Forum Blue & Gold: There seems to be some consternation in Lakers land about the team giving up 100 points to a lot of teams. Even Mark Heisler got in on the act today.
This is what happens when you rely on points per game as your measure. Look at it this way: The Lakers average 95.2 possessions per game right now, fourth fastest pace in the league. If the Lakers play an averaged paced game against the worst offensive team in the NBA (right now the Clippers) and that team scored at its average, the Lakers would give up 95 points to the Clips and everyone would scream “how can you do that? terrible defense.” Every team in the NBA right now averages at least one point per possession, and the vast majority averaged well above that.
So, if you play at a fast pace, the other team scores more points because they get more shots. Pretty simple, really. And Phil Jackson gets it.
“This is the time of the season when you just fall in the rhythm of the games. Teams that are low possession, like a variety of teams we’ve played, you end up on a short end and scoring is low. We don’t try to be short possession, we try to have a high frequency, high possession game…
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Forum Blue & Gold: The NBA season is a long one, and every team has its ups and downs. In early December, the Lakers had one of their downs and much of the fanbase was freaking out., calling for trades and suggesting that there was just no way this team could win a title. Right now, the Celtics are in a down phase, and their fan base is freaking out, calling for personnel moves and suggesting that there was just no way this team could win a title.
To me, what has been different is how the coaches handled those streaks.
When the Lakers played like crap in December, Phil Jackson was coaching for April and May. He let them struggle, and while his placid style can drives fans nuts during a game against Sacramento, Phil knows it’s not about the Kings. A loss now can be a lesson learned as the team finds its own path. We all know from our lives, despite warnings from those in the know, sometimes we have to learn hard lessons for ourselves. And those are the lessons that stick. Phil puts out interesting lineups in the clutch in December seeing what worked and what didn’t. He tests players to help them and the team grow, and doing that means allowing them to fail. Coaches are competitive people, allowing a player and a team to fail is not in their nature, but Phil knows the long-term benefits outweigh the short-term gains.
There is no other coach in the league that has his eye on the big picture all season long like Phil, Greg Popovich could be the other. But those two guys have a lot of rings because they keep their eyes on the prize.
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Forum Blue & Gold -
Records: Lakers 26-5 (1st in the West) Trailblazers 20-13 (7th in the West)
Offensive ratings: Lakers 112.7 (3rd in league) Trailblazers 113.4 (2nd in league)
Defensive ratings: Lakers 102.5 (4th in league) Trailblazers 109.5 (23rd in league)
Projected Starting Lineups: Lakers: Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Luke Walton, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum
Trailblazers Rudy Fernandez,
Lakers notes: For fun today, from 82games.com, the win percentages of some common Lakers lineups (basically, how often they outplay the opposing fives on the floor):
Fisher-Bryant-Radmanovic-Gasol-Bynum: 47.1%
Fisher-Bryant-Walton-Gasol-Bynum: 46.1%
Farmar-Vujacic-Ariza-Odom-Bynum: 63.6%
Farmar-Vujacic-Ariza-Odom-Gasol: 52.9%
Fisher-Bryant-Ariza-Odom-Gasol: 70%
Bottom line, the starting fives the Lakers have are basically .500 against the opposing starters, but the key Lakers bench lineups win, and the closing group is very good. This points to a couple other things: How important that Laker depth is during the season and how much it matters who finishes games rather than who starts.
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Forum Bue & Gold: The recent post by Kurt that focused on Lamar Odom and the post by Reed on our team after 30 games got me thinking a lot about the make up of the team, our best lineups, and our roster in general. As Reed pointed out, we are a top 5 team in both Offensive and Defensive efficiency. Despite some inconsistent effort and some spotty and sloppy play, the Lakers have been a truly dominant team. And up to this point, in this forum, we’ve focussed a lot on our Strong Side Zone and how that change in philosophy (when executed properly) is a challenge for teams that face us, especially when they see the defense for the first time. However, one thing that we have not really discussed in depth is what we’re doing on offense, why it’s working, and who is doing what in making our offensive attack remain one of the best in the NBA. And in the last 10 games, we’ve seen a change in the lineup that I think has helped us execute on offense and will continue to help us execute on offense for the rest of the season.
For the last 10 games, Luke Walton has been put back into the starting lineup. And if we go back to the recent past, this is not a new concept. Two seasons ago, Luke was a mainstay at Small Forward. But for the first 20 games of this season, Luke had been relegated to mop up time in blowouts or spot duty due to foul trouble to our other SF’s. But now that he is back starting, we can once again appreciate the things that Bill’s son brings to the table and how that is helping this Laker’s team on offense.
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Forum Blue & Gold: The game against the Warriors was a pretty good example of the Lamar Odom conundrum. On one hand, in his 21 minutes Odom had just 6 points and 3 rebounds and was did not seem to stamp his imprint on the game. Then again, at the end of the day he was +22, the best on the Lakers. He leads the Lakers this season in +/-, good things happen when he is on the floor.
So, for fun I re-watched the game and just tracked Odom, watching him on both ends of the court. What I came away thinking is that the +/- numbers are no accident. Here are a few observations:
• He understands the offense very well and spaces out well, then comes crashing to the boards when needed.
He often is set up on the weak side of the triangle, and against the Warriors (as in many games) there was not a lot of ball movement to the weakside to take advantage of Odom and the spacing. (To be fair, against the Warriors that was in part because the Lakers got pretty much whatever shot they wanted on the strong side, that was not a defensive tour d’ force by Golden State.)
