HORNETS -at- LAKERS - 11/06 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Open Looks From Three... The Lakers got sucked into the interior and torched from the perimeter on their way to the 118-104 home loss to the Hornets.

The Lakers played Peja stupidly, leaving him defensively too often and never challenging him off the dribble on the other end. He drained a series of threes for 17 points in the third quarter. He finished with 36 points and set a new career high in threes. He went 10-13 from three, just 2-8 from the rest of the floor. Sit on his shot, make him a passer, and make him play D. Don't leave him when he's got it going.

"He knocked down his shots, to his credit, but we did blow it defensively," said Farmar. "We let Chris Paul do whatever he wanted."

Chris Paul also went for a career night with 21 assists. Our pick and roll defensive schemes were no where near as aggressive with traps and rotations. Guys seemed continually out of synch. Some credit to Paul, but some very weak, soft D with bad decisions, and the dribble penetration killed us.

Both Kwame (bursitis in his right heel) and Mo (sore lower back) joined Lamar on the IR list for this game. The Lakers missed Kwame's pick and roll D, but the guys out there could have done better.


Kobe -- -- The Lakers were down by 7 with 3:30 left in the first quarter before Kobe took his first shot. You might like a little more early on, but the Lakers lost the game defensively. For his part on that end, he was aggressive, blocking shots on help D...sometimes a bit too aggressive. Some turnovers and poor shots. Kobe scored 28 points on 11-20 shooting (2-6 from three), 6 boards, 7 assists with 4 turnovers and 3 blocks. He tossed a pass out of bounds trying to wrap it around a defender. He waited too long to give the ball to Ronny on the break and it resulted in a turnover. Great help D rejection under the hoop, swatting the shot out of bounds. He swished a 20-footer from out top on his first attempt. Weak pass from the corner and it resulted in points the other way. He swished an elbow jumper. He forced a three over a double team and bricked. He carried the ball on an iso dribble, then got a delay of game call. He missed a layup, got it back and hit a fade before the shotclock went off. He sank a long baseline jumper next time down, just beating the shotclock again. He rejected West under the hoop. He got tapped on a short jumper in the lane. He whipped a no-look pass as he cut across the lane to Ronny in transition for a dunk. He found Luke cross court for a three. He drew a foul on Paul along the sideline, getting continuation for three FTs on his heave (some question whether he was actually touched), he made all three to tie the game. He had 11 points, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks at the half. He missed a long jumper, quick in the set. He hit an open baseline turnaround. He hit Mihm for the jumper off the two-man game. He lost Peterson with a between-the-legs dribble and scored a layup. Poor return feed to Mihm and it went out of bounds. He found Ronny for a wing jumper. Overly aggressive D, he got burned and it led to a Hornets three. He drilled a three to answer Peja's three at the other end. He attacked from the top off the key, drew a whistle and flipped in an And-1 over his head, he made the FT. He chucked up a quick three, not getting his legs under and missed short. He hit a wing three to cut the lead to 6 with 5 minutes left. He missed a three next time down. He clanked a three, way short from the wing. He missed a runner on the break. He scored a couple late layups on the break.

Luke -- -- He and Vlad got torched by Peja. They were sagging to help, but when Peja is going off, at some point you need to just take that option away and let others play D. Offensively, he rarely challenged Peja and missed too many open looks. Luke finished with 7 points on 3-8 shooting, 5 assists, 4 rebounds in 29 minutes. He missed a baseline jumper on his first touch. He saved a miss shot with some hustle and it led to a DFish score. He missed an open 17-footer in transition. He overpowered Peja too easily off the dribble and scored a layup (more please). He attacked Peja several minutes later and found Bynum for a score. He hit a three off a cross-court feed from Kobe. He missed an open FT jumper. He missed an open three, short and it led to a bustout score on the other end. He threw away a post up attempt and it led to a three at the other end. A rare attack on Peja off the dribble and he drew another foul. He ran the two-man with Bynum, threw it up high and Drew dunked the oop. He sagged off Peja in transition and gave up a three. He scored a late layup. "You have that urge to go rotate and it's kind of a tough decision whether you stay home or go help, and tonight we got burnt," Luke said. Yep.

