Archive for the ‘Lakeshow Spotlight’ Category
With the season winding down, I found myself pondering about the Lakers chances of a repeat. Critics and fans alike have noted the lack of blowouts, championship swagger, and professional execution. Even in our current winning “streak,” they’ve looked beatable against the likes of some of the worst teams in the league.
When people think of the most unstoppable Lakers machine ever, they often think of the 2000-2001 season, where the Shaq-and-Kobe Lakers repeated. The unstoppable force went 12-0 in the first three rounds before closing out Iverson’s Sixers in five games.
How do these Lakers stack up against these Lakers?
Consider…
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The Lakers continue to be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
After a day of rest at home, Denver, their only real competition for dominance in the West, comes into their house without the league’s leading scorer and just slaps the Lakers in the face like Shaq did to Ostertag.
The very next night, the Lakers go to Portland, where they haven’t won since Smush Parker was our starting point-guard, where even Phil Jackson assumes the Lakers will lose, without Kobe, and win.
A few days later, missing Kobe and Bynum, the Lakers handle the Spurs with Ginobli, Parker and Duncan all healthy.
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Imagine if the Lakers lost Kobe, Gasol and Bynum. What would their record be at this point in the season? Seeing as to how much trouble they have teams of the Sacramento Queen’s King’s caliber, I’d wager they’d be below .500 if their starting lineup was Fisher, Odom, Artest, Brown and Mbenga.
So how have the Rockets (20 – 15) performed at such a high level missing both of their superstars with no one filling the void?
The Rockets give the Lakers non-stop trouble every time they play despite missing Yao and McGrady, despite lacking anyone close to seven feet tall, despite lacking a go-to guy anywhere near Kobe’s skill level, and despite lacking anyone of Lamar’s versatility coming off the bench.
The Lakers are more talented and deeper at almost every position than the Rockets. Yet the Rockets manage to fight the Lakers to a virtual draw every game. But how?
The Rockets play textbook perfect basketball and squeeze the value and talent out of every player on the roster. The mercurial Lakers could learn much from the-little-red-team-that-could.
A few lessons the Lakers would do well to learn…
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Assuming the Lakers beat Minnesota on Friday, the Lakers will be 18-3 at the end of this first phase of their season.
Commentators have made a huge fuss of the Lakers’ long stretch of home games and how great that must be for the Lakers. The many haters will point to the long road trip ahead and smirk that the Lakers surely won’t be able to do nearly as well on the road as they have done on home. Both these points are overstated.
My friend Greg, a killer guard in his own right, made a good point about long stretches of home games — they’re much harder to sustain than people think. Sure, you get to sleep in your own bed and play in front of your crowd, but your focus is also more shot. You have a life, you’re going out, you’re spending time with your kids and family, running errands and alike. You’re not thinking only of basketball and the game at hand the way you do when you’re on the road. Perhaps that’s why despite the back-to-back, Miami came one “oh-my-god-I-can’t-believe-that-went-in” shot away from beating the Lakers.
Adding to that road-trip-focus is the veteran spirit of the team, starting with Phil Jackson on down.
They’re disciplined. They’re unfazed by lack of home court advantage. Even the younger players have a certain veteran strut about them.
I don’t think the boos and jeers of a hostile crowd will really bother Farmar or Brown. This is evidenced by the stellar road record they had last season: 29-12. That discipline and focus will feed right into their much improved defense this season, courtesy of Artest and Bynum. Defense that stifled the Jazz to zero points in the first 8 minutes of the fourth quarter and 6 the rest of the way.
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They were the best of teams. They were the worst of teams. Watching the Lakers play against Denver and Houston right after pounding the red-hot Suns was unbelievably frustrating, akin to watching a brand-new Ferrari drive down the street with two flat tires.
Against the Suns, we caught a glimpse of the well-oiled machine that the Lakers can be. They shot about 58% with 36 assists on 53 shots made while holding the Suns to 37% shooting.
But against Denver, it was a different Lakers. Slow rotations on defense. Stagnant offense, with the shot-clock always almost out before someone threw-up a poorly advised shot. A lot of one-on-one and no passing. The result? 35% shooting with 19 assists on 31 made shots. Denver torched us at 43% shooting with 28 assists on 37 shots made.
What accounts for such poor play? The “they were tired from playing the night before” excuse works once, but how do you explain the loss in Houston? This Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde temperament of this team cannot be explained away on injuries or altitude. The real culprit? Attitude.
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Watching Kwame Brown play for the Lakers is like watching a stunningly beautiful temptress of a flirt join a nunnery – it burns more because you know how amazing it could have been. 6’11’’, 270 pounds of pure muscle – the kind of body built for basketball. So much potential that when he floundered, it was basket-blue-balls.
What happened?
Plucking an impressionable kid out of high school and dropping him into the NBA is a very delicate matter. Think about how much change one goes through in those formative years between 18 – 22. The influences we have in those years leave their mark for a lifetime.
Kwame’s lifetime influence was Michael Jordan. By many accounts, rather than developing and nurturing that talent, Jordan broke him (after his Hall of Fame acceptance speech, it’s not too hard to imagine).
Which really begs the question: what if Kwame had been drafted by the Lakers instead? Would he have turned out differently?
Watching not only Bynum flourish, but also Farmar and others, it struck me that the Lakers have an uncanny ability to not only identify, nurture and develop talent in a player where others haven’t seen it or been able to develop it. This is evidenced not only by the lower draft picks that have turned into gems, but also by the Lakers ability to find talent where others have left it idle.
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With all this talk of Artest’s new-found attitude, maturity and self-control on the court, something very important has been lost: Laker fans secretly want Artest to lose it.
Yeah. I said it. Enough with the “will he behave” and “can Phil keep him in line?” talk.
We all want Artest to lose his mind and just go off on someone. If he ends up pushing or hitting someone and has to be suspended for a few games, even better.
Why?
Because after another incident, there will be a creeping fear in the back of every other player’s mind: Holy crap. If I piss this guy off, he may just hit me. And that fear, that hesitation, just that thought will give the Lakers, and Artest, a mental and emotional edge over whoever he’s guarding.
Would you want to guard him after he just went off on someone? After he hit someone? Would you want him guarding you? Exactly. Most players in the NBA are pretty soft and pampered and don’t want to get hurt.
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