KNICKS -at- LAKERS -- 1/29 -- Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Beat Up, But Not Beat Down... Trailing by 9 points with just under 9 minutes to go, the Lakers went on a 19-4 run to turn the game on its heels. They finally got stops on the defensive end after letting the Knicks have whatever they wanted for most of the night. Offensively, Sasha stole the show.

Sasha hit a couple big threes after the Knicks had that lead, and he cut it back down to just 3 points. He scored 12 of his 20 points off the bench in the fourth quarter. "He has a big opportunity now with Kobe moving to small forward," Phil said. He also credited Sasha for playing a strong two-way game. "That's a place where Sasha can have difficulty because of screens or active creative players like Crawford is, but tonight he was effective out there all the way through, both defensively and offensively."

With 13 shots blocked, you would have thought our defense held the line. On at least a third of those blocks, the Knicks were still able to score on. We just couldn't hold the line and get one-and-out possessions for most of the night. When we finally clamped down, we started to take control.

Kobe was a couple boards shy of a triple-double, and Lamar woke up for 22 and 12. "He took the immediate move, the aggressive move at the right time and that helped out a lot," Phil said of Lamar's game.


Kobe -- -- Kobe turned out one of his most well-rounded games offensively. The assists don't even begin to account for how much offense he created. There were multiple times where his passes drew FTs for others or a player missed, got it back and scored. Kobe throttled up his offense in the second half, scoring 20 of his points in the last two quarters. LO, Kwame and Sasha all seemed to be primary targets of Kobe's passes. Any problems we had tonight were on the defensive end. Hopefully a dose of Knicks can pull the Lakers together as we head out on the road. Kobe tied a career high with his fifth straight double-double. The Stats: He scored 24 points on 10-21 shooting (1-4 from three, a poor 3-6 from the line) to go with 11 assists, 8 boards, 1 block, 4 turnovers and 3 fouls in 43:34 of action. The Action: He hit the rim on a long heave against the shotclock and we got it back. He spotted Kwame under the hoop for a layup. He split the zone off the dribble and flipped in a layup. He hit Kwame again under the hoop with a behind-the-back pass, Kwame missed, erasing the assist, got it back and scored. He spun to lose his man, then hit the layup. He attacked the lane and dumped it to Kwame for a dunk next time down. He posted up and tried to draw the foul, airballing the jumper. He attacked again into a crowd trying to draw the foul, he bricked badly. He hit Ronny with the no-looker trailing the play for a dunk. He went between the legs several times off the dribble, attacked and dished to LO who scored an And-1. He missed a wing jumper. He attacked in transition and kicked out to Fish for the jumper. He was called for a weak carry call at the end of the half when we were trying to work for the last shot (cost us a bucket on the other end). Kobe had 4 points, 6 boards and 7 assists in the first half. He was called for an offensive foul trying to move weak to strong. He missed a stepback jumper. He attacked, missed on the drive and wanted the foul, he got a T instead. He pulled up and sank an 18-footer. After picking up his third foul, he had to watch his D and Crawford drilled a three in his face. Kobe sank a wing three a couple possessions later. He forced up a 35-foot three on the next possession and missed. He got Q in the air on the pump fake and drew FTs, he made one, we got it back and he missed a wing jumper. He attacked the paint and drew FTs, he made one again. He attacked in semi-transition, took a push but kept going under the backboard to the other side, reached back up and flipped it in. He missed a layup on a drive. He faced up from the right side, swished the jumper and got hit for an And-1, he missed the FT again. He missed a three. He worked the two-man with Ronny to start the fourth and it led to FTs. He missed the wing jumper. He backdoored his man, took the bullet oop from LO and slammed it down. He attacked and fed LO for FTs. He swatted Balkman's shot under the hoop to save a basket (very nice, your No. 10 NBA TV play of the night). He probed off the screen, spun away from defenders, had no one to pass to and somehow got a high bank to drop in from the left side. He hit Lamar flashing to the ball in the low post for a score. He sold Q on a Kwame screen coming one way, then he went the other and was wrapped up from behind, he wasn't given FTs, though. He swished a baseline jumper on the following inbounds. Out on the break, he took the Farmar pass and scored an And-1, he made the FT. He drew the D from the right wing, threw a skip pass to Sasha who drained the wing three with just over a minute left. He attacked off the high screen and set up LO for FTs.

