LAKERS -at- JAZZ - 5/9 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Lakers Drop Their First Game... You didn't think they were going undefeated did you? Unable to beat the Lakers in L.A., the Jazz sought refuge on their home floor where they own the best record in the NBA. This was a must-win game for them and they answered the call, giving the Lakers their first loss of the playoffs, 104-99.

Beneath the baby-blue sea of hostile Jazz fans, the Lakers got off to a quick start. Three minutes later, DFish had to sit with his second foul, and just like that our mojo went with him. Both Kobe and Lamar needed to press their advantages more, instead we went to Pau who suddenly became a turnover machine. Throw in Jordan Farmar not being ready for prime time and you've got trouble. Now, we were the team to fall behind in the first half and try to work our way out of a hole.

Trailing by as much as 11 points, we cut the lead to 3 with a few minutes left. We then gave up several scores to Boozer. He killed the Lakers down the stretch, especially with an offensive board and score off his own freethrow miss. He had 27 points and 20 boards.

Phil highlighted losing Fish early on and the ensuing run the Jazz went on as a result. He still liked our effort. "I told the guys they made a good comeback, they just couldn't get the right plays at the right time," Phil said.

The Lakers had a chance late in this game, but couldn't quite push through during crunch time. We lost only one quarter, the second, 20-29.

The Jazz are tough to beat on their floor, and no road team has taken a win in any series of the conference semi's yet. The loss means there will be at least a Game Five. We'll regroup and look to steal the next one.


Kobe -- -- Kobe talked about controlling the tempo in Utah. The game favored the Jazz. We didn't get our break going and we didn't focus our half-court attack very well. After a somewhat slow first half, Kobe throttled it up in the third where he scored 14 points. He followed that up with 12 in the fourth. The Jazz got away with a ton of illegal D when Kobe had the ball. It was only called once, but we need to bring it to the refs attention. They often had men camped out in the lane guarding no one. Still, we needed to go through Kobe more like we had early on in the last game. Kobe's three ball must still be L.A. He missed badly on several attempts. It may take a workhorse effort from No. 24 in the next one. The Stats: He scored 34 points on 10-20 shooting (0-6 from three, 14-17 from the line) to go with 6 boards, 7 assists, 1 block, 4 turnovers and 4 fouls in 42 minutes. The Action: He posted up Brewer and drew FTs with ease, he made both. He missed a bank over Brewer. He stepped out of bounds trying tip toe the baseline. His bounce pass to Lamar was picked off for a score the other way. He drew an illegal D, iso'ing from the right side, he made the FT. He drew double teams and set up Ronny for a layup and dunk. He missed a three. He sank a wing jumper over Harpring. He iso'd on AK and drew FTs late in the shotclock, he made one. He missed a three over AK. He ball-watched and gave up a layup when his man cut behind him. He attacked AK again on iso and drew FTs with ease, he made both. He had 8 points on 1-5 shooting and 3 assists in the first half. Second Half: He missed a three with the shotclock low. He attacked the lane, took contact and hit an And-1, he missed the FT badly short. He reversed directions off the dribble, attacked and scored the layup. He took the pass, curled down the lane and hit the runner. He attacked down the lane and flushed right over AK (that had the crowd buzzing). He hit a 17-footer over AK. He spun around Brewer and scored a reverse layup (the Jazz wanted a hook and Sloan drew a tech). He set up Fish for a three off the two-man game with Pau. He missed a three with the shotclock low. He attacked the lane, spun and drew contact for FTs, he made both. He set up Ronny for an And-1 drawing a crowd at the end of the third. He was called for an offensive foul, posting up and getting ready to take a pass. He rejected Harpring's post-up. He iso'd on Harpring, got him in the air and he hit the And-1 19-footer, he made the FT. He caught Harpring with his swing-through move to draw FTs (easy call and Jazz fans were booing, hilarious), he made both. He missed an elbow jumper. He leaned forward from the elbow double team trying to draw contact, passed off the glass to himself, jumped up and dunked it in, wow. He drew FTs and made one. He scooped up the loose ball, pushed it out and scored the layup to cut the lead to 4 with 3:39 left. He was tripped with no call and we lost the ball with under 3 minutes left (we trailed by 7 after the Jazz scored). He then missed a three badly next time down. He attacked, was tripped and this time they blew the whistle for FTs, he made both to cut the lead to with 42 seconds left. We got a stop, he pushed it out and lost the ball trying to pass out of a crowd, a little OC there. He missed a three with a few seconds left.

