Crucifido’s Corner: Lakers vs. Nuggets (Round 1 / Game 2 4/23/08)

2 Down – 2 To Go

Game 1 is history and what was imperative tonight was that the Leers held home court advantage. Denver threw their fair share of changes the Lakers’ way, but it was really up to the stronger Lakers to dictate how this game went and moreover how the series will play out.

The big difference quickly from the first game to this one was the glut of outside shots the Lakers pushed the Nuggets into in Game 1 went AWOL. The Lakers were soft on the outside letting the ball get too deep into the defense before a slower than before help rotated over. In fact it was quite the opposite, with the Nuggets getting plenty of easy runs inside while the Lakers settled for distance jumpers.

Luckily Kobe and Derek were fairly solid from the field, but there was really no reason for the Lakers to be looking to shoot jumpers after barely testing Denver’s supposedly tougher inside D.

Once they settled down and found out how to run around the Nuggets altered big rotation, they began to break down the middle well with some strong post work by Odom and Walton. They have to be careful though in giving up early momentum to the Nuggets who can score in big bunches in a hurry.

Derek started out running with some vigor tonight. Early on he was giving great defensive help, rotating along baseline drives. What was real gratifying to see was Derek’s active defense on Iverson. I swear I might have seen him pop out above a screen even. But all kidding aside, he was doing well staying in front of Iverson better than he usually does. He wasn’t stopping him per say but he was contesting him with that lower body strength that gives him solid position holding ability over a lot of small guards. I just wish he’d use it as well as he did tonight more often.

The hitch in Derek’s defense came with his shading of Iverson. It was a bad combo of Derek not talking to his teammates and everyone ignoring where Fish was shading him.

Luke was back at his now usual work tonight. Any mix of around a loose ball he could get to, Luke was there. Diving on the floor, moving real well through the paint and playing with good solid hustle all over the defensive end of the court. What Luke lacks in speed he has been making up for in toughness. As Kobe was taking big bites out of the Nuggets at times, Luke was the workhorse, chiseling at the feet of the Nuggets at every turn with his hustle. Multiple successful cuts, dives and drive and kick sets all initiated from Luke’s play. His recognition of mismatches on the high post, using it to get a couple nice strong drives off tonight, was great to see come back into Luke’s game.

Defensively, he did far better than he has in a long while moving laterally with any assignment that came his way. Aside from Kobe’s superhuman performance, there’s no doubt that Luke was the co-player of the game.

Via some real good space clogging by Mbenga (DJ did great in making the Nuggets body up on him and in turn having to pull a big off the mid range game on defense), the Laker bench rolled real well without Kobe in the 2nd quarter. They were rushing plays a bit too much, but when they would jab dribble and reset the play by kicking it around the arc or one pass back to the perimeter for a post reset by Odom or Luke, they were hitting it.

Sasha had some decent hustle tonight, but the highlight for me was the addition of JR Smith to the list of players absolutely annoyed by Sasha’s D.

Kobe got off like crazy in the 1st, which was needed due to the lack of movement through the paint. However, the Lakers cannot operate on a high level with a big imbalance of scoring like that. That aside though, seeing Kobe light up the Nuggets like that in the 1st made the Nuggets retreat from the defensive scheme they came out with tonight. Also, as the rest of the Lakers struggled a bit to find their space on offense, Kobe was amazing as he absolutely took over every facet of the Laker offense.

The best dividend of Kobe’s burst in the 1st was that the Nuggets, for the rest of the game, had to now run out to him or collapse on him early in plays. That left the entire floor open for anyone to move into pass option spots, cut anywhere they had to, or get a spot for a clear long jumper. The Lakers just needed to exploit that more than they did in this one.

Though the zone trouble is absolutely not Kobe’s fault entirely, I do feel the onus of breaking it down falls on him. With the way he was shooting / playing tonight, Denver had to pay double team attention to him. So with that in mind, all Kobe has to do is take on jab dribble or poke to the middle (ala the pass to a cutting Radmanovic in the 3rd) and Denver has top collapse on him. So though you can’t place the hesitant play against the zone on Kobe, he has to be the catalyst to bust this easiest of all defenses to bust.

Come the end of the 3rd into the 4th and Kobe did just that. This is why Kobe is so impossible to deal with. His in-game adjustments tonight form single to double coverage, from zone to man-to-man defense, from scorer, to passer right on time. There was no hesitation in Kobe tonight, no matter what the Nuggets threw at him. The guy was simply incredible from wire to wire.

What will get buried in this game is the great defensive job Pau did on Camby – again. Camby wasn’t getting through to the backdoor lob. Pau limited Camby’s every move in the paint. Whether Pau faced up on him, making him push the ball out of his hands in good post position or if he kept a body on him at all points, Gasol played real strong defense. Pau proved that scoring numbers don’t always tell the tale.

Early trouble with the Lakers offense against led to some defensive problems as well.

Letting Anthony move to the inside far too easy. There seemed to be a lapse in attention paid to Anthony rolling off of his defender off the ball. Radmanovic was the guilty party on this one. He was getting lost in traffic really early in transition letting Anthony get to his comfortable starting spots way sooner than he was in Game 1.

In the 1st quarter there was a lack of movement off the ball and particularly a big lack of cuts through the middle with the ball on the high post. Because of that the Lakers got into an early outside shooting contest with the Nuggets which is what the Lakers don’t want and what the Nuggets are hoping for.

And again, you have got to keep teams like Nuggets who look to start scoring early and heavy closer to the 20 point mark in the 1st. Giving a good scoring team that kind of confidence early on can be incredibly dangerous.

Later on in the game, the 3rd quarter in particular, the Lakers were forcing the post pass too much. When they did get the ball moving towards the post, it was while Pau or Lamar had 2 men on them or the pass was too long. A little more patience in the offense would go along way. Denver defense will not force the Lakers to do anything in a hurry.

Speaking of the 3rd (and early 4th) quarter, I thought the Lakers learned their lesson in the 2nd quarter of Game 1 when they got 3 point crazy. It was the same thing that happened last game, and against the same lame zone defense. So, in other words, stop shooting so many damn 3’s.

Going back in the game before that point, the Lakers saw just how easy it is to beat the zone with a tiny little pass to Derek for a floater in the 2nd quarter. All it takes is a bit of movement of the ball into the middle and everything breaks down. They have got to watch that play over and over so they can remember that the zone is the absolute weakest defense in basketball.

WTF Of The Game: That hook pass from Pau to Kobe for the dunk at the end of the 3rd was ridiculous. How in the world do you pull off a perfectly timed and thrown hook pass to a blitzing Kobe?

Now the Lakers go into enemy territory, where the boos for Kobe will be everywhere and the atmosphere grows as thin as the Nuggets’ defensive intelligence.

The Lakers have got to take it to the Nuggets early, get them frustrated and breaking down mentally like they did in the 4th tonight. Early strikes, penetrating the zone, cutting down on 3’s and moving the ball like they did in Game 1 are all key.

2-0 doesn’t win a series, but it’s a good start to what should be a chance for this Laker team to show that killer instinct they’ve shown us they have.

Sound off in the Los Angeles Lakers Forums!