LAKERS -at- SPURS- 11/13 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Yuck... The Lakers dug themselves into a hole with 15 first half turnovers, many of the unforced variety. You can't beat the worst of teams doing that. And when were weren't killing ourselves, Tony Parker picked up where we left off. The Spurs took an easy 107-92 home win.

The Spurs are the definition of "team." They play as a team on both ends. They sacrifice. They play for each other. They have a group intelligence that has defined championship basketball. Popovich and Company have done a great job developing this culture.

In his book Sacred Hoops, Phil writes: "This is the struggle every leader faces: how to get the members of the team who are driven by the quest for individual glory to give themselves over wholeheartedly to the group effort. In other words, how to teach them selflessness."

His Bulls teams defined that. Even his championship Lakers teams did, as players had to sacrifice for Kobe and Shaq and both Kobe and Shaq had to sacrifice a little for each other. It was a battle, and one that eventually was lost, but while Kobe and Shaq did play for each other...they wrecked the league. Yet, while they still sacrificed, the stars imposed their wills. We missed our stars imposing their will on the game offensively tonight.

Kobe had a largely perimeter oriented game and never once shot a free throw. Surely, that can't be by design? What happened to the relentless interior attacks? If he's not going to break down the D (which he should), then we need to go to the post. Establish an inside-out game. We either neglected the post when the easy pass was there, or forced a difficult pass when it wasn't there.

Talent and teamwork are necessary to beat the Spurs. Group intelligence is vital. The players certainly looked like they were willing to do whatever it took and whatever was asked of them, but the group IQ failed them miserably. They looked like a team that didn't know what it wanted to do on either end. The Spurs, quite the opposite. They attacked our weaknesses with their strengths. We didn't. We've got a lot of catching up to do as the season goes on.


Kobe -- -- Kobe's defense has been spectacular at times this early season. His energy and activity on that end of the floor has been the best it's been for years. "I'm very impressed," Phil said in the Times. "He's [put] a lot of energy in this team. He's been vocal. It's been going good for him." He had a couple of blocks on Duncan tonight from behind his post defender. Offensively, as mentioned, a very perimeter oriented game from Kobe. Prior to the game, Kobe ranked first in the NBA in scoring (30.4), fourth in steals per game (2.8), third in turnovers per game (4.8), 27th in assists per game (5.0) and third in efficiency (29.2). His scoring took a hit tonight as he dropped just 18 points on 9-19 shooting (0-5 from three). He never shot a freethrow and his forays into the paint were few and far between. He drained a wing jumper on his first touch. He curled down the lane, took the feed and scored with his left over Duncan. He swiped the ball from Duncan from the blindside. He rejected Finley in the paint. He missed a 19-footer. He swatted a Duncan shot behind his own defender, that made the NBA TV No. 9 play of the night. He lost the dribble on the attack. He snatched an inbounds pass right out of Duncan's hands and took it the distance for an uncontested dunk. He missed a three. He couldn't finish an oop in transtion. He lost a ball on the break. He alley-ooped to Kwame off the two-man game for a dunk. Another incredible block on Duncan on help D, spiking it from the front of the rim behind Ronny. He found Fish for a jumper on the other end. He missed a three. He had just 6 points, 5 boards and 3 blocks in the first half. He sank a wing jumper standing on the three line. He missed on his next trip down from the same distance. He got tapped on a wing three. Poor shot choice, forcing up a jumper over defenders. He hit a long wing jumper. He missed a three next time down. He sank a top-of-the-key jumper. He missed a forced, leaning bank. He wheeled around the double team, attacked and dunked with both hands. He spun in the lane and banked in a frozen rope. He bricked a three in transition when he probably should have attacked. He threw a long outlet away. He hit a 20-footer. Wish we could have had some more inside-out from Kobe.

