Lakers Grab Ugly Victory Over Raptors

Sasha Vujacic’s 19 points led the way for the Los Angeles Lakers as they defeated the Toronto Raptors in a low-scoring affair, 82-72.

After holding the Raptors to just 11 first quarter points, the Lakers never looked back.

First round pick Charlie Villanueva received a DNP on the Raptors’ team, depleted of an inside scoring presence.

Scoring 12 points off the bench, Andrew Bynum commented that he felt exhausted during the game and did not play up to his expected standards.

“I don’t think I really made that much progress today,� Bynum assessed, “I kind of regressed a little bit. I was real tired, just physically.�

“It sucks when you run the court as hard as you can and there’s a turnover or something like that.�

Although Bynum was disappointed with his own game, coach Kurt Rambis was not pleased with his entire team’s play.

“He wasn’t the only one,� Rambis acknowledged, “We told all the guys in the locker room that they weren’t playing aggressive from the very start of the ball game and everyone looked tired. But that’s the nature of this Summer League. We’ve been hitting pretty hard in practice.

“We try to explain to them that in the NBA you’re playing a game on an average of every other night, so you’ve got to get used to being able to pound yourself that way. As a result, the fatigue factor hurt us because we had an awful lot of turnovers [and] mental mistakes in the ball game. But it’s what’s to be expected. Our guys did an awful lot of good things out there, even Andrew, so we’re pleased with what they did even though they were tired.

Nevertheless, the Lakers picked up the win in front of a surprisingly packed Monday morning Pyramid arena. Marcus Douthit would add a double-double performance, recording 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Lakers forward Caron Butler was on hand to watch his prospective teammates take the floor. I had a chance to interview Caron and you can read it here, only on ClubLakers.com.

The Team

Simply put, the Lakers delivered a lackluster performance. In a game plagued by fatigue, the Lakers’ heads were not in the game. Fortunately for them, they played decent defense and the Raptors played even sloppier.

The ball movement for the Laker offense was inconsistent yet again, leading to forced shots often. The team shot 43% on the night, but had to pick it up after shooting just 39% in the first half. Bynum revealed that Phil Jackson felt that the team’s passing needed some attention.

“He said that we got sloppy and we need to work on our passes in practice,� Bynum said, “Just go through the motions in practice because you can see it translates into the game. We just threw sloppy chest passes and there was a lot of that today.�

And those “sloppy chest passes� led to a great deal of turnovers for the Lakers.

Turning the ball over 24 times, the Lakers failed to efficiently execute their offense, losing focus at times and playing erratically. Once again, the Raptors would match them in terms of poor play in this category, committing 21 turnovers themselves. While some of that could be attributed to the Lakers’ defense, they did more or less an “above average� job for the most part of the game on that end.

However, the intensity picked up whenever Ronny Turiaf would enter the game, as players would provide extra defensive effort and force their opponent into shots of higher difficulty. Other than that, it was more of the Raptors’ poor execution than the Lakers’ aggressiveness that held them to just 72 points on 31% shooting.

While the above is not impressive, it is a positive sign that Turiaf’s presence rubs off on his teammates, at least on the defensive end.

The Lakers were not impressive on the glass, but out-rebounded the Raptors by four boards. Toronto truly missed Charlie Villanueva’s presence in this department and the Lakers took advantage of it despite what seemed to be a lack of rest.

As a whole, it was not the Lakers’ best game. However, it was only their third game of basketball and still relatively early in the League’s schedule.

Things can (or should) go only upward from this point out.

The Players

Starting Line-up

PG Will Conroy
SG Sasha Vujacic
SF Eric Sandrin
PF Marcus Douthit
C Trevor Harvey

Breakdown

Marcus Douthit
Douthit may have had somewhat of a “coming out� game, making a solid impact on both ends of the floor.

Finishing with a solid, all-around line of 16 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals, Douthit played under control on both ends of the floor and his contributions were valuable.

Marcus is arguably the next best rebounder to Turiaf on the Lakers’ SPL squad. He has a decent amount of strength to muscle around underneath the basket and usually one will find him in good position to rebound. His timing is on point and aggressiveness in his approach to the ball is rarely ever a problem.

Something that Douthit did not showcase in last year’s SPL was his ability to drive, pull up and hit the jumper. He performed this once during the game, and seemingly did not have a problem making his attempt. Yet what may be equally as impressive is how Douthit can penetrate to the basket. He is not the best in the area of penetration, but on occasion he is able to use his speed to slip by his defender when they least expect it.

At the same time, Douthit can be found lost on offense once in a while. Twice during the game Kurt Rambis had to yell at Marcus and re-direct him to shift to his position in a set play. Once again, the fact that the team is learning a new offense (and a complicated one as well) may have a profound effect on the fluidity of their game.

Andrew Bynum even expressed his personal struggles on this matter. “The triangle is pretty simple,� Bynum remrked. “It’s [difficult] when we get to running our special plays. I have trouble remembering exactly what [to do].�

Without a doubt, Douthit is experiencing some of this confusion as well.

As a shot blocker, Douthit possesses decent timing, showing the ability to read the defender’s pump fakes. Possibly an intangible that few will notice is his ability to foul hard. Douthit prevents three-point opportunities in most scenarios by giving firm (but clean) body contact and following it up with a swipe at the ball. All that said, Douthit still played smart, finished with 2 blocks and never was in true foul trouble.

Sasha Vujacic
While his shooting percentage still is not where he would like it to be, Sasha came out and had his best offensive performance thus far, scoring 19 points.