DFish -- -- Fish was in the heart of the storm defensively and probably missed Kwame's help D on the screens. Paul collapsed us continually off the screens. Shooting-wise, a so-so game. He scored 9 points on 4-10 shooting in 24 minutes. Quick attack in early offense and he scored a layup with his right to start the game. He then got run over by Chandler and drew a charge. He missed a jumper, Luke saved it to Mihm and Mihm found Fish in the lane for a layup. He missed an 18-footer pulling up in transition. He missed another long jumper. He ran the two-man game with Mihm, throwing him a bullet from the three line for a dunk. He missed a layup. He picked up his third foul on a reach and had to sit. He hustled to save a long offensive board, got the ball back and hit a three from the corner to start the second half scoring. He missed a long wing jumper. He took a backhand feed from Kobe, attacked off a little hesitation move and banked high off the glass. He drew a moving pick on Chandler. He got the ball poked loose in transition traffic and it resulted in a score the other way. He missed a three short.

Turiaf -- -- Ronny mixed it up fairly well. Offensively, he hit from the perimeter as well as finished in the paint. He scored 15 points on 7-12 shooting, grabbed 7 boards and dished 2 assists. He missed a jumper on his first touch. Ronny fouled West on a post play just a minute and a half into the game, but managed to stay out of foul trouble (only picking up one more later in the half and was clean the rest of the game). He missed a jumphook short. He cleaned up a Luke miss, dunking with both hands. He took a feed at the elbow, power dribbled then threw down an And-1 dunk, he made the FT. He tipped in a missed jumper going to the front of the rim. He got tied up on a defensiver board then tipped the jumpball way too strong out of bounds. He got caught in the air and threw a brick off the backboard. He dunked off a bullet feed from Kobe in transition. He tried to hammer a difficult lob pass on the break instead of controlling it or guiding it in, total brick. He drew a charge on West. Great wide receiver-type catch at the end of the half with a second left and he put the ball in under the hoop, but the clock just expired while it still was barely on his fingertips. He had 9 points and 4 rebounds at the half. He hit a face up jumper from the post when Kobe helped put a body on his man. He swished an open wing jumper. He scored a layup trailing the break.

Mihm -- -- With Kwame out, Mihm got the start. This was probably one of the bigger issues with our D, although Mihm did a reasonable job contesting shots around the hoop. Chris scored 8 points on 4-7 shooting, grabbed 6 boards and blocked 3 shots in 17 minutes. He hit Fish in the lane for a layup. He swished a long jumphook in the post. He missed a jumphook in the lane. He missed a 15-footer. He dunked off the two-man game with Fish. He swatted Peterson under the hoop, gathered the board, threw the outlet away, then fouled. He missed a jumphook over Chandler to start the second half. He swished a 15-footer off the two-man game. He took an offensive board over West, got it back, hung against Chandler and banked in the one-hander. He packed West under the hoop for a jumpball.

Bynum -- -- Offensively, a weak game from Drew, shooting just 4-10 for 8 points. Defensively, he had issues with the pick and roll, he did managed to block a couple shots, but he also didn't challenge a few he probably should have. He outrebounded Chandler 13 to 9, which is notable since Phil had told Bynum last year to watch how Chandler boards. So, Drew did well in that aspect, and Chandler didn't get an offensive board. Bynum also had a couple of blocks. Very Chandler-esque stats from Bynum tonight. He lost Ely in transition and gave up a dunk, poor D. He missed a jumphook short. He used that long wingspan to pull down a miss by Luke, took a dribble and dunked with authority, letting out a little scream on the way back up court. He missed a long jumper with the shotclock low. He roofed Chandler from behind to reject a shot in the paint, very nice. He one-handed a short shot over Chandler in the lane. He had 4 points and 9 rebounds at the half. He missed a jumphook and wanted the foul. He missed a jumphook, got it back and missed again. He was called for a travel in the post. He dunked off the two-man game with Vlad. He swatted dribble penetration. He dunked the alley-oop from Luke off the two-man game. He missed a baseline one-hander. "Chandler was there to meet him on a lot of shots," Phil said, "and I thought he rushed things a little bit. So, it's a good game for him to learn from. His rebounding was really good."

