Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:59 pm Post subject: LAKERS -at- SPURS - 1/23 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings
Crash and Burn in the Third... The Lakers played a strong first half, picking apart the Spurs on one end and keeping them to one-and-out possessions on the other. Then, disaster struck in the third. They went scoreless for the first 6 minutes to give up their lead, and they gave up back-to-back threes in the last few seconds of the quarter. What was a 9-point Laker lead turned into a 10-point deficit. We scored a season-low 12 points that quarter.
You aren't going to survive too many 31-12 quarters in this league -- let alone against the Spurs. A great first-half effort, but the Lakers fell 103-91.
Kobe and Lamar combined for 14 turnovers. Ouch. Duncan went for 28 and 17 as the Spurs picked on our interior. Ouch. Ouch. (A valiant effort from Ronny tonight, however, to hold down the fort...he should have played more minutes).
The Suns did the Lakers a favor and lost to the TWolves tonight, but just about everyone else made up some ground.
Kobe -- -- Kobe put together a strong first half, orchestrating the offensive execution and leading the team to the 9-point advantage. When the wheels fell off in the third, he was knee deep in the mess. He missed a series of shots as the offense stalled and his turnovers in this game piled up. He was effective crashing the glass a number of times, especially off his own misses. Defensively, he got caught doing a bit of ballwatching at times in this game and paid the price. The Stats: He scored 29 points on 12-27 shooting (1-2 from three, 4-4 from the line) to go with 12 boards, 5 assists and a horrid 9 turnovers in 45 minutes. The Action: He overpowered Bowen, who tried to flop in the post, and Kobe scored a layup. He set up Kwame for FTs, working the two-man game. He attacked from the strong side, drew the D and fed Kwame on the weakside for a dunk. He attacked down the lane, missed, bounced back up to recover, then powered in the layup. He swished a wing jumper with his toe on the three line. He swished a fade at the top of the key. He airballed a turnaround with Udoka on him tight. He missed a layup, got it back in a crowd and scored over them. He didn't box out and his man scored a putback. He posted up, drew the double team and kicked out to Sasha for the three. He organized the offense, worked to draw a double, then whipped a pass to Ronny cutting down the lane for a dunk. He rested midway through the second quarter after leading the team to a 10-point lead. He came back in 3 minutes later with the same lead. He worked the dribble until he found a good look at an 18-footer and then he drained it. He missed a layup around Duncan. Poor D, leaving Manu wide open and caught in no-man's land ball watching and he gave up a wide open three. He pushed out on the break and scored a layup. He had 14 points on 7-12 shooting in the first half. Then things went downhill. He missed a wing jumper. He missed a turnaround at the FT line. He posted up and was blocked. He pumped multiple times and missed the elbow jumper. He missed a good look at a short bank. He then traveled at midcourt (horrible start to the second half). He attacked in semi-transition, missed but went after it put it back in. He split the double team off a Kwame pick, was fouled from behind by Duncan and scored the And-1 left-hander over Manu, he made the FT. Quick swing pass to Fisher on the next trip down and DFish finally connected on a three. He attacked to his right off the high screen and hit a floater over Duncan. He had 21 points on 10-21 shooting after the third quarter. Horrible post entry feed and it was easily picked off. He missed an open 12-footer. He drained a three on a kickout from Ronny to cut the Spur lead to 6 points midway through the fourth (as close as they would get again). Out of the Spur timeout, he got stripped and turned it over. He pulled down a miss by Ronny under the hoop, then scored the And-1 over Duncan, he made the FT. He faced up and drew FTs on the swing-through move, he made both. He was called for an And-1 on the other end on Udoka. He missed a three on the following possession. He charged on the pass off. He missed a layup on the drive, fought to get it back, but threw it away. He dribbled into a defender and turned it over.