Vujacic went 6/14, but had an brighter 2nd half after shooting a dismal 1/6 to begin the game. While the Lakers’ lead was never in serious jeopardy, his late game shooting helped sustain the margin at a comfortable length that allowed the Lakers some breathing room.

Although his defense has somewhat improved, he still needs to focus on touching up his lateral quickness so he can defend speedier guards. Vujacic was not ever “blown by� during the game, but had difficulty staying close to his man, especially when moving from side to side.

I asked Sasha if he had made any adjustments in his shooting after his offensive rhythm that apparently had picked up a little steam. Sasha replied that he was not primarily concentrating on that.

“My job is not to score the points [or] to try to be a scorer on that team [during] the season,� Sasha replied. “We have guys that can score: Lamar, Caron and Kobe. So my job is to try to run the offense. . . to put everybody in the right spots. I always said that you can score always, as much as you can. But the points will come [with] the right way to play the triangle.�

Apparently Sasha’s main focus has been fixated around his defense.

“I gained 15 pounds [at] the end of the season,� he elaborated. “I worked really hard. I’m still working really hard. I’m still working on weights and all that stuff because I want to be ready when training camp comes. I’m not in great shape now, but nobody is, so I’ll be okay.�

Hopefully Sasha’s commitment will benefit his game throughout the seasons to come.

Andrew Bynum
The Lakers’ young big man had a decent game, picking up 12 points and 5 boards in 30 minutes.

Bynum would come off the bench against the Raptors, putting on an average performance.

As with most of his games, he continues to display the potential everyone is buzzing about, but he has a road of development ahead. Bynum only took 5 shot attempts, converting on two, and did most of his damage from the free-throw line.

Making 8/13 of his foul shots, it’s a good sign to see Bynum attracting that much attention that would send him to the line often. Additionally, it’s also a good sign to see Bynum have the ability to put himself in positions to draw fouls. Gradually Bynum has shown improvement in his free-throw percentage, but must get it up to a higher level if he hopes to be the dominant force that he may become one day.

He still makes the rookie mistakes, and he should be expected to.

On one possession, Bynum trapped himself by making too many pump-fakes and pass fakes. Eventually, he threw the ball away to a Raptor defender and he took it the other way.

Meanwhile, he still is quite versatile with his attack in other areas. Andrew showed a nice up & under move deep in the paint to get the basket via goaltending in the first half. He also has displayed flashes of a talent to make plays, dropping the ball off to Devon Green in a give & go situation for the basket.

As it has been the case thus far, rebounding has been a problem of Andrew’s. I asked him how much more difficult it is banging with NBA bodies after playing against high school competition. He knew that fatigue had affected his performance.

“It’s harder and harder as the game goes on,� Bynum answered. “Like I said, I got tired. So it’s really hard to bang when you’re tired. That’s where most of the energy gets expended.�

Based off of that quote, Bynum still has a bit of a way to go in terms of his conditioning.

The promising thing about him is that he is determined and he has the work ethic to get there.

Ronny Turiaf
Turiaf only played 13 minutes in this contest, limited by foul trouble throughout much of the game.

Sitting on the bench for most of the game, Turiaf was obviously frustrated afterward. Referring to his performance as “terrible� and “pathetic,� he openly admitted that he “sucked.�

He finished with just 6 points and 1 rebound. As mentioned before, Turiaf’s presence was crucial for the Lakers’ defensive intensity and he often was the life-source that they fed off of during his brief time in the game.

I asked Ronny how much the foul trouble had thrown off his game agianst Toronto.

“I wasn’t able to stay on the court like last night,� Turiaf expressed in disappointment. “So it was kind of hard because I was always just thinking about it. I’ve always been scared of that whistle, but [it] happened and that’s part of the game. I think I’ll be fine the rest of the day, it’s just a matter of getting through it.�

A wonderful thing to note is how great of a teammate Ronny Turiaf is. He consistently is the first man to get off of the bench and greet his teammates during timeouts. Whether it is to give them a towel or a high five, he is always there for them. In fact, when being subbed out of the game, Turiaf made a point of giving every one of the benched Lakers high fives.

His personality and attitude have had nothing but positive effects on team chemistry so far and he most likely will bounce back from a frustrating game against the Raptors.

Eric Sandrin
Whether it was nervousness or just an off-night, Eric Sandrin contributed nothing to the game.

Sandrin took three shots in the game. All of them were wide open. All of them were air balls.

In addition, he was completely lost in the offense for most of the contest. In one play, Sandrin was supposed to set a critical pick and was not remotely close to where he should have been. Rambis shouted over to him, “Set the pick on him Eric!� Finally, by the time Sandrin arrived, the shot clock had almost reached its breaking point and the Lakers had to force a shot on that possession.

His best moment was when he blocked a shot from behind on the break. However, Eric walked backwards and fell over a SPL girl sitting under the basket, spoiling his lone moment of glory.

I can’t see him bringing much to the team, but hopefully (for his sake) Sandrin can make an impact in the coming week.

Will Conroy
Conroy recorded 5 points and 4 assists in 22 minutes for the Lakers.

He had an average night, but displayed good court vision on the break. Conroy has decent timing in transition, knowing when to give it up, as he dropped the ball off for Turiaf to put in in on one play. Another instance of this was his display of awareness when he connected with center Trevor Harvey, sending him the package for a wide-open dunk in the paint.

His defense is above the rest of the competition, as he has consistently shown excellent footwork and has a tendency to force his opponent baseline.

Von Wafer
Von only received 11 minutes of action in this one. He missed his only shot attempt and was not able to get into a rhythm because of the little amount of playing time he received.

The remaining Lakers did not receive enough playing time and/or did not make a significant contribution to enable a valuable assessment of their play.

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