LAKERS -at- HAWKS - 2/6 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Transitions... The Lakers are going to have to figure out a way to survive another injury. Two games in a row from Kobe where his dislocated finger has dislocated his offense. He struggled to score again, making just one basket in the last three quarters and he lost the handle on a critical possession to bury us late.

The Lakers fell 98-95 and Kobe scored just 11 points on 4-16 shooting. His lone turnover of the game couldn't have come at a worse time as we were down by 2 and turned it over with 8 seconds left.

Not to be out done, both Fish and Lamar missed free throws late. The question this team will have is who else besides Kobe can close out down the stretch? With the addition of Pau, they will likely be able to find a few more options...but it will take some time.

Prior to that final stretch, the Lakers, as a whole, struggled with their transition D, looking a step slow on most occasions on the second night of the back-to-back. A healthy Kobe and we get a couple more hoops in the final few minutes and this W is ours.


Kobe -- -- With two of his fingers in his shooting hand taped together, kobe laced up the shoes and gave it a shot. He struggled badly from all over the court and even from the line. Defensively, he was average. He looked to be about 20 percent of himself. Shots rattled in and out all night. When he and the starters came back for the bench in the fourth, we lost our 8-point lead and struggled to find our way. Kobe hoped the hand would feel "at least 70 percent" by Friday's game. Keep you fingers crossed (not you, Kobe). The Stats: He scored 11 points on 4-16 shooting (0-2 from three, 3-5 from the line) to go with 10 assists, just 1 board, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 37 minutes. The Action: He hit his first jumper, standing on the three line from the right side. He didn't hit rim on a quick three attempt next time down (looked like he was fading). He posted up, drew the double and found Vlad open across the court for a three. He hit Vlad on the give and go for a dunk. He pounded the dribble between the legs, then kicked out to Vlad for the corner three. He came up short on a pull-up wing jumper. Nice pass deflection to save an open jumper to Johnson. He sank a baseline fallaway. He upfaked to lose Zaza, then scored the And-1 reverse, he made the FT. He missed a wing jumper. He missed a long wing jumper fading. He attacked off the dribble, took contact and drew the FTs, he made one. He pushed the ball up with speed and drew a foul with 3.4 seconds left in the half, he made one FT. He missed a wing jumper. He missed a fade from the elbow. He pushed up the break, spun off the dribble to lose a man, went behind his back to beat another, then no-looked to Fish for three. He missed a three-footer. He missed a long three on his next attempt. He attacked off the Gasol screen and kicked to Luke for the open three. Back in and he immediately forced a jumper over Smith and had it blocked. He bricked a 22-footer. He missed on a drive. He missed an elbow pull-up out of a timeout (0-10 since the first quarter). He finally got his first field goal since that quarter when he attacked to his right off the dribble and scooped in a layup with 1:41 to tie the game. He lost the dribble with his right hand then kicked the ball in the backcourt to turn it over with 8 seconds left, killer turnover down by 2.

Gasol -- -- He looked to be second guessing himself a number of times in the game on the offensive end, but put together a number of good plays. He didn't score in the fourth, playing about half the quarter. Defensively, Horford pulled down 7 offensive boards. I wasn't sure to what extent his current back issues might come into play, but the second night of the back-to-back could have resulted in some issues. (Our transition D is what really killed us, though.) The Stats: He scored 12 points on 5-14 shooting, pulled down 7 boards, had 3 assists, 1 block and 2 fouls in 37 minutes. The Action: He missed a turnaround when the offense stalled. He was fouled on a reverse attempt, he made both FTs. He dunked off a pass in transition from Lamar. He forced Horford into a brick with some tight post D and using his length well. He left Smith nailed to the floor on a baseline spin, then scored the layup. He took contact with no call and missed the hook, should have been FTs. He rejected Williams under the hoop to ignite the break. He faced up and drew a reach foul. He took the post feed and threaded a pass over a defender to a cutting Luke for a layup. He took contact with no call and missed with his left in the lane. He dug out a deflected pass from Luke and scored the layup. He missed a baseline jumper. He missed a baseline jumper off a kickout. He drained the 17-footer on the kickout from Lamar. He drew the double and kicked to Lamar who attacked for the layup. He missed a short one that Lamar cleaned up. He was blocked at the rim. He worked the pinch post with Lamar, leading LO to the hoop with a perfectly placed return pass. He erased a Childress drive on one end, then scored a layup with his left, slipping the screen on the other end. He had 12 points and 6 boards after three quarters. He airballed forcing up a shot that he wanted to pass. He missed a short one attacking off the dribble.

