Crucifido’s Corner: Lakers vs. Pacers (Game 32 1/6/2007)

Not Too Pretty But The Job Got Done

Clunky starts to every quarter outside of the 3rd didn’t slow the Lakers down from getting a win that they, by all rights, should’ve gotten.

Slow on their rotations both offensively and defensively, it looked like the Lakers may make this game tougher on themselves than the Pacers would. It’s not often (or many teams) that you can go from not even scratching in the game until the 8.15 mark, to scoring 33 points in the first quarter. But such is the explosive offense of the Lakers this season. Mainly, it’s so explosive because the Lakers are slowly, but most surely getting back to the inside/outside offense (with a roundabout nod to an altered triangle offense) that got them so much success early in this decade.

And of course, as has been more often than not this year, the catalyst in it was Andrew Bynum. Playing against the guy you almost got dealt for (well semi-almost) will certainly spark up your motivation, but Andrew’s motivation has been to become a major part of the new engine of the Lakers. And I think its getting close to safe to say that Andrew is becoming more than most expected him to be. That would be the third best center in the NBA (behind Dwight Howard and Yao Ming).

With this game tonight (and others as well, but we’ll look at this one mostly) you saw a concerted effort from Indiana to collapse on Andrew as soon as possible. That just says that Andrew has now officially become part of the scouting process. He’s become part of what other coaching staffs have to plan countering. At no point in this game did Andrew get a one on none chance. As soon as the ball was passed into the post help came almost immediately. But due to Andrew’s patient footwork he either got around those double/triple teams or backed down his defender enough to get a pass off to the high post or back outside.

I think a good telling moment of Andrew’s game tonight was when he got obviously pushed in the back by O’Neal, but instead of quitting playing, he put the ball on the floor, dropped to the baseline and threw down a jam for the bucket and the foul. That fire right there, that willingness to play through a non-call and maintain control was great to see. Defensively he was getting pulled out of his comfort zone a bit too much. A lot has to do with the fact that O’Neal likes to shoot tho9se 10 to 12 foot jumpers to do just that. What Andrew has to do is trust in rotation to the low post from Lamar or Ronny (depending on the lineup) to cover him getting up into Jermaine a bit more.

It’s apparent that Luke’s legs aren’t yet under him like they have been before. The chronic Los Angeles sprained ankle curse has taken its toll on Luke’s off ball movement. But tonight there were twinges of the movement that makes Luke so successful in the triangle offense. The quickness on defense that is suspect anyway is nowhere near where it has to be for Luke to wrangle more minutes away from Ariza. But, again its Luke’s inherent understanding of the offense and his ability to keep in motion to his spots at all times that keeps him in games. The same happened tonight.

You saw the couple of open threes that Luke was getting last year from that same movement. With Andrew becoming a bona fide force in the middle, Luke should look to increase that movement and keep getting strength back in his ankle to become that piston for the extra pass (ala that pass top Lamar on the dive in the 3rd).

Crittenton got time, which was good to see, but his confidence in his outside shot and ability to see when he has an open shot is causing too many turnovers or telegraphed passes.

Back into that 3rd option kind of game, Lamar once again shows his value to the team. It’s a quiet consistency on the defensive boards that really proves Odom’s worth. The emergence of Bynum in the middle is paying off dividends all over the place, but mainly it’s taking pressure off of Lamar. What was good about Lamar’s game tonight was his movement from passing off the ball on the arc to making a dive into the post or straight down the middle for either a pass or rebound. Though he didn’t always get the tiny easy shot that was designed, his motion off the pass and through posts was moving the defense to crowd the middle, leaving the mid range and long range jumpers more open than most nights.

Lamar’s big weakness tonight was his flashing defense on shooters. Lamar, along with most of the Lakers have got to realize that they can’t throw an arm towards a shooter than dive back 2 or 3 footsteps. You have to commit to playing shooters in their face. Make Rush put the ball on the floor, make shooters play to their weakness. This is going to be huge come the New Orleans game. With Lamar being put in to the roving kind role on defense, he has got to use his height to push shooters into bad shots, to pass the ball or put the ball on the floor to drive into Andrew, Kobe, Ronny or anyone looking to clean up the middle.

