Crucifido’s Corner: Lakers vs. Kings (Game 61 3/4/08)

No More Skin On The Lakers’ Teeth

An odd schedule to be sure, but the first time the Lakers play the Kings turns out to be in March. Of the last 22, the Lakers play the Kings 4 times, which is more than a single tiered blessing. First off, playing a non-playoff team for conference games this late can definitely help the Lakers build up their win total (as long as they stay sharp every time). And second, playing a team that doesn’t like the Lakers can give the Lakers a bit of edge to their play that can hopefully be remembered and transferred to other games.

The number one priority for me coming into this game – don’t take it for granted. For as poor as the Kings are right now, they play tough at home and it’s the Lakers – so there’s added intensity automatically. As the Lakers sleepwalked through the first half, that intensity from the Kings was showing. Luckily for the Lakers they staggered into the 2nd half only down by 5. But as the lazy play kept going, you wondered whether the Lakers would ever wake up.

That’s when having the MVP of the NBA on your side comes in real handy.

Establishing an inside game against the Kings early is key. Miller isn’t a center (and is barely an NBA player at all) and Moore is anything but intimidating on the inside. With that the Lakers looked a sluggish at the start trying to get the ball to the post. Slow-footed movement with the ball and minimal movement off of it led the Lakers to sputter in the 1st quarter. Once Lamar began to dive in the middle as the ball swung to the side the Lakers inside opened up. That’s a big benefit of Gasol (and it’ll get beiger when Andrew comes back). The attention paid to Gasol on the side of the paint and on the high post opens up the lane for dive after dive for anyone.

The problem lay in an inconsistent half court set for the Lakers tonight. There was an effort to get in the middle, but it wasn’t concerted. The Lakers can’t only get the ball into the post to start plays against a soft underbelly team like the Kings every once in a while.

Lamar had some trouble defending Artest on the high post, as he did with Nowitzki. Lamar needs to stop pushing up so tight on his man as early as he is. With the early contact he’s limiting his ability to move laterally and the offender is using that to attack Odom, drawing the foul on occasion (as Artest did in the 1st & 3rd quarters). On the boards Lamar did real well staying in the mix on every loose ball. He was getting sandwiched pretty well in the low post, but stuck with most rebounds. The Lakers have got to start sending another body down low on boards. There’s been too many times in this game and versus the Mavericks that Lamar has been caught alone under the hoop.

Pau was flat out getting murdered inside, as he did against Dallas. Physicality is rising as teams realize that playing aggressively in the middle on both ends is occasionally lowering Gasol’s effectiveness. It’s not killing it, but as the refs continue to let teams play uber-tough in the middle against the Lakers, the points in the paint against are rising. The only thing Pau can do about this is to come into games knowing that this is how it’s going to be as long as it’s working. If you can come in with a wider stance in the middle and prepared to battle, maybe the effects of that style of play will diminish. They won’t completely go away until the Lakers get a shot blocking presence back in the middle.

What was real good about Pau’s game tonight was his patience, as the play got stronger. His shot was still not rushed and he had a good sense of when the defense collapsed too much, allowing him to step through and draw fouls. He played with impressive control while he was getting jumped on. The stoic play of Gasol went a long way to taking the Kings out of their packing it in play in the first half.

Every shot Luke makes from outside is a big help. It sounds obvious, but not solely because of the box score. With Luke making shots again from distance, it pulls pressure off them middle and opens up the game for Gasol or Odom on the block. Now that Luke’s ankle seems to be healing, his shot looks much softer. It’s not being thrown up in haste like it was earlier this year. There was a real nice spin and shoot from the mid-post that showed the patience that’s Luke’s shot has regained. Luke was however putting passes into Gasol when Gasol was in heavy traffic. He can’t be passing to guys that are already in trouble or in position for Luke’s shot rebound.

Luke’s been drawing the tough defensive assignments at small forward lately and tonight didn’t change much. The inherent athleticism at the 3 is wreaking havoc with Luke’s foul column. The speed was never really a strong suit for Luke, and that’s holding true.