Lamar -- -- Not a good start to the game and that's never a good sign. He needed to work in the post against the small defenders the Spurs were throwing at us. He had problems when he did get in the post, picking up a couple offensive fouls. If he would have worked weak to strong more, sealing his man and taking a pass with good position, he would have had better results. Sealing with good position down low takes work, but you could see from the get-go in this one that this was going to be one of those Missing in Action games from Lamar. He sank a last-second three to make his scoring numbers look a little better than his effectiveness. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 4-7 shooting (1-2 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 12 boards, 2 assists, 5 turnovers and 4 fouls in 38 minutes. The Action: He sagged off Finley and gave up a three. He posted up, but bailed out instead of going up strong and threw a pass away. He missed a layup, again not trying to finish strong. Manu swiped a board out of LO's hands. He drew FTs when Ronny set him up after an offensive board, he swished both. With Kobe out, Lamar worked the pick and roll to set up Ronny for FTs. He missed an open corner three, then Finley drilled one on him on the other end. Next possession, he went to the post, sealed, Luke fed him and Lamar dunked over Duncan's help D. A little too much speed on a lob pass to Ronny and it couldn't be handled, right idea, though. He scooped up a missed three by Fish and tossed it in just before the buzzer. On to the second half: Stupid foul, pushing as he tried to post up his man. He picked up his third foul when his man flopped in the post. He threw away an outlet pass at the end of the third and Barry hit a three off it...that killed us. He hit a turnaround over Parker. He kicked out to Ronny for a jumper. Hard foul on Parker's penetration, sending him to the floor. He hit a late three.
DFish -- -- Missing DFish's hot hand from the perimeter certainly cost us. We've got to have that scoring punch on most nights with our current lineup. He just couldn't knock down a lot of looks he usually does. One of those nights. Defensively, Parker had just 2 points in the first half. He picked it up later, scoring 14 in the second half. Anytime Parker can't hit his jumper when Fish goes under screens, we have an advantage. Unfortunately, Parker had the better second half. The Stats: DFish scored 9 points on 4-12 shooting (1-3 from three) to go with 1 assist, 1 board, 2 steals and 2 fouls in 28 minutes. The Action: He attacked, lost the ball, got it back and scored a layup. He missed a mid-range jumper. He missed a layup, curling into the lane. He deflected a pass, chased it down and took it the distance for a layup. He missed a baseline jumper. He missed an open 17-footer. He missed an open 16-footer. He missed a long wing three. He missed a top-of-the key jumper to start the second half. He attacked baseline and powered up a layup (to end the Laker offensive flatline). He drained a wing three when Kobe made a quick swing pass to get him a good look off. He missed a sideline three with a man on him.
Kwame -- -- You didn't have to look at the box score to know that Kwame had the worst +/- on the night. He was a -23. He didn't give much of anything on either end. Meanwhile, Turiaf was killing the Spurs and anchoring the paint. Just a big difference between the two tonight. Kwame picked up a couple fouls on the offensive boards using his arms to clear people out when he didn't need to. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-4 shooting (2-2 from the line) to go with 6 boards and 3 fouls in 23 minutes. The Action: He set a pick for Kobe, took the return feed and drew the foul attacking, he made both FTs. He reposted and hit a simple jumphook over Duncan (keeping it simple is what he needs to do). He dunked on the next possession when Kobe attacked, drew the D and fed him. He shed Manu going for an offensive board (didn't need to) and was called for a foul. He picked up his second foul with 4:18 left in the first and had to sit. He shed Horry trying to get an offensive board and had to sit after coming back in for a few possession late in the first half. He bricked an easy layup with his left. He missed another layup.
Luke -- -- He played some respectable D tonight and hit the offensive glass well. His offensive game is still a struggle, but he didn't look nearly as bad as the past couple. He ran at both PF and SF in this one. The Spurs ran some small lineups making that possible without the Lakers paying a price. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 2-3 shooting (1-2 from the line) to go with 6 boards (3 offensive), 3 assists, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 36 minutes. The Action: He drew a foul on the first offensive play and made 1 FT. He finished a layup busting out after a miss. He threw an outlet away and it led to a dunk on the Spurs counter attack. Good job taking a missed FT away from Duncan to get another possession, and then he did it again against Duncan a few seconds later off another FT miss (he missed a wing jumper, however, on that possession). He sent Horry to the floor on a spin move on iso, then he scored the layup. Nice, quick entry to Lamar who posted up and sealed Finley and it led to a dunk as Finley went for a steal. He was tight on Manu's three and forced an airball. He posted up the smaller man, drew a double and fed Ronny for FTs. He set up Farmar for FTs with a lob out of a timeout.
