MAGIC -at- LAKERS - 12/2 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Gone in 60 Seconds... The Lakers stuck with the Magic most of the night, but failed to execute down the stretch. They trailed by one point with 3 minutes left and took a timeout to set up Kobe. After a Kobe miss and a turnover from both Kobe and LO, a minute later, they saw that Magic lead balloon to seven points. Ball game. The Lakers lost 104-97 and hover near .500 ball -- in the eighth spot, with Houston behind them.

"We seemed to run out of gas," Phil said. Then questioned why the Lakers shot just 10 foul shots during the game. He also wasn't happy with the 29 three attempts.

Kobe, Farmar and Lamar all missed a series of shots late in the game. Keyon Dooling gave the Magic some athleticism and spark off the bench. Both Bynum and Howard held a swat fest, combining for 12 blocked shots...and Bynum held Howard to numbers well below his averages.

The Lakers gave up a 39-point second quarter, but held the Magic to 14 in the third. We hurt ourselves with 22 turnovers that were turned into 25 points. "Whenever something goes wrong on the offensive end, we kind of mope about it and don't get back on defense and that's got to stop," Bynum said. He also questioned why the team could have good defensive quarters, but not sustain it.


Kobe -- -- After a 19-point first quarter, Kobe scored just 9 the rest of the way on 4-15 shooting. He was in the mix in our struggles in crunch time. He got in the post off and on, but also forced some tough jumpers. He set up a number of teammates who couldn't connect. The Magic trapped him a lot and doubled off the screens (Kobe was slow to move the ball off those sequences). The Stats: He finished with 28 points on 10-26 shooting (4-9 from three, only 4-4 from the line), he had 6 boards, 5 assists with 4 turnovers and 2 steals in 42 minutes. He was a -7...which piled up in that 60 seconds. The Action: He forced up a brick in a crowd, horrible shot selection on his first attempt. He took contact and was rejected by Howard. He hit a three with the shotclock low. He was stripped in the paint next time down and it led to a breakaway score. He drained a wing three in transition. He drained a wing three from the other side next time down. He took a heat-check three with a man on him from the top of the key in semi-transition next time down, rattled it in and forced a Magic timeout. He then stole the ball from the Magic, gave it up to Fish on the break, Fish threw a high lob that Kobe somehow stretched out and hammered down on the break (sensational finish, his hand at the top of the square on the backboard). He missed a long three next time down. He missed a turnaround. He missed a three, went after it, drew contact on Cook and drew FTs, he made both FTs. He ran the clock down, attacked with speed past Mo, slid to the left around Cook and scored the And-1, he made the FT. He had 19 points on 6-11 shooting in the first quarter. He got hit at the elbow, stayed with it, hung and hit the And-1 jumper, he made the FT. He forced a corner turnaround and bricked, we got it back, Kobe posted up, drew Howard and dished to Bynum for the dunk. He back-rimmed a hanging jumper in the lane. He missed a wing three. He lost the ball trying to split the double team and the Magic were able to get points just before the end of the half. He missed a heave at the buzzer. He finished with 22 points on 7-17 shooting (4-8 from three) at the half. He bricked a tough stepback. He posted up, drew Howard and fed Bynum for the dunk. He missed a wing jumper. He spun to lose his man and finger-rolled in the lane for a score. He missed a wing three. He got blocked inside. He sagged off Mo and gave him the midrange, which he hit. He pushed out the break and hit Sasha for the jumper. He swished a 20-footer over him at the other end. He pushed out the rebound, attacked, kicked out to LO while twisting his body to avoid a charge and hitting the floor and LO knocked it down. He missed a jumper, but Luke cleaned it up. He iso'd on Bogans, spun and fell away, hitting the difficult jumper. He missed an elbow jumper out of a timeout. He got stripped on the next possession and wanted the foul.