Kobe played a lackadaisical defensive game against martin in the 1st quarter. For some unknown reason Kobe didn’t look like keeping up with Martin off the ball or getting to him if he got the ball off a screen was a priority. I have no idea why that happened, but you hope that Kobe wasn’t trying to play a dare kind of game with Martin. With Kobe being the pace setter on all fronts for the Lakers, he has to make sure he doesn’t come into games playing as sleepy as he was tonight on defense.

Offensively Kobe was playing for the foul too much. There were too many shots thrown up in anticipation for the foul instead of looking for the shot first and foul second. Its something Kobe does struggle with when the team is having trouble getting going. In turn, Kobe’s offense just wasn’t as precise as it can be through 3 quarters.

And then… the 4th quarter came. The guy has a will, strength, and a desire to win / dominate like no other in the NBA. There are not enough words to describe exactly how his passion impacts a game, the team and the NBA. Amazing to watch – just absolutely amazing.

Derek’s offense has to wake up ands it did in spurts tonight. The gaps in scoring (from Derek and Sasha) are starting to hurt the Lakers. With Fisher being a starter and having the skills he does you look to Fish to step up his game first. As the game wound down, Derek stepped up his defense a bit, but that step has got to come far earlier in a game. Right now the point guard core of the Lakers is struggling to get going on either end. Its up to Derek to lead the staggering backcourt back to the crisp offense and defense they were playing.

Aside from the obvious transition problems…

- Absent drive and kick game. Most inside shots in the first half were forced without any movement from the outside or look to the outside for a pass.

- No runs to the offensive boards. It was one and done for a good part of the game. With or without Lamar running the middle of the paint for boards, there’s got to be some kind of team effort to get offensive rebounds.

- Minimal to no help for anyone stuck in a post. If Kobe got trapped on the high post or Gasol got trapped in the mid or low post, there was nobody moving to passing options. There weren’t a lot of turnovers from those spots, but what did happen is the Lakers wound up shooting a terribly tough shot or a completely out of balance one. All sliding to pass option spots was completely gone.

- The Lakers can’t let teams like the Kings tonight (or the Blazers recently) get into early rhythm offensively. It’s far too dangerous to flirt with pacing like that. The worst part of games like this is that its not overwhelming offense from the opposition its lazy or soft defense from the Lakers that’s killing things. They’ve got to come into every arena, home or away looking to dictate the pace on both ends. Letting teams get into a groove like that makes it even tougher to pull them out of it when the game starts ticking down.

- Communication was at a minimum on the defensive end in the 1st quarter. Going with the pacing comment, that can’t happen versus any team, good or bad. There has to be communication and a constant effort to stop the easy bucket off of simple screens at all times. You can’t get on an offensive roll if the communication and subsequently the defense itself can’t get in sync.

- The word is out - play physical with the Lakers. If teams are going into games with that in mind, the Lakers have got to begin to brace themselves for that style of play. You can counter that collapsing tough play in the middle with better ball movement and crisper movement off the ball (like they did during the winning streak). They can’t let the refs no-calls or the rough play take them out of the methodical style of play that got them in contention.

- There was an odd lack of emotion throughout most of the game from the Lakers. An occasional “Let’s go!” from Pau, but overall the Lakers looked tired for no good reason.

Andrew’s absence is beginning to be felt. This is the second game in a row now where you can see exactly how Bynum’s presence in the middle would completely change these sloppy, scrappy kinds of games.

WTF Of The Game: The new trend of not calling jersey pulling. Its been season long plague league wide that isn’t being addressed. In the 4th when Martin pulled on Kobe’s jersey on the break, Luke getting a new customized jersey against Dallas and countless more. Alongside that, the refs have got to start calling plays on the body as flagrants, like they’re listed in the rulebook.

Well thank you, Kobe, thank you for getting that win on a night when the Suns and Spurs both walked to easy W’s. This kind of game, this brand of lethargy cannot rear its head again. As mentioned, the lack of a big man on defense is hurting right now, but there’s still weeks to go before Bynum comes back. The Lakers have got to regain some of that fire they had on the road while the schedule continues to be soft.