HORNETS -at- LAKERS - 1/6 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

L.O. Out, Lakers T.K.O.'d in the Fourth... The Lakers gave up 40 points to David West with brainlock on the defensive end. It's the knee lock, however, in tonight's 116-105 loss to the Hornets that has everyone concerned.

Lamar Odom's knee buckled on him as he defended a Chris Paul drive late in the first half. The hyper-extension didn't look severe, but it did look painful. He didn't return to the game and an MRI will be scheduled. Farmar out. Luke out. Now Odom. The injuries are piling up...it must be January.

"It's that time of the year where the injury bugs start hitting teams," Kobe said. "Hopefully, this will be the end of it."

What will likely determine home court advantage this year is health. You suffer on both ends when you lose your roster flexibility. Right now, the Laker depth is being put to a test, and they need to bend and not break.

What was the problem defensively? The Lakers sagged off West too much. He had his jumper going, and we needed to play him tight to drive and send help to make him a passer off the dribble. Instead, it was jumper after jumper after jumper, and West didn't have a single assist in the game. Nearly all of his field goals were from the perimeter, just shooting over our defenders on iso. In the rare event we made him drive, we had Bynum helping and forcing misses or a guard coming over to disrupt. It was all too rare, however.

Offensively, as the saying goes...you live by the three, you die by the three. The Lakers were 16-34 from three. "I don't think 34 three point shots is the kind of play we want to play," Phil said. He wanted the ball inside more and executing from there.

Kobe was in the zone for most of the game. He completely lit fire in the third quarter, scoring 20 points on 8-9 shooting. "I thought we burned a lot of energy in that third quarter," Phil said digging out of a hole. The moment he sat Kobe in the fourth quarter, the Hornets went on a run. It eventually ended up being a 15-0 run that took control of the game.


Kobe -- -- Kobe was having one of those games where the hoop looked big. He started off hot, then got hotter in the third quarter. He was 6-7 from three, and it looked like he was even fouled on several of those with no call. (Not a lot of love from the refs at home with the Hornets getting 37 attempts and the Lakers 22. Despite being aggressive and on fire, Kobe didn't get a single trip to the line in the second half.) The Hornets started to send more doubles to get the ball out of his hands. Kobe fed teammates for a lot of open looks and led the Lakers with assists. A few teammates were a little too eager to settle for threes instead of get the ball closer to the hoop. So, this is were you saw a lot of the live and die by three. We could have been more efficient wtih how we used all the attention he was getting. Tough loss, but Kobe is already looking forward to getting back at it. "I'm anxious to see how we respond to it," he said afterward. The Stats: He scored 39 points on 14-22 shooting (6-7 from three, 5-6 from the line) to go with 4 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 block, 4 turnovers and 1 foul in 42 minutes. The Action: He lost his man with a behind-the-back dribble and hit the wing jumper. He attacked down the lane and hit the And-1 floater, he made the FT. He sank the pull-up elbow jumper. He missed a jumper, looked like he was hit. He attacked, drew a whistle and then Posey hit him after the whistle in the head (Kobe missed the tech FT), he then made the two foul FTs. He missed an elbow jumper. He had back-to-back turnovers getting trapped on the left sideline. He drew an off-the-ball foul under the hoop, he made both FTs. He stepped out and drained a wing three. He took a 50-foot pass from Pau on the in-bounds and stuck the running 40-footer at the halftime buzzer. He had 17 points on 5-7 shooting (2-2 from three, 5-6 from the line). Second Half: He swished a 16-footer, pulling up on the dribble. He worked the Bynum screen next time down and hit the wing jumper. Next time down he hit Fish for a three. He swished an elbow jumper out of the timeout. He swished a long three on his next touch, in the zone. He pulled up off a screen, took some contact, but still hit the three on his next shot. Next time down, he took a handoff and hit another three, again taking some contact. He worked off the Bynum screen and hit baseline jumper. He pulled up at three, then jump passed to Pau for the dunk. He missed a jumper, not getting a good follow through that time. He got the ball off the high screen from Bynum after stepping back behind the line and drained the three on the next trip down. He had 20 points in the third on 8-9 shooting. He missed a layup on a drive and was sent to the floor. He took contact and airballed thinking he was getting the And-1 that never came. He attacked the paint and finger rolled through traffic for a score. He hit Ariza for the open three. He sat with 8:30 left and a 5-point lead, it was tied a minute later. He missed a baseline jumper. He attacked and threw it away. He missed a heave from the three. He roofed Butler taking the ball away with some great recovery to a breakaway layup, he just yanked it down and took it away.

