeem himself late, but far too little, far too late. god awful defense. he never once rotated to help box out the big man after 'drew and pau (the ONE (bleep) TIME i remember pau moving to help defensively) rotated over to help stop the penetration. terrible shots and dumb play.

pau: incredibly awful game. this is in spite of the efficient shooting. he just didn't look engaged at all on the defensive side of the floor. i remember him moving to help on penetration once in this game, and outside of one very brief stretch to end the second quarter, i can't remember him moving to grab any rebounds or box out. he probably still should have gotten some more low post touches in the third, but still a god awful game. pau was edged out probably only by fish, shannon, and maybe blake in terms of ineptitude tonight.

fisher: somehow, among the many terrible players the lakers had tonight, i think fish takes the award of the worst (bleep) player on the floor, and i don't think it was close. he single handedly killed us in the third quarter, jacking up terrible, early shots in the offense that bricked, and all of which lead to fast breaks and scores on the other end. iirc, the lead went from 6 to 14 off of his terrible decision making. his defense was crap.

blake: after a string of decent to very good games (for his role, of course), this was a huge stinker. absent minded on defense, and rushing shots on offense. he needed to take some more time to get his feet set and maybe take a rhythm dribble to shoot. and another laker with some terrible decisions on passes.


'drew has been the only laker to really show up the past two or three games. if we're just going to tank the rest of our regular season games, someone get 'drew the memo so he doesn't risk injuring himself trying to dominate a game the rest of the lakers have no interest in winning.

[SladeRider]

This part of the season is real hard to judge the Lakers on because the schedule has caught up with them now. Their playing a ton of games in a short amount of time and I think most teams would struggle playing the number of games the Lakers are playing the number of days they are.

I haven' checked the schedule buif the Lakers get 2 days off between games, I would expect them to turn it around but having B2B's and one day between games isn't giving the team much chance to catch their breath, while I don't like making excuses, this is what is happening and you won't see this in the playoffs so it's hard to judge the Lakers at the moment.
_________________
"This is a comptitive city. We're used to winning titles, not just winning games and being in the first round. We want to win championships. Now's the time.", "do something, and do it now."
- Kobe Bryant

[E=MC²]

^ I'm not worried about the Lakers effort when playoffs come. They will be fine. The problem is they are blowing the HCA against Boston and Miami right now.

[The_Joker]

At this point, I think Phil should seriously considered going with just a 3-man rotation of Kobe/Artest/Barnes at SG/SF, which is interchangeable. The only way to play defense these days is to play the offensive player really tight, but that means Brown will get beat every time, and that's pretty much been what's happening. Barnes will at least be able to stay with SOME SGs, has better 3-range, and will have an advantage on the glass.

Seriously, there is not one thing that Brown does better than Barnes, except for ball-handling. But Brown does not dribble well enough for that to be any kind of an advantage.

We can afford Fisher to be a liability on both ends and quite possibly Blake, but Brown is just too much. And really, we can't do anything about the PG position anyway, unless Phil wants to go with Barnes, but I doubt it.

These days, if you want to play legit defense on a 6'3 guy, then you had better put a 6'7 or 6'8 guy on him. If you try to matchup 6'3 against 6'3, then you're going to get beat.

[mhan00]

[magic_bryant]

DB TALKED BAD ABOUT GASOL!!!! HE HAD (bleep) 18 AND 7 REBOUNDS! HE WAS VERY GOOD!!!
_________________
Stephon Marbury on Kobe: "He's the only person on 'dis earth that can do 'dat. He guards people, like shuts 'em down. Then, to do 'dat on 'da offensive end. It's like 'Damn, I can't score on him AND he about to bust my ass."

[mhan00]

[OregonLakerGuy]

That had to be painful. Thanks DB

[OregonLakerGuy]

[Defender]

Why can't Blake make a damn open shot?

[July]

Its doesn't matter who we will play in the Final.. We will 3-Peat.

Let go Lakers!

[angrypuppy]

Thanks DB.

I'm just disgusted with the PG play last night.

Fish led the way by being selfish, taking shots that were well outside of his comfort zone and early in the shot clock. His defense was absolutely turnstile and cringe worthy. All in all, I blame him for leading by example, setting the table for Blake.

Blake simply refused to lead. By jacking up the threes, errant or not he was encouraging Shannon to do likewise. Blake wasn't setting up the offense. At least Sasha would set up a sideline triangle before lapsing into a gunner; Blake doesn't even bother with that perfunctory gesture.

Shannon is like Farmar in his mindset. While it is Blake's responsibility to organize the defense (at least primarily) Shannon should be surveying the floor to find an open teammate or exploit a mismatch. But that's not Shannon... he's staring at that rim so he can jack a long jumper. It doesn't help that he's a streaky and oftentimes poor shooter. He is who he is though. We've seen his limitations. It is up to the PG to help set up the offense and reign him in.

[B_P]

[sonn]

[RVCdesigns]

Thanks Db, what a champion-esque display.

[Klone_dd]

I feel sorry for DB for having to stomach this game. I couldn't bear to watch it myself.

[Gandalf]

[DancingBarry]

[Gandalf]

[CGLR]