Lakers vs. Wizards (Game 74 3/30/08)

Getting Back On Track At Home

It’s been 3 straight home losses, something you don’t want to see any time, but at this time of the year it’s particularly tough to watch. Nonetheless, the Lakers got out on the court tonight against the Wizards looking to change things back to the wining way.

There was a much better start, simply for the fact that the Lakers set up the offense from the inside out in the 1st quarter. The first 3 possessions saw the Lakers pass it into the post, drive into the paint or work it from the outside to the high post for much more stable shot chances. The 3-point shot is fine (in moderation) when it comes off of working the ball in and out instead of solely around the perimeter.

To that end, Jordan played much better. He was getting the ball into the paint on jab dribbles and downright drives. Taking himself off of the 3-point line exclusively, Farmar made the Wizards run with him instead of being able to stand with him. When Farmar uses his speed like he did in this one, it makes the Lakers ability to move off the ball (and yea they can do this pretty dang well when they want to) get used to its full advantage.

That good start off the inside out game though dwindled into a long jumper game in the 3rd quarter, allowing the Wizards to eliminate what should’ve been a game winning lead (17) going into the 4th. Why the Lakers go away from what’s working sometimes is a mystery.

Quicker contribution from sources other than Kobe didn’t hurt either. Everyone was looking much more solid in their footing and their form on shots. It looked like after the absurdly unbalanced scoring of the Grizzlies game that maybe this team got a talking to about stepping up sooner rather than later.

The sequence of ball movement at the 7.30 mark of the 2nd (Kobe to Ronny to Luke to Sasha for 3) was beautiful. That kind of moving the ball around is what was sorely lacking in the last two games. The one-pass-then-shoot offense took a backseat for the majority of the game, which is always a good thing.

That was some periodic sloppy ball handling the low block tonight. Lamar was mostly guilty of it. When he got into the low post he was head down dribbling or taking his dribble way too high, both losing control easy and allowing for easy swipes at the ball. When Lamar stayed low with the ball and rose up with that towering left hand, he had great success against Haywood (as he should any day of the week). Lamar did a good job making a concerted effort to get himself established inside much earlier and much more than he has the last 2 games.

Lamar has mastered the solid hands-up defense. Its great to see him stand his ground, keeping on the balls of his feet and being able to pivot with his man or jump out on him for the distraction / block. He did real well against Jamison in the post tonight. Lamar gave no room for Jamison to get to his comfort zone.

Derek did O.K. tonight. It was nothing special but he did get the ball in the paint here and there along with hitting some pretty smooth shots throughout the game. The foot has got to be bothering him, but even having Derek and his composure on the floor hurt is a bonus.

Luke has done much better since pulling his offense out of the traffic-laden posts. Tonight he had some real good runs from the perimeter into the high post with a teardrop shot (as in the 2nd quarter) or with a pass to the outside. That kind of motion game with Luke will get him right back where he should be much quicker than the forced post game he was trying to throw down in spots this year. Defensively he did alright diving down after his man to help with the board or the pass off. He let his man get around him often, as Luke’s lateral speed is usually a bit slow, but he made up for it by coming down to the level of the ball to help out. His hustle on defense more than made up for his lack of agility.

The best element to Luke’s game was the return of some his strength coming from his legs. You could see from his shooting that his lift came back to him somewhat.

Before the rebound in overtime and far, far before this was by a long shot Luke’s best game of the season.

Porous defense by the Wizards tonight, but Kobe did great in recognizing it early and pushing it into them. There was no hesitancy in Kobe’s game. After the one-man show he had to put on last night, you could see Kobe stepping back both from a better contribution from the team and just in general.

Kobe had some serious trouble getting his floaters to fall tonight. Everything was coming off short-armed on his drives. The balance was better in his game tonight, but that was mostly from the rest of the team stepping up. Not much else to say besides Kobe showed great control in a game where he was getting murdered on the inside. I’m never one to blame refs, but some of the no-calls on Kobe were simply unbelievable.

Radmanovic’s shot as falling, mostly from the inside out work of everyone else. He got to his spots well, which is why he gets so many shots. However, again, he has got to get to the inside or at least take a step or two in off of a fake when he’s contested if nothing else to just mix up his game. It’s too easy to defend a player that is only doing one thing an entire game. Yes, I know he shot more consistently than he did in the last couple, but him, Fisher and Sasha have all got to be very aware of getting the ball away from the 3-point line too.

After Stephenson was hot in the 1st quarter, you could see that he could become a problem sitting at home. I know the players can tell he’s on fire, so you would think the Lakers would come out focused on him defensively. But, going into the 3rd, Stephenson was still on fire and getting increasingly less defense thrown his way. The Lakers have got to get out on shooters regardless of being hot or cold. They can’t continue to let streaky shooters stay in rhythm without trying to force a change in their game.

The Lakers shouldn’t have to put Kobe on him (or get burned for 20+) when all that was needed was a simple hand in his face more than once every other shot. The eternal lesson for the Lakers this year: make shooters slashers and vice versa.

Surprise, surprise, Mbenga was stupendous tonight. He bailed the Lakers out 3 times with some real nice soft shots off the glass and off of a gorgeous cut. He was responsible for getting the Lakers back up to speed in the 4th when they looked like they were lagging again. Whether he has the most talent in the world isn’t important really. The thing with DJ is that he gives 100% on the floor whenever he’s out there and you can’t dislike that.

Despite the refs holding Ronny back a bit by calling some curiously close fouls on blocks, he played with a bit more energy tonight. Like I said last time, the team still shows some signs of being a bit worn out, but in spurts the energy they had a while ago came out. Ronny was the catalyst for that energy yet again. His active defense was much needed on drives. The offense was in gear due to Ronny’s activity on cuts and dives. The big dunk in the 3rd quarter is a testament to the activity off the ball that Ronny had in this one.

Ronny’s persistency on the defensive end was impressive, as there was no shot around Ronny that didn’t get his full attention.

About this tipping the ball on boards. If you can’t get to it and you have to tip to gain control of the ball, that’s fine. However, there were a couple times in this game (and in others) that the ball can be gotten with 2 hands, yet the Lakers choose to tip it. If you can get it with 2 hands and get firm control of the ball, the tip shouldn’t happen.

So the 3 game home skid is over, the Lakers are ½ game up on the Suns for the Pacific title, Mihm is back, Bynum is to be on the road trip and Pau is coming along quickly. Things are looking up for the Lakers and it couldn’t come any sooner.