Everyone thought the Lakers would demolish the Hornets, especially since their all-star, David West, is out for the playoffs. You’d think the Lakers and their size would prove to be too much for the undersized Hornets but that did not prove to be the case. You’d think the Lakers’ bigs would dominate the paint both offensively and defensively. You’d think that this game would be decided by third quarter with the Lakers leading by at least 20. Most importantly, you’d think that the defending champs would know how to defend the pick and roll.

The reason the Lakers couldn’t defend the pick and roll? Pau Gasoft! At a very young age basketball players are taught how to defend it. Whoever is guarding the screener needs to meet the ball handler above the screen without letting him slip through to make him go the long way around giving the other defender a chance to get back on his man. This simple defensive technique is referred to as “hedging”. As soon as the defender of the screener doesn’t hedge, the other defender can’t recover to the ball handler resulting in a defensive switch leading to mismatches. Every basketball player and their mother knows this. I guess Pau Gasol needed to talk to his mom for advice.

Pau Gasol refused to hedge Paul and therefore left him isolated on Paul in successive possessions in  the last minutes of the game. Paul being smart, sized up Pau and drained multiple jumpers in his grill. It didn’t help that Pau was only 2-9 with 8 points and 6 rebounds, but they were still in a position to win before  Paul tore Pau apart one on one. As a result,  Paul ever so kindly lent Pau the L in his name.

Apart from the terrible pick and roll defense, the Lakers gave up multiple and-ones to Carl Landry and Aaron Gray, Aaron Gray! Gray was 5-5 with 12 points in only 20 min of play but in those 20 minutes, his +/- was +25. Andrew Bynum was -15 while Laker legend DJ  Mbenga was +1! Hell, letting role players have that sort of impact while your starters aren’t doing shit will always end in a loss.

The Lakers’ number one weakness is quick, fast point gurads. Derrick Rose may be the MVP favorite but I still believe Paul is the best PG in the league. The way he commanded the closing minutes of game one in Staples Center only proves that statement. No one else in the league besides maybe Deron Williams can get their own shot while having such  amazing “court radar”. Derek Fisher still has a high defensive IQ but he’s long ago lost his first step making it very difficult for him to stay with Paul. Steve Blake’s potential return to game 2 will help Fisher be more aggressive defensively and not have to worry about who’s backing him up. The Lakers also put Kobe and Ron Ron on Paul in the second half but that too proved to be not enough to contain Paul. I believe Shannon Brown is going to need to step up and defend Paul since physically, he has the best chance against him.  Too bad I’m not Phil and too bad Phil won’t ever read this.

Game 2 will be a different story as there is no way in hell that the Lakers go down 0-2. This will be enough of a wake up call for them to finally realize that team defense will be the key to victory. I predict that they will come out strong and stuff it down the Hornets’ throat and will take a halftime lead of 54-41 and will win the game 108-94. The Lakers will win the series in five games and will meet the Blazers in the second round.