Though he didn’t play close to the big role he played in the Philly game, its still a bonus to have a guy like Turiaf come into the game (even with limited minutes) with the same enthusiasm he ahs when he starts. That being said, I saw something defensively from Ronny tonight that may help him shore up his defensive game quite a bit. Ronny tends to body up far too early with his man. Once he does get tight up on his assignment he tends to back step with them. At the end of the backing up, either Ronny jumps up for a block or he tends to get called for the block. Along with keeping his downward motion of his swatting under control, Ronny would be well served to give a step or two of room to his man. Often he isn’t guarding someone who is going to [pull up from the outside (ala David Harrison tonight) . So having to tighten up that early in a defensive set is unnecessary.

The bench unit had their struggles tonight. Again, there was bit of stagnation once the starters sat down. I see this as the fault of two things primarily.

First, I don’t think there should be a time in a game (aside from absolute garbage time) that the team should have Lamar, Kobe and Andrew sitting all at once. At one point one of them has got to be on the floor. You can’t leave the bench unit out there (as good as they’ve been) without a definite offensive go to guy. Every time it’s been done, tonight as well, the bench has stuttered on offense and gotten really careless with the ball. That disjointed play without an anchor is also leading to miscommunication on defense.

Also, offensively when the ball goes into the post there’s a hesitation afterwards. The pass goes in and for about one to two seconds you can see the indecision from almost all fronts of the offense without one of the Lakers “big 3” on the floor.

So though the bench has been spectacular so far this year, I don’t think putting a completely starter-less unit on the floor against any team is the way to keep a game’s pace on track.

Derek continues to shoot better than he has in his career from the floor. I especially loved watching Derek really pushing the ball into the paint against an under-manned / weak Pacer point guard core. His use of strength tonight was really effective in pulling mid range defenders into the paint. He was out of control at times, letting his momentum carry him a bit too far underneath the hoop, but in general the aggressive drives he was pulling off all game was great. His shot selection is still on the money. Some of the long range bombs he was throwing down were picture perfect and certainly having someone of his ability on the arc to receive Kobe’s drive and kick passes is a monstrous improvement from the past couple of years.

Lastly, I guess when Kobe is an afterthought for team’s defenses and for the Lakers it’s a good thing. There’s a noticeable difference in Kobe’s aggressiveness lately. I think it’s a mix between his injuries not being fully healed yet and Kobe learning how to integrate his normal heroics within a team that actually is helping now.

That’s a tough balance to find right now. You can see Kobe force the action like he did tonight when his shot isn’t falling. However, Kobe is one of the rare players that commands so much attention even when his shot is off that he did a great job tonight of using that attention to free everything else up. A myriad of great passes around the court courtesy of Kobe kept the Lakers in the driver’s seat while he was on the court. Of course despite the below average shooting performance of Kobe for most of the first half he got his points anyway. But Kobe’s biggest effect tonight was keeping the Lakers moving by play away from the ball.

Kobe pushing the ball into tough situations because of frustration is no new thing. The new thing for Kobe this year is, like I said, finding how his incredible ability can best sink within the team context. He’s finding that groove far quicker than most players of his caliber usually do, and that’s why this Laker team is looking so well oiled while Kobe’s on the court.

His defensive performance is still spot on (even though his groin injury is still hampering his lateral movement here and there).

All in all, it was good night of getting done hat had to be done. Now the Lakers have a good warm-up game against a Grizzlies team that always plays the Lakers tough. The game versus the Hornets will be a good test of the Lakers mettle on the road.

If they continue to take a businesslike approach to games, along with using the inside threat of Bynum to spark quick movement to spots and quick ball movement, the Lakers should get along fine.

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