Gasol -- -- He got torched by West. As mentioned, we sagged off him far too much and gave up jumper after jumper. Pau also did poor job establishing himself in the first half, not making West work on the other end. One of those rare, poor, two-way games from Pau. We should have gone to him more in the post for sure. The Hornets were collapsing a lot whenever he got the ball. We just didn't work it enough after Pau struggled early. Again, a little on the defense: Phil mentioned the Hornets attacking from a different spot. West was able to hit a lot of shots from the high elbow area. This is an angle that makes it difficult for our help D scheme. The more an attack comes from the wing, the easier our help scheme works. This was from the high elbow area where we typically try to pack the paint and make people attack and pass or force shots over tight D. We never established that. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 3-8 shooting (4-4 from the line) to go with 8 boards, 5 assists, 2 turnovers and 5 fouls in 42 minutes. The Action: He missed a turnaround. He drew a double and kicked to Fisher for three. He missed a 10-footer short. He attacked and kicked to Fish for a three. He missed a hook short. He didn't score on 0-4 shooting and had 3 boards. Second Half: He hit a turnaround in the post. He up-faked West and drew FTs. He hit a hook after Kobe got the D scrambled. He crashed the glass and drew FTs, he made both. He dunked off the Kobe jump pass. He missed a face-up wing jumper.

Bynum -- -- Offensively, we didn't establish the post. Bynum had some looks early -- and even had some great position in the first quarter -- but he struggled to capitalize. He should be able to get that low position against a lot of team. Let's see it more, please. Later in the game, he didn't try to establish it again. We also did a poor job trying to set him up for scores. Defensively, some confusion between Bynum and DFish on the two-man D early on. Paul made us pay. Our few good defensive sequences were on the rare occasion we made West drive and Bynum was waiting under the hoop to challenge. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 2-7 shooting (3-4 from the line) to go with 8 boards, 1 assist, 1 block, 2 turnovers and 4 fouls in 35 minutes. The Action: He missed a jumphook after getting good position. He grabbed a tough pass in traffic from Fish and drew FTs, he made one. Good low position again and he was fouled. He got dislodged on the defensive glass and then fouled Chandler after giving up the board. He missed Pau open under the hoop, then drop-stepped and missed with his left. He hit a turnaround jumper in the post. Nice power move in the paint, faking left spinning right and dunking over Armstrong. He missed in front of the rim, got it back and drew the foul, he made both FTs. He had 7 points on 2-5 shooting and 5 boards. Second Half: He missed a jumphook in the right block. He took contact and missed in the post. Cheap foul as West exaggerated contact and Bynum was called for a charge, erasing a hoop. Phil pointed to this as a momentum changer as the Hornet lead would have been just 6.

Radmanovic -- -- "I'm not giving it up," Phil said of the "internal decision" about what was going on with Vlad and not starting him the last game. He listed a lot of Vlad's good points (shooting, rotating on D, passing) and then said "that's as far as I will go." So, it sounded like there was some negatives he was withholding. It's much easier summed by saying you have Vlad the Impaler and then you have Space Cadet. Unfortunately, tonight, we had Space Cadet, featuring uncontested two-handed dunk misses. Outside of Lamar, our front court really sucked it up. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-7 shooting (0-2 from three, 1-1 from the line) to go with 4 boards and 2 fouls in 24 minutes. The Action: He missed an open three on the Kobe kickout. He bricked an easy layup off the Bynum handoff. He missed an elbow jumper. He missed an open wing jumper on the break. He scored an And-1 layup off the Ariza steal by trailing the break, he made the FT. He was 1-5 for 3 points. Second Half: Uncontested two-handed dunk and he bricked it. He missed a corner three.

