LAKERS -at- PISTONS - 2/8 - Thoughts and :-(( ratings

 
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DancingBarry
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 10:52 pm    Post subject: LAKERS -at- PISTONS - 2/8 - Thoughts and :-(( ratings

Smoked... The Lakers were out-hustled, out-smarted and out-played by the Pistons for the second time this season. Detroit took advantage of their mismatches and executed on one end, then befuddled the Lakers defensively on the other. We didn't. Just a big difference between the two teams on the floor tonight.

Kobe had a miserable game, no matter how you slice it. He had more turnovers than the entire Piston lineup. Ouch. The Lakers gave up way too many second-chance opportunies and far too many turnovers for easy scores.

The 93-78 loss was as ugly as the score indicates. Really a dull game. Kobe's 18 points still led the team in scoring. Was the officiating off and one-sided at times? Sure...but we lost because we didn't play with intelligent effort.


Kobe -- -- Wow, lousy game from Kobe. He had 8 turnovers on the night, many of which led to easy scores on the other end. He scored 18 points on 5-13 shooting, had 5 boards, 5 assists and 2 steals. I'm sure he'd like to forget about this one. He's going to throttle it up in the next game, no doubt. He was picked by Billups twice for turnovers early on. He hit LO with a no-looker in transition for a dunk. Kobe tried to dive for a loose ball at midcourt and fouled Hamilton (great effort, though). He stole the ball, pushed up the break and hit Ronny with a behind-the-back pass for a dunk. He took his first shot of the quarter with 27 seconds left and swished a three. I'm not sure he even broke a sweat in that quarter. He missed a long three trying to beat the shotclock. He nailed his next three attempt from the wing. With the Lakers getting into the bonus in the second quarter, Kobe started attacking but couldn't buy a whistle on several attempts. He faced up and hit a wing jumper. He had a pass knocked away. He missed a running three heave at the halftime buzzer. He had 8 points on 3-8 shooting and 3 assists. He attacked, drew a foul and made both FTs. He got picked again by Billups. He attacked, lost the dribble and it resulted in a dunk the other way. He hit a pull-up jumper in the lane off a pass from Bynum. He pumpfaked Prince in the air for FTs, he made both. He lost the handle on the ball for his 6th turnover. He attacked the lane, drew FTs and made both. He was stripped for a layup the other way, his 7th turnover. He threw a pass late to Mo under the hoop and Mo fouled his man trying to stop a turnover. He attacked the lane, took contact with no call and banked. He was stripped by Hunter for his 8th turnover. He threw up a wild shot against the zone and missed. Next.

Lamar -- -- Lamar stayed fairly aggressive, but couldn't finish around the rim at times and was blanked from beyond the arc. The result was a poor shooting night, scoring just 12 points on 6-17 shooting (0-4 from three). He had 9 boards, 2 assists and 1 block in 41 minutes. He hit a pull-up jumper off a Bynum pinch post. He took a no-looker from Kobe in transition and finished strong after two long strides down the middle of the lane. He missed a step-back jumper. He hit Mo cutting down the lane for FTs. He iso'd against McDyess and scored a layup. He passed up a catch-and-shoot three, took a dribble and hit a jumper standing on the three line. He missed his next attempt from three. He had 8 points on 4-9 shooting and 7 boards at the half. He attacked off the dribble, drew the And-1 on Rasheed, but missed the FT. He barely grazed the rim on a three. He tried to attack Sheed on several straight possessions, but couldn't get a whistle or a layup to go. He finally drew a whistle for an And-1 under the hoop, he then missed the FT.

Bynum -- -- This is the type of game where you really wish Bynum had his power game developed to take advantage of a mismatch against Webber. Unfortunately, that's a year or two away. Kwame's power and speed give Webber much more trouble. Drew finished with 5 points on 2-6 shooting and just 5 boards in 29 minutes. He also had 3 assists and 1 blocked shot (should have been two). Vlad attacked the baseline and fed Bynum for a layup. Smush attacked the paint and kicked it to Bynum, he then took a dribble and scored at the front of the rim. He posted up Webber out of a timeout, made a nice move but missed the soft finish with his left. He posted up again and missed the long jumphook. He was fouled going up to finish, he made one FT. He hit Kobe for a pull-up jumper in the lane. Slow recovery on the pick and roll and he was called for a foul. Good position, but he went up soft and missed a hook with his left badly. Nice block on C-Webb from behind, packing him and stripping the ball away with one hand and the refs screwed him with a foul call, then gave him a tech for jumping up and down. Good position, soft move again, missing a short hook that he probably could have dunked. He needed to play more active against Webber, moving his feet more and he should have tried to power in a couple dunks.

