Crucifido’s Corner - Lakers vs. Bobcats

Cruci's Corner

A Team In Reversion

Alright guys and girls, I’m upset, you’re upset – let’s just barrel through this.

* This would be time number 10 or 11 I think – I hate playing hobbled teams or teams on losing streaks. With this Laker squad and their tendency to lose focus easily, there is no more dangerous game than those against teams like the Bobcats and Pacers. It happens in the big games as well, but versus these down teams, the Lakers seem to have zero drive to go in for the kill quick. They’re not only making life difficult for themselves against these kind of teams, but they put themselves into bad situations early. Am I surprised about the loss? No. In fact, if you look in a thread before the road trip this is one of 2 losses (I thought they would have the will to go 5-2, oops) I pegged the Lakers as having.

* Bringing me to my next point - what’s more upsetting to me about this loss isn’t the fact that it was the Bobcats. To me, there are no “gimme” games in the NBA right now for these guys. The most annoying thing about this game is the lack of pride and desire they came into the game with after being lambasted by the Pacers. You’d think that embarrassment would possibly get these guys into gear, or maybe the drive to make the playoffs, maybe Kobe’s will can show the rest of the team what it takes to win, but apparently there’s something else that is keeping these guys from playing. They’re not only looking like they can’t play, they look like they don’t want to play. There couldn’t be a more precarious trait for a young team to have. Even teams like the Bobcats, dropping 13 in a row until the NBA’s “Get-Well-Team” came to town, came into this game with some heart. I am officially confounded at what it will take to get this particular squad moving.

* Y’all know me, I seriously do my best to be as optimistic as possible. However, you have to question this team’s desire when this kind of behavior becomes habitual. I know for a fact that Phil and his staff are preparing these guys for the games properly. The immense amount of knowledge these guys have been already fed and have at their disposal in this organization is beyond compare. So to me, if there’s a lack of desire to play in any certain player there’s really only 3 things you can do. 1) Find the root of the disinterest and work on ways to get that player to see that one player on a team who isn’t giving 100% all the time affects the whole team. 2) Hit the player where it hurts most and begin to take playing time away from that player. This often results in nothing more than a player becoming disgruntled or losing any confidence they may have had. So honestly, though it may be the first knee-jerk reaction to anger at a player, it tends to hurt them and the team in the long run. 3) Deal the player for someone who wants to play every night.

* I don’t think that asking each and every player on your team to come prepared and with the energy to give it everything they have every game is too much to ask. After all, as jobs go, this is a pretty good deal they have going. Like I said in previous articles, all I ask is that a team comes into every game leaving everything on the floor. If the losses still come after that, then so be it. Right now, however, that simply isn’t happening.

* If you allow another team to get into rhythm, despite their record, you have made a mountain out of a molehill. Not only does it become increasingly difficult to contain the team defensively, their defense becomes more energetic and driven. It’s all a balance between the two ends of the floor. Conversely, when the Lakers let others get into a rhythm this early and easily in a game it has now become even harder for the Lakers to get their game into gear simply because the other team is running with confidence. You not only give confidence to your opponent, you take double the confidence away from yourself. It’s a snowball that once it gets rolling is pretty dang hard to stop. So how do you avoid such a problem? Come into every game with the intention of making your pace and your will the dictator of the game. The Lakers have done that here and there, showing that it is within them. The real question lies in why they aren’t doing this ever night. So it goes back up above this point to playing with desire and the remedies for players that don’t play with said desire.
* You cannot allow players such as Jumaine Jones to get that off on you that easily. Jumaine is a talented player, but in no way is he a 30 point a game talent. The worst part of it being that it’s not likt the Lakers don’t know how the guy plays. They know his strengths, weaknesses and tendencies, yet they did absolutely zilch to stop it. Once Jumaine got rolling the rtest of the Bobcats saw that the road to a win is to simply play with energy. It’s bad reputation to start giving yourself. A team that gives up early and can’t reverse pace without miracles from Kobe. So what do teams do? 1) Come into the game with energy. 2) Establish a bit of a lead. 3) Double team Kobe and force the rest to win. That’s about all it’s taking for teams to get over on the Lakers. It should be harder than that. Yes, even with the talent the Lakers currently have.

* If a player is hot, then take away what they’re killing you with. It’s not always that simple (especially with top tier players) but it is simple to force a player to alter their game even a little bit to make things a tad more difficult for them. It’s just like letting a team get into rhythm. If you let a player get into such a rhythm early on, it is so dang hard to get them out of step. And again, it’s a snowball effect. One guy is going off, the team both gets excited and pumped up and soon you have a b east on your hands. And why – because the defense has done literally nothing to make a player alter his game out of his comfort zone. If he’s a shooter, force him into a physical game. If he’s a slasher, force him into distance or contested shots. If he’s a physical player push him into the 10 foot range make him prove his game from the perimeter. Like I said, it’s not always that simple, but in essence it can be. Right now the Lakers are letting players find their comfort zone and then letting them settle into it without any kind of resistance until it’s far too late.

* This is going to sound preposterous but stick with me. In games such as this, if I were coach, I actually might wind up sitting Kobe for a prolonged period of time, so the rest of the squad can see that it’s a team game. Yes, Kobe is one of the best players in the NBA, but he cannot, and never will be able to, do everything by himself. It may take sitting Kobe for a longer amount of time to show the team just this point. In a way Phil has adopted a bit of this viewpoint with his second quarter sitting of Kobe until the 6 minute mark. He’s been doing it consistently since the 81 point game. I have to believe that this sitting of Kobe is more a reaction to the rest of the team not waking up then it is Kobe’s fatigue. Sometimes I wonder if some of the other Lakers (besides Kobe and Mihm) realize that they’re being paid to play and not watch.

* It’s a quick redundant point but Lakers – recognize things. Recognize shooter, slashers, pick and pops, pick and rolls, help defense situations, back door cuts, anything just open your eyes and pay attention to the game away from the ball. I don’t know if the ball is being laced with some kind of opiate but it seems that there is not one Laker outside of Kobe that realizes there is a game happening away from the ball handler.

* One other thing I’ve noticed is the lack of a 2 man game with the Lakers. There are ball handlers and enough size in the post for the Laker to exploit a quick 2 man game more than they do now – which is rarely to never. When they do use a post and cut play, it tends to work. It’s a fundamental of the triangle offense, but the Lakers seem to be reluctant to run it.

So there – I’m done. That was beyond a stinker of a game. I expect to lose one game to a bad team on a road trips, but not 2 in a row. Chalk it up to the column of “games the Lakers will regret not winning”. It’s a column that’s filling up too much this season and frankly, it needs to be stopped – now.

I could go on for a while about things that could have been done to win, but it’s boiling down to one thing no matter how many different ways I put it – desire. Until this team shows that they want to win, it’s going to be incredibly tough to get any kind of playoff run rhythm established. It’s too late in the season for this team to be pulling junk like this out their pockets.
Alright, a couple more hours and we can shake this off to move onto the next task at hand. You can’t change the past; it’s done for better or worse. You know what the weird thing is I can almost guarantee a big Laker in versus Dallas. It seems fitting to pull off that kind of road trip with a team as bewilderingly erratic as the Lakers currently are.

*Sigh*

Veteran ClubLakers member crucifido writes nightly player analysis for each game of the Laker season.