Fisher -- -- Wow, that was a lot of three shooting (6-13 from behind the arc). In fact, it was a career high in attempts and one less than his career high for makes, too. That was the only thing he made tonight, though. Again, anything in the paint or around the rim was a brick. He eventually got a tech on a missed layup on the break. Ugggh. I wanted to give him a tech, too. Our two-man D struggled throughout the game. DFish and the bigmen weren't on the same page from the start and Paul feasted. He was a -16. The Stats: He scored 19 points on 6-18 shooting (6-12 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 6 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 42 minutes. The Action: He posted up, missed, got it back and missed the point-blank putback while still in the air. He attacked baseline and set up Drew for FTs. He drained a three on a kickout from Pau. He swished another three off the drive and kick from Pau. He drew a moving screen call on Chandler. He scooped up a ball poked loose by Ariza, attacked and missed a layup, but Ariza put it back in. He missed a three. He missed a jumper up against the shotclock, got his own rebound and drew FTs on the attack, he made one. He erased a Hornet break taking a charge with some excellent antcipation (he took a hard hit in the process). He bricked an open three. He had 7 points on 2-9 shooting and 4 assists. Second Half: He swished the open wing three off the Kobe kickout. He swished a three when Kobe drew a double. He missed a corner three. He pushed out the break and missed a layup then picked up a tech when he wanted a foul (bad, bad play by DFish late in the game). He swished a corner three. He missed a wing three. He sank another three.

Lamar -- -- Lamar buckled his right knee late in the second half, hyper-extending it. He tried to run a bit at halftime to see if he could go and decided to return to the locker room. He won't play tomorrow. Laker fans will be holding their collective breath until the outcome of the MRI. Prior to that, he was balling in this game. He was causing the Hornets all kinds of trouble offensively with some good play inside and out. And, again, he was helping tighten up our D on the other end. We missed his presense in the second half. He led the team with a +5. The Stats: He scored 12 points on 4-7 shooting (1-1 from three, 3-5 from the line) to go with 1 board, 3 assists and 3 fouls in 13 minutes. The Action: He attacked with speed past Ely and drew FTs, he made one. He swished a sideline jumper off the dribble. He attacked to his right and missed a fade with his right. He attacked to his left and hit a layup. He missed a baseline jumper way short. He sized up Chandler, attacked and drew his third foul of the half, he made one FT. He swished a three off the swing pass from DFish. He took the Fish drive and dish and scored an And-1 layup with a quick attack, he made the FT. He buckled his knee when Paul attacked the paint and Lamar had to go to the locker room (he had 3 fouls). Good first stint with 12 points on 4-7 shooting despite the fouls. Second Half: He did not play.

Ariza -- -- Way too much settling for threes by Trevor, especially in the second half. That's all he took. He had open lanes in front of him on some of those, too. He needs to move off that line before the pass comes and become a threat around the hoop. Phil put him on Paul defensively in the second quarter and that helped shut Paul down for a brief bit. That was really our best match up for Paul all night. We should have explored it a bit more. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 3-10 shooting (2-7 from three) to go with 4 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover and no fouls in 27 minutes. (Looks like he got robbed on a blocked shot stat.) The Action: He poked a ball loose to Fisher, followed the break and tipped in the Fisher missed layup. He missed a three with the shotclock low. He lunged on his man to knock the ball into the backcourt, he dove to the floor under the hoop to recover it and fed a trailing Vlad for the And-1. He got tapped on a drive. Nice recovery to Paul to block his shot. He swished a sideline three on the Kobe kickout. Second Half: He missed a corner three. He missed another three badly. Good D on West to force a miss. He swished the open sideline three on the kickout from Kobe. He swiped the ball from his man to ignite a break that Fish choked. He missed a corner three. He missed another wide open three with a lane in front of him to attack.