Gasol -- -- Pau struggled badly in the first half, one of his worst games as a Laker. He had a number of turnovers in the post and this helped the Jazz build their first-half lead. "Pau was looking at the referees every time he got stripped there in the first half, feeling he got fouled," Phil said, "and they were just attacking him every time he put the ball on the floor." Unlike previous games where Pau got to the line with consistency, he got no love in this game. Didn't shoot a freethrow. A few of the non-calls were pretty ridiculous. Defensively, he was giving Okur too much space defensively whenever they matched up. He was good on the offensive glass, but only pulled down 3 defensive boards. I'd like us to work the Kobe/Pau two-man game a bit more to free up others. This is typically drawing a third help defender. The Lakers took advantage of it a couple of times, but didn't set it up with much thought. The Stats: He scored 12 points on 6-10 FTs, to go with 6 boards (3 offensive), 1 assist, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 5 turnovers and 3 fouls in 40 minutes. He was a -11. The Action: He scored a layup off the two-man with Kobe. He was blocked on the throw down attempt by AK. He lost the ball trying to create off the dribble, he wanted the foul. He was stripped again on a face-up on Boozer. He sat late in the first for Ronny after giving up an And-1 to Boozer (cheap call, he was on the bench shaking his head about the officiating). He got stripped from behind in the post for a dunk the other way. He swished a turnaround baseline jumper. He cleaned up a layup missed by Luke after setting him up. He was fouled on a point-blank layup with no call and missed. He tried to iso on Okur and lost the ball again. He lost another ball in the post. Shaw told Pau to start ballfaking instead of holding the ball. He had 6 points on 3-6 shooting and 4 turnovers in the first half. Second Half: He swiped the ball from Williams and took it the distance for the dunk. He swished a 14-footer. He missed with his left badly in the post. He denied Okur's attack, then swatted Boozer who grabbed the board, great stop. He kept an offensive board alive to draw FTs for Lamar. He scored a putback off a missed Luke three. He drew a charge on Okur.

Lamar -- -- We needed more consistent aggression and more isolation for Lamar. I think we gave the Utah bigmen a break by not throttling up that part of our attack. They can't deal with his speed. We also didn't see Lamar pushing out the break and scoring with any consistency. The tempo wasn't there for us. The Stats: He scored 13 points on 3-3 shooting (1-1 from three, 6-8 from the line) to go with 12 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2 blocks, 3 turnovers and 2 fouls in 43 minutes. The Action: He scored a layup in semi-transition with Fish. Great save of a long outlet and he threw it off Okur about 15 feet away to save it. He tied up Milsap as he tried to shoot in the paint, he won the jumpball. He iso'd on Milsap and drew his second foul. Bad pass right out of bounds trying to hit a wide open Farmar. He hit a jumphook in the post over Milsap. He swatted Boozer's drive. He drained a three, just beating the clock on a kickout from Ronny. He attacked from the three line next time down and drew FTs, he made both. Second Half: We set up a play out of a timeout to open up Lamar under the hoop off the Kobe/Pau two-man game, he drew AK's fourth foul and made one FT. He drew FTs when Gasol kept a Kobe miss alive to him, he made both. He attacked Boozer off the dribble (need more of this) and drew FTs, he made one.

