Crucifido’s Corner: Lakers vs. Jazz (Round 2 / Game 5 5/14/08)

Crucifido's Corner - ClubLakers.com

The Big 3 Play Big – Game 5 Goes The Lakers’ Way

It was Game 5, the most important game in a 7 game series if you ask me. Game 5’s usually swing momentum, regardless of home court, to the winner. With some fight, some spectacular play from the Lakers’ big 3, Game 5 went the Lakers’ way.

Immediately, better footwork from all on defense, but with some bad side effects. They just can’t let pushing up on guys and getting after a man right after a pass let the weak side get loose. It’s mainly up to Gasol to keep an eye to that diving man on the backside. It was Brewer getting crazy wide open looks at any place in the paint. From the alley-oops in the 1st quarter to the put back in the 3rd, he was running roughshod over the Lakers’ interior defense with very little resistance.

Kobe came out of the gates storming the Jazz. Most impressively his fast hands on defense had the Jazz committing some uncharacteristic early turnovers. When the ball got moved around him he was diving into the depths of the key with purpose.

Lamar did a strong job in the middle fending off the flailing off-arms of Okur. On every post Okur had, he was throwing his arm into Odom’s chest, but Lamar was giving up no ground without a fight. Since Game 3, Lamar has really improved his solid footing in all posts.

Offensively, Lamar is using his skill in breaking down the Jazz’s interior defense to get good looks for shooters (ala Radmanovic in the 1st quarter). He’s pushing the ball right into Boozer knowing that he can do nothing to keep up with him except foul. He was setting up the Jazz for those kick out passes is exactly what Kobe was doing in the first 2 games to major success. The aggression of Lamar on the offensive end to get to the post spots was great to see. From the outset, Odom was moving from defense to offensive postposition without any hesitation whatsoever. To that end, the Lakers have got to look to clear space in the lane for Odom.

The thing about Lamar was the leadership for the second straight game. When Lamar was the go-to guy or the Lakers needed a big bucket, Odom was the catalyst almost as much as Kobe was. Lamar played the entire game without making one poor decision. He had his eyes open to every play on the court. Couple that with the overall passion he’s shown the last 2 games and we all have a massively improved Lamar. While the Jazz have a big problem brewing for Game 6.

In one spell during the 2nd quarter where Pau stuck with his post shot 3 times to get the foul, it looked like Gasol found his groove. That play alone showed that Pau can get in there and at least mix it up with the rebounders of the Jazz. By even getting inside to cause traffic (like he does well on defense with Lamar against Boozer) he can disrupt the Jazz getting such easy boards. It may not pay off every time, but over the length of a game if Pau stayed persistent, helping to wear down the Jazz’s rebounding.

Pau had success tonight in diving down the lane for the running pass. The Lakers were running that play all year long and there’s no reason they can’t in this series. The Jazz were sagging off of Pau on dives tonight, the big difference was that both Pau and the passer was looking for it. That confidence from the dives translated into solid short range shooting from Pau. Once the shot started falling you saw Pau use that clogging position he got in the lane to get that huge lay-in late in the game and to get to the line as the second half wore on.

Pau was the factor that he was when he first got here. It looked like this game he finally found where he can be effective. After 4 games of spotty play, it looks like Pau has gotten to where he needs to be for the Lakers to move on.

It looked like the juvenile Jazz fans have fired up Fisher even more so. I don’t think it’s a giant factor in Derek’s motivation, but it certainly couldn’t have hurt Derek’s desire to see that group of disgraceful Jazz fans show their truly ugly colors. He’s had a real good series up to this game, but in this one his fire was shining through big time. His defense kept up the pace with his first 4 performances, but most of all you had to love the fight he was giving to get the ball inside a couple times in the 1st quarter.

The tenacity (like that dive for the loose ball with Boozer) of Fisher went a long way to setting the pace and style for the Lakers’ defense. Seeing Phil pulling him a touch too early was good. Avoiding those fouls that have sat Derek down in the last 2 is vital in the Lakers keeping Williams in check. But when Derek was in the game he did an admirable job of fighting around screens instead of jumping beneath them without ever putting up a fight. In fact, be still our collective hearts, but Derek was getting over screens today more often than he has in a long, long time. That alone had Williams running into his own man instead of finding wide open space to drive, pass or shoot.

When the Lakers were shooting on every foul in the 4th Derek played Williams off the ball to perfection. If he didn’t get the free throw he had Deron pulled away from every play in the paint. Deron’s quick hands were taken out of the equation.

Ronny was losing track of his man off of traps too much. In his effort to push the ball out of the high post, Ronny was giving up even better position down low, often fouling with reaches to try and make up for that lost ground. The coaching staff orders the trap, but that trap doesn’t have to be real tight pressure. Ronny can maintain his spacing between the trap and his man by backing off of his push a bit.

Good morning Mr. Farmar. He came onto the court looking tentative but the 3 he hit and the real nice lay-in through traffic for the 3-point play will hopefully get Jordan back to the level of confidence and hustle he’s shown all year. Jordan needs to go right back into Williams when he gets ran on himself. If Deron wants to push the ball at him, Jordan needs to push right back, not sink into a passive role on the offensive end.

Kobe was a warrior – again. That flat 3rd quarter saw Kobe absolutely imposing his will on the Jazz defense. Despite whom they were throwing his way, Kobe was breaking them down off the dribble. A couple MVP-ish fouls were in there, but for the most part he had every Jazz defender immediately backpedaling to try to keep up with him.

Once Kobe got the Jazz more worried about the foul on him than playing help defense, Utah expended a ton of energy on defense and the offensive game took a hit. It was Kobe’s ability to pick and choose his spots in this one that really got the Lakers in rhythm when they needed it most.

I said it my first article of this series, the match up with Harpring on the floor is the one to watch. As the Lakers’ defense on him or as Harpring has gone, so has the bench play of both teams. The Lakers were letting way too many good spots go under the basket with no contest. As Lamar was looking for Boozer, Harpring was getting loose far too much. Between those possessions and the spots given up to Brewer for open scores, the Lakers let the Jazz close the gap in the 1st quarter too quickly without really running any play.

Tonight saw an interesting ploy by the Lakers, playing units to speed the pace up. When they did it took the Jazz out of any kind of grind it out style they want to impose with their bench. The bad thing was that since Phil threw that lineup in the Lakers looked like they were caught in that mode. They were playing far too panicked, looking to make ill-advised plays about every other time down the floor. From those ill-advised plays (actually compounding on the Lakers’ earlier sloppy ball handling) came the turnover parade.

Unforced turnovers, not just turnovers, but these wild errant passes from the Lakers simply can’t happen. They had a lot of easy possessions with plenty of time on the clock, yet for some reason the Lakers were forcing tough angled or traffic-laden passes.

A lot of Lakers can prevent some of these ticky-tack reaches. Every Laker at one point or another is running at slashers when they have plenty of time to stop in the pathway of the drive. One small short stop can draw a charge, get the Jazz to throw a bad pass or push them into a tougher / lower percentage shot.

I could go on, but the important thing is that the Lakers had faith in each other tonight. From Kobe trusting Sasha with shots even though he was as cold as he’s ever been and Lamar looking for spot-ups on drives, moments of decent communication on D (though it could be a lot better in Game 6) and keeping each other going when the game got tight or someone was cold (ala Kobe staying on Farmar from the moment he came in the game to when he sat), the Lakers looked not so much like one player on a mission as in the past.

The Lakers played that 4th quarter like a team on a mission.

They say the series doesn’t start until a team wins a game on the other’s court.

Well its time for the Lakers to start and finish this series in Game 6.