Smush -- 8) -- Smush missed his first 5 shots of the game, then hit his next 4-5 he took to finish with 11 points in 25 minutes. He had 3 assists with 3 turnovers and 1 steal. He missed a point-blank layup and a jumper. He attacked and fed Bynum for a score. He missed a runner off the glass. He missed a three. Horrible backcourt pass that was picked off for a score. He hit a pull-up jumper from the elbow. He had 2 points on 1-6 shooting and 2 turnovers in the first half. He hit a wing three on his first attempt of the second half. He knocked down another three over the zone. He fought around a pick and drew an offensive foul with some good effort. He drew a foul on a three-pointer, but only made one of three FTs -- those would have been big as the game was in striking distance. He hit a pull-up elbow jumper.

Radmanovic -- -- He shaved off the caveman beard for the game. Despite the improvement, Vlad was useless in this one. They put him on Rasheed defensively to start the game. He got posted up. They put in him on Prince to start the second hald, he fell asleep. He scored just 2 points on 1-3 shooting and grabbed a couple boards in 20 minutes. He threw an interior feed away trying to get it to Bynum in the lane. He attacked the baseline and fed Bynum for a layup. He posted up Hamilton and hit a short turnaround jumper. He ballwatched and gave up a backdoor dunk to Prince to start the second half.

Turiaf -- -- One of the few bright spots on the night for the Lakers, Ronny had a double-double in 25:36 of action. He scored 13 points on 5-9 shooting, had 11 boards (6 on the offensive end) and 2 blocked shots. He was very active on both ends...almost looking like a Piston out there with his impact. He hit a baseline jumper. He dunked off a behind-the-back feed from Kobe on the break. He swatted Hamilton who had beaten his man with a cut. He airballed a face-up jumper. He got hacked after grabbing an offensive board, but got no call. He swished a long baseline jumper. He powered up an And-1 jumper over Sheed, he missed the FT. Kobe set him up with an interior feed for a layup. He drew FTs on a defensive board and also after pulling down a missed Evans FT. Some good D against Sheed on iso in several sequences.

Evans -- -- Would have been nice to see Mo go off against his old team. His statline is probably a hair deceptive. He played a little better than his 1-9 might indicate. He scored 7 points, grabbed 6 boards (4 offensive) and had 1 assist in 28 minutes. Some good activity at times, but we could have used his perimeter shot which wasn't dropping. He cut down the lane, took the feed from LO and drew a foul, he made both FTs. He threw the ball away while trapped in the corner. He scored an And-1 putback, crashing the glass with Ronny. He missed a couple of corner threes. He missed a turnaround, hustled after his miss and drew a foul for FTs, looked like he was in some pain hurting his left leg a little on that play. He drew FTs and made one.

Farmar -- -- Good game from Jordan, mixing it up like he had been earlier this year. Hopefully, he can string together a few more of these. He played solid on both ends and certainly wasn't a weak spot that the Pistons went after. He scored 10 points on 4-7 shooting (2-4 from three), grabbed 5 boards and dished 3 assists. He hit a wing three off the pinch post on his first touch. He missed a jumper against the shotclock. He cleaned up a Turiaf airball with a layup. He got some extended first half run after Smush had a slow start. Nice jump in the passing lane at midcourt to force a turnover. He worked the clock well (finally), pulling up and hitting a jumper at the third quarter buzzer. He hit a wing three from behind a Turiaf pinch post. Back-to-back good defensive stands against Billups, challenging once for a miss and getting a clear-out foul on the next. He missed a couple of pull-up threes, short.

Vujacic -- -- Whole lotta nothing from Sasha in 10 minutes. He didn't shoot, didn't get an assist, didn't score. Phil lectured him on how to play the off-the-ball cuts that Hamilton was working.

Cook -- -- He tried to sub in, but got sent back to the bench at the end of the third. He apparently hit Phil with his warmup shirt when he was taking it off, so Phil sat him. He had some words with the coaches and sat the rest of the game. Cook said after the game: "I told him I didn't mean to do it and he said that he wants to do what's best for me, and that's use me at the times he wants to use me. I've dealt with it all year, I've dealt with it for three years. It's nothing new to me and I look forward to dealing with it for three more years."