Lamar -- -- He struggled with fouls in the first half, but didn't let that take him out of his game. One of the rare times we've seen Lamar lead the Lakers in scoring. He had his perimeter game going decently, but mixed it up with getting into the paint, too. Poor job from the line tonight. Defensively, he had some good help D sequences. The Stats: He scored 19 points on 8-12 shooting (1-3 from three, 2-5 from the line) to go with 11 boards, 3 assists, 4 turnovers and 3 fouls in 33 minutes. The Action: He missed a corner jumper on the first possession. He contested the dunk in transition, got the miss, pushed out the break and fed Gasol for a dunk. He charged working off the dribble against Smith. He pulled up in the corner off the dribble and drained the three. He missed a layup over Smith. He scored an And-1 layup when Farmar faked the shot and found Lamar cutting, he missed the FT. He got picked while pushing up the dribble in traffic, then picked up his third foul with 6 minutes left in the first half. He had 9 points on 3-7 shooting and 4 assists in the first half. He attacked and kicked out to Pau for the jumper. He stepped in and sank the elbow jumper off good Laker ball movement. They left him again, he attacked from the three line and scored a layup on the next trip down. He crashed the glass to pull down a miss to draw a foul, he made one FT. He missed a long elbow jumper, hesitating on the shot. You could see him adjust to go after a pass from Pau that forced LO to move toward the hoop and Lamar scored on a reverse. He lost the handle on a sure dunk in transition. He hit a jumphook, cutting to the low post to get a pass from Luke. He missed a corner three at the end of the third. He had 14 points and 11 boards after three quarters. He posted up Williams, attacked the lane to his left and scored. Out of a timeout, the play busted so Lamar pulled up off the dribble and sank the jumper from the top of the key with 2:35 left. He was fouled hard taking a pass from Sasha and attacking in the lane with 1 minute left and trailing by 2 points, he made just one FT.

Fisher -- -- Another good shooting game from DFish. The coaches wanted us to milk it more in the second half, but we did that with inconsistency. Late in the game, Lue got a couple big scores against us and the Hawks went to the high screen-roll in crunch time. Fish missed a clutch free throw in the final minute. The Stats: He scored 17 points on 6-11 shooting (4-6 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 3 assists, 2 turnovers and 2 fouls in 30 minutes. The Action: He missed a runner in the lane. He missed a long pull-up jumper in transition. Bad pass in transition, forcing it to Kobe, it then turned into an And-1 the other way. He missed a wing jumper. He swished a corner three. Next time down, same spot, he swished another three. He hit Ronny off the screen-roll for FTs. He swished a wing three on his next attempt. The coaches wanted the guys to look for Fish more in the second half. He drained the long jumper behind the double screen with his heels on the three line. He swished a corner three in transition after Kobe made a series of moves off the dribble before finding him. He tied up Johnson's drive on a help D reach. He drained a long sideline jumper. He had 16 points (4-4 from three) after three quarters. He missed a three. Great D blindsiding Johnson in the post to force a turnover. Lue scored two huge buckets against Fish down the stretch. On one sequence, Fish was all over the floor on both ends, he dove on a reach to knock the ball free from Lue on one end, then got knocked to the floor driving on the other, he made just one FT with 40 seconds left to tie the game. Johnson got away with a clearout on Fish with 23 seconds left and got to the line. He missed a long heave at a three to tie the game at the buzzer.

