LAKERS -at- SUNS - 1-30-13 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

8 Straight Road Losses… The Lakers haven’t won a road game in 2013. It’s almost February. The season is on the line this road trip if they continue to come up empty. They gave one away to the Suns tonight, losing 92-86 in Steve Nash’s return.

Kind of frustrating watching the Suns run the same play over and over again with Beasley, coming off a high screen to his strong hand to pick on Pau, who was playing soft back in the lane. The Lakers didn’t make an adjustment. They didn’t trap, hedge or help turn Beasley into a passer. Instead, they just kept getting punched in the face and asking for more.

“At the end of the ball game, we let Beasley get to his strong hand, get all the way to the rim with no support. That’s not acceptable,” Kobe said.

While the Suns made their comeback, the Lakers had Metta chucking up miss after miss from the perimeter in the fourth. It felt like the coaches were deer in the headlights on both ends of court in this one. The Suns went on an 8-minute 21-4 run in the heart of the fourth quarter.

“We just didn’t score,” D’Antoni said. The Lakers had 13 points in the fourth.

The Lakers struggled early, turning the ball over 9 times in the first quarter, looking to make the home run pass instead of the easy one. Still, at halftime it was tied up. By the third quarter, they looked in somewhat control with a 13-point lead. They let the Suns chip away at the lead. They lost Dwight to another shoulder injury. They missed freethrows. They failed to adjust on either end. The result was inevitable as the coaches watched them repeatedly fail the same ways.

Painful. And down goes another Laker road game.


Kobe -- -- He missed a big layup on one of our final possessions of the game and the Lakers were done. He scores those in his sleep. Bummer, but we shouldn’t have needed do-or-die buckets in this one late in the game. Pretty big difference in this game versus that last in how the ball movement worked. We didn’t have quite that same flow and you saw less of those hockey assist plays. Guys, Kobe included, were trying to make that tougher past for the assist versus the easier one that would then lead to the assist. That’s why we saw much choppier offense, at times. The spacing and cutting wasn’t as strong, either. When the Suns made their comeback, the Lakers seemed to lose even more of that fluidity. “We were missing a lot of easy ones,” Kobe said and also mentioned the FT shooting. He said he’s still pleased with how the team is playing. “We’ll get our spacing down right and we’ll pick them apart the next game,” Kobe said. He added that this loss isn’t like the others earlier in the season (basically, he likes where they are headed right now). The Stats: He scored 17 points on 7-17 shooting (0-3 from three, 3-4 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 9 assists, 2 steals, 6 turnovers and no fouls in 39 minutes. He was a -8. The Action: He crossed over his man with the shotclock low and swished the baseline fallaway. He set up Dwight for FTs on the screen-roll. He hit Dwight popping free under the hoop for a dunk. He drew the D and hit Metta wide open for three. He was trapped in the corner and turned it over. He gave up a breakaway layup to hit Pau for the dunk. He missed a tough baseline jumper. He got it back and kicked to Clark for the three. He was off the mark trying to thread a pass to Pau, turnover. He hit a cutting Clark for FTs. He had 2 points and 4 assists in the quarter. He pushed the ball up to the post, backed his man down and scored the layup. He overpowered Shannon in the post and banked in the lefty one-hander. He missed a long three with the shotclock low. He lobbed to Dwight for the easy layup. He swished a tough turnaround fallaway with the shotclock low. He had 8 points on 4-6 shooting, 1 board and 5 assists with 3 turnovers. Second Half: He attacked and kicked to Metta for the open three. He threaded a pass to a rolling Pau for the And-1 layup. He split a double, drew more defenders and kicked to Metta for the wide open three (that forced a timeout). He drew the D and hit Pau for the jumper. He airballed a Dirk fade against the shotclock. He missed a wing jumper. He attacked, drew the D and set up Pau for FTs on a layup. He attacked in early offense and hit the running layup across the lane. He kicked a dribble, layup the other way. He posted up and missed the short one (he wanted the foul), but Dwight cleaned it up. He swiped a pass and pushed out the break. He hit Clark in transition for FTs. He iso’d and got shoved by Shannon on a move for FTs, he made one. He had 3 points and 4 assists in the third. He threw a pass behind Metta cutting, turnover. He drained a toe-on-the-three line wing jumper, left wide open. He missed a wing jumper on iso. He fumbled a ball between his legs, layup the other way. He tried to lean into a man and draw a foul, he missed (three in transition). He fumbled a ball away out of a timeout, uggh. He settled and missed a wing three out of a timeout. He iso’d, attacked and scored a layup with over a minute left. He drew FTs in transition with 1:07 left down 2, he made both clutch ones to tie it. He missed a lefty layup on a drive with just over 20 seconds left, huge miss. He missed a meaningless three on an inbounds.

Howard -- -- He’s going to need surgery and 6 months of recovery time to fix his shoulder. He’s just playing through it until it takes him out, like it did tonight during a critical juncture of the fourth. Not a great game. Maybe it was because the Lakers struggled to get him going in the first half or maybe it was the back to back. But he didn’t really bring the energy early in this game and the Lakers struggled. He played some very soft defense to close the first half. The last time out on the road, Dwight played horrible, so the concern is there. He was giving them some nice work on the offensive boards in that fourth, though. Of course, when he sits our D goes soft. “I’m going to try as much as a can, but I don’t want to cause more damage to my shoulder,” Dwight said. He mentioned he was very sore and had pain up and down his arm and his neck. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 4-9 shooting (1-2 from the line) to go with 14 boards (5 offensive), 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover and 4 fouls in 29 minutes. He was a +5. The Action: He was hacked on a screen-roll from Kobe, he made one FT. He popped free off some screens and Kobe found him for the dunk. He faced up and didn’t hit rim on the jumper. He erased a Beasley drive. He hit Pau cutting for the dunk. He gathered a lob and reversed with ease. Low position but he couldn’t hit the jumphook bank. He couldn’t secure a defensive board, score for Gortat. He had 5 points on 2-4 shooting and 8 boards. Gortat had 12 points. Second Half: He missed a point-blank putback. He sank a lefty jumphook in the paint. He pulled down a Kobe miss and scored the layup. He posted up and missed a reverse layup prayer. He was stripped on an offensive board and went down in pain.

Nash -- -- He made his return to his old team, standing ovation, high fives for his old teammates done and it was back to business. “I thought we got stangant. That caused turnovers and made shots more difficult,” Nash said of their offensive issues in the fourth. He struggled to find his shot early on and wasn’t as engaged offensively as you would have like to see in that fourth. Those midrange jumpers off the screens need to be a staple of the offense. We just did not integrate him very well at all unlike that last few games, and he seemed pretty disappointed by that. Shame we couldn’t look good for him on his old floor. “Tonight was a big setback for us,” he said. The Suns gave a nice video tribute of him. “Very flattering, very sweet of the organization. Very, very kind of them,” he said. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 3-8 shooting (1-4 from three, 4-4 from the line) to go wtih 4 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 33 minutes. He was a -8. The Action: He missed an open three on the first shot of the game. He attacked and drew FTs on a layup, he made both. He took the horns handoff and scored a layup. He tried to thread a pass to a cutter in traffic, turnover. He missed a three off the high screen. He drew FTs working around a screen, he made both. He had 6 points in the first quarter to lead all Lakers. He hit the side of the backboard on a three. He missed a wide open FT jumper, got to hit those. He didn’t score or get an assist in the second quarter. Second Half: He curled around a screen, kept going and scored the layup. He finally swished a three off a high screen. He inbounded to Metta under the hoop for a layup (his first assist of the game). He got tapped on a 20-footer behind a screen. He stripped Scola on a switch, huge stop.

Peace -- -- He was horrible in the fourth quarter. He was missing everything and kept firing, never mixed it up. Even though he was hitting some shots throughout the game, he’s still got to reel it in. Don’t always settle for the jumper, Metta --- attack, draw the D and dish to someone else. Or when they leave you, cut off ball under the hoop like Jamison does. Don’t just stand their firing and playing right into the opponent’s hands. Mix it up. He had no assists tonight, also. Frankly, I wouldn’t have minded seeing Jamison take his minutes with Clark at SF when it was obvious that Metta was stone cold in the fourth (while Jamison was drilling jumpers). At the very least, we could probably run our same schemes with better results. Defensively, I don’t think he covers Beasley well. Clark was a better match up. The Suns could go iso against Metta, but Clark they had to shed him with screens because iso wasn’t working. Too bad we just took it. The Stats: He had 15 points on 6-17 shooting (3-10 from three) to go with 5 boards, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 33 minutes. He was a -8. The Action: He bricked a wing three, fading to his right (layup in transition). He swiped a pass, pushed it out and scored a layup (he wanted a foul, too). Left open and Kobe hit him for the three. He pushed up the dribble, decided to attack and threw it away for a dunk the other way (give it to Nash to get us into our offense, sheesh). He missed a wide open three, got it back and missed a three again. He missed a baseline fallaway. He crashed the glass on the Blake brick and scored the layup. He got tapped on a wide open three to end the half. He had 7 points on 3-8 shooting (1-4 from three) and leading the team in shots again. Second Half: He sank an open wing three on a Kobe kickout to start the half. Kobe sucked the defense in and kicked to Metta for another wide open three. He missed the wide open corner three. He blocked Dudley to save a hoop. He scored a layup on the inbounds pass from Nash when Beasley fell asleep. He had 8 points in the third. Back in and he missed a jumper straight away, we got it back and he missed an awkward falling baseline jumper. He clanked another jumper. He missed an open three (Suns catching up on these). He missed another wide open three. He cut and couldn’t hold a pass from Pau, turnover. Wide open jumper for Beasley (Clark moved off him).

Clark -- -- He struggled with foul trouble, which is a shame because he was our best defender against Beasley. The Suns went to shedding Clark off high screens to pick on Pau with Beasley. On iso, Clark was holding him down. On those high screens, Clark needed to force Beasley more to go to his off hand. Still, he has got to get help in those situations and we never sent any. Never mixed it up. Offensively, not a lot of good looks tonight with all the turnovers and choppy offense. All his attempts came from three and some were tough looks. He also had FT misses that hurt. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 1-4 shooting from three (2-4 from the line) to go with 8 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and 4 fouls in 30 minutes. He was a -10. The Action: He tapped out a board, we got it back to him and he hit the wing three. He cut off the Kobe drive and was hit in the head on a layup attempt, he made one FT. Some nice D on several possessions against Beasley. He got tapped on a wing three. He was called for a charge on the break (man was never set, nor did Clark initiate that contact). He had 4 points and 6 boards. Second Half: He quickly picked up his fourth foul and had to sit for Pau after a minute. He was fouled on a layup on the break, he made one FT. He missed a sideline three. He missed a wing three with 5 seconds left, ball game.

Gasol -- -- “There was really no defensive presence in the paint,” Dwight said after the game about what happened when he left. (That sound is Pau getting hit by the wheels of that bus Dwight just tossed him under.) The Suns made the Lakers pay by attacking with Beasley off high screens that left Pau on his heels trying to defend him. We played it the same way every time and were just asking for trouble. Beasley wanted to shoot the ball every time he had it in his hands. He was in blackhole mode, make him a passer. One of this team’s biggest weaknesses is when they are back on their heels defensively instead of aggressively trapping or attacking certain hot hands. We don’t change up our looks and make them uncomfortable. The freethrow shooting is in Pau’s head. He missed more tonight and was talking to himself. Those combined misses are killer when we’re looking to push the game out of reach. The Stats: He scored 14 points on 6-13 shooting (2-5 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 4 turnovers and 4 fouls in 37 minutes. He was a -5. The Action: He dunked when Kobe waited for him on an uncontested breakaway. He airballed a pumping jumper in the lane. He couldn’t hold onto a bounce pass from Nash (looked like the Suns knocked it out of bounds, not Pau). He threw a kickout out of bounds. He missed a baseline jumper. He choked a 3-footer in the post. He missed a lefty hook in the post (looked undercut). He got low position and made the easy layup on the next possession. Too low on a lob to Dwight, turnover. He was called for a charge on a drive (that’s when you lob it to Dwight...one dribble, draw the man and stop for the lob). He dunked off the cut when Dwight hit him. He swatted Morris on a layup attempt. He had 6 points on 3-7 shooting and 4 boards. Second Half: He scored an And-1 layup off the screen roll, not close on the FT. He swished a 21-footer off the Kobe kickout. He missed an open FT jumper. Kobe set him up for FTs on a drive, he missed both again, arggh. He got a kind bounce on a sweeping hook across the lane. Weak challenge (bad angle) and he gave up an And-1 to Beasley. He scooped up a loose ball and bounced to Jamison in the interior for a layup. He missed an open 18-footer. He was fouled on a screen-roll, he made both FTs.

Jamison -- -- He was stroking the three ball tonight. It had to be frustrating to watch from the bench as Metta kept missing while he got subbed out with what looked like a hot hand. He was one of the lone players able to do something in that fourth quarter. He did have a couple of turnovers, but that was par for the course for the team. At least he was hitting, scoring with efficiency unlike MWP. “We got out of sync and they got into sync,” Jamison said. The Stats: He scored 13 points on 5-6 shooting (3-4 from three) to go with 4 assists and 2 turnovers in 12 minutes. He had a +/- of 0. The Action: He swished a wing three on his first attempt. He missed an open wing three in early offense. Nice close out on Scola on a rotation and he forced a travel. Second Half: He swished an open corner three. He sank a corner jumper from the other side next time down. He attacked into a crowd, no seam, turnover. He swished a three off the pick and pop with Blake. The slip screen pass looked that was supposed to go to Jamison out of a timeout, was deflected to Pau who then bounced it to Jamison under the hoop for a layup. Horrible telegraph pass, layup the other way.

Blake -- -- Again, he kept he second unit in the positive column on the +/- while he was out there. He and Jamison continue to look pretty good together. He briefly played some SG along side Nash at one point. I think you might see a little bit of that as D’Antoni experiments, but ultimately this would seemingly prove fruitless with Meeks a better option, especially on D. Coaches have to learn the hard way. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-4 shooting (0-2 from three) to go with 3 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 17 minutes. He was a +2. The Action: He threw a pass behind Kobe in the paint, turnover. He curled off the handoff, kept going and scored the layup. He hit Pau down low for the easy layup. He missed a short one in transition. Not close on a wing three. Second Half: He hit Jamison on the pick and pop for the three. He missed a wing three.

Meeks -- -- Not much action for Meeks. Again, might have been good to have a shooter out there when Metta was stone cold and they kept leaving him. Part of getting Meeks was with the thought that when Metta is not getting it done, you can slide Kobe to the SF defensively and get better shooting in there. Not tonight. Would have loved to see those help defenders come off Jodie instead of MWP. The Stats: He didn’t shoot or score and had 1 board in 9 minutes. He was a +2. The Action: Nothing to report. Second Half: He stripped a ball off his man to get a stop.

D’Antoni -- -- No defensive adjustments this game. It’s a two-way game and we just kept getting drilled the same way over and over to give this one up... He sat Clark for Pau down 2 midway through the quarter. The Lakers again getting burned in transition off long misses or turnovers... He sat Metta for Jamison and Howard for Clark with the score tied 18-18 and 3 minutes remaining... Down 2, he brought in Blake for Nash... The Lakers had 9 turnovers in the first quarter, chalking up several in the last minutes... The Lakers trailed 26-22 despite all of those turnovers... He started a Pau, Jamison, Clark Meeks, Blake unit... He sat Jamison for Howard... The Lakers led by 1 when Kobe and Nash returned... He sat Pau for Metta up by 1... Clark picked up his third foul and sat for Blake as Kobe slid to the SF and Metta to the PF... Some poor D to close the half, particularly in dealing with Gortat... The Lakers were tied 41-41. They shot 43% (16-37, 3-13 3PT, 6-8 FT) and had 9 assists with 12 turnovers. The Suns shot 39% (18-46, 1-5 3PT, 4-5 FT)... He had to sit Clark, who picked up his fourth foul just a minute into the half. Pau came in for him... The Lakers pushed out to a 5-point lead forcing a quick Sun timeout... They extended to an 11-point lead with Kobe leading the way dishing and scoring. That forced a timeout with 4 minutes left... They started to look tired and the 13-point lead was cut to 8, forcing a Laker timeout... He sat Dwight for Jamison, Metta for Clark and Nash for Blake... Lakers missing too many FTs and the Suns were picking on Pau off the high screens to shed Clark off of Beasley. Still, they kept the turnovers down to 2 in the quarter... The Lakers led 73-63 heading into the fourth... He started a Pau, Jamison, Clark, Meeks, Blake unit... Up 9, he brought back in Howard and Metta for Clark and Jamison... With the offense flat with that unit, the lead was cut to 7 before Nash and Kobe were brougth back in... He had to sit Dwight with shoulder issues up by 5. He brought in Clark for Dwight. Metta still shooting blanks all over the court... The score was tied up shortly later, forcing a Laker timeout with 3:37 left. A 17-4 Suns run... Down 4 with 18 seconds left, timeout... “We just didn’t play well,” D’Antoni said. Not a lot of insightful comments in the post game interview...

[mhan00]

Sigh.

[hoops19]

sigh too...
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"Champions keep playing until they get it right".

[Crazy Like Ron Artest]

Thx DB.

Didn't watch the game so can someone clue me in what happened in the 4th quarter.
From what I understand, Dwight was out of the game and our defense was non existant but what happened offensively? Why did Metta take so many shots? Was it D'Antoni ball again or what? Anyway, looks like a frustrating loss. Better I missed this one.
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Crazy yes......Nostrodamus no way because my predictions fail!!!!!

[TheBlackMamba]

The players can only do so much on their own - D'Antoni and the coaching staff need to step up their game now. If they can't make simple in-game adjustments against the Phoenix Suns, then what hope do they have against teams like the Spurs and Thunder in the playoffs?

[terp10]

[TheBlackMamba]

[George the Greek]

Blake got a block???
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[Cybhee]

this loss is killing me.

[PNG98]

[Crazy Like Ron Artest]

Seems to me that Pau really isn't an adequate substitute for Dwight as a center. On the defensive end that is. We are