Phil -- -- So much for hitting Phil's goal of 6-2 on this trip. The Lakers dropped to 3-3 and need to bring their A game in the next one, instead of the F game they displayed tonight... Kobe started off in passive mode in the first quarter, before attacking in the second quarter. He never once had the Pistons on their heels... Phil went with a Bynum, Turiaf, Lamar, Kobe, Smush lineup late in the first for a short stretch, before sitting Bynum down. He put the Bynum/Turiaf duo out there for a short stint in the second half, too... The Lakers were getting killed on second chances. Anytime a ball was loose on either end, the Pistons were the ones coming down with it. They had 15 second-chance points at the half... The Lakers shots a horrible 38 percent on the night. They gave up 24 points off of 18 turnovers... With Kwame out another 4-6 weeks, the Lakers better hope that their other bigs remain healthy and that Bynum can take all these minutes... On Cook: "I gave him an exhortation, a 'hurry up' type of thing, and he dropped his warmup in my lap, and I just said 'Take him right back out of the game,' " Phil said. "We talked about it after the game. He apologized. That's not in character for Brian to do that, but he's frustrated. He hasn't been playing in the regular rotation. There's some things about that that's not unnatural."


Last edited by DancingBarry on Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:38 pm; edited 1 time in total
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vvbandit
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 11:07 pm    Post subject:

Cook doesnt realize he sucks, it seems Smush has a similar problem. Cook doesnt get consistent minutes b/c he cant rebound, defend, or pass on and NBA level.
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magic_bryant
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 11:26 pm    Post subject:

Cook wrote:
"I told him I didn't mean to do it and he said that he wants to do what's best for me, and that's use me at the times he wants to use me. I've dealt with it all year, I've dealt with it for three years. It's nothing new to me and I look forward to dealing with it for three more years."



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PostPosted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 12:19 am    Post subject:

What I noticed at one point was the Pistons simply hitting Lakers on the forearm and thus the causing the ball to go loose. I saw it 5-6 times in a short stretch in the 2nd half. It was simply being ignored. Billups, Hunter, Hamilton all did it. Not just to Kobe, but to others, like Evans.

Lakers were screwed against that zone because the poor spacing and ball movement led to poor quality shots, BUT the officiating in the 2nd half didn't help at all, that is for sure.
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:39 am    Post subject:

CorkyTomjanovich wrote:
What I noticed at one point was the Pistons simply hitting Lakers on the forearm and thus the causing the ball to go loose. I saw it 5-6 times in a short stretch in the 2nd half. It was simply being ignored. Billups, Hunter, Hamilton all did it. Not just to Kobe, but to others, like Evans.
Did anybody else see this? On the other hand, if Kobe is constantly driving into doulbe/triple-teams - it's hard for the refs to see the fouls. Of course, if this was DWade - he would have gotten fouled everytime he was driving into the paint.

Match-Up Zone
How should the Lakers attack the Piston's "match-up zone" that has given problems to DWade, Vince Carter and LeBron? Shouldn't the Triangle be able to effectively attack this "matched-up" zone?
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:55 am    Post subject:

They didn't show a replay of what happened with Cook, only saw him very angry after being pulled. So who knows. If it was an accidental nailing of Rambis with his shirt, then it's just a bad situation for everyone. If he did it purposefully then he needed to be reprimanded. I will say though that in the past, Cook hasn't really been a problem player.
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 7:10 am    Post subject:

I was at the game and it was ugly. Sure, Kobe flew into the post into the double and triple teams, but there were a lot of non-calls.

But I can't blame the refs for this. I was somewhat behind the basket, and the Lakers just kept losing the ball all the time. Kobe was not an exception. It was just a lazy, sloppy game.

Going in, I knew one thing was going to kill us: rebounds. The Lakers simply do not rebound well. Fortunately, on one play, the Pistons had three chances for a basket and came up empty, but it won't work that way all the time.

The thing I noticed too much of were too many Pistons alone under the basket for a wide open pass and uncontested dunk.

And I know Kobe wants calls, but too many times we see him arguing with refs, staring them down, and then no hustle down the court.

Finally, Smush rode the pine a lot in this one. A lot of minutes for Farmar. Was it because Phil wanted Jordan in there, or because he did not want Smush in the game?
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Mr. EiGhTy-OnE
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 7:39 am    Post subject:

Im tired of the refs calling horrible fouls on Bynum. 2 of his fouls tonight were clean blocks. Players shouldnt be pentalized because of their youth, if he were a veteran those fouls wouldnt even be called.


did anyone clearly here Lamar yelling at the refs? i think it was the 3rd qtr and the refs didnt give him the call at one end but let the pistons go to the line the next possession. "its the same thing!" and then he said something like I guess we are not in LA or we get those calls in LA.
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 7:50 am    Post subject:

Sorry for you having to write up this recap DB. This was a painful reality check for the Lakers.