Fisher -- -- Two key fouls to start the game and it threw off our mojo when he had to sit. He didn't pick up another foul all game, but those hurt. Farmar is gripping it out there and Fish has got to hold down the fort at PG. Late in the game, he had a couple big stops that helped us get close (again, another big game with steals from Fish). He missed a FT that could have cut the lead to just 2 with 3 minutes left. Hopefully, Fish can stay out of foul trouble in the next one. Farmar was a deer in the headlights out there. The Stats: He scored 13 points on 3-6 shooting (1-3 from three, 6-7 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals and 2 fouls in 32 minutes. The Action: He swished a baseline jumper after scooping up a loose ball for our first score. He picked up two early fouls and had to sit just 3 minutes into the game. He drew FTs on some physical contact from Deron (who was upset about Fish bumping him) on the perimeter, he made both. He tied up Boozer on D, then we somehow won the jumpball. Second Half: He drained an open pull-up 16-footer to start the second half. He made a tech FT. He drained a three off the Kobe/Pau two-man game. He missed a runner off the glass. He drew FTs pushing out the break, he made both to cut the lead to 5 with more than 7 minutes left. Tight D on Deron when Okur was trying to pass to him and he forced a turnover on the perimeter, Kobe scooped it up and scored. Next time down, he swiped the ball on the screen-roll pass and drew FTs, he made one with 3:22 left to cut the lead to 3.

Radmanovic -- -- It looked like he might have his stroke going, but he was subbed out during Phil's standard rotation in this series. When he returned, he was no longer effective. In fact, he was pressing it at one point. Not much else to say. He looked like he might have been a factor early on, then might have pushed to hard to make himself a scorer later. Phil's rotations could be getting to him. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 3-7 shooting (2-6 from three) to go with 1 board, 2 turnovers and 2 fouls in 21 minutes. The Action: He sank a wing three in early offense. He got tapped on a baseline three. He hit a baseline jumper after setting a screen for Pau. He drained a three when his man left him to try to steal a pass. He missed an open wing three. Second Half: He got stripped on a slow-return pass from Kobe. He watched AK take an open jumper, no effort to close out. Odd shot choice, heaving up a three with a man on him early in the shotclock. He missed another three the next time down.

Luke -- -- He seemed to be in on some of the bigger miscues in crunch time. Very frustrating. The missed box out on Boozer's missed FT... losing the ball when it was tapped to him off the jumpball... both of those were extra possessions for the Jazz in crunch time and that costs you. Can't do that when you are trailing. Decent scoring game from Luke to lead the bench in that regard. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 3-6 shooting (1-2 from three, 4-4 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 2 steals, 1 turnover and 4 fouls in 23 minutes. The Action: He missed a layup off a nice feed from LO. He attacked Korver off the dribble and drew FTs, he made both. He missed a layup. Second Half: He hit a leaning one-hander off the dribble, going glass. He was fouled on an offensive board with no call and we lost the ball, then the Jazz got FTs on the other end. He cleaned up a Farmar miss from three with a putback. He didn't seal off Boozer on his FT miss, Boozer got it back and scored the layup, that will kill you in crunch time. He stripped AK's drive, pushed it out and drew FTs, he made both to cut the lead to 6 with 4 minutes left (great play). He missed a three, getting tapped. He sank a wing three. He somehow lost the handle on a jumpball that was tapped to him down by 4 with 14 seconds left, uggh.

Turiaf -- -- Good game from Ronny, despite the fouls. He played especially well working off the ball when Kobe drew double teams and found him. He was upset going to the bench midway through the second quarter (Mihm was in his ear trying to calm him down). Defensively, he gave us some rare enforcement in the paint. I thought some of his challenges on Deron coming down the lane were of the "send a message" variety. We haven't had a lot of that all season. Great to see someone bring it. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 4-5 shooting (0-1 from the line) to go with 1 board, 1 assist, 1 block and 5 fouls in 13 minutes. The Action: He cut off the Kobe double team and scored a layup. He swished a baseline pick and pop. Third straight score, cutting off Kobe's double again and dunking. Back in, he short-armed a four-footer in the lane. He rejected Williams badly again, swatting the ball out of bounds and Williams ended up on the ground in pain. He overpassed, kicking out the ball despite having a chance for a layup and the shotclock low, luckily Lamar bailed him out with a three. He was late on a rotation and had to foul Williams, giving him another good shot in the process (nice to see a little physical play against dribble penetration). Second Half: He scored an And-1 under the hoop when Kobe again drew a crowd and found him, he missed the FT. Wow, weak call, getting another foul off a swat on Deron (that was all ball, no body on the block...Ronny had to sit with his fifth).