Odom -- -- Lamar was aggressive from the start. One of his better games this season. He didn't settle for jumpers and made quick attacks to get into the paint. He didn't fade away after a good start. Now lets string some of these together. Not a lot of post work against a bigger Knicks lineup, although he had Crawford defending him for a stretch, but we didn't attack it. (It did look like others weren't looking for it, but LO needs to call for that on the mismatches. Get in the post against the shorties.) The Stats: He scored 22 points on 7-10 shooting (8-10 from the line, showing the activity) to go with 12 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block and 3 fouls in 37 minutes. The Action: After Randolph posted up LO and scored on one end, Lamar went back at him on the other, driving easily for a layup to start the game. Luke tapped an offensive board to him, he attacked and scored a layup for the Lakers second score. He missed on another drive, passing on the three attempt to get into the paint. Bad kickout and it resulted in a layup the other way. He attacked off the Kobe drive and dish, flipped a layup over the front of the rim and went down in pain on the And-1 (he was limping a bit after that and seemed to have issues for a while), he made the FT. He picked up his third foul and had to sit with 4:29 left in the half. He swatted a shot on one end, took it the distance and slowly finished an And-1 finger roll, he missed the FT. He missed a point-blank tip in. He was fouled after pulling down an offensive board, he made one but stole it back. He called for the ball getting out on the break, Farmar found him, LO gathered himself under the hoop and powered in the layup. He hit Ronny with an interior feed for a layup, just beating the shotclock. Nice backdoor lob to Kobe for the throwdown. He drew FTs when Kobe attacked and dished to him, he made both. He flashed to the strong side in the low post, took the feed and scored over a defender with his left (should have finished with his right) to tie the game at the 5:45 mark. He nailed Curry to the floor with an up fake at the freethrow line, went around him with ease and threw down with 4 minutes left for a 6-point lead. He was hammered when Sasha set him up off a drive and dish, he made both FTs. He took the Kobe draw and dish, went up strong and was fouled, he made both FTs.

Kwame -- -- Pretty decent game from Kwame, all things considered. He didn't anchor the paint and his elevation in generally seems to be suffering, but he was more effective out there than he has been. "As long as I keep rebounding like I did tonight, I'm not really worried about much," Kwame said. "That was a good win. If we win, they'll got back to getting on my side and everyone else's side because winning is a cure-all." The Stats: He scored 10 points on 4-6 shooting (2-6 from the line) to go with 11 boards (5 offensive), 4 blocks, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and 4 fouls in 29 minutes. He was a +27. The Action: He got to the line off a Kobe feed, he missed both FTs. He pulled down a lob pass, went back up and scored the easy layup. He drew Curry's second foul taking the charge midway through the first quarter. He couldn't elevate for the dunk off the pass from Kobe, he missed, got it back and scored the layup. Kobe attacked the lane and hit Kwame, who dunked it this time. He was left alone under the hoop and Ronny lobbed to him for the layup. He missed a jumphook, which was set up out of a timeout. He was hit hard on a dunk attempt, he missed both FTs. He got tapped on a layup he should have had after taking contact, he made both FTs (the crowd gave him a good cheer for knocking those down). He had 10 points and 7 boards in the first half. He overpassed, when Kobe dished to him and it resulted in a breakaway. He roofed Robinson under the hoop late in the game. He blocked Randolph's shot and controlled the board.

Fisher -- -- Decent game for Fish, although he watched as Farmar and Sasha closed out the game. They were able to lock down better defensively and that made the difference. The Stats: He scored 17 points on 6-11 shooting (1-3 from three, 4-4 from the line) to go with 1 board, 1 assist 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 25 minutes. The Action: He missed a three. He threw a pass away for a dunk the other way. He sank a wing jumper, pulling up off the screen. He attacked the lane, took contact and got to the line, he made both FTs. He faced up at the elbow, got a step on his man, attacked and got into Randolph's body to earn FTs, he made both. He hit an easy floater when Crit found him. He drained a long jumper off a kickout from Kobe in transition. He had 10 points on 3-5 shooting in the first half. He missed a sideline jumper. He missed a wide open wing jumper next time down. He missed another pull-up jumper. He stepped into a wing three and rattled it in. He passed up on the jumper and attacked the lane for a layup. He swished a wing jumper.