Vujacic -- -- He was ticked about the way the refs took him out of the game early on. His third foul in the first quarter looked completely bogus. "It was disgusting," Sasha said. "Whatever happened, the way it happened. I don't want to say no futher. I just want to talk to Mitch, my agent and send it to the league because what happened tonight. Hopefully it's not going to happen again." Sasha was particularly ticked at Joey Crawford. He looked hot to start the game, but was ice cold by the time he returned late in the second half. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 2-5 shooting (1-4 from three) to go with 1 board and 5 fouls in 10 minutes. The Action: Right off the bench and he swished a corner three out of the timeout. He swished a 20-footer on his next attempt. He picked up 2 fouls and gave up a hoop, however, in three possessions trying to defend Paul. He then picked up his third foul (looked bogus) a minute later. He had to sit after 3 minutes. Second Half: He missed a three left open. He airballed to Powell for a score. He missed a three.

Powell -- -- Powell is going to get some extended PT with Lamar out. Time for him to step up and fill the gap. He won't give us the defensive flexibility Lamar has, but he can hit the boards and hopefully his shots to give the team a boost. He started the fourth quarter for Lamar. Like others before him, he gave up space and jumpers to West. He needs to make sure he studies his opponent before he enters the game. Instead, he just picked up where others left off. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-2 shooting to go with 4 boards (3 offensive), 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 6 minutes. The Action: Did not play in the first half. Second Half: He traveled after pulling down an offensive board (Stu, asking of that was a crab dribble...see James, LeBron). He took the Sasha airball like a pass and scored a layup. He missed a face-up jumper.

Phil -- -- The Laker offense was sputtering in the post to start. Pau missed several as did Bynum. The Hornets got out to 16-9 lead... The Lakers trailed by 9 when we went to a Bynum, Lamar, Ariza, Kobe, Sasha lineup... The Lakers were outscored 32-26 in the first quarter. Paul had 14 points on 5-6 shooting in the first quarter. The Laker front court was 0-8... The Lakers forced two shotclock violations early in the second quarter on the D end (Paul was out)... Phil went with Ariza on Paul defensively... We tied the game up 50-50 with 2:23 left in the half, but a series of turnovers resulted in easy scores the other way and a 9-0 run... The Lakers hit a couple threes at the end of the half and trailed 61-56. Paul had 23 points on 8-12 shooting and 7 assists. The Hornets shot 54 percent on 21-39 shooting, the Lakers went 18-43, 42 percent... The Laker coaches wanted better offensive execution and a better effort controlling Paul... The Hornets pulled out again, but Kobe was on fire and reeled them right back in... The Lakers led 92-89 heading into the fourth... The Lakers were out of fouls with 8:30 left in the fourth and a 99-94 lead. Phil then sat Kobe and the Hornets tied the game a minute later. He returned to the game with 7:10 left and the lead lost...The Hornets run ended up 15-0... The Lakers went 5-21 shooting in the fourth... On the defense against West: "They moved him to a different spot on the floor," Phil said. See Pau's write-up above for more on that...

GameFlow -- LINK -- The 15-0 run in the fourth starts the moment Kobe leave the court.

[Chrome Hearts]

Bah Humbug. Better effort needed from support team tomorrow night.
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RIP mamba

[JUST-MING]

Kobe didn't get a single trip to the line in the second half

That's about as disgusting as our defense against David West.

[Texas_Pete]

Thanks DB. Missed the game.

OT Silver Lining?: At least Boston lost too.

[LakersFan_73]

Disappointing game...

Nice try in the 3rd, but they just ran out of gas.

[bryants2hot2handle]

Thanks DB

[8750]

thanks, DB
the more i see this team, the more i don't like having gasol and bynum together... with them, we are paradoxically very weak in the paint... the more i see andrew bynum, the more i regret danny granger...

[AceFresh]

[MedRomLaker]

Thanks for the cap db, very bleh game to say the least
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11/9/12 the day the brown was flushed down!!!!!!