Lamar -- -- Lamar tweaked his right hand during the game, but still played through it. They think it's a torn tendon and he will tape it up during games. "I'm a pain-taker, for real. I take pride in that," Odom said. "This hurts. I thought it was broke. It's always something." We tried, poorly and without success, to get the ball into Lamar in the post early on. After failing there, the Spurs tended to back off him. Finally Lamar decided to shot some from the perimeter. Still, he wasn't in any kind of groove with the team in this game. He scored 12 points on 6-9 shooting, grabbed 6 boards and had 4 assists wtih 4 turnovers in 33 minutes. Some good D at the SF to start, causing Finley all kinds of problems, but that seemed to fade a bit as the game went on. He missed a post up over a double team. He was called for a travel on a spin move. He was called for a travel again on the perimeter. He lost the ball in transition and wanted the foul. He took a board, pushed it up, spun to his right and finished with his right around the defenders. He hit Luke for a jumper. He was called for three seconds in the lane, then a three-second D call on the other end. Weak post entry feed and it was a break opportunity for the Spurs. He finally took a perimeter shot, sinking the 18 footer from the wing. He missed a three at the buzzer. He attacked Finley, spun around him and scored. He missed a runner, got it back and fed Kwame for the score. He swished a wing jumper from the right side. He overpowered Manu in the post for a layup. He blew past his man and dunked on the baseline.

DFish -- -- Uggh. Parker got whatever he wanted against Fish. Easy jumpers behind the screen, dribble penetration into the heart of the D. And on the other end, Fish is an easy cover for him, not making him work. If the Lakers didn't kill themselves with all the unforced turnovers, Parker took them apart with 26 points and 9 assists. Fisher scored just 6 points on 3-7 shooting, 2 turnovers, 0 assists and 2 boards in 23 minutes. He drained a 17-footer on his first attempt. He missed a wing jumper and wanted the foul. He was swatted in transition, Parker scored on the other end, then Fish got it back, attacked on the break and this time finished. He hit a sideline jumper off the skip pass from Kobe. He forced a layup in transition and lost it. He was called for a travel in the post. A pass hit him in the backside in transition, par for the course tonight, and we lost it. He missed a corner jumper.

Turiaf -- -- Ronny got tagged with 6 turnovers. Not sure I remember that many, but he did have some ugly moments in that regard. He had a poor shooting game, going 1-4 and scored just 6 points. Prior to the game, Ronny ranked No. 6 in the NBA in field goal percentage (.583). he did do a solid job on the glass, pulling down 8 boards in just 21 minutes. He threw an entry away over the top of the fronting defender on LO. He rejected Oberto's post up attempt and controlled the ball, very nice. He missed a finish down the lane. He picked up a foul rejecting Parker after he and Fish were careless with the ball in the backcourt and Parker stole it. He hit a runner off the glass attacking from the pinch post. He drew a foul on Duncan working the two-man game, he made both FTs. He was blocked at the rim. He rejected Duncan from the weakside, but they said he goaltended, questionable call. He missed an elbow jumper. He drew FTs on the offensive glass, he made both. He swatted Duncan on help D.

Mihm -- -- Chris played one 6-minute stint in which he went 0-3 and didn't score. He was blocked under the hoop after an offensive board. He missed a couple jumphooks. The team trailed by 1 when he left. Phil didn't bring him back with Kwame and Bynum getting the rest of the C minutes.