Many members of the Lakers are not adjusting to the way the game is being called. The Pistons were the aggressors, so even when they hacked Kobe and the rest of the Lakers, they got away with it. Instead of recognizing that they would not get calls, they sulked - while Rip and Prince were filling the lanes for fast breaks and lob dunks. Pathetic.

One player that played his butt off was Turiaf. He needs to start, or get major PT.
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 8:16 am    Post subject:

One word: Yuck.
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 10:22 am    Post subject:

This team seems to have a habit of choking when they fall behind. Their free throw problem will never be fixed until they resist the natural tendency to put pressure on themselves(as in thinking that they need to make both) when they fall behind.
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 10:29 am    Post subject:

A Mad Chinaman wrote:
CorkyTomjanovich wrote:
What I noticed at one point was the Pistons simply hitting Lakers on the forearm and thus the causing the ball to go loose. I saw it 5-6 times in a short stretch in the 2nd half. It was simply being ignored. Billups, Hunter, Hamilton all did it. Not just to Kobe, but to others, like Evans.
Did anybody else see this? On the other hand, if Kobe is constantly driving into doulbe/triple-teams - it's hard for the refs to see the fouls. Of course, if this was DWade - he would have gotten fouled everytime he was driving into the paint.

Match-Up Zone
How should the Lakers attack the Piston's "match-up zone" that has given problems to DWade, Vince Carter and LeBron? Shouldn't the Triangle be able to effectively attack this "matched-up" zone?


The best way is to isolate Kobe at the top of the key. That was how Pat Riley countered the Pistons and Mavs zone last year.
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 11:20 am    Post subject:

DB, LO shot 6-17 not 6-12. 6-12 is pretty good percentage-wise. Sorry for the nit-picking
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:40 pm    Post subject:

^ I knew that. Dang. Sometimes I wonder how I do some of these typos because 6-17 was definitely in my head as I said "poor shooting night". Sigh.

(Thanks for looking out).
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:44 pm    Post subject:

A Mad Chinaman wrote:
Did anybody else see this? On the other hand, if Kobe is constantly driving into doulbe/triple-teams - it's hard for the refs to see the fouls. Of course, if this was DWade - he would have gotten fouled everytime he was driving into the paint.


Yes. This is why I hate watching Lakers/Pistons game. I don't understand why refs would call it so differently everytime it's like that. Trust me, even if the Lakers played the Kings or something... there's no way that would be a "steal" for the Kings or a turnover on Kobe. That'd be a foul big time.

And yeah, for D-Wade... the Pistons would all be fouling out like crazy.

I noticed something especially at the start of the 3rd quarter. Where Prince picked up the foul against Kobe sending him to the line for the 1st time that game. Don't you see something wrong? Of course Prince would be "shocked" it was a foul... you've been fouling Kobe all game idiot! The refs finally blew the whistle because they realized they didn't allow Kobe to shoot free throws yet and it was the 3rd quarter already.
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 5:23 pm    Post subject:

ProjectAB wrote:
A Mad Chinaman wrote:
CorkyTomjanovich wrote:
What I noticed at one point was the Pistons simply hitting Lakers on the forearm and thus the causing the ball to go loose. I saw it 5-6 times in a short stretch in the 2nd half. It was simply being ignored. Billups, Hunter, Hamilton all did it. Not just to Kobe, but to others, like Evans.
Did anybody else see this? On the other hand, if Kobe is constantly driving into doulbe/triple-teams - it's hard for the refs to see the fouls. Of course, if this was DWade - he would have gotten fouled everytime he was driving into the paint.

Match-Up Zone
How should the Lakers attack the Piston's "match-up zone" that has given problems to DWade, Vince Carter and LeBron? Shouldn't the Triangle be able to effectively attack this "matched-up" zone?
The best way is to isolate Kobe at the top of the key. That was how Pat Riley countered the Pistons and Mavs zone last year.
Pistons limited DWade the last time they played them this season.
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 12:27 pm    Post subject:

Detroit matches up very well with the Lakers and they play with great confidence (unfortunately) against the Purple and Gold.

Couple that with unbalanced officiating and the Lakers are in tough when they play Detroit. They are so Kobe dependent that when he gets taken away (which Detroit seems to be able to do) the Lakers have no answer.
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