Farmar -- -- I'm flashing back to Smush here. With Fisher picking up two early fouls, Farmar entered the game after just 3 minutes into the first quarter. We needed some big minutes from him and he failed to deliver. And that's putting it mildly. He struggled to do anything right. Offensively, he bricked badly and did little to set up teammates. He stalled the start of our fourth quarter with a number of misses and miscues. "Jordan wasn't quite ready to go in there and do the job he had to do," Phil said, "and as a result, he never got himself really back involved in the ball game." Young guys tend to rush things a bit in hostile playoff environments. Farmar seemed to be doing just that. Defensively, some better sequences I thought. Still, there's a reason Turiaf and Deron seem to be meeting up quite a bit. Farmar also gambled and lossed on a couple steal attempts. The Stats: He didn't score on 0-6 shooting (0-3 from three) to go with no boards, 1 assist, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 16 minutes. The Action: He missed an open corner three. He missed a teardrop in the lane. He missed a layup badly trying to get a quick score in transition. Bad decision getting caught on a pinch post trying to double and it gave up a layup. He missed a step-through layup. He missed a corner three badly. Second Half: He got swatted badly trying to attack baseline early in the fourth. He gambled for a steal and it cost Turiaf a foul and FTs for Williams. He dribbled a ball off his foot trying to create. Wow, horrible decision next time down to take a long three about 8 feet behind the arc and he missed (luckily Luke bailed him out with a putback). He missed an open three from the wing. He stripped Boozer on help D.

Vujacic -- -- Not much of a game from Sasha. He didn't give us any offense in his stints and Phil didn't give him the extended run he has been. We need to see if we can set him up for a few more open looks. His D was generally solid. We needed our bench to step up and Sasha has usually been the guy to do it. As bad as Farmar played, you might want to consider a change at point if it keeps up. The Stats: He didn't score on 0-3 shooting, had 2 boards, 1 assist, 1 turnover and no fouls in 10 minutes. The Action: He missed a quick jumper from the wing trying to beat the shotclock. He missed a wide open three. He missed a three at the buzzer trying to draw the foul. Second Half: He tried to attack off the dribble and therw the ball away to start the fourth.

Phil -- -- For the first time in this playoffs, Phil will have to get his team to bounce back after a loss. The team had a long win streak going. He's got to keep the confidence and effort high... After Fish sat, the Jazz went on a 15-3 run in the first, capitalizing on a number of Laker turnovers and they led 18-14 when Phil called timeout... We were tied 23-23 after the first quarter... Gasol had at least 4 turnovers in the first half rendering our post play useless... We trailed 52-43 at the half. It could have been worse considering how badly the Lakers played and the 10 turnovers we had. The Jazz shot 51 percent in the half to the Lakers 41 percent... We were 3-11 from three, the Jazz 4-6. We gave up 14 points off turnovers. The Jazz had just 5 turnovers, which we turned into 6 points in that half... The coaches thought the mistakes the Lakers made were fixable. They wanted better ball movement... Kobe came out more aggressive in the second half... The Lakers trailed 79-72 heading into the fourth after out-scoring the Jazz 29-27 in the third. We let more offense go through Kobe in that quarter and it resulted in better production for the team... We started the fourth with a Pau, Ronny, Luke, Sasha, Farmar lineup. Farmar played horrible, turnovers and misses, not setting anyone else up... Down by 4 with 14 seconds left and a jumpball, Phil called a timeout. We won it, but Luke fumbled it away and with that went our last chance in the game...

Game Flow -- LINK -- Check out the graph the moment Fish left the game in the first quarter. Yeeouch. DFish was a +8 for the game, leading all Lakers.

[Mation]

Thanks DB.

Can't wait for Sunday! Jazz fans better have their fun while they still can.

First.

[TheBlackMamba]

First!

EDIT - or second...what a terrible day

[mhan00]

ugly loss. farmar would have been better off sitting on the bench and letting the lakers go 4 on 5.

[limchrc]

Sad we lose. Hope we bounce back next game and play a better game.