Bynum -- -- Prior to the game, Bynum ranked No. 2 in the NBA in rebounds per minute and defensive rebounds per minute. Despite his limited minutes of play, he was still ranked at No. 13 in defensive rebounds per game. He was also ranked at No. 42 in the NBA in efficiency and No. 2 in efficency per minute. Clearly, it's a bit early for stats to mean much, but Bynum has imposed his will on the glass this season. His rebounds per minute are up considerably compared to last year's effort. That was no different tonight as he pulled down a game-high 12 boards in 27 minutes of action. The Lakers did a ridiculously poor job of getting him the ball. The easiest way to get past the perimeter D is to get the ball into the post. You could count his touches as part of the offense on a single hand. Still, Bynum managed to score 11 points on 4-5 shooting. He drew a foul on Duncan on his first touch in the post, then another foul on Oberto a second later on the post entry. Then, they ignored him for most of the night. He pulled an offensive board away from his man, spun, got hit and hammered down the And-1 with authority (very nice), he made the FT. He forced Duncan into a couple bricks with some good challenges. (Duncan went 2-13 for 5 points.) Back in the game and he grabbed a bricked shot by Mo that went off the side of the backboard and he hit a turnaround in the lane, making his second attempt of the night. He hit Mo with a pass and it drew FTs. He missed a jumphook on his first back-to-the-basket attempt. He took a board from Duncan, just too big, then drew a foul on him, he made both FTs. He hit a jumphook in the lane off the two-man with Luke. He took a long outlet, stayed with it as it was on the floor, then scored an And-1, he missed the FT.

Luke -- -- Luke put up some ugly shots tonight. Even a few wild, OC looks. Not a great game again off the bench. A bit clunky and out of synch. He attacked the paint in transition and drew a foul, he made one FT. He missed a turnaround in the lane. He missed an open corner jumper. He was called for a travel off the handoff. Wild shot, off balance in transition and he missed. He was clearly a weakspot for the team off the bench in the first quarter. He then got it together for a short stretch. He got an offensive board and drew a foul, he made both FTs. He swished a three from the right side. He hit Farmar in stride with an outlet for a dunk. He hit the sideline jumper. He pounded the dribble on an extended attack, then forced up a horrible looking turnaround and missed. He missed another of his spinning bricks. He finished with 10 points on 2-7 shooting and 6 boards in 22 minutes.

Farmar -- -- We're better off going with Farmar against Parker. His speed and hops will help him a little more than DFish on recovering to Parker defensively. But, more importantly, Farmar will make Parker work. He was one of the few bright spots tonight and had a couple of huge throwdowns that electrified the San Antonio crowd. His speed and ability to get into the lane would also help get us some more inside-out to our game. He finished with 16 points on 6-10 shooting in just 21:39 of playing time. Prior to the game, Farmar ranked No. 29 in the NBA in assist per turnover (2.6). Tonight, however, he had 2 turnovers without an assist. He swished a wing three with the shotclock low and the offense stalling. He got hit in transition with no call and missed. He took a long outlet from Luke on the fly, elevated and hammered a dunk that had a buzz going from Spurs fans. He attacked in transition, cut down the lane, pulled the ball down and back up again between defenders before finishing with his left. He took a quick, odd three and missed, it resulted in a breakaway on the other end as we were out of position and not in synch. He attacked the paint and hit a running And-1 hook, he made the FT. He missed a three at the buzzer. He took the dump off pass on the weakside and dunked over Duncan (very nice, your No. 4 play of the night on NBA TV). He twisted his ankle trying to stop with the ball and he turned it over. They sat him then, but it looked pretty minor. He came in for Kobe with 3 minutes left. He sank a couple of FTs after getting hit in the backcourt. He went up and under on his man and had a finger roll goaltended. He missed a three.

Kwame -- -- Phil used him in odd rotation, similar to preseason. In the game for the first time with 6 minutes left in the half, he also started the second half for Mihm. The Spurs outscored the Lakers by 13 during Kwame's first stint. Kwame played 15 minutes and scored 7 points on 3-6 shooting to go with 1 rebound. He and Kobe worked the two-man game for an alley-oop dunk out of a timeout. Total butterfingers on a simple post entry and he dropped it out of bounds (the ball looked greased as bad as it went right through his hands). He clanked a post move off the glass. He was easily rejected on his next attempt. He hit a jumphook in the lane off a dish from LO. He ran down the middle of the zone and dunked. He drew FTs off the two-man game, he made one. Not even close on a rushed jumphook (he has to remember to take his time in the post, otherwise it's a total brick).