Radmanovic -- -- Vlad was on fire in the first quarter, then didn't score again, going 0-4 the rest of the way. He had some very good help D sequences and a couple of steals. But, he also had some bad breakdowns. Very up and down minutes. The Stats: He scored 13 points on 5-10 shooting (3-7 from three) to go with 2 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover and no fouls in 32 minutes. The Action: He served one up for Smith to easily swat under the hoop to start. He drained an open three off the Kobe kickout. He swiped an outlet pass then worked the give-and-go with Kobe for a throwdown (very nice). He drained a corner three on a kickout from Kobe. He scored a layup on an interior feed from Luke. Next time down he drained another corner three when the Lakers worked the ball around the perimeter off the Kobe double team which took place on the other side of the court. He had 13 points on 5-6 shooting in the first quarter. Good help D, blocking Williams before taking a shot below the belt. Nice challenge again, forcing a miss under the hoop. He grabbed a defensive board, then gave it away with a poor outlet pass and it turned into a dunk. He missed an open three. He stole a post entry, then scooped up a Kobe bobble on the break. He was blocked on a three attempt. He airballed a three trying to beat the shotclock. He hit Luke cutting for a score. He missed a three.

Luke -- -- Better minutes from Luke. Nice to see him hit from the perimeter again. He was still a bit scary off the dribble or around the hoop. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 4-8 shooting (1-1 from three) to go with 6 boards, 3 assists, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 21 minutes. The Action: He shoveled an no-look interior feed to Vlad for the layup. Horrible inbounds and it was easily picked off at the end of the quarter. He scored a layup, cutting off Gasol and taking a feed. Aggressive attack off the dribble, going behind his back with speed, then he somehow got a pass to Gasol after it was deflected and Gasol scooped it up and scored. He got stripped off the dribble on another attack. He swished a sideline three off a Kobe kickout. He posted up Childress and didn't hit rim. He cut down the lane, took the pass from Vlad, missed, but tipped it back in. Bad D and he gave up a layup to Johnson, he then got swatted on the other end. He drained a freethrow jumper, pulling up after working off the Vlad handoff.

Turiaf -- -- Probably not enough Ronny in this game. Phil gets into those modes where he has one center and one replacement center sometimes, and he won't run Ronny at PF. The issue in this game, however, was whether we could match up with that speedy smaller roster. Ronny had trouble with that on a couple sequences. We missed Ronny's hustle and energy and might have paid a price in transition D, however. (Still, we had an 8-point lead while bringing back the starters...they just didn't close.) The Stats: He scored 2 points on 0-2 shooting (2-2 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 2 assists, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 11 minutes. The Action: He missed a jumphook in the lane. He reached on the perimeter and was called for a foul. He earned FTs working the two-man game with Fish, he made both. He Kwame'd a feed from Luke under the hoop and turned it over. Josh Smith blew past him and dunked an And-1 out of a timeout. He missed a jumphook off the glass.

Farmar -- -- We missed the impact ball Farmar tonight. He had just 2 points and a single assist. That won't cut it. We have 4 impact ballers now in Kobe, Pau, Lamar and Drew...come playoff time that's usually who rise to the occasion. We need our PG spot to bring that. Fish has done it off and on, Farmar, too. The next stage of his development will be his consistency. Hopefully, we see just a bit more of that in the second half of the season. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-5 shooting (0-2 from three) to go with 2 boards, 1 assist, 1 foul and 2 points in 18 minutes. The Action: He missed a wing three on his first attempt. He pushed out the Gasol swat, changed directions of the dribble and finger rolled over Lue. He missed a short fading bank. He faked the shot and hit a cutting Lamar for the And-1. He stalled the offense pounding the dribble the whole possession, then airballed a three trying beat the shotclock. He got swatted on a drive.

Vujacic -- -- Down by 3 points with 7.1 seconds left and Sasha picks that moment to attack off the dribble and score a layup, now we trailed by 1 with 3 seconds left without a timeout. Not a wise decision. He can join Luke and LO with mistakes in the final seconds of a game. Bummer. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 4-7 shooting (2-3 from three) to go with 1 assist, 2 steals and 1 foul in 21 minutes. The Action: He missed an open corner three. He bricked a jumper at the top of the key. He missed a three. He swished a three on the next possession. Childress was killing him in transition or under the hoop. He stripped Williams to save a breakaway score. He drained a 20-footer working off the screen from Ronny. He drained a big three after Ronny kicked out to him with the shotclock winding down. Good hustle to get a possession from two Hawks in the corner. He fouled Horford with 1 second on the shotclock trying to get a loose ball. He kept an offensive board alive. He scored the layup with 3 seconds left.