Farmar -- 8) -- Some good minutes off the bench, wish he could have knocked down one of his threes and a layup in the thick of the fight. Jordan had a -4 compared to Fisher's -14 on the night. Farmar scored 11 points on 5-12 shooting (0-3 from three), he had 3 assists with 3 turnovers in 21 minutes. He missed a wing jumper. He took an inbounds with a second left, drew contact on BJax then swished the baseline And-1 just barely getting it out of his hands before the quarter expired, he made the FT. He got rejected in the post. After a steal under the hoop, he attacked and kicked to Vlad for a three. He overpassed in transition, giving it up to Sasha for a missed three instead of finishing at the front of the rim. He crossed over Peja in the lane and scored a layup around him in transition. He missed a three. He ballfaked and missed a layup on the break. He got a goaltend call finger-rolling and getting rejected. He pushed out the break next time down, exploded into the paint and scored an And-1, he missed the FT. He exploded off the pinch post handoff and scored a layup. He airballed trying to beat the shotclock out of a timeout. He missed a three the next time down.

Radmanovic -- -- Peja drilled him. Again. And. Again. For his part, Vlad scored 11 points on 4-7 shooting (3-5 from three) in 18 minutes. Decent punch scoring wise, but he gave it away on the other end and had too many turnovers (3). He threw a lob pass to Kobe too low and it was picked off. He missed a three, then a jumphook on the same possession. He had an entry pass picked off. He swished a rainbow three from in front of the bench off a drive and kick from Farmar. He swished a wing three in transition (looked like he started heading back down court right after releasing it). He missed his next three short. Out of a timeout, horrible in bounds pass from Vlad right over top of Bynum to the Hornets. Peja hit a three over him on one end and Vlad answered with a long two a couple seconds later on the other. He left Peja and gave up another three next time down. Peja hit a third three over him in transition. Vlad swished a three from the top of the key to start the fourth. Good work on the two-man to get it back to Bynum for a dunk.

Cook -- -- Cook missed all three of his attempts beyond the arc. He faced up in the post and knocked down a jumper for his 2 points in 13 minutes. Another nothing game from Cook.

Crittenton -- -- He came in the game with 2:34 in the half when both Farmar and Fish had foul troubles. He double dribbled bringing the ball up to his other hand. He got backdoored by Paul (Crit's biggest defensive weakness). He gave up a layup to Paul at the end of the half.

Vujacic -- -- With Mo out, Phil ran Sasha 10:38. He scored 5 points on 1-3 shooting and 2 assists. He drew FTs in transition, he made both. He missed a wide open three. He spun on the dribble at midcourt to lose a man, then found Vlad for the three. He sank a three from the top of the key. He missed a wide open corner three. He leaked out before we secured a board and the long rebound was gathered by the Hornets.

Phil -- -- Phil makes the decision on whether LO plays on Friday. We've survived, playing .500 ball without him, but it will be good to get him back in the mix... The Lakers trailed 32-22 after the first, playing soft on both ends... The Bynum, Cook, Vlad, Sasha, Farmar unit went on a 10-0 run to cut the lead, then they gave up 6 straight with poor D. Some pretty soft defensive units on the floor tonight... The Lakers chipped back at the Hornets to trail 55-57 at the half. Some very soft D, particularly off the pick and roll, unlike other games. Too many easy layups. The bench had 22 points at the half (15 in the second half)... The coaches wanted to slow the pace down to prevent giving up easy hoops and continue to get the ball into the paint... Lakers were getting killed by turnovers and transition scores in the third, giving up open, easy looks. The Hornets scored 22 points on 16 Laker turnovers... The Lakers won the battle of the paint, 52-36. They won the battle of the boards, 45-43. They even had 27 assists on their 47.3 percent shooting. The Hornets 14-25 from beyond the arc killed them... Phil on Peja: "You just have to take it out of his hands," he said. "Eventually you just have to keep the ball away from him."...

[TooCool]

Good post again DB.

You live by the 3, you'll die by the 3. But crappy defense and allowing them to shoot those 3s pretty much says it all. Plus, they were hitting it.
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[Siguy]

Thanks again for another recap. The work is always outstanding. We need to make Chris Paul shoot jumpers. Yes he had a lot of picks, but he didn't make a lot of open shots. We can't let him run into the paint or grab our defenders just to pass the ball at the last second. You have to make him nail jumpers.

Lessons to Learn:
When the other team shoots 20 of 22 from the free throw line, their point guard has 21 assists, and their best shooter goes 10 of 13 from three, we're not gonna win.

Not much more to say. The Hornets are good, but they're very fragile. We played terrible defense. Bynum had a lot of trouble offensively, Cook missed every open three, blah blah blah, but we really lost this defensively.