Radmanovic -- -- Prior to the game, Vlad had shot 9-15 from behind the arc, .600 on the season. He misse both three attempts he took tonight and went 2-7 for 4 points with 2 steals in 19:31 of PT. He hit a pull-up over his man in the lane. He dunked in a missed by Mo. He missed a layup on a bustout after a steal and no Laker bothered to trail the play. He missed a three.

Evans -- -- Cold Mo. Yuck. His tell is on the perimeter. If he misses his first jumper, chances are he's going to miss most of the others he takes. He missed a jumper long to start and that's when they could have sat him. He forced up an off-balance three and clanked. He missed a couple of passes out of the Tri, then bricked off the side of the backboard. He made two FTs off a feed from Bynum. He missed at the rim in transition with all kinds of contact and no call. He missed a three. He had 2 points on 0-5 shooting in 14 minutes.

Phil -- -- I mentioned enough up top in the intro. Not sure what we were trying to do on either end. Also wanted to see more Farmar and Bynum in this game, and featuring them consistenly in the offense... The Lakers were playing good D to start the first, but had 6 turnovers in the first 6 minutes. Phil brought in Bynum and Walton for Turiaf and Mihm... The Lakers had 9 turnovers in the first quarter. Many of the unforced variety... The Lakers were doing a hideous job of feeding the post... Phil got on the officials for some blatent inconsistencies (particularly the spin move with the hop in the middle by Parker, when they called Lamar for a less blatent travel on a similar move)... The Lakers killed themselves in the first half with a ton of unforced turnovers, finishing with 15 as mentioned. You'll lose to any team with that. The second half, they cut it down to just 4, but the lead as built... A lot of simple drive and kick by the Spurs for easy open jumpers. They trailed 54-38 at the half, letting the game get away in the last few minutes with a 21-4 run... Late in the game, Phil went with Kobe at PG, matching up with Parker defensively... Not sure why any Lakers double the post when Bynum or Kwame are defending. That's not Phil's plan as both of our bigs can go single coverage. It happened a few times and resulted in kickouts for open jumpers... So far this season, 41 percent of Laker shot attempts have taken place in the first 10 seconds of the shotclock, up from 37 percent last season. Only 9 percent of shots have been taken with 21 or more seconds on the shotclock, down from 13 percent last year... The Lakers bench outscores its opponent's bench by nearly 10 points a game. That held true tonight, even with Manu coming off the Spurs bench...

[OscarWang]

No Cook! YAY!
_________________
"Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise."

- Kobe Bryant

[KOBE 2.0]

Ugly game no other point should be made just plain ugly.

[LakerSanity]

I don't understand the notion of our perimeter defenders being drawn in off of covering their perimeter matchups (open at the 3 point line or midrange) when being drawn in does nothing to help the penetration being that they still aren't close enough to do anything but create a useless shadow. How does having two guys being drawn in outside the lane help interior D? Basically all they are doing is playing token defense since being pulled in all the way from the perimeter simply puts them in no man's land and in a space that has no bearing on what actually goes on in lane, yet does have the negative effect of leaving shooters open.

We have good enough defenders, especially down low, to leave these guys in one on one coverage. I can understand the need for Oberto or Elson's defenders to help out, but why in god's name leave ginobli, Parker, Bowen, or Finley open for shots they are known for hitting. Say we play Duncan one on one, do you really think Duncan goes off for 25+ on Bynum, Mihm, and Kwame with them using their collective 18 fouls? Or say we leave Parker and don't help, let him go for 25+? If we let Kobe shut down Ginobli or Finley (whoever is on the court), which he is fully capable of doing, and allow Duncan/Parker to combine for 50 points, do we really think the rest of the Spurs are capable of beating our other defenders to score 30-40 points needed to beat us? I don't think so personally.

Also, the TOs just have to stop. There is no reason for a guy like Ronny to get 6 TOs. Most of these TOs are not coming off of risky passes, but rather ordinary passes that are coming from bad post entries or mindless, impatient transition passes. The Lakers simply aren't working and being patient with their passes. That pass from Ronny into the back of Fisher's heel was the best example of this. We really need to cut our TOs down to under 15 a game.

