Crucifido’s Corner: Lakers vs. Jazz (Game 68 3/20/08)

A Streak Broken, A Place Kept And A Road Trip Finished The Right Way

From the second best home team to the best, that’s the way the Lakers’ road trip and the West in general goes. There’s no night off that’s for sure. And so the Lakers roll into Utah to try and snap another crazy winning streak.

On the first defensive set the Lakers looked crouched down and dug in to play the same defense that got them the big lead in Dallas. Solid footing on the perimeter at the opening kept the Jazz from working inside out. They relegated the Jazz to a jump shooting team, taking away any drives and probes to the paint.

What they have to watch with mobile teams like Utah is the movement from mid-range along the baseline looking to pop out on the other side for a pass or to swoop in for a rebound. The Lakers had it happen once to them, but quickly sealed it up in the 1st quarter.

Speaking of that 1st quarter, what a great performance it was. I mean scoring 38 on your own home floor in a period is great, but pulling it off on the road against the league’s best home team, that’s something amazing. The best part of that run was that the Lakers got it off of defense first play and controlled play on the offensive end working inside out.

Lamar did well making Okur play moving defense early. The take from the side along the baseline was a good way to establish his offensive game before the Jazz got settled into their spots. Odom’s move to the middle to get the wrap-around pass from Ronny was one of the more aware pieces of footwork he’s pulled off this year. The effects of Gasol’s arrival are still alive and well though Gasol is out. You’d think with Lamar being pushed into the 2nd option again that his game would fade back into unsure play, but it was quite the opposite.

Odom was stepping into shots, taking the open chances he had and even better, knocking them down. Defensively what Lamar had huge success with (and its something I complain about every game – to myself) is playing grounded defense in traffic. When the cutter came in, or the drive came into him, he didn’t jump with the shot. His arms went up, he kept his feet turning with the direction and often came up with forced missed shots or the board. That kind of controlled, non-pogo defense can save a lot of fouls for all Laker big men. Couple that with Lamar’s crisp transition defense (the block on Brewer in the 3rd quarter) and you have a spectacular performance from Odom.

Lamar’s confidence is even coming out in his interviews. The halftime interview with Cheryl Miller saw Odom with his head up, him looking at her while he talked and saying assured positive things. Before he was often head-down and mumbling cliché’ speak with no energy.

That steal on the 2-on1 break from Derek (and the block / recovery from Lamar and Farmar) is the reason that everyone has got to get back on defense every single time. That was beautiful hustle from him (and Radmanovic). Riding on that Radmanovic kept up his defensive run. He has been playing incredibly solid defense moving from the mid-rang to the inside lately. This game was no different as Vladi had his feet moving before his hands and arms reached. A lot of times Vladi is guilty of playing hands first D, getting himself into foul trouble for no reason. Something seems to have clicked though because Vladi is now playing focused foot-first D.

Now from the defensive improvement, Vladi looks like he may have found his shot again. Just like Lamar, consistency is the tough thing for Radmanovic. So seeing him have two good games from distance in a row isn’t the end of the inconsistency, but it’s certainly the beginning of a waking up of Vladi.

Back to Derek – he really played some bodied up defense on Williams in the first half. He didn’t give Deron any room to move up and down. He let some lateral movement go, but Fish did real well in taking away the quick straight in drive away from him.

Ronny, once again (and yes I’m biased) made his presence known. He has played a strong combo game of power forward and center in this injury run. Snagging a board between two Jazz players more than once. When he did get the rebound, the key to his success is that he’s kicked it back out to reset the offense, instead of taking it up in traffic. But he does real well worming his way into the paint, getting set and not giving up ground.

It got to one point this game that the Jazz began sending two players to defend Ronny even when he was out of the post. That is an unexpected dividend to Ronny’s play. Any pressure taken off of the main offensive options through unexpected sources is huge. The beginning of the game had Ronny establishing position so early the Jazz looked lost on how to recover the space.

Ronny had to be more careful of pushing Boozer too much physically. Boozer wants to feel the defender push up on him so he can pound the ball into the low post. When Ronny started getting into Boozer on the high post, he gave up too much room to the inside, giving him a tough time to recover and block the shot or play D without fouling.

Farmar finally started ditching the long shot when he had a drive. There’s been a huge lack of probing, cutting, slashing and even empty drives to pull defense off the perimeter. Jordan changed that a tiny bit tonight, taking the ball in for a nice, strong drive in the 2nd quarter. However, his passes in general on offense have been slow and flat, making them candidates for steals almost every time. He has to start moving to better pass position if the angle isn’t there. Don’t pass it just because someone seems open.

Sasha found his groove. Mainly he found it through getting to the pass option spots early, without hesitating off of screens. He got back to his movement right to his spots after the first pass in the play. Once he got the sides (where he thrives from) the shots were both more open and coming in rhythm with the offense, instead of forced out of desperation.

About Kobe: simply amazing – again. I love the “this game is personal comment” about the Jazz fans booing Derek. That and the drive he showed tonight after the foul on Williams 3 is without a doubt the most incredible thing to watch (and have on your side) in the NBA. I’ve run out of superlatives for him actually. The no-look pass on the break, the help rebounding in the second half, the mobile perimeter to mid-range defense, the ice cold shooting from 12 to 14 feet when the Lakers needed it the most – it was all again, amazing.

Points in transition and turnover numbers were good this game. The unforced errors weren’t falling into bunches like they can sometimes. Controlled play came in at the start and only had two instances of faltering, but it was shored right back up.

2 massive keys to the game:

1) The Laker bench running the lead back up to 19 without Kobe on the floor. That run (even though it was from shooting against the zone) played really big in a game that, 4even though the lead was there, felt precarious at times.

2) Keeping Kirilenko outside and completely away from any post or inside play. There was no weak side domination that Kirilenko can do. They kept him out of the post and off of the baseline and that was vital in killing second chances.

Why does the zone defense confound the Lakers so much? They insist on shooting 3’s against the zone, playing right into their hands. If we know how to beat the zone, there’s no reason the Lakers shouldn’t know. Attack the middle – attack the middle – attack the middle!!

Flash defense from Luke on the arc killed the Lakers a couple of times. One game it was Lamar and this one it was Luke jumping out to defend the 3, pushing his teammate off of his man, then fading away from it. There’s enough open 3’s going up on the Lakers as it is, that team-wide theory has got to stop.

One thing the Lakers did in Dallas and in this one in Utah, is getting caught up in the atmosphere of the game. Event though the crowd is anti-Laker, they have a habit of playing along with the energy of the crowd, often hurrying their offense or taking ill-advised / early in the clock shots. It wasn’t as apparent this game, but it was there. They have got to play methodically at all times. It’s decidedly tough to not get caught up, but the Lakers need to learn that lesson if they are to have any success in the quickly approaching playoffs.

Well they didn’t break the Houston streak, but at least they broke this one. Coming home 2-2 on this road trip at this time of the year after losing Gasol, is totally acceptable. The strength of the bench is getting thicker (the good side of the injuries) and it is impressive that the Lakers have held their head above water with everything that’s been thrown their way and in this crazy Western race.

Now, they can’t let this win and coming home to play a weak Seattle team take them out of the focused play they’ve shown these last 2 games.