Lamar -- -- Lamar got the start at the PF and was hitting the boards hard. You love the effort on the glass tonight with the game-high 17 rebounds. You don't like aspects of the perimeter-oriented game he played offensively. He needed to get into the post a little more and cut down on the threes. "Lamar will stand out there and shoot them, even though we suggest that he not," Phil said afterward. Lamar came up empty on a few too many shots in crunch time. The Stats: Lamar scored 19 points on 8-17 shooting (but 1-5 from three), he had 17 boards (4 offensive), 3 assists with 4 turnovers in 42 minutes. He was a -3. The Action: He lost the ball in the paint. He bricked off the glass badly. He missed a three, got it back and threw a no-looker away. Great help D on the other end rejecting Howard trying to throw down. He missed at the rim, got it back and banked in traffic. He had 7 boards in the first quarter. He sank a three from the top of the key. He picked up a couple fouls battling Howard in the paint. He choked another one point blank (I don't know how he misses those). He threw away an outlet. He went 2-6 for 5 points with 11 boards at the half. He attacked to his strong hand and banked. He posted up and swished a turnaround. He popped out behind a screen and hit the 17-footer from the right side. He drew FTs filling the lane on the break, he made both. He got tapped on a stepback jumper. Mo Evans on him defensively, and he doesn't post him up. Still, good quarter, he had 13 points on 5-10 shooting and 16 boards after three quarters. He sank an open baseline jumper off a kickout from Kobe. He missed a pull-up jumper straight away. He missed a wide open three from the corner. He threw the ball away and it turned into a dunk the other way in crunch time. He hit a FT jumper. He got beat by Turkoglu for a layup. He attacked baseline, spun and scored a layup. He missed a three, flat and short, straight away. He airballed a desperation three.

DFish -- -- Up and down game from Fish. He started out weak (0-4), but had a better second stint (4-5). Defensively, Nelson is the kind of player you want to make beat you from the perimeter. So, going under the screens worked to our advantage. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 4-10 shooting, had 3 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals and 1 turnover in 28 minutes. He was a team-high +6. The Action: He bricked a pull-up in transition. He missed a baseline runner. He was rejected in the paint on a drive (rough first two minutes). OC drive and he bricked. He was 0-4 in the first quarter. He sank a wing three. He missed a three, we got it back and he hit a baseline jumper. He had 5 points at the half. He attacked down the lane and hit a teardrop. He clanked a wing three in transition. He attacked in transition to his left, took contact with no call and banked off the glass. He probed, pulled it back out, saw Vlad cutting baseline and fed him for the layup. He drew a hook on Dooling with some exaggeration. He lost the handle getting ready to make a pass, unforced turnover right out of bounds.

Radmanovic -- -- Some parts of Vlad's game were better tonight...he hit the boards well and had a few nice assists. The biggest problem was his continuing slump from beyond the arc, as he went 1-5 from three. He has hit 2 of his last 19 attempts from three in his last 5 games. That is killing us...and it hurt tonight. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 3-8 shooting, grabbed 9 boards and dished 4 assists in 31 minutes. He had a +/- of 0. The Action: He hit a short wing jumper off the Bynum pitch out. He sank a corner three on his next touch. He flagged down a pass, stayed with it and got the steal. He got rejected trying to finish over Foyle. Sagged off Cook and got burned for there, ummm, make him put the ball on the floor, idiot. He had 5 points and 6 boards in his first stint. He missed a sideline three. Great read, he faked the three, pulled up from midrange, then lobbed to Bynum for the dunk. Good all around first half, scoring 5 points on 2-4 shooting, grabbing 7 boards and dishing 4 assists. He missed a wing three. He missed a corner three. Nice baseline cut away from the ball, he took the feed from Fish and scored the layup. He missed a wide open three way short. He missed a corner three. Clank fest from three in the second half.