The good news though is that we have limited the amount of 3s we have taken (our 3 point shooting also needs to improve though), which is good, and we have consistently outrebounded the teams we have faced. If the Lakers simply figure out a way to play good interior D while not leaving every Tom, Dick, and Harry shooter wide open (which is completely possible, teams like the Spurs do it, it's called picking and choose your spots) while limiting our TOs... there is no reason to believe we aren't fully capable of beating any team in the league.

The season is early yet and with good health on this team granting this team their first chance in a while to grow together, I full expect Phil to make the adjustments and allow this team to become a better unit as the season continues.
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[infidel]

Luke Walton frustrates me to no end. Sometimes I think I accidentally hit the slow motion button on my TiVo when Walton starts dribbling.

I say we try to trade anyone not named Bynum or Kobe for Pau Gasol. This team really needs a legit all-star.

[Crazy Like Ron Artest]

[8750]

thanks, DB
same old story... a team that plays well when everything goes in the right direction, and that plays poorly when something begins going wrong... that's the essence of a soft team... so when everything works, kobe playing in the team plan works... when something goes wrong, kobe playing in the game plan is wasting the greatest talent on this planet...
an old coach who has some strategic visions but is totally unable to adapt his visions to the flowing of the game... especially on defense, our coach's choices are embarassing...

[A Mad Chinaman]

Definitely enjoy your breakdown more than Norm Nixon (a nice guy, has he yet provided more than a very simplistic analytic breakdown of the Lakers' play?!?!?! Last season, it was great hearing Jack Haley. This seaon, I just turn the TV off cuz w/BillyMac doing the breakdown, it is what it is) and what I heard on "Money's post game program.

Side Notes:
Enjoy PJ's description of the Lakers' play as "Brokeback Mountain" - funny as hell that had all the reporters laughing
Kobe's comments that he wanted to win games from the defensive side of the court, GREAT NEWS!
Questions for DB:
With Parker only having 2-3 layups - doing most of his scoring with mid-range jumpers - why did the "D" always collapse leaving the shooters open?

Since Bowen was often Kobe's guy, what happened to him?

When DFish is in the game, why didn't they do a "Mark Jackson" on him - take him to either the high or low post? Could PJ have DFish go through a series of screens/backscreens to get DFish shots and/or make Parker work hard on defense (ala Jerry Sloan's offensive schemes)?

Why did Mihm only play 6 minutes, was he injuried?

What's with LO not being aggressive and/or demanding the ball in the post? I'm sure that PJ has plays where PJ initially posts on the strongside then moves to the weakside using a backscreen to get him a little space to receive the ball. If LO is not aggressive and taking advantage of his height over Bowen and other players, why was he in the game?

Luke, Where Are You? What do you think is happening with Luke?

[Sister Golden Hair]

With the way a lot of teams play the game these days (with an increased reliance on the three-ball), I dont understand why Phil doesn't instruct his centers to handle the middle bigs as well as they can one on one, and have the perimeter players stay home or at worst play the passing lanes to disrupt kick-outs. But by collapseing to help, they do the worst thing possible: leave NBA shooters undisturbed for wide-open jumpers from three-land. Additionally, by collapsing, they make themselves vulnerable to good-passing teams who can swing the ball around (faster then the Lakers can recover) for easy shots.

Against some teams, daring them to beat you from outside is a good tactic. In fact, it was propbably a good tactic against the Spurs 3-4 years ago when they lacked shooters like Barry and Finley, and before Parker and Ginobili became more consistent. But doing that nowadays is suicidal. We saw the same thing against NO. Phil has to tell these guys to stay home. Better for Parker to go for 35, than to kick the ball out for an additional 6-7 wide-open treys.

I don't know: are we missing something? Seems like the fix is relatively straight-forward. I've always thougt that witha team like the Spurs, just try to slow the stars down as best you can, because they will get theirs. Just don't let the other guys feed at the trough, too.

