Crucifido’s Corner: Lakers vs. Hornets (Game 65 3/14/08)

Not The Best Way To Start a Road Trip

The unbelievably relentless injury bug hit the Lakers again tonight with Gasol going down for the game. What we have to hope now is that it’s just a surface sprain and it can be gotten back on soon. It goes without saying that the slack has to yet again be taken up by everyone. The Lakers know fully well what has to happen to make up for the ground lost by losing a valuable teammate to injury. Just a big pained sigh from everyone, at some point the injuries have got to stop – right?

Once Gasol hobbled his way to the locker room, the Lakers did very well in getting their heads back in the game and getting down to taking care of business. It goes 2 ways with injuries to major players, teams can crumble or they can suck it up and play tougher. The Lakers played tougher – to start, but once the game turned into a running / shooting contest, it became evident the Lakers would have a mountain that would be more than hard to climb.

The sporadic press was really good to see. Throwing a sudden press on a quick-footed guard, let alone any guard is a good idea when you’re fighting a fast moving team like the Hornets. The danger in the press is if the press is broken quickly, you’re automatically compromised. The Lakers did well though putting the press on unpredictably then recovering faster than normal on defense.

Better team rebounding on the defensive end tonight. There wasn’t any leaving others alone underneath the boards to contend with 3 or 4 offenders. Release time off of missed shots was moving a bit back to where it should be at all times.

Aside from injuries, the Lakers’ other bane of existence this year, unforced turnovers were hot and heavy.

Missed easy chances are always tough to see, but when they get contagious, as they often do, it’s twice as painful. Missed lay-ups from Bryant, Turiaf, Radmanovic and others are difficult to take when points in the paint against most teams, but especially against the Hornets weak inside game are so precious.

The help and recovery defense from the bench was solid. Especially in the second quarter, the Laker bench was scrambling to keep up with the Hornets, but losing no ground in the process. Sasha was spearheading the effort on the perimeter, doing a great job splitting space from the outside top the high post with a slight reach.

Radmanovic was spry tonight. He showed much more than the usual amount of activity off the ball and on boards from him. Without Gasol, it’s much needed not only tonight but also for as long as the Lakers are once again hampered by an injury to a key player. Along with Odom, Vladi’s decision making off of rebounds was good. There were less forced shots and more looking for clean opportunities.

Its’ just a bad defensive match-up for most point guards coming into any Hornets game, but for Derek its particularly rough. Chris Paul destroys Derek on defense, making Fisher’s time difficult and sparse when the Hornets are on the docket. Speed is / always has been Fisher’s arch rival on defense and when you couple speed with the superb decision making and talent of Paul, it becomes a needed team effort to try to contain Paul. The only chance for Fisher is to push Paul out of moving across the court and make him more of a shooter than a slasher (of course this doesn’t mean leaving Paul wide open like he was all too often in the second half. Give him a step or two of extra space and keep an eye out for screen sets. Other than that, the Lakers will always have a difficult time containing guards like Paul.

With that in mind Farmar had an early entrance. As Pargo played opposite of Farmar, Jordan did well keeping the Pargo a passer instead of letting him get on a roll from distance. Unfortunately for the Lakers Paul came back in and continued to give the Lakers’ defense fits, headaches and any other kind of pain you can think of. Jordan had a great attack to the hoop in the 3rd along the baseline among the trees. That kind of offensive aggression does well to freeze Paul on the perimeter. If Paul has a weakness on defense it’s driving around him to the low post then along the base for a hard lay-up. Paul gets stuck on screens as players go to the baseline and Jordan played to that very well.

Defensively the Lakers can hope to keep Paul in check, but to completely take him out of the game is a tall, tall order.

Lamar’s rebounds on the offensive end were impressive. Though using two hands to secure most boards is ideal, Lamar did a good job using his reach to get through defenders without fouling to grab long rebounds. He had good decisions with the ball once the ball was secured to. Most were passed back out to reset the offense, but the shots he took back up to the hoop were well-advised and done with enough strength to either draw the foul or get a decently open shot. What I liked seeing was Lamar holding off from the arc. He had success in the game against the Raptors from 3, but didn’t let that make him 3 happy.

Odom had great movement off the ball. He was hitting his spots on both pass option and moving from weak to strong with assertion. That movement kept the inside defense of the Hornets from being able to just pack it in and ignore the Laker perimeter.

Lamar looks like he’s now scared to move laterally when he’s deep under the hoop. He’s been getting called for a lot of blocking calls and tonight the result of those calls showed in his defense along the baseline in particular. He can’t let past history with questionable calls put a clamp on his defensive aggressiveness.

The Lakers have a terrible habit of playing opponents to their strength. The two biggest instances tonight were the Lakers playing Stojakovic to give room to shoot and they stayed tight out high on Chandler when he won’t shoot from distance.

What I thought the absolute key to the game was - there was no inside game for the Lakers – at all.

Once Gasol went out you figured the Lakers will struggle to get anything going from the posts, but with Turiaf and Lamar in the game there was on reason to absolutely abandon the inside game the way the Lakers did. There has to be some effort, especially when the shots aren’t falling for anyone from outside, to get the ball working from inside. If the shot can’t be had inside then work it inside out. Make the Hornets defense have to move. As it was the Hornets were able to find position, settle in and do nothing to keep up with the Lakers. It killed movement and it most of all it deterred the Lakers from getting any kind of rhythm.

To that end the Hornets were able to collapse onto Kobe, keeping him outside of the paint mostly and making him pass the ball off or shoot the 3 out of multiple doubles. Once Kobe was taken out of the paint, the Lakers looked like a team that had no recourse for anything the Hornets threw their way. As much drive as Kobe has (and despite the 36 point effort), he can’t do anything if the rest of the team doesn’t do much or anything to get their selves fired up or involved in the game.

WTF Of The Game: Is offensive interference been stricken from the rulebook? Countless times the last 4 games both against and on the Lakers there has been no calls for what have been obvious violations within the cylinder. I’m cool with it not being a main focus, but man its brutal to see guys put shots back in the rim as they hang off the edge.

Overall, this was not what you’d call an awesome game. From the injury to Gasol, to the lack of transition play, to the absence of inside play, to the turnovers from no pressure, to the disjointed play on both ends, this was a disappointment. It wasn’t all terrible, Lamar had a good game and Farmar played with some serious focus, but every loss is a team loss.

The health of the Lakers is, for the billionth time, the hitch the Lakers’ get along. It was aggravating and maddening to see another Laker go down even if it’s for one game to the dreaded ankle sprain. Hopefully, its not a major deal and the Lakers can bounce back after this disheartening loss. Get better Pau, Andrew, and Trevor - and for the love of Laker fans everywhere – NOBODY ELSE IS ALLOWED TO GET HURT!