Lakers Show Strengths In Big 4th Against Knicks
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Without Pau Gasol in the line up due to strep throat, the Lakers found themselves down 15 points at halftime. No, they weren’t playing the Celtics, they were playing the New York Knicks.
Yes, its true, the Knicks are a lot better then they were last year, but they are still sub .500 and don’t deserve to score 65 points in the first half at Staples Center.
As of late, the Lakers defense has been suffering quite a bit. The only reason for this is a lack of activity by the players. Good defense takes commitment, determination and hard work. It seem as though the team is just waiting around for the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day when they can truly show off all their defensive abilities. As great as this concept sounds, the Celtics are just another team during the regular season and it’s just another game. The Lakers are 21-3 and look to stay well ahead of the competition in the West.
Meanwhile, it’s time for the guys to start taking care of business in these other games against these lower quality teams. Even with Pau out of the lineup, the Lakers shouldn’t be struggling this badly on the defensive end. They played somewhat decently on the offensive end scoring 50 for the first half, even with a low shooting percentage, but gave up far too many points to the Knicks.
This is just another example of the difficulties the Lakers have in defending perimeter shooting teams. Their losses to the Pistons, Pacers, and Kings are direct evidence of the back courts difficulty in defending the three point shot. What are these guys not understanding?
Perhaps the concept of Kobe and Trevor Ariza floating on defense isn’t the right strategy against three point shooting teams. Perhaps the coaching staff isn’t doing their job in preparing scouting reports and making sure that the perimeter defenders are aware to not leave space between themselves and the shooters.
As the season progresses it will be interesting to see if these guys learn to make the necessary changes to prevent easy games from sliding and maintaining a strong graps on the Western Conference. It would also be nice to see them continue winning for the sake that the Celtics eventually have to lose as their schedule gets more difficult and we truly need to own home court advantage for the duration of the playoffs this season.
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December 19th, 2008 at 12:44 am
Im not a defensive genius but it seems the scheme that they run is not for them. I know it is out of their nature, the bigs are going to have to be tougher on guys going to the hoop and rotate to the ball. Make some statement blocks and give some hard fouls, (not cheap shots) but good clean hard attempts at blocking the ball. There are going times when one will have to shoulder more responsibility, the Celtics for instance, but I would rather have Perkins beat me with his offense in the paint than Garnett and Pierce. If Pau, Bynum, Odom, Mihm, Powell, and Mbenga begin to rule the paint like they should the 1, 2,3, can play some tight one on one defense on the perimeter. They have 36 fouls to give in the paint for big men use them now in the early part of the season and you will see it pay of in the later part because they will learn how to block shots better and play defense. Kobe needs start pointing the finger at the men that don’t rotate for the defensive help he is the general start holding people accountable.
December 19th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Lamar Odom’s good game as a starter in the Lakers’ last game against the New York Knicks should convince Phil Jackson to go back to their starting lineup last year with Odom on power forward slot, and Pau Gasol moving back to the center spot while Bynum comes off the bench. I think their strongest lineup is the Fisher-Bryant-Ariza-Odom-Gasol combination, and Coach Phil knows this–he keeps them at the end of close games.
According to 82games.com, this unit is their most productive combination that produced 1.21 points per possession and only allowed 0.95 opponent points per possession. Also, this starting lineup would maximize the effectiveness of Bynum on defense by keeping him out of early foul troubles and spread the floor on offense to allow Bryant to play his best game–attacking the rim and take higher percentage shots or get fouled and take free-throws–instead of taking too many long outside shots early in the game. It’s hard to attack the lane if you have a 7-footer teammate in the low-block (Bynum) and another fellow 7-footer in the high-post (Gasol).
Read the full blog at:
http://lalakersnba.blogspot.com/2008/12/odom-should-return-to-starting-lineup.html