Turiaf -- -- Ronny was one of the few to bring his A game on the road. Some great work on the defensive end, anchoring the paint, swatting shots and altering others. Offensively, he played great in the first half, scoring 11 of his 14 points. He worked the two-man game, made off-the-ball cuts and took advantage of the smaller Spurs lineups. I wish he could have gotten some more run in the second half, particularly when we started off so slow. The Stats: He scored 14 points on 5-8 shooting (a poor 4-8 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 4 blocks, 2 steals, 2 assists, 1 turnover and just 1 foul in 23 minutes at the C spot. The Action: He swished an elbow jumper, flashing to the strong side. He took an offensive board, then fed LO for freethrows. He drew FTs taking a pick-and-roll pass in the lane, he made both. Nice hustle back on D to swipe the long outlet at the end of that quarter after making those FTs. He hit Sasha on a kickout for three. He scored a layup off the pick and roll with Farmar. He faced up and hit the baseline jumper. He blocked a shot on the other end to ignite the breakaway. Good D on Duncan who tried to draw a foul on Ronny by throwing the arms into him, but Ronny didn't bite and Duncan bricked. Superb dive cut by Ronny, blasting down the lane with speed, taking the pass from Kobe and dunking. He drew FTs working the two-man game with Lamar, he missed both, but Luke got it back. Ronny then faced up and drew a foul on Duncan on a swing through, he made one, but Luke got it back again. Great D again on Duncan, holding him off in the post, making Duncan commit to the turnaround then swatting it as he shot, recovering the miss as well. Great first half, he had 11 points on 4-5 shooting to go with 4 boards. He missed a long wing jumper, fading as he shot. He drew FTs when Luke drew a double and found him, he made one. Great challenge on the other end to wing a layup just enough to force a miss. Excellent iso D on Manu, staying all over him as he drove and eventually drawing a clear-out foul. He challenged Manu's drive and forced a miss. He traveled taking a pass from Sasha on the perimeter while trailing the play (should have never been passed to). He rejected Duncan after Duncan traveled and then tried to shoot over him, but Duncan got it back and banked. He missed a jumper. Ronny gave up a couple of post scores and Phil then subbed him out for Kwame. He sank a jumper on a kickout from Lamar.
Farmar -- -- DFish needed the pick-me-up from Farmar. He played a good first half, but faded. Jordan couldn't connect on any of his threes. Lacking that second gunman off the bench hurt us in the second half. But to be fair, Farmar didn't get in until late in the third when most of the damage was already done. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-6 shooting (0-4 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 2 assists, 1 turnover, 3 fouls and no boards or steals in 20 minutes. The Action: He missed a wide open three, short. He got tapped on a three off a Kobe kickout. Great pass to Ronny off the pick and roll for a layup. He finished the break with his left hand high over the defenders. He missed an open three in transition. Out of a timeout, he drew FTs on a lob pass from Luke, he made both. He attacked off the high pick and scored a layup. He got caught in the air passing for a turnover. He missed a three.
Vujacic -- -- He had one stretch were he cost us on a series of plays, but otherwise a good game. He hit the boards well and drained some perimeter shots. The 7 boards were a season high, one shy of his career numbers. He earned his paycheck tonight from the perimeter when no one else could. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 4-7 shooting (2-4 from three, 1-1 from the line) to go with the 7 boards, 1 assist, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 25 minutes. The Action: He missed a heave at the first-quarter buzzer. He took the kickout from Ronny and drained the three. He scooped up a loose ball, pushed out the break and fed Farmar for the layup. He swished a three when Kobe kicked out to him from the post. He missed an open midrange jumper, he then missed an open three a few seconds later. He then attacked baseline and turned it over. Three straight possessions with no results. He sagged off Barry and gave up a three. He swished an And-1 baseline jumper to start the third quarter, he made the FT. He sank a fade off the pinch post.
Mbenga -- -- Phil threw him to the wolves early...and the Wolves had them some Mbenga for dinner. He came off the bench for Kwame against Duncan with 4 minutes left in the first quarter, 2 minutes later he sat with 2 fouls and 2 turnovers. The Stats: He didn't score on 0-1 shooting to go with his 2 turnovers and 2 fouls in 2 minutes. The Action: He missed a jumphook in the lane. He couldn't hold a pass from Fish getting out on the break. Duncan went after him right away on the other end. Mbenga threw a pass away from the post, then fouled. He then sat.