Bynum -- -- "I thought he did a good job defensively...he was able to contain Howard in there," Phil said afterward. With Lamar gobbling up the boards behind him and both players making an effort to keep Howard off the offensive glass, Howard had 0 offensive boards. Meanwhile, Bynum was aggressive with the shotblocking and out-swatted Howard in this game with 7 rejections (to Dwight's 5, those two were anchoring well). I see one stat sheet has 6 blocks, another 7. If the 7 holds up that ties Bynum's career high. In the end, he held Howard to 7 points below his average and 7 fewer boards, while swatting a number of shots on help D. Offensively, Bynum was a bit hesitant and all too aware of Howard under the hoop, causing for more than a few misses he should have finished. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 5-9 shooting, grabbed 6 boards The Action: He went glass over Howard on a turnaround (not sure he called it). He missed a jumphook short on another early touch. On the other end, he rejected Lewis on the baseline, controlled the block and outlet the ball from the floor as he went down. He swatted another shot on help D. He blew a dunk in the paint he should have had. He traveled on an interior pass trying to go up strong. He picked up two fouls and had to sit midway through the first quarter. He got blocked from behind by Howard. He took a pass from Kobe and lost it in the lane. He missed an easy layup off a Kobe feed next time down (he was hurting us in the paint at this point). So, he drained the FT jumper on the next trip instead of working down low. Howard tried to contest Kobe, leaving Drew and Kobe hit him for the dunk. He grabbed an offensive board in traffic and it led to a Fish jumper. He blocked dribble penetration on one end, then dunked in an oop from Vlad on the other. He had 8 points on 4-8 shooting, 4 boards and 3 blocks, while avoiding his third foul in 12 minutes in the first half. He picked up his third foul on a reach a minute into the second half. Howard hit a hook with his left over Bynum, then missed with his right on another, then got roofed by Bynum on another attempt. He dunked when Kobe posted up, drew Howard and fed Bynum at the front of the rim. He rejected Mo trying to throwdown underneath, then gave the Mutombo finger to him and talked some trash to his buddy. Good challenge on Howard in the paint and Howard didn't draw iron. He rejected Turkoglu off the glass hard.

Turiaf -- -- After getting drilled in the head, Ronny looked on from the bench the rest of the game, looking a lot like most of the Lakers did after the game. He took a shot from Howard to his temple and was said to have a minor concussion. Prior to that he was playing a reasonable game, except for some fouls. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 2-4 shooting, grabbed 5 boards, had 1 steal and 3 fouls, all in 10 minutes. He was a -1. The Action: He cleaned up a Farmar miss on the break. Good effort on the offensive glass, tipping it from behind, then chasing it down and saving it to Farmar. He missed a wing jumper. Out on the break after a made hoop, he took contact in the lane, concentrated and banked in the And-1 before going down, he made the FT. He took an offensive board and missed a jumphook. He then got sent to the floor and stayed there a while after Howard shed him with an elbow. He was ticked as he got subbed out, getting no foul call and the minor concussion.

Luke -- -- He had a couple good sequences, collapsing the D in the post, or scoring on his man. His perimeter game was poor, however, missed on good looks. Defensively, mixed results, but he had some good sequences, too. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 3-7 shooting (0-1 from three), grabbed 3 boards, dished 3 assists, had 2 steals and 2 turnovers in 17:37. He was a -9. The Action: He scored an easy layup off the glass when the help D never came. He missed an elbow jumper. He got rejected by Howard trying to post up his man. He missed a corner three. He posted up Turkoglu, spun to the middle to lose him, then flipped it in. He cleaned up a Kobe miss and put it back in. He couldn't help and recover to his man and gave up a big three and the lead. He threw a pass away. Turkoglu nearly tore off Luke's jersey without a call.

Farmar -- -- A couple of painful sequences from Farmar in this game...a steal which he charged on during a two-on-one break, and then that missed runner in crunch time. Farmar had 4 turnovers, which hurt his effort. That looked more like a rookie game from him. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-7 shooting (1-4 from three, 1-2 from the line), had 1 assist, 2 steals and 4 turnovers in 20 minutes. He led the team with a -11. The Action: He sank a stepback fade off a Luke feed in the lane (I'd like to see more of his midrange like this). He took the long outlet on the break and got blocked, but Ronny cleaned it up. With a burst of speed, he swiped the sideline inbounds, took contact and missed the And-1, he made one FT. He missed a wing three on a kickout. He drained an open three after we collapsed the interior with Luke in the post. He missed a wing three on the break after stealing a pass. He pushed up the break after tracking down a rebound, then charged as his man slid in front of him. He got lit for a couple of scores by Dooling. He missed a runner.