Here's why I'm not worried about the Hornets though: They have four good players and then the drop off is staggering. If Paul, Peja, Chandler, or West are hurt at any point this year, the team will fall apart and lose a bunch of games. Why? Because their bench is garbage. Bobby Jackson is the best guy on their bench, maybe Rasual Butler. The other people are guys like Hilton Armstrong and, umm, jeez I can't even remember their names. So yeah, the Hornets will be good when they're healthy, but as soon as one of those four really injury prone guys goes down, they're gonna stink up the joint. It's still our playoff spot to lose.

[A Mad Chinaman]

It is good to read your breakdowns - again, an excellent job.

Questions (since I didn't see the entire game):
1) Why didn't DFish forced Chris Paul to play more "D" being more aggressive defensively and/or why wasn't there more P&R that forced Chris Paul to defend a bigger man?

2) PJ stated that they had tried various defensive schemes, I didn't see any - did you? Especially noteworthy since PJ shared that he wasn't "too disappointed" in the game.

3) Do you think that Farmar or Sasha have the ability to pressure CP full court to prevent him from having a full head of steam when entering the front court forcing the Lakers' D to collapse?

4) Why didn't the Lakers play Chris Paul for the pass forcing him to be a shooter?

5) Given Kobe's defensive prowess, could a strategy be to have him briefly play, at times, the "hot" player - such as Peja in the 3rd quarter and/or more of him defending Chris Paul in the 4th quarter.

[Dr. Laker]

[8750]

thanks, DB
are you not tempted sometimes to repost what you wrote last year or two seasons ago?... same rollercoaster between great games and bad games... same lack of consistency, same defensive weakness, same bad habits against p&r... same old phil jackson who doesn't read the game at all... let chris paul take some outside shots and put kobe on peja, it's not so difficult...

[Mation]

Thanks DB. Really learn a lot from your posts.

Yikes at some of those passes from Radmanovic tonight.
Good to see that Turiaf, Farmar, and Bynum are contributing on either the offensive or defensive end on a consistent basis. Too bad it can't be both for some of them.

Looking forward to Friday. Timberwolves are going to be hungry. Odom and Kwame back in, but what about Evans?

[DancingBarry]

Franco - I was having deja vu big time in this write up. There was a specific game last year (I think) that this reminded me exactly of, but I couldn't nail it down in my head.

[DancingBarry]

[DancingBarry]

A Mad Chinaman - All good questions to which there are few answers.

1. Fish was actually very aggressive to start the game, just not effective. JoFar can make him work more, if needed.

2. Whatever things they tried on Paul, how come we didn't see traps like we had been seeing? Or Kobe? I don't know, I'd have to look at it again because it must have been subtle.

3. I don't think it would have made too much difference. I do wish they wouldn't have let them get away with so many rolling of the ball up to court to maximize their shotclock.

4. Don't know.

5. Yeah, Kobe on one of them would have helped.

[KOBE 2.0]

I did not like how Luke played this game at all, he diffenently needs to get moved to the bench once Odom comes back.

and as usual Cook plays like a durf out there whats gonna take this guy not to get in the game?

[limchrc]

Thanks for the recap.

[Sage_10]

Really disappointed about this one.
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"You Must Be Willing To Give Up That Which Can Be Lost In Order To Gain That Which Cannot Be Lost." - FORTUNE COOKIE

[prisma8slg]

thanks DB

[TACH]

DB!

[Rick12322]

Good post DB. Three things I'd of liked to see our coach stress:

1) When I saw Luke driving on Peja, twice drawing fouls I was thinking now that was a good game plan. You know what they say, don't fix it if it ain't broke.

2) Fisher cannot keep up with Chris Paul. Enough with this prejudice for veterans. Jordan's young and should have been out there every minute on Chris Paul.

3) When if MO or Peja show their hot on those wings, stay at home on them and let the bigs do their jobs in the lane.

[20,000]

Pretty disappointing game throughout. You can't pin it on one person.

And Peja was just hot. Sometimes no matter what defense you throw at someone, if they are hot it won't matter.

Oh well, one loss, toss it out, let's move on.
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Courage doesn't always roar.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying...'I will try again tomorrow.'

[CorkyTomjanovich]

Phil needs to stop messing around with his rotations. The fact that he started Mihm, who was absolutely awful on defense, tells us he likes playing around. Cook is also amazingly bad on defense and serves no purpose.

The reason the Lakers lost the game is because they were paying way too much attention to Chris Paul. The Hornets want you to double him and pay a ton of attention to him. That way he can use his quickness and passing skills to pick you apart. If they would have played him smart, they would have had a good chance at a win.