[japanesebeef1]

Thanks DB. Couldn't watch because of work. Good thing.

[mhan00]

and gasol is showing why he got swept out of every playoff series when he was with memphis. goodness gracious, he is having trouble against physical playoff play. his post game has been non-existent practically the whole playoffs; most of his scores are coming off of nice assists. some of those shots in the post tonight were UGGGGLLLLY.

one of the few times since we got pau i've wanted phil to sub him out for turiaf.

bright side: i doubt the lakers can play any worse than this. good test of character to see if they can bounce back. and farmar really needs to get it together and contribute at least one positive during games.

[lakefan24]

Lakers played bad tonight and only lost by 5. Not to bad i guess, seeing how they were outrebounded by a lot.

[Dr. Laker]

Thanks, DB. Spot on, as usual.
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On Lakersground, a concern troll is someone who is a fan of another team, but pretends to be a Lakers fan with "concerns".

[Siguy]

We're winning game four. No question about it in my mind. We're gonna win that game.

We had to lose tonight because we're not good enough to sweep a 54 win team (very few teams are). This is the game they get. Gasol played like crap, turning the ball over again and again.

Kobe was astonishing. If we just didn't fall apart in the second quarter, he'd have won us this game easily.

The guy I'm really bothered with is Farmar, but this is what happens with guys his age. Happened to Bynum last year. These guys aren't used to playing this many games, and then in their second years, when they play all 82 and get into the playoffs it's like they can't keep up with the other guys. Next year Farmar is going to take the same leap forward Bynum took this year.

[LakerSanity]

Some of my thoughts as I am afraid to post them in any other thread...

*Gasol definitely does not like the physicality of this series and needs some more strength in his upper body. He also needs to get deeper position because posting up in the pinch post and then backing down from there doesn't work for him... he doesn't make his move quick enough and his dribble is so high that those guards from the weakside don't have much trouble coming in and swiping at it. So Pau needs to either start turing and facing from there more often or he needs to get into the low post. That said, he definitely got hosed on a few calls.

*We need to use LO better because no one on the Jazz (except AK who is busy guarding our SFs, Kobe, and/or roaming) can guard LO. In this series, it's apparent LO needs to be option #2 and Gasol #3.

*We should help a little more on Boozer in the low post, even sometimes going with a large lineup of LO/Ronny/Gasol so to secure the boards better. We're using LO to help on Boozer and the pick and rolls, which leaves Okur open... I'd prefer to see Kobe or Luke/Vlad sag off Brewer/AK respectively as they are less surefire shooters.

*We need to run the offense through Kobe more often and set him up with some pick/rolls with Gasol a few more times a game. I never understand why we go away from that.

*Farmar looks like he's lost all his confidence and just looks dreadful. I can understand Farmar being dominated by Williams' size, but not his speed... Farmar is too quick for that excuse, he needs to step up.

Anyways, we cut down our TOs and play a little better interior D (particularly on Boozer), we should win next game. That doesn't even take into account getting better 3pt shooting and better contributions from Sasha, Farmar, and Gasol. If we get all of that, we could run away with a win.

Lastly, DB, a question which you may have a better answer to than I.... why do Kobe and LO rarely play a pick/roll game between them two? Is it because LO isn't a threat for a pick and pop which makes it too easy to guard?
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[Arizona]

[Magic'sSon]

Would it hurt to play Chris Mihm or Mbenga for about 10 minutes per game

[A Mad Chinaman]

Lakers need to be tested and face hard-nosed defense that they will receive when they finish Utah.

Lessons
Farmar has to be ready to go into the game at any time (translation: if he wants to be a starter, he has to think like a starter that is ready to go in at any time). His unpreparedness caused him to be on his heels for the entire game and didn't have the mental toughness to overcome this. will he learn - Game 4 will tell.

Pau will have a bad game every once n a awhile. He didn't adjust to the refs not calling fouls that he was receiving in L.A. Paul needs to understand the "counters" to rough defense that Utah is providing.