Mihm -- -- The turnovers hurt, a bad pass that didn't need to be thrown or a fumble of a simple post feed...those kinds of unforced errors are the ones you can't have against good teams. If Phil didn't need Turiaf at PF on most nights, Mihm would be third or fourth string (with a healthy Kwame) at the C spot right now. The Stats: He had 2 points on 1-3 shooting, 1 block, 2 fouls and 3 turnovers in just 10 minutes. The Action: In early after Bynum picked up two fouls. He picked up Howard's second foul. He tipped a defensive rebound away to save a sure Magic putback. He missed an open elbow jumper, got to hit those. He rejected a throwdown attempt. He forced a pass to Kobe and turned it over. He posted up Foyle and hit a jumphook. He gave up a putback to Foyle. He dropped a post entry for a turnover. He blew a sure layup somehow getting blocked when it looked like a gimmie.

Vujacic -- -- Watching Redick and Sasha go back and forth with the shooting and no D...not the prettiest part of this game for me. Crit would have been great to go to then to get some inside-out or expose the lack of D better and keep the pressure on in transition. But Sasha managed okay during that stretch. The Stats: Sasha finished with 5 points on 2-5 shooting (0-2 from three), 1 board, 1 assist in 11 minutes. He was a +4. The Action: He bricked the turnaround. He tied up a man under the hoop for a jumpball. He missed a wing three. He gave up a couple scores to Redick. He missed a three. Sasha scored an And-1 on Redick, cutting baseline, and scoring an And-1 reverse, he made the FT. He swished a baseline jumper out on the break with Kobe.

Phil -- -- A strong finish and the Lakers beat a very good team. One minute they're in it, the next they're not... The Lakers went to the interior early on several possessions. They eventually got two fouls on Howard and he had to sit midway through the first quarter... Pressure D, trapping in the backcourt and the Lakers got a steal to start the second quarter. Didn't go to much of that the remainder of the game... The Lakers had 12 turnovers, which led to 15 Magic points in the first half. Their rotations were slow in the half court D. The Magic got a lot of open looks which they knocked down. The Lakers trailed 63-55... The Lakers went on a run in the third. Holding the Magic to just 14 points that quarter. So, despite only scoring 20 points themselves, they did it on the D end... 9-2 run midway through the fourth that had the Magic take a timeout. The Lakers had only a small lead, though... With the Lakers trailing by 1 with 3 minutes left, out of a timeout the Lakers went to Kobe at the elbow and he missed. Kobe turned the ball over the next time down. Farmar missed a runner and we were down by 5 with 2:09 remaining. Phil called another timeout and went with the starters. LO then turned the ball over and we gave up a dunk... No Ariza or Crittenton. If the game is close, Phil has no trust in them right now... He was a little irked with getting just 10 freethrow attempts at home...

[KOBE 2.0]

Patrick O'Neal said Phil will play Ariza at some point in this game why did he not play? now we need to have lies being reported on TV?

[George W Buss]

[najim]

thanks for this... your posts are the reason I registered with LG.net, to tell you how much I appreciate reading these. Thanks!

[Addicus]

2nd youngest team in the league and it showed at the end of the 2nd and 4th quarters.

Too bad the guys making the mistakes are the vets. Shame.

Great write up DB!

Peace.
_________________
Stop crying and start doing.

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/addicusbrown

[TooCool]

Cook and Mo were getting minutes on our team. Now we got Ariza and we don't use him! What am I missing here?

9-8 is unacceptable for the Lakers. I don't care if we're made up of mediocre guys around Kobe. Los Angeles is a city about WINNING. We should have what the Magic has (record wise) right now.
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[Christopher C]

Phil needs to man up and play JC Penny at the backup shooting gaurd.

[JUST-MING]

The Magic are quite simply better than the Lakers. They got stops down the stretch, and pulled out the W.

Dwight Howard for MVP.

[stopthiZ8]

[1hu2ren3dui4]

gone in 60 seconds was a very appropriate title.
_________________
-Most people learn by saying mother, numb, horse, angry... I learned mine by saying Lakers, add gas. - HRD.