Phil -- -- The Lakers opened up with a 15-8 lead, getting to the rim on a number of shots... Duncan went at Kwame and Mbenga early, scoring 10 of the Spurs first 16 as they caught back up... The Spurs went to a small Oberto + guard lineup to close the first. The Lakers did a poor job going to the mismatches, but led 27-23 after the first quarter... The Lakers had a strong first half until the last couple minutes. The Spurs cut the lead down until a couple of late scores by the Lakers to pull it back to a 54-45 lead... The Lakers shot 54 percent to the Spurs 39 percent in the first half. The Lakers had a 32-8 advantage on points in the paint in the half (in the second half, the Spurs won that battle 22-12)... The coaches wanted the Lakers to get out on shooters better in the second half (the Spurs shots 6-12 from three in the first half)... The Lakers started the second half with three straight misses from Kobe, and some easy scores by the Spurs and Phil called a timeout. The Spurs caught and passed the Lakers as we couldn't score for the first several minutes of the second half. It was a 14-0 run before Fish hit a layup after more than 6 miinutes of scoreless ball from the starters... Kwame probably should have been subbed for Ronny as our offense had much better flow in the first half with him out there. Farmar came in with a minute left in the the third. Ronny didn't play in the quarter... The Lakers finished the quarter horribly as Barry hit back-to-back threes in the span of about 5 seconds and the Spurs led 76-66. A season-low 12 points scored in that quarter... We chopped the lead to 6 in the fourth quarter, but couldn't get closer...
Game Flow -- LINK -- Check out the two third-quarter runs of 14-0 and 15-2 that the Spurs started and ended the quarter with. That's where the game was obviously lost.
not a nice game... _________________ “I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.” - Kobe
thanks, DB
i didn't expect to win at san antonio... but it's sad to see that once again most of our players don't have any mental strenght... we play very well in games where everything flows in the right direction and disappear when the game becomes harder... we can become a better team, beyond every expectation, but with so many players without character we'll never become a winning team...
the difference between Phil and Pop was evident in Ginobli starting the 3rd and Ronny not getting in until the 4th. _________________ '04-'07: Kobe's prime, Lakers decline.
Phil not making adjustments in the third cost us the game. _________________ 1) DO WHATEVER IT TAKES
2) DEFENSE!!!!!!!!!
3) TRADE ODOM, WALTON AND VLAD
No rebounds.... No rings - Pat Riley
We have to get some players that have that kind of aggressiveness that we need. - Phil Jackson
Me: excuse me Phil, why didn't Ronny play in the 3rd quarter?
Phil: Oh Ronny had too good of a first half, he played perfect ball, did you see what he did out there? he was in a grove, dunking on everybody, he had too good of a chemistry out there with Kobe, so I had to cool him down a lil' bit. Sit him the whole 3rd quarter so the Spurs can make a run, to get things a little bit interesting. I had to make him come back down the earth and you know give Timmy a chance to show why he was the back to back MVP a couple of seasons ago. I think it worked. _________________ My Dream Starting 5 next Season
Pg Lonzo
Sg Kawhi
Sf Ingram
Pf Lebron
C Dedmon
Bench: Caruso, Hart, Bullock, Kuzma, McGee etc
Last edited by Andre2K on Thu Jan 24, 2008 12:55 am; edited 1 time in total
The Spurs are very beatable. With a healthy Drew and a full squad, I think the lakers can definitely take them. If the teams meet in the play-offs, I certainly don't think the Lakers or the coaches fear them. PJ will coach better and not allow the kinds of droughts that occurred to night. The league will send a better crew of refs.
The one thing that grates is how this team still reverst to making the same stupid mistakes when they get down to this team: not getting back to the three-point shooters. Even in the first half, when they were cold, I saw Lamar and a few other close out lazily. The Spurs weren;t hitting. But in the back of my mind I kept thinking: if they don't do a better job, that's going to come back to haunt them.
It's lazy defense, there's no better way to put it. Kobe did it. Lamar did it. Luke did it. For some reason, Kobe awlasys does this against the SPurs -- totally play off his man to "help." The SPurs seems to count on him doing that. It's disappointing that in three years PJ hasn't instilled better defensive fundamentals on his squad.
Spurs defense does not impress me. Kobe got into their interior anytime he chose to. If this wasn't the spurs, Kobe would be at the line 10 times tonight. _________________
Spurs defense does not impress me. Kobe got into their interior anytime he chose to. If this wasn't the spurs, Kobe would be at the line 10 times tonight.
Yep. I don't remember Kobe getting any calls inside. _________________ "I appreciate all those who have supported me. Thank you for believing in me. My family and I are going to need your support and prayers now more than ever." Kobe
Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 29999 Location: Likely nowhere near you
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:25 am Post subject:
Wait, we lost? I thought basketball was a 24-minute sport? _________________ Courage doesn't always roar.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying...'I will try again tomorrow.'
