Crucifido’s Corner: Lakers vs. Blazers (Game 59 2/29/08)

The Rose Garden Continues To Stump The Lakers

Coming off a good game against Miami, the Lakers jump back out on the road real quick to grab a game against the Blazers up in Portland. The Rose Garden hadn’t treated the Lakers too well recently, but this year’s edition of the Lakers went up there riding their winning streak and a confidence that hasn’t been around since the 3-peat days.

As usual, with a streaking team you worry about the weaker teams more than the marquee match-ups, so tonight brings a bit of concern. With Roy back in the lineup you had to know the Blazers would be in gear a whole lot more than they were in L.A.. Conversely you also had to think the Lakers wouldn’t let a 15 point lead go up like the last game. And they didn’t let the same girth of a lead happen, the problem was the Blazers had the lead when it mattered most – at the final buzzer.

The Lakers looked concentrated and dug in on the defensive end from the start. Second shot opportunities in the first quarter were limited, which is always a huge sore spot for the Lakers. When the Blazers did get the second shot, they were hitting them, so it was vitally important playing a long team like the Blazers that the 4 chance sets they had in L.A. didn’t happen in the comfort of their own home. Unfortunately as the game wore on; and the Lakers lead grew a bit, the Lakers started sleeping on defense. With a team like the Blazers who have such good shooters and length in the middle, they are better served to put the weight of their pressure to the mid-posts, not letting Portland sneak their big men in for easy second shots, or the outside shots be that far out of reach.

Despite the outcome of this game, there’s not enough O’s in smooth for Kobe’s game this season. That still goes for tonight too. Between the falling down bank shot and the drive between 3 Blazers for the lay-up and the foul, Kobe is barely breaking a sweat lately. Kobe’s work on the boards (like that sweeping from the weak side put back he got in the 1st) has been tenacious. Tonight Kobe was working hard, coming in from all angles. Getting rebounds like that just spells bad news for opponents.

The steal after the dunk in the 3rd quarter was a pounce with the enthusiasm of a rookie. He played a heads up game that was coming at Portland like his rebounds, from all angles.

The one defensive set with Kobe going back and forth around Pryzbilla and Gasol standing pat in the post was beautiful. Kobe moves with his man without losing step with him unbelievably well.

Luke in the 1st quarter made his presence known on the offensive end. Not only with a behemoth of a bad pass but with some really good high to low post motion off the ball too. The teardrop shots and the quick turns into the perimeter of the paint were good to see. Last game Luke took strides towards what he can do, rather than trying to do something he can’t and it continued tonight. Real smart positioning on the offensive boards tonight from Luke too. Defensively, there’s something Luke can do against a versatile shooter like Outlaw (or a talent like Roy). He was getting abused on the outside. Luke needs to make sure he’s taking the aggressive step into Outlaw and push Travis to his right rather than his left where most of his shots go right in. If Luke gets stuck on Roy, he has got to push him to an outside shot, not push up on him letting him get an easy step around him.

What Luke has got to watch is getting himself dug into the paint on breaks. He tends to bring the ball right into the meat of a defense in half court and full court sets. Its good that Luke has that desire to get early offense, but not via putting the ball in the most dangerous spots on the break. There’s got to be more court awareness of where defense are packing it in and then move away from that.

Jordan showed another gear at times tonight, just jetting in from the outside on one drive in the opening of the 2nd quarter. Defensively, Jordan was backing down on drives starting from the high post a little too much. You can’t stay flat-footed and stagnant against your man, but Jordan was giving up ground before trying to move the offensive player to their uncomfortable side.

Strong rebounding has been Lamar’s calling card, and it didn’t change tonight. The days of getting a majority of his boards with one arm are gone. They’ve been replaced by an Odom that was getting boards with a positive step into the paint that was pushing the Blazers out of position immediately. What was lacking in the first half from Lamar were the dive plays he’s been doing so well. Give Portland credit as they have the length to keep Lamar from being highly effective in the paint with the ball. But there was a lack of movement from Odom around the rim if it wasn’t getting a board where before there wasn’t.

With the falderal about Derek’s shot being off, it was especially good to see the team look for Fisher in the corners early. Better yet, Fish was hitting his shot again, but only early. Derek showed a little more zip in his step, which got him the ball where he needed it in the 1st quarter. He was getting to his spots without dragging behind the break or putting himself through traffic for no reason. As the game went on though Derek’s energy level seemed to take a dip and his scoring followed suit.

Fisher did a respectable job keeping up with Blake the best he could on the perimeter. He did get lost once the screen was set to free Blake to the corners. Derek’s questionable screen defense was alive and well in this one.

Early foul trouble stopped Pau from getting going in the first period/half. You could see that his rough defense against Aldridge in the first game was on again. The length of Portland gives Gasol trouble. LaMarcus is not easy to handle and Gasol has problems with his lateral movement in and back out of the posts, almost mimicking what Pau can do on the offensive end. That movement in the post and the motion on the arc of the high post took Gasol out of his groove in the mid-post.

Come the 3rd quarter Pau got assertive with his offense. His assertion, accompanied by an array of shots got the Lakers back even with the Blazers in a hurry. Once that offensive assertiveness kicked in, he got himself involved in the paint a lot more than he was in the first half. That involvement led to a nice 2 rebound set resulting in a Sasha 3 and much better pressure put on Portland on their defensive end, making their offense step down a notch or two at times.

Ronny’s been setting up Sasha and other shooters (but mostly Sasha) really well from all posts. His patience in that spot has improved immeasurably this year. This game there were two good passes from the side of the paint to the corner from Ronny for open shots. If Ronny can continue to show that kind of developing patience in the post, his shots will open up as well as defenders start giving a couple more vital inches of space to him.

Ronny really ran the pick and roll extremely well – again. He dives with the speed of the ball perfectly and gets so many good passes from a very ware Kobe because he’s running plays like that so well. With that in mind, it was surprising that when the Blazers stated working from the weak side in the 4th quarter that Ronny’s minutes disappeared.

Too many shots for the Blazers (moreover Steve Blake) from their comfort spots on the floor. Derek isn’t known for his quickstep defense, but you cannot let someone showing you they make a 3 get to where they want to go. If nothing else, there has to be an effort to push them into spots they’re not comfortable in. Better yet, change that shooter into a drive or make them pass the ball off by playing physically with them. Any way you do it, letting a shooter or a good shooting team find their rhythm easily from where they want to be can’t happen.

There’s been a lot of over-passing without any regard to positioning. This game saw a good amount of passes over heads, fall out of hands or beyond the guy on the break. An extra dribble off the rebound and a look to where the person will be would go a long way to killing those giant passes. Along with that, the Lakers still have to remember to not let their success take the fundamentals away. Get the ball in your hands, and then make your move.

Spotty help defense rotated to the middle once drives got past the perimeter. Sure, there’s no Andrew but there hasn’t been a gap that big in the middle for a long time. Why that hole in the paint suddenly cropped up is pretty mystifying.

Like I mentioned quickly above, next time the Lakers see the Blazers, make Outlaw move to his right for his shot.

Earlier recognition of the zone has got to happen before the playoffs. The Lakers have the tools and know-how to get around the NBA’s weakest defense. There’s no reason the Lakers should be so stumped, or so late in the clock getting going once the zone has been setup.

Hey, it happens, streaks have to end somewhere. The good thing is that the streak happened. It got them the lead in the West and put them in the minds and conversations of the other Western Conference powers. So with this sleepy performance behind them the Lakers should find new inspiration to start a new streak on Sunday against the new look Mavs.