[Vadorojo]

Thanks for the write-up, DB.

While we can't celebrate a W, at least we hung with a good team and didn't get blown out.

[A Mad Chinaman]

[pask]

[Mation]

Thanks DB.

Wow, back to the eighth seed. Golden State is really hitting their stride and Houston is right behind us. There is no mercy in the Western Conference. Hopefully Kwame can get back soon and Ariza can gain some trust from Phil.

Good to see Mo helping Kobe and Farmar up after a play.

[Texas_Pete]

I am actually not mad at this game. We lost to a healthy team that will go deep in the EC playoffs. A team that was blowing out Boston, only to hold on for the W. We competed. I thought that if our team played better in the last 5 minutes - we win.

Drew showed me something against a more athletic, better conditioned, more seasoned D12. Stood toe to toe with him. Looked a little timid in the beginning, but that's the only knock I can put on him. He swatted and altered several shots out there.

LO even battled out there. Had about 1,000 rebounds it seemed like. Looked agressive and took it to Shard. This is the LO we need.

Kobe did his thang. Looked like he was gonna go for 76 after the way he started. I was proud of him when he passed the ball to the open man. Sure he could have made the basket himself, but he made the correct basketball play. Props because he seems to be trusting his teammates and growing as a leader.

But back to D12. How does he not foul out? He gives my man Turiaf a concussion and no foul? WTF?

I thought we competed well. Just couldn't sustain our play against a very good Magic team.

Cook and Mo helped kill us tonight

[Al-Mbarak8]

Even though im sad we lost , there are some things to be happy about :

BYnum's playing tonight , Lamar 's stats , making one of the best teams in the league work hard to earn the W , containing D12 (MVP)
_________________
LG.net Lurker for 3 years , finally got my account approved..

It's just life. Everybody goes through it. It doesn't matter whether you're a banker, politician or an athlete. God has a different movie script for all of us.
-Lamar Odom

[prisma8slg]

[Rick12322]

Thanks DB, you da man! The Lakers miss MO more than some people want to admit. The Trevor deal was an investment into the future, as such we're suffering losses now as part of the price tag. MO looked pretty good out there on Orlando's team. Isn't it funny how whenever one of our players goes to another team, the first time we face them we always lose?

[limchrc]

Hope we win the next game.

[20,000]

Who knew Kwame was so important to this team's success?


_________________
Courage doesn't always roar.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying...'I will try again tomorrow.'

[Klone_dd]

The charge against JoFar was the turning point of the game. LA goes up by 4, but instead, Hedont does hit a 3 to retake the lead and the Lakers blew it from there.

Surprising lack of execution from a team that has been together for quite some time now. Surprising and frustrating. They are better than this.

Quality game from LO back playing the 4 again. Anybody think that is where he's most comfortable? At least there, he rebounds better, gets the ball in his hands to push it up and then be more aggressive. At the 3, he tends to get disinterested and floats thru the game. He and Vlad should at least be what Rashard and Hedont are to the Magic.

[hi_ma]

[Freakout]

Start of the the 4th quarter was a killer in my opinion. We seemed to have some momentum on our side and Mihm managed to single handedly lose it.

Also no excuse for Phil not putting Critt on Dooling. I don't care if he is a rookie, he would have done better than both Fish and Farmar.

[Laker's Fan]

DB-great read as always.

Our most correctable problem is defense at Foward. Odom needs to go back to the PF position where he at least gives you good rebounding. Ronny can be backup. Walton and Radmanovic CANNOT continue to get a combined 45 mpg. The defense is just too porous. Commit to one (Walton) and bench the other (Radman). Know the offense or not Ariza needs to be our backup SF (He can't shoot any worse than Radman). When Kwame returns that gives us one good defender at every frontcourt position Ariza, Ronny, Kwame and one contributor at every front court position Walton, Odom, Bynum.
_________________
Austin Reaves keeps his game tight, like Kobe Bryant on game night.

[Muad'Dib]

Someone needs to tell Sasha that it's okay not to shoot.

And that he doesn't have to grope the ref EVERYTIME that he gets whistled.