Walton -- -- He's injury prone, and that aspect of his game came to play tonight. He got a hip pointer getting hit on a rebound and left after playing two-thirds of a quarter. He didn't return. Phil ended up running Kobe at the SF most of the time and Sasha at the SG. The Stats: He was 0-3 (0-2 from three) and had 2 boards in 8 minutes. The Action: He got hit with no call on a drive. He missed on back-to-back threes. He then went to the locker room late in the first quarter and was done for the night.

Radmanovic -- -- He entered the game for Luke late in the first and later got the start in the second half. But Phil came quickly with the hook. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-2 shooting, both threes, to go with 1 rebound and 2 turnovers in 10:31 of action. The Action: He attacked the zone and kicked out to Farmar for the three. He sank a corner three on a kickout from Sasha. He swished a wing three on a kickout from Farmar. He attacked and threw it to a Knick. He was then benched as Phil went to a combo of LO and Kobe at the SF spot for the rest of the game.

Farmar -- -- He closed out the game even though little Nate was pretty effective offensively against us. Farmar was in on a number of late counter attacks in transition, setting up others for key scores. Nice to see no killer turnovers in the fourth like the past couple of games. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-6 shooting (2-5 from three) to go with 9 assists, 4 boards, 2 steals and no turnovers or fouls in 25 minutes. He was a +17. The Action: He missed a three over the zone after entering the game. He drained the wing three when Vlad kicked it out to him. He drained a three from the top of the arc. He attacked off the dribble and kicked out to Vlad for a three. He tapped an offensive board to Ronny who was fouled under the hoop. He hit LO on the break for a score. He hit the rim on a 70-foot heave at the third quarter buzzer. Soft D behind a screen and he gave up a three. He attacked and kicked to Sasha for a three. He pushed out the break and hit Sasha for the wing jumper. He scooped up a loose ball, hit Kobe who hit the And-1.

Turiaf -- -- Spirited game on both ends, as usual from Ronny. He was swatting shots right and left, but we were unable to get the stops. When he's challenging shots, we definitely need to send people down on the boards, especially without Drew on the floor to control the glass. Offensively, he jumper looked smooth...and he had an impressive alley-oop throwdown of a Farmar pass that was probably the highlight play of the game. Excellent numbers from Ronny tonight. The Stats: He scored 14 points on 5-9 shooting (4-4 from the line) to go with 9 boards, 5 swats, 2 assists, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 28 minutes. The Action: He blew a sure assist trying to shovel it to Kobe on a two-on-one instead of the bounce pass, and it was deflected and turned over. He blocked his man on iso D. He blocked Randolph once, but couldn't stop the score. He dunked on the other end, taking a pass from Kobe. He blocked Lee, but again couldn't prevent the score. He missed on a drive, but we got it back. He swatted Balkman from behind Vlad. From the right corner three line, he lobbed to Kwame who was wide open under the hoop for a layup. He missed an elbow jumper. He swished an 18-footer from the wing. He stretched out to get the lob pass from Farmar that was thrown way behind him, he grabbed and still threw it down (that had the crowd buzzing). He hit a short elbow jumper on the next possession. He had 8 points, 3 boards and 4 blocks in the first half. He missed a fade in the lane. He missed a layup with his left. He blocked Randolph, but again we couldn't control it and the Knicks scored. He took the Farmar-tapped offensive board and was fouled, he made both FTs. He couldn't finish the tough lob attempt from Farmar as they worked the two-man game. Kobe hit Ronny off the two-man game for FTs, Ronny made both. He scored a layup off an interior feed from LO, just beating the shotclock. He drew a charge on Jeffries.