Lakers didn't fully explore the Triangle's "counters" to Utah's defense that is focused on packing the paint. They have to find a way to make Utah's defense move by moving the ball in to Paul/LO and side to side along with back door actions to free up the shooters. Again, this is dependent on Paul being able to receive the ball in the paint. Will Phil counter with Kobe/LO in the paint with Paul on the weakside since he can shoot the 5 to 10 feet shots?

Outside shooting is needed. With LO/Sasha/Vlad/Farmar having bad nights shooting - they need to concentrate on pinpoint passing to cutting players.

Lakers need to play at a faster tempo and constantly attacking. Will they understand this so that they don't always have to face 5 on 5 situations all the time?

[Siguy]

I see no reason not to have Sasha back up Fish if Fish gets in foul trouble.

he's a better shooter than Farmar right now and his defense isn't gonna be any worse on Deron Williams. If need be, Kobe can guard D-Will and Sasha can guard the shooting guard.

[8750]

thanks, DB
in this series gasol is showing his soft attitude, defensively he's almost embarassing and he doesn't attack the game... his potential is much higher than that... i agree with lakersanity here, we need more p&r, so gasol could be more involved, and we need some help on boozer... can't blame luke for the fumble, it happens, he had a good game and a precious couple of steals...

[Arizona]

[Arizona]

[Sister Golden Hair]

One small improvement I expect to see the lakers make: be aware of the long rebounds. Both in LA and in tonite's game, I noticed that often the lakers are in decent position to grab the rebound, but the ball comes hard off the rims to a waiting Jazz player. If it were a matter of tight rims, you'd expect Utah to have an advantage in Utah because they'd be used to them. But it happened in LA, too.

Maybe it's just a function of the Utah front-line players all seeming to shoot the long-ball with high arcs, especially Okur, Boozer, Harpring, Deron and AK. Brewer is one of the few who shoots a flatter ball. Boozer shoots an absurdly high-arcing shot. Even his free-throws.

All the more reason to not just go for the rebound, but to put a body on someone to be in better position to get the rebound no matter which way it bounces. The lakers have more lively bodies and are quicker to the ball, but often the ball takes funny bounces and they overshoot the rebound.

SGH

[Klone_dd]

[J.C. Smith]

Farmar looks to me like his confidence is shot. Williams knew he could take him any time he wanted, and so did Jordan. I did think that after the timeout in the first quarter Jordan defended Deron better, but he never got things going offensively. Clanked a couple of open threes, had that horrible 30 foot three when he thought the shot clock was winding down but it wasn't (luckily we got the offensive rebound and scored), and had the fast break layup that drew nothing but backboard. He needs to get his mojo back.

[TooCool]

Thanks DB.

I was really confused tonight as to why the refs shoved their whistles up their you-know-what every time Pau had the ball. I saw 4 blatant fouls in the 2nd quarter alone and the refs wouldn't give Pau even one call. I mean, if you know you're getting fouled, of course you would complain to the refs. You don't just ignore it and play. That's not a natural instinct for anyone.

That hurt him the rest of the way because he knew the refs were just against him all the way. You would think that Pau kicked all of their dogs or something before the game.

Farmar was horrible, I hope he knows it... and accepts it... and plays better.

Utah put it all out on the line tonight. They barely won by 5 points. This series will end in 5 games.
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[Mr. EiGhTy-OnE]

im disappointed that we didnt SWEEP, but im not as upset with this loss as i usually am. we only lost by 5 with pau, lamar, farmar, luke, vlad having sub-par games. we have to limit the turnovers and play better defense. Okur should never be left alone behind the 3 point line.
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"When (Kobe) gets you on life support, he won't give you mouth to mouth. HE PULLS THE PLUG." -stu

[twoface723]

Farmar has been awful in the playoffs. Its hard to watch him play out there..

[hi_ma]

It goes to show LO needs pau. period. Without Pau having his game going LO reverts back to "pre-pau" LO.

However #24 is playing incredible basketball. It is a joy to watch. Last night we were all out of character from RT whining for being taken out, to the guys looking at each other in disgust. If we only clean those things up we will be fine.

You knew it was not our night when LO inbounded to a not looking for the ball Pau.

oh well. Thanks as always
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The lakers will get prince.