Crucifido’s Corner: Lakers vs. Blazers (Game 75 4/2/08)

The Return Of Gasol… And None Too Soon

Finally, the Lakers are coming back into form with Gasol being the second to come back from the injury bug. With that comes the beginning of the adjustment period back to full strength.

One adjustment showed early. Everyone began to take the ball inside even without involving Pau in plays heavily. Kobe, Derek, Lamar and others were getting the ball into the paint early in the clock, testing the Blazers defense and getting them back on their heels far more than they had against anyone else recently. A result of that was the Lakers being in the bonus with 5 minutes left in the 1st. The key following that is how much they took advantage of that by continuing to pound the ball inside.

They took real good advantage of it, getting to the line 3 times and taking it inside a total of 6 times in that 5 minutes. The coaching staff (and a good most fans) have been begging for that kind of inside push once you’ve gotten the other team in foul trouble for a while now.

It wasn’t just the 1st half or quarter either. Once the Lakers got their rhythm back with the inside outside game, they didn’t stop. In fact, they got more aggressive with it as the second half got going. The crazy amount of 3’s they were shooting gleefully gave way to a much more in pace, triangle style of ball movement that got the Lakers looking like the Lakers again.

His presence alone was good to see, but Gasol still gave the Lakers that smooth style of offense he’s known for. He set up a real nice soft left handed shot from the low block in the first and kept going, hitting the soft jumper from the free throw line the second. You can’t expect a blow-up kind of game from him right now, but seeing him run the transition from defense to offense like he did tonight had to put a smile on your face.

Pau’s activity in the 2nd half was much improved. It looked like the ankle was gaining strength rather quickly as the game wore on. There was much more aggressiveness on defensive (and a couple offensive) rebounds and his flash defense to the top of the key was really mobile.

The defensive end saw him getting beat a bit by Aldridge. But that kind of activity that Aldridge has in games will be rough for Gasol to keep up with until his feet and legs get back under him.

Loved seeing Derek taking the ball off the curl to a shorter-range floater in the 1st. He didn’t settle for the 3 like he had been for a while now. Just simple plays like that running inside the arc even a couple steps will ease the pressure off the outside game. Defensively though he was anticipating drives by Blake, often leaving him ridiculously open at the top of the perimeter. He was trying to second guess Blake’s moves off of a screen and got caught way far out of range too many times.

Kobe had great effort on the boards tonight. The Blazers are a tall long team and give the Lakers fits on the boards. Seeing Kobe get after those boards like he did early on was a good pace-setting kind of move. He was relentless on the defensive rebounds, getting fantastic position early and holding it down with great leg strength.

Offensively Kobe was on the attack and it helped out big time. It set up easier outside shots and really got the Blazers into scramble mode early on in the game instead of letting them settle into a man-to-man easy perimeter D.

Kobe also played quality defense on Outlaw and Aldridge. The couple of shots Outlaw and Aldridge did get off were quickly shut down by Kobe staying chest to chest with him everywhere he went on the court. He gave no room for either to move along the baseline from weak to strong or otherwise. The roving style of defense he played the entire game that was amazing to watch. Kobe was pretty much everywhere the ball was going while keeping within reaching distance of his assignment or the play at all times. Not having to run from inside to outside to help on both fronts added a ton of energy to Kobe’s defensive presence.

It was tough for Lamar to get inside like he can against the trees of the Blazers. There wasn’t as much fight in Odom’s footwork on the inside, but that may be because of the lack of room there is with Aldridge and Pryzbilla in the middle with him. You could also see a little confusion in Lamar on the offensive end. With Pau in the game, it certainly takes up more space in the middle. That looked like it pushed Lamar out of the deep positions he was getting. What Lamar did do with that size in the middle though is use it real well as a decoy for his drive, having one real strong drive in the 2nd quarter with the Blazers frozen watching Pau. Once Pau stepped out, things opened up for Lamar and you saw him get back to the hard play on the inside he had in that amazing 10 game run of his.

It’s a balance of space that’s going to need a couple games to work out. Add Bynum into the mix and they have to work that out again. Having 3 talented big men that like to play second fiddle off of Kobe – that’s a good problem to have.

Odom (and to some degree Ronny) is the one with the biggest adjustment to make with the Laker big men getting back on the court. The great run he had is bound to slow down with more traffic in the middle, but its up to Lamar to really make a concerted effort to find his space on the floor as the Lakers get healthy again.

Much, much better play from Farmar tonight. He had a couple real good runs, leaving Blake in the dust to take the ball to the rack instead of constantly spotting up for 3. Because of that, voila, his game got back to what it should be all the time. The put-back off of his own missed floater in the 4th was a beautiful example of the space his quick inside drive gives him room to do.

The help and recovery defense took a serious turn for the better in the 2nd half. Kobe was at the forefront of it, but Lamar had some real nice sweeps from weak to strong on defense to block or contest the shots that were going up easy for the Blazers in the 1st half. That improvement also ran the Blazers off of the 3-point shot, pushing them into the teeth of the defense.

There were still a few help and fade plays. At its best, those plays are good to see someone coming out to help on the perimeter, but you can’t flash at them and leave. You either have to stick with them until your teammate can recover or don’t run out to them at all. Its been done a lot this year, making the Laker perimeter defense more confused than they are otherwise at times.

The assists were good tonight, but the passes were there in other games too. What the difference was tonight was the ability to play inside and outside. There was no way for the Blazer defense to settle in on the arc and just dare the Lakers to make 3’s all night. They had to go deep in the paint, come out and recover and with the ball movement the Lakers threw out there in this one, there was no keeping up for the Blazers.

WTF Of The Game: Kobe’s left-handed baseline fall away in the 1st – what was that?! Right when you think you’ve seen every shot in his arsenal. That shot and the tap rebound / pass to Farmar and the wrap-around pass to Gasol both in the 4th for the jumper were astounding plays to see from this re-energized version of Kobe.

Well like I mentioned the balance of space on the court is going to take some work to figure out. The Lakers will have to get their shooters room on the outside while finding room to breathe for the frontcourt in the game together. Its not an immediate thing to iron out, but I can’t imagine that it will be anything but positive once it is worked out and the Lakers get rolling at the right time of year once again.