Vujacic -- -- Bring out the dancing tomato -- make that two -- for Sasha. Big time performance from Sasha tonight. He was absolutely drilled in the chin with an elbow from Balkman 35 feet from the hoop in the first half. It dropped him, and luckily it was just the chin and not near the eye or nose because that had some force behind it. That wasn't going to stop Sasha tonight. "It kind of woke me up," Sasha said after the game. He had 12 fourth-quarter points and dug the Lakers out from a 9-point hole in that quarter. He held Crawford to making 2 of his last 10 shots on the other end. That was a great fourth-quarter from Sasha. Huge. The Stats: Sasha scored 20 points on 7-13 shooting (5-11 from three, 1-1 from the line) to go with 3 assists, 1 block and 3 fouls in 25 minutes. He was a +17. The Action: He missed an open corner three in transition. He missed a long jumper. He sank a corner three off a swing pass from Farmar. He missed another three. He didn't hesitate on the next possession to fire and drain a wing three. He attacked the baseline and kicked out to Vlad for a three. Back in the game to slide Kobe over to the SF late in the third, he sank a long two with his toe on the three line. He missed a corner three. He missed another three, looked like he was fouled. He cut a Knicks 9-point lead when he drained an open three to answer a Knicks three. Out of a timeout on the next possession, he sank a three at the top of the key to cut the lead to 3. Good, hard foul on Robinson to prevent a breakaway score, he ended up getting a T on Robinson and made that on the other end. He busted out on the break with Farmar, took the feed and drained a wing jumper with just over 4 minutes left. He helped force Crawford into an airball staying on his shoulder on the other end. He attacked off the dribble, drew the D and dumped it to LO for FTs. He missed a big wing three with just over 2 minutes left going for the kill. He set up behind the arc, Kobe drew the D and kicked to him and Sasha drained the dagger three from the left side with 1:14 left. Ball game.

Mbenga -- -- He came in for Lamar with 4:29 in the second quarter. He had a couple fouls and missed a couple shots, nothing realy worth note. The Stats: He scored 1 point on 0-2 shooting, 1-2 from the line, had 2 fouls and 1 block in 4:29 of action. The Action: He missed an elbow jumper early in the offense (should have let us work it around a bit more). It looked like he winged a shot that hit the rim and missed. He missed a short jumphook. He got tapped on a layup off the Kobe bounce pass (should have dunked it), he made one FT.

Crittenton -- -- He came in midway through the second quarter for a brief stint. The Stats: He didn't score on 0-1 shooting to go with 1 assist and 1 turnover in 3 minutes. The Action: He missed an open jumper from the top of the key. He broke the press and hit Fish for the easy floater.

Phil -- -- The Lakers went on a 10-0 run forcing a Knick timeout early on -- Kobe mixing in the passing and scoring during that first quarter run. The Lakers gave back their lead out of the timeout and Phil called a timeout of his own... The Lakers trailed 29-28 after the first quarter. They faced a lot of zone D, but were still able to score... The Lakers were going three crazy, but a lot of them were coming on inside-out sequences vs. swing-around-the-zone sequences and they were getting good looks... The Lakers trailed 61-58, very soft defensively in the first half, aside from Ronny... We shot 6-16 from three in the first half. They wanted the guys to get better looks on offense... Phil sat Vlad early in the second half and went with a Kwame, Turiaf, LO, Kobe, Fish line up... The Lakers trailed 87-85 heading into the third quarter... The Lakers trailed by 9 with more than 8 minutes left. We tied it up at the 5:45 mark after finally getting some one-and-out stops. We took a 6-point lead on the 19-4 run... We outscored the Knicks 35-22 in the fourth, finally getting some stops. The Knicks shot 8-22, while the Lakers killed them with 11-15 shooting... The Lakers shot 51 percent to the Knicks 44 percent on the night. We went 11-27 from three and 23-33 from the line (the Knicks were 10-23 from the line)... Time to get it done on the road...

[Sister Golden Hair]

Spot on recap, DB.

I actually enjoy watching Sasha play this year whereas in years past, I used to cringe because he was unable to come through regularly.

As another poster noted, you can tell Sashsa loves to play the game.

SGH

[LA_UNION]

Big Shot Sasha!
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-" The shortest distance between a problem and a solution is the distance between your knees and the floor.

[LakerSanity]

Thanks DB... statistically, a nice 5 game stretch for Kobe. 28.6 PPG (51%), 7.6 AST, 9.4 RBD. Too bad we are wasting it going 2-3 during that stretch.

In the games since Bynum went out, we are averaging 106 PPG a game, but also giving up 106 PPG a game. We need to find some answers on defense... whether that means giving Ronny and MBenga more and more minutes, or Kwame getting back to playing his past high level of D.

Good game by LO, I'd like to see him spend more time at SF with Ronny at PF... might happen with Luke possibly missing a few games.
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[A Mad Chinaman]

Thanx DB

What's the current injury status of Vlad? What are your thoughts on how the team can get Vald back into sync with his shooting?