Terrible defense but terrible coaching as well.
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JVG FOR LAKERS HEAD COACH

[oldschool32]

Offense will come and go, but these guys have to learn to bring the same defensive efficiency, itensity, and rotations every game. Very poor rotations in my opinion. As for the offensive side, they looked a little lost today. They didn't look like they were on the same page at all.

[Freakout]

[hi_ma]

Peja Killed LO in indy a couple a years ago. Hes good. He everything we need Vlad to be
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The lakers will get prince.

[RCS926]

I'm disappointed in the loss, but I'm not too upset because the Lakers played hard out there. They lost because they didn't play smart, but a lot of their mistakes are easily fixable. The biggest problem was the defense that Luke and Vlad played on Peja. Both Luke and Vlad are instinctive help defenders, but both of them have to know who they are guarding. I'm not really surprised by Vlad's brain farts, but I expect more from Luke. IMO, the barrage of 3s that Vlad gave up at the end of the 3rd really put the Lakers in a bind. The game should've been close to even at the start of the 4th. Instead, the Lakers were trailing by 9.

Overall, I still appreciate the effort from all our guys (except Cook). Here are a few things that stood out to me:

Kobe - He showed great patience out there. Even when the team was down and struggling to hit wide open shots (Luke and Cook), he still stayed within the offense. His hustle and defense has been tremendous, and it's good to see the entire team following suit.

Ronnie - He played his best game last night, and it was good to see his jumper falling. I love the way he finishes at the rim. However, he needs to be smarter with his decision making especially when he faces up.

Farmar - I said this in another thread, but he looks so much faster than he was last year. He doesn't have a great first step, so that speed doesn't help him too much in the halfcourt. However, in transition, he can be deadly because his speed really puts the defense on its heels. It's great to see him attacking the rim. You can tell though that he was worn out trying to run through screens and stay with Paul.

Bynum - He didn't have a great offensive night, but I loved his rebounding. He looked like a man among boys when he was grabbing those boards, and that's saying a lot when he's going up against one of the top rebounders in the game in Chandler. His jump hook wasn't dropping, but I still like the fact that his shot looks so much smoother this year compared to last year. This will be the year that his jump hook becomes automatic. Once he establishes that foundational offensive move, he'll be able to work on the secondary moves that will truly make him a dangerous post presence.

Vlad - Defense lapses aside, I love his aggressiveness from the perimeter. His defensive recognition needs to improve immediately (with regards to guarding shooters), but it's great that opposing teams will have to worry about our own sharpshooter or suffer the consequences...

[wolfpaclaker]

Unfortunately when I saw NO (3-0) and remembered that Scott's defensive strategies had worked in the past, not suprised at this loss.

Lakers were missing 2 of their best defensive players - and starting Mihm which in part led to a 32 point 1st qtr for the Hornets was a mistake IMO.

The Lakers have to get over this one quickly, practice hard these next 2 days and hopefully Odom plays on Friday night. I can't help but feel we'd be a game better in the win column had Odom played in Houston + NO games. The way Peja and T-Mac have owned us has really annoyed me because Luke is just not the best matchup for them.

What's disconcerning is the how many times they left Peja open. I mean ok, you give him 6-7 opportunities to make those shots. But at some time, the adjustment needed to be made to stop doubling or collapsing down low with our SF's (Luke+Rad). That adjustment was never made. Chris Paul's penetration without a pass leads to 2 points. Chris Paul's kick outs from penetration after a defense collapses leads to 3's. Sure, ussually it is better to collapse, but there comes a point in the game when you realize a player is really feeling it. Peja was that player. We should have acknowledged that. We didn't. So we lost.

[Mr. EiGhTy-OnE]

phils 4th qtr rotations


i do however think mihm and bynum did a good job of keeping Chandler off the glass. but when Peja shoots 10/13 from 3, there isnt many boards.



cut cook! he obviously wasnt gifted with hops, but he doesnt even try to box out or get position. he either pushes off or goes over the back every single time. the one play that stands out from last night is the epitome of matador defense. he let the guy go baseline and he made a little swipe at the ball and let the man go by to score. he also missed a big WIDE OPEN 3.
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"When (Kobe) gets you on life support, he won't give you mouth to mouth. HE PULLS THE PLUG." -stu

[Rick12322]

I should add that I thought there were a number of times when our players were fouled and no whistle, yet the whistle blew freely for NO.