I think when the ball sticks, or when Kobe goes Kobe, Odom can be one of the guys who gets hurt the most in terms of touches. But sometimes he finds gaps.
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Forum Blue & Gold: I really don’t understand the idea of trading Chris Mihm for Tyronn Lue, the rumor that has gained enough momentum to be taken seriously. But then, any Laker trade rumor is harder to kill than Freddy Krueger.
The Lakers don’t save any money in this proposed deal — Lue actually makes more than Mihm. They trade big for small, and they do it for just a back-up guy to fill in for two months. Because if you’ve seen Lue play at all recently, you know he is no Jordan Farmar.
The Bucks gave Lue the old trade spotlight game Saturday, giving him key minutes against Detroit. What did he do with it: 0-7 from the floor, 0-5 from three, and made Allen Iverson look a decade younger on defense.
Did you watch Sasha Vujacic last night? He can play the point in the triangle. He had 17 points on 6 of 10 shooting, 4 of 7 from three, had a season best six assists to just two turnovers, and looked solid on defense.
Some Lakers fans have this odd, unnatural affection for Lue and think he’s a good defender. He is not. So far this season, opposing point guards are shooting over 60% (eFG%) against him, scoring 23 points per 48 minutes and have a PER of 22.7. That is the same as having a Tony Parker or Chauncey Billups playing against you every night.
And if you thought he played stellar defense against Iverson in the finals seven years ago, you must not remember The Answer stepping over him after hitting a key three late in game one. I remember that.
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Forum Blue & Gold -
Records: Lakers 21-4 (1st in the West) Magic 20-6 (3rd in the East)
Offensive ratings: Lakers 112.1 (3rd in league) Magic 107.3 (12th in league)
Defensive ratings: Lakers 101.8 (4th in league) Magic 101.3 (3rd in league)
Projected Starting Lineups: Lakers: Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Luke Walton, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum
Magic Jameer Nelson, Keith Bogans, Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu, Dwight Howard
Lakers notes: What was frustrating about last night’s loss is that the Lakers let the Heat set the terms for the game. Yes, the bad free throw shooting and the turnovers were hard to watch, but it was the flow of the game that bothered me most.
There were 90 possessions in the game, six fewer than the Lakers average a game.
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Forum Blue & Gold: First things first. We’ve checked, and what Radmanovic was wearing during last night’s game were not snowboarding goggles. So, we can all relax about that. And while the orange protective eyewear may not have been pretty, it could have been worse. (Thanks to Henry at TrueHoop for that link.)
As for last night… Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, and the Lakers apparently took that literally on the defensive end. Third game in four nights and all, they lacked focus. But I think there were three factors that played into the off defensive night.
One, Sacramento played three bigs – Brad Miller, Spencer Hawes and Jason Thompson – who can shoot from the outside. Because of that, Lakers bigs had to go out to the perimeter with them, and that took them out of good help positions. Stu Lantz talked about this during the broadcast, and he’s right. If the Suns want to send Shaq outside or the Celtics want to send Perkins to the three-point line, Bynum can let them go and stay in to help protect the paint. But with Hawes and Miller, you have to go with him. Now, this does not excuse the wretched pick-and-roll defense the Lakers played, but it is part of the reason nobody was in the paint to stop the penetration.
Second, as Darius pointed out in the comments, the Lakers played poor transition defense, and with all the turnovers there were a lot of transition opportunities for the Kings.
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Forum Blue & Gold -
Records: Lakers 10-1 Kings 5-9
Offensive ratings: Lakers 109.7 (3rd in league) Kings 107.2 (11th in league)
Defensive ratings: Lakers 95.6 (1st in NBA) Kings 113.4 (29th in league)
Projected Starting Lineups: Lakers: Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Vladimir Radmanovic, Pau Gasol, Andew Bynum
Kings Beno Udrih, John Salmons, Jason Thompson, Donte Green, Brad Miller
Lakers notes: No live blog here tonight, but this gives me the chance to point you to one of my favorite things this season – Mike Trudell’s in-game live blogs at Lakers.com. Trudell joined Ty and the gang over there this season and has been a fantastic addition. Great sense of humor, good game insights, just a generally good read, something all Lakers fans should be checking out.
After the last couple of games, what else can you really say but that the Lakers need to keep playing the way they have been. Keep focused on defense, keep getting good play from the two bigs coming into games they can dominate.
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Forum Blue & Gold: I just got done checking the NBA Rulebook, and it turns out the NBA does not award style points.
So, while we Lakers fans can nit-pick another win, remember that this team did what it needed to do – they stuck with the game plan and got the bigs involved early and often, they forced a turnover on 20% of the Bulls possessions and they held them to a 45.7% shooting (eFG%). The Bulls hung in early because Drew Gooden hit shots, and frankly if he’s the guy beating you then so be it, that’s what you want to force as a defense. But the Lakers did adjust and the Bulls couldn’t really counter that, and then the Lakers started to pull away (the first time). Plus, that Rose guy is pretty good. The game got a little sloppy at times and once again the Lakers seemed to try to avoid playing the triangle, but I think that was in part because of the pace (109 possessions, which is a little faster than the Showtime era tempo).
It’s a win. They don’t all have to be perfect and pretty, particularly in November.
- Apparently the tiff between Ariza and Sasha was because Ariza got mad at Sasha for not moving the ball in the offense. It’s a valid point, but if that’s Ariza’s beef he’s got a lot more people to be pissed at than just Sasha.
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