Actually I think Kobe really took us out of the game in the 3rd right from the beginning, he really moved away from what was working, and went for his own shot, which wasn't working, when he tried to pull back on that the team had already stagnated on offense and gone cold...great first half by kobe lousy 3rd....also, not usually one to complain about the refs, but the Lakers got pretty jobbed in the second half.....good game tape for the Lakers and paticular for Kobe to watch, definately a tale of two halves
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-- Kobe put together a strong first half, orchestrating the offensive execution and leading the team to the 9-point advantage. When the wheels fell off in the third, he was knee deep in the mess. He missed a series of shots as the offense stalled and his turnovers in this game piled up. He was effective crashing the glass a number of times, especially off his own misses. Defensively, he got caught doing a bit of ballwatching at times in this game and paid the price. 
-- Not a good start to the game and that's never a good sign. He needed to work in the post against the small defenders the Spurs were throwing at us. He had problems when he did get in the post, picking up a couple offensive fouls. If he would have worked weak to strong more, sealing his man and taking a pass with good position, he would have had better results. Sealing with good position down low takes work, but you could see from the get-go in this one that this was going to be one of those Missing in Action games from Lamar. He sank a last-second three to make his scoring numbers look a little better than his effectiveness. 
-- Missing DFish's hot hand from the perimeter certainly cost us. We've got to have that scoring punch on most nights with our current lineup. He just couldn't knock down a lot of looks he usually does. One of those nights. Defensively, Parker had just 2 points in the first half. He picked it up later, scoring 14 in the second half. Anytime Parker can't hit his jumper when Fish goes under screens, we have an advantage. Unfortunately, Parker had the better second half. 
-- You didn't have to look at the box score to know that Kwame had the worst +/- on the night. He was a -23. He didn't give much of anything on either end. Meanwhile, Turiaf was killing the Spurs and anchoring the paint. Just a big difference between the two tonight. Kwame picked up a couple fouls on the offensive boards using his arms to clear people out when he didn't need to. 
-- He played some respectable D tonight and hit the offensive glass well. His offensive game is still a struggle, but he didn't look nearly as bad as the past couple. He ran at both PF and SF in this one. The Spurs ran some small lineups making that possible without the Lakers paying a price. 
-- DFish needed the pick-me-up from Farmar. He played a good first half, but faded. Jordan couldn't connect on any of his threes. Lacking that second gunman off the bench hurt us in the second half. But to be fair, Farmar didn't get in until late in the third when most of the damage was already done. 
-- He had one stretch were he cost us on a series of plays, but otherwise a good game. He hit the boards well and drained some perimeter shots. The 7 boards were a season high, one shy of his career numbers. He earned his paycheck tonight from the perimeter when no one else could. 
-- Phil threw him to the wolves early...and the Wolves had them some Mbenga for dinner. He came off the bench for Kwame against Duncan with 4 minutes left in the first quarter, 2 minutes later he sat with 2 fouls and 2 turnovers. 
-- The Lakers opened up with a 15-8 lead, getting to the rim on a number of shots... Duncan went at Kwame and Mbenga early, scoring 10 of the Spurs first 16 as they caught back up... The Spurs went to a small Oberto + guard lineup to close the first. The Lakers did a poor job going to the mismatches, but led 27-23 after the first quarter... The Lakers had a strong first half until the last couple minutes. The Spurs cut the lead down until a couple of late scores by the Lakers to pull it back to a 54-45 lead... The Lakers shot 54 percent to the Spurs 39 percent in the first half. The Lakers had a 32-8 advantage on points in the paint in the half (in the second half, the Spurs won that battle 22-12)... The coaches wanted the Lakers to get out on shooters better in the second half (the Spurs shots 6-12 from three in the first half)... The Lakers started the second half with three straight misses from Kobe, and some easy scores by the Spurs and Phil called a timeout. The Spurs caught and passed the Lakers as we couldn't score for the first several minutes of the second half. It was a 14-0 run before Fish hit a layup after more than 6 miinutes of scoreless ball from the starters... Kwame probably should have been subbed for Ronny as our offense had much better flow in the first half with him out there. Farmar came in with a minute left in the the third. Ronny didn't play in the quarter... The Lakers finished the quarter horribly as Barry hit back-to-back threes in the span of about 5 seconds and the Spurs led 76-66. A season-low 12 points scored in that quarter... We chopped the lead to 6 in the fourth quarter, but couldn't get closer...
just one of those games that are hard to watch. Very frustrating indeed.
not a nice game...