[Klone_dd]

This one almost had disaster written all over it. The Bricks had a good flow going there for awhile, but then the Machine cranked it up on both ends of the court. Major props to Sasha for sticking the J's (jumpers and Jamal).

Kobe was too casual until he got T'd up. An aggressive, efficient Kobe is a great thing to watch.

Welcome back, LO. Kwame's decent game - can't argue too much about a 2x2 from him. Ronny provided the missing shot intimidation.

Even with all those contributions, the game was too close for comfort. Probably get away with the lax D and sudden offensive bursts against the Bricks. Not going to get it done against the Pistons though.

[kontrast]

Double tomato?

[DancingBarry]

[A Mad Chinaman]

[DancingBarry]

Only in an emergency... Your perimeter D would have to be extremely strong to not give up penetration. Lamar can't anchor. And the other team would have to have someone inept in the post.

[8750]

Thanks, DB
biggest problem is once again our defense... on the stats sheet you see the nine blocks of kwame and ronny, but our rotations are more than bad and the defensive attitude is weak and lazy...
odom at 5 would be effective against those teams who play with a center outside the paint (as the pistons with rasheed, or the raptors with bargnani)...
i'm not impressed by sasha's great game... i'm much more impressed -against my opinions- by his continuity and confidence in last weeks...

[LakersInFour]

[limchrc]

Nice to get the win again. Thanks for the recap.

[Sage_10]

thanks db!
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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

[10scott10]

[VujacicFan]

It was nice to see Sasha tear it up.

[Mr. EiGhTy-OnE]

THE MACHINE!
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"When (Kobe) gets you on life support, he won't give you mouth to mouth. HE PULLS THE PLUG." -stu

[20,000]

Funny how games come down to rebounding. If the Lakers could secure the rebound and not give up so many second chance points to the Knicks, this would have been a blowout from start to finish. Instead, David Lee and others kept getting the ball and putting it back for easy scores.
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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.'

[Mr. EiGhTy-OnE]

-without sasha we would be on a 4 game losing streak
-ending the game on a 29-9 run was huge
-d-fish has been making silly turnovers lately and benched in the 4th
-its unfortunate luke got injured, but a godsend to us at lg.net
-why cant lamar play like that every night?
-not sure if the lakers should sign dj to another 10 day or look elsewhere
-kwame played ok, still missing chippies though
-hopefully kobe moves to sf and farmar or sasha starts on the road trip
-i think i the road trip, kobe cant wait to get his shot going
-kobe's free throws (must be on strike )
-take that spike lee (he did give sasha props after the game)
-role players to have big games:collison,diaw,udoka,robinson & lee
-great effort from turiaf, can we give the dancing banana emoticon a
turiaf hair-do?
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"When (Kobe) gets you on life support, he won't give you mouth to mouth. HE PULLS THE PLUG." -stu

[LongtimeLakerLover]

I want to know where our defense went (BTW, thanks DB. Love your recaps) for the past 3 or 4 games? We had it in the last moments of the 4th, but before that it was just gone. Used to be we'd trap them and make them work to bring up the ball, etc... I think if they could just lock in their defense then their offense would start to come. Also - please penetrate the key. For a while they settled for shooting jumpers and consequently missing. Go for the high percentage shot! Get the foul called! This has frustrated me somewhat.

In terms of the road trip 5-4 is realistic IF they play defense and IF they become consistant with their shots. Heck, I'm even hoping for 6-3.
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I love LA........WE LOVE IT!

[prisma8slg]

[puertorock33]

Thanks DB

I thought this was one of Phil's Better coached games. He brought in Ronny early and his energy and D made a difference. Everyone else played position D while David Lee went off....

I dont know why Isiah took him out in the forth. Him and Nate R. where killing us. Phil brought in Kwame to match up when Lee went out and he did alright. Gotta bee a confidence booster to play important 4th q minutes and be on the court when the final buzzer sounds.

[JM]

[Mr. EiGhTy-OnE]

^once mihm comes back, id rather sign ruben patterson for the rest of the year.
_________________
"When (Kobe) gets you on life support, he won't give you mouth to mouth. HE PULLS THE PLUG." -stu

[maddprophet]