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

[limchrc]

Thanks. Let's get the W in our next game.

[lakerboy]

at least they have a game today

[dna.]

Bugs squashed us this time around. They wanted it more.

Losing LO is the worst thing about the game by far. We'll have bad games like this (offense seemed worse than a team full of blind old men in wheelchairs for the first half; defense allowed WAYYY too many points) now and then so let's see how we respond, especially with the back-to-back tomorrow.

[Klone_dd]

NO played their perfect game. 2 guys going for 30+ and both with 2x2's. Add in some dubious calls and the Lakers get a loss. One way to break up the Lakers' offensive rhythm is to get to the line often. 37 to 22 in FT attempts.

Poor effort from the bigs. Pau wasn't his steady self and Bynum still can't seem to get his game in gear. The Lakers fell in love with the 3 and believed they could remain hot throughout, so they died with it. The carelessness in the final 1:30 of the 1st half was stupid, but the inability of anyone to hit shots in the 4th after NO started doubling Kobe has gotta be a big concern.

[Rick12322]

I lay a good portion of this loss on the officials, they were absolute crooks in this game committing grandtheft to 17,000 paying fans. Calling the touch fouls on Sasha, while allowing NO to foul the crap out of our guys is just inexcusable and ridiculous.

When Chris Paul drives and purposely throws his body into people, that is not a foul on the defender and those plays should be a ignored. In fact, if your going to call that offensive foul on Bynum(What was that!?) then you call Chris Paul for the same thing everytime he throws his pathetic body into a defender!

So anyways, Sasha was hot, and couldn't stay in the game because of meaningless contact on the perimeter, while Pau, LO, Fisher and Kobe are mugged constantly: that should be enough to arrest this crook Crawford and throw him in jail for 10 years!

[jsi106]

Thanks for the recap. It was very fraustrating watching the same offense sequence failed again and again in 4th quarter. No inside out game, why werent there any timeout by Phil to setup a different offense play? It was obvious to me the team could not figure out on their own how to attack when kobe is triple teamed each time. I will give Phil the space cadet emoticon if there is one

[City_Dawg]

Ohhh that one stung...

Thanks DB.

I hope LO isnt out for too long.
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*sighs*

!...

[Laker's Fan]

IMO we win this game if Phil doesn't go to Powell in the 4th. Putting Bynum on West was the clear answer.
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Austin Reaves keeps his game tight, like Kobe Bryant on game night.

[Omar Little]

This is something I've noticed lately: LA seems to be willing to give jumpers to the opposing 4. With guys like KG, Aldridge, and West, you have to adjust if they're hot. We did with Aldridge, and a bit with KG late, but not with West. I think Lo going out had something to do with it, as our other bigs played real tentatively.

Oh, and 34 3's on a team with Pau, Kobe, and Gasol? Pitiful.

Hey, at least the Celt's choked another one away to a crappy team!
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“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” ― Elie Wiesel

[Alpha]

[lakerjoshua]

"ding"- "Wanna get away for a while? With flights to the Bay Area every 45 minutes "

Seriously, Maybe a trip up north to beat up on Ronnys team will get theese guys going.

Watched the game last night at a local pub. There was an obnoxious Clipper fan sitting next to me. He was gloating about the loss after the game. I responed by saying " Yeah, this loss really hurts. Sixth loss out of 33 games! If the lakers keep playing like this they might loose 16 games this year!" then I politely asked what was his beloved Clippers record? He walked away with a scowel.

[Thugnomoe]

[Phreaker47]

I'll just post my cliff note version of "don't worry, be happy":

- When Paul and West both play like that, they can beat anyone.
- Kobe tried "third gear" and found that it still works
- Refs made a lot of ticky-tack calls, both ways.
- Not as embarrassing as the Bobcats beating the Celtics
- Did we really expect to never lose another home game?

[lakersfreak]

Just got to watch the game on DVR (tough avoiding the news and LG for over 12 hours, ugh).

Thx DB
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