JSM
Clublakers Site Manager
Joined: 28 Apr 2003
Posts: 68580
Location: Atlanta
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 Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:00 pm Post subject: LA Times Blog: Coverage of Lakers vs. Wiz game |
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LA Times Blog: One thing's for sure. You wouldn't label today's 132-123 win over the "Wizards" a "slugfest." Entertaining game, for sure. But the phrase "lockdown" didn't enter my head a whole lot. Still, a few guys did look pretty good as I enjoyed myself in an atmosphere heavy on Laker family, both immediate (I talked a while with Andrew Bynum's brother and sat in front of Devin Green's dad during the second half) and extended (I met Marcus Douthit's agent and ran into Laron Profit, who was medically cleared about a week ago and would have played in the SPL, but wasn't in good enough shape yet. In the meantime, he's been working out hard. He said that the time since the injury "flew by... real slow.)
Anyhoo, thy rundown...
I arrived a little late (I'm not sure if any of you have ever noticed, but the traffic on the 405 can really get bad), but with about six minutes left in the first, Bynum already had 7 points, en route to a quarter-century final tally. He went 10-10 from the field and snagged 11 boards. Now before going all goony bird, keep in mind, there wasn't a lot of resistance. And before going all "hater-alert," that was Kurt Rambis' phrase, not mine. Washington only played a six man rotation (the coach was apparently channeling his inner-Flip Saunders) and only Andray Blatche- who filled up a stat sheet with everything from points (26) to rebounds (10) to fouls (7) to technicals (1)- was 6'11". Safe to say the kid will face bigger competition (literally and figuratively) down the road. That said, Bynum also did exactly what you're supposed to do in an advantageous situation. Make the opponent pay. You can't do much better 100% shooting, especially on a nice variety of moves. I also liked how Bynum passed out from some doubles, included a well-timed kick out to Farmar for three. He turned the ball over a few times trying to sneak it to cutters, but I found the willingness to try and fail a positive. He doesn't get discouraged easily. Whether facing equal competition or not, it was still a more than positive day.
Jordan Farmar bounced back from Saturday afternoon's poor shooting and notched a 7-12 effort. Whether doing it from distance, with reverse layups, or banking a floater off glass, offense doesn't seem particularly daunting for the rook. Neither, for that matter, does passing. He's great at both finding guys, especially cutters. I was particularly impressed by a sequence where he almost turned the ball over with time running down, but stayed under control and found Devin Green heading to the rack with about a second remaining. He also busted a very entertaining "off the glass" pass to Green for a dunk (which I imagine might have resulted in the two doing laps around the gym the entire second half if it hadn't resulted in two points). Defense is still sometimes a challenge, especially against bigger guys. But even if he gets out-muscled a couple times (as was the case), assist-to-turnover ratios along the lines of today's 11-2 finish makes such occurrences easier to handle.
Devin Green really played a nice game. It wasn't just his 26 points or that he got them going 12-14 from the field. It was how he went about racking those numbers. He stuck jumpers. He cut to the basket. He pulled a terrific baseline-drop step move for a layup. He threw down a sick left handed dunk. Throw in the 8 boards, 4 dimes, two charges drawn, and 0 turnovers, and it's a pretty happy day. As I noted before, they're looking to play Green a little more at the 3, where Rambis thinks his instincts as a player lie. He wants to see Hampton's finest "develop a real confidence playing at that small forward spot and once we get that comfort level, then we can see what he can do at the guard spot." There's still work to be had, but I can't imagine Green drove home today with his psyche drooping, at any rate.
Danilo "JR" Pinnock had another solid game. "Solid" really describes him well, in my opinion. He does a lot of things nicely and has a fair amount of assets, not the least of which is playing very under control. Which is interesting, since he's a self described "high fly act" (in fairness, the kid really can get up) and sees his role, first and foremost, "to bring energy, no matter what... I could go out and have no points, no assists, no rebounds, but raise the energy of my team and my job is done." While I'd advise against literally all goose eggs in the stat column, the point is well taken. Pinnock's yet to blow me away in a game, but he also never induces a cringe. He's doing well, in my opinion. As for the nickname, Pinnock often goes by "JR" because growing up in Georgia, "people just couldn't say Danilo for anything. They called me everything from "Danielle" to "Danny" to "Dan," so "JR" just came from "Junior."
Another "eh" game for Von Wafer. He was certainly better than on Saturday, but he still looks off kilter as a whole. He played aggressively (Dude brings aggression, I'll give him that) and initiated the Farmar-to-Green-off glass-dunk with a great steal. But all in all, Wafer still hasn't been playing particularly well, at least not in the games I've watched.
Just about everyone else had nice moments here and there (Marcus Slaughter iced a wicked reverse lay up off a cut), but the above mentioned were the ones that stood out the most to me. |
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