The Lakers succeeded against the Suns this year because the Suns had an off-night ('cause usually they hit those shots). But you can't count on the opposition being cold.

Turn Parker into a scorer OR a distributor. Given that choice, let him be a scorere because the damage is lessened that way, and at least you get the opposition out of their rhythm.

I can live with the opposition's PG getting 30-35 points as long as every one else doesn't do squat. The NO game could have worked out better if Phil took that tack.

But for some reason Phil allows the team to make real-dumb tactical decisions over and over again. It has to stop.

Other observations: Kwame is death to offensive continuity. He cannot handle the simplest of entry passes and those kinds of TO's can kill a team's confidence. He takes up space on D, yes. And can move his feet well, too. But he's so one-dimensional. And his affect on the court , at times, is Smush-like. He seems to either not care or not try that hard. And I still don't understand why, given his size and quickness, he's not a dominant rebounder. Forget boxing out, man: Go fter the ball. He should be avaregaing double-digit rebounds consistently. Often, when I watch him play, I see him watching the ball, rather than going after it. Bynum is much more actve in GOING AFTER rebounds. If Kaman can become a dmoninat rebounder, there's no reason why Kwame can't (other than lack of will).

I hope Bynum improves by leaps and bounds on defense because Kwame needs to go. I don't see him ever geting mentally stronger, and I don't see the work-ethic that would allow him to improve other facets of his game.

SGH

[DancingBarry]

[DancingBarry]

[LakerSanity]

[DancingBarry]

[8750]

maurice evans is not our problem... but i read some days ago something that ettore messina -a very good italian coach, now with cska moscow- said about him "i coached two nba players when they began playing in europe: the first was trajan langdon, who after fifteen days understood everything about my plans and the game here. the second was maurice evans, who after fifteen months still didn't understand anything"...

[DancingBarry]

We need to replace that Mo/Sasha backup position with someone who can defend at a higher level. Someone who can help do heavy lifting for Kobe and take some of Luke's minutes against athletic players. Mo is no where near that type of player...unfortunately...so he needs to go. I'd sure love to have a guy like Josh Childress who can defend at the 1-2-3 spots, play those same positions in this offense and has hoop IQ.

[KOBE 2.0]

How does Evans/Sasha for Greg Buckner sound DB? he can defend better then Evans and Sasha lets add a 2nd round pick if need to be.

[Sister Golden Hair]

At times Mo plays as if he is literally running a completely different offense. What's worse, his D is uninspired. he hasn't embraced that side of his game -- at all.

SGH

[DancingBarry]

[DancingBarry]

[KOBE 2.0]

I really expected Evans to make strides this year he gave us close to 10PPG last year I hope he somehow turns his game up but I don't have my hopes up. he played with more aggression last year this year he seems laid back.

[Mation]

Thanks DB.

Some of those turnovers were really hard to watch. At least there's Kobe's defensive highlights and Farmar's jam to help cope with this loss. We did such a good job on Tim Duncan (2-13 FG). Too bad we couldn't transfer some of that over to Parker, Ginobili or even Bowen

[Shaber]

Maybe it is still an effect of old Bulls team... But PJ is completely bullheaded. He decides how to play the game before it starts and he never reacts to what goes on. This was the case with a loss to Hornets as well. And it also applies to the players selection of PJ. As the regular season has been, even a rookie Crit plays better than Mo. Even a general disappointment like Sasha plays better. Only Phil does not see that (not to mention starter selection).

Hornets showed to everybody how simple it is to beat the Lakers. Drive and kick it to the perimeter. That's it. And none of the Lakers responds or adjusts. Not even his defensive greatness. I expect to see a lot of it this season.

[lilsis34]

All you people haten on Cook. He did not play and we still lost. Looks like the problem is not him.

[limchrc]

Thanks for the recap. Great to see Bynum continue having a great game... even against Duncan.

[Shaber]