Phil -- -- So, Luke over-passed at the buzzer, Lamar airballed, and Sasha (probably the last option as others were covered) ended up scoring a 2 when we had to have a 3. Chalk up another end of game blow it... There was a stretch in this game to start the fourth when Kobe, Lamar and Gasol all sat at the same time. In the first half, Phil toggled his lineups to leave one or two of them on the floor at all times. Still, the all-bench lineup didn't cost us as we ended up with the same 8-point lead as when we started the fourth by the time starters returned... The Lakers played some soft D at times in the first quarter, but still led 29-27. Vlad had a hot hand (5-6 FG, 13 points) and Gasol continued to be effective. We shot 4-7 from three in the first quarter... Phil went to Gasol/Lamar to start the second while Kobe rested... He got Kobe 6 minutes of rest until Lamar picked up his third foul. Phil went with a Gasol, Vlad, Kobe, Sasha, Fisher lineup, before giving Gasol some rest... The Lakers led 53-45 at half, shooting 46 percent to the Hawks 38 percent. We shot an impressive 8-12 from three. The Hawks had a 11-4 advantage on second chance points... The transition D was poor and the coaches wanted them to put a stop to it... The Lakers led 76-68 after three, playing even with the Hawks in the quarter despite Kobe's poor shooting... Phil started the fourth with the Turiaf, Vlad, Luke, Sasha and Farmar lineup. He called a quick timeout after the Lakers didn't rotate and gave up a dunk to start the fourth (Vlad's fault)... That total bench unit managed to play even with the Hawks for the first 5 minutes of the fourth... He brought back a couple big guns, then finally brought back all four of the starters with Sasha when the lead was cut to just 3 points with 5:30 left to go. The Hawks finished an 11-2 run before Lamar called a timeout when he couldn't inbounds... Down by 2 with 23.2 left in the game and Kobe struggling. They took the ball in the back court, as Kobe began to create, he fumbled the dribble away and turned it over with 8 seconds left... The Lakers got the ball back with 7.1 seconds left and down by three. Phil went with the same Pau, Lamar, Kobe, Sasha, Fish lineup and Sasha attacked off the dribble for 2. We had not timeouts and 3.2 on the clock after we fouled Johnson. We missed a heave at the buzzer from Fish... The Hawks ended up shooting 47 percent for the game after the poor shooting first half... The Lakers shot 10-16 from the line. Could have used those misses...

Game Flow -- LINK -- Check out that 14-4 run from the Hawks in the fourth and note that it began as soon as we brought back in the starters.

[lakefan24]

thanks dude. been waiting all night just to hear from u. keep it up

[Skate]

Thanks DB!


I'm wondering how many more times Luke is going to either over-pass and/or fumble the ball somehow before Phil realizes how bad he is. Every time Luke comes on the floor I cringe. Is he blackmailing Phil? I just don't get it.

[Alpha]

Thanks Deeb...

Every loss sucks but I'm comfortable chalking this one up to various circumstances (meaning that this loss does not reflect the team).

[8750]

thanks, DB
ok, kobe's injury makes all the difference in the world, but that's exactly the kind of games we lose, that's the biggest weakness of this team: in games decided by four points and less we are 3-7... we win -and with gasol we will win also more- the games where we play well and we lose the games where something goes wrong... that's not a winning attitude...

[Mation]

Thanks DB.

Seemed to be some issues with the maintenance of the floor. Throughout the game, I remembered at least three times where a player slipped; Kobe being one of them. Also an unfortunate call with Fish at the end. In the replay you could see Johnson clearly push off of him. Though that didn't cost us the game when you look at its entirety.

Good to see Kobe with 10 assists and 1 turnover. Love Gasol and his passing game.

[KBryantisclutch]

Thanks DB, good breakdown.
Sasha:

[GunShot]

I'm wondering if Phil said something like this in the timeout: "We need a 3; we have no timeouts left."

If he didn't, then I can understand what Sasha did. If he did, then Sasha had a mental lapse. Kobe obviously knew the Lakers had no timeouts left as he was calling for the ball from the 3-point line and immediately went to chat with Sasha. Did the other players know also?

[A Mad Chinaman]

what do you feel is the best way to deal with Kobe's injury?

[KingKobe]

[BLP711]

Thanks DB

[infidel]

Could have used Big Baby Bynum to clean up the glass out there.

Mostly, this one's on Kobe though. Should have recognized that his shot was non-existent and just passed it around. That last turnover was ugly.

Joe Johnson was really torching him on the other end as well.
_________________
D'Antoni, Motivational Quotes from a Born Leader:

"I have a multi-year contract and if it doesn't work out, I could be playing golf."

[Prometheus8]

[prisma8slg]

[jmnluvr]

Thanks DB.

I thought we were outplayed at every position except by Williams. I suppose it is encouraging that we still had a couple of chances to win.

Pau was so much more passive tonight. It was disconcerting considering that it was obvious to everyone that Kobe couldn't hit a shot to save his life.

[limchrc]

Hope we get the win on our next game.

[Texas_Pete]

Thanks DB!

Looking at the replay, it appeared that ATL guarded the 3 extremely well which forced Sasha to either go for a quick two or risk turning the ball over. No one was open. Kobe was - but at about 35 feet - and what was the likelihood of him hitting with a dislocated finger from that distance?

I am not too mad at Sasha. As a team, they need a better inbounds play. I mean, how many times have they had to call a timeout because they cannot get the ball inbounds in 5 seconds? THAT's why Fisher had to have a desperation heave. With at least a one more timeout - we have a chance to advance the ball to half court with better results (hopefully).

Overall, I think we are playing better than expected considering Pau has been with the team less than a week. I expect us to continually improve and add Drew/Ariza to the mix just in time before we make our playoff run.

We held an athletic, young, talented ATL team under 100 pts after the 2nd of a back-to-back. I can live with that sort of defensive effort.

[LongtimeLakerLover]

Before the game I saw a snippet of Phil talking about the possibility of them dropping this game due to fatigue. They have been traveling and got to the hotel at 3 AM. Another article said that normally the team would have the morning off but they opted to go ahead with a shoot around because of Kobe's finger. So - even though you hate a loss, and especially when you have the Kobe bobble and Sasha only making the two, you have to put all the factors together. Let's hope by Friday they have a chance to get some rest.

The soft performance by Pau didn't concern me this game. He's still in a mighty new situation and is learning. I loved the dub/dub in NJ, but I didn't expect it again tonight. Still, he didn't suck! Lamar is looking like a different player. Wonder what's lighting him up? Farmar had a bad game, Fish didn't get the ball as much in the third, Vlad didn't score again after the first quarter. There were several things that led us to lose. I'm glad they didn't blow us out. I can live with this loss, all things being like they were.
_________________
I love LA........WE LOVE IT!

[angrypuppy]

Thanks, DB.

Ugly loss, triggered by an untimely turnover, a strange foul call, and a bad decision. It would be nice to win a game like that, as it seems that we're collecting close losses due to lapses in the closing seconds. There is still time to turn that around, but those lapses can take a toll on a team's psyche during crunch time.

Horford is an absolute animal. Nasty... I wish we had him.

[Mr. EiGhTy-OnE]

[Terry_Teagle]

They need to scrap that play in the playbook, that has the Lakers set to take either a game winning or tying shot and we end up either not getting a shot, or throwing up a prayer that is not even close. We have used that play at least four times this year and it is getting annoying.

[Klone_dd]

Too pooped to pop, IMO. Even though the Lakers led for 3.5 quarters, it was on the strength of good, hot 3 pt shooting. Ch 9 showed a graphic at one point that the Lakers were shooting better from 3 pt land, than from anywhere else on the floor. That kind of imbalance usually leads to trouble as the old adage says: "Live by the jumper, die by the jumper." The same open shots weren't there in the 4th and we got little or nothing inside.

Energy level was down. You could tell we've hit the midway point of the long roadie. Plus the fact that the energetic Hawks outboarded us by tons and got to the basket easily.

Kobe's a gamer, I'll give him that. He realized it to a point by dishing 10 assists. Instead of 1 on 1, he probably should've worked the offense on the crucial possession.

Good game from LO and Fish, though not from the line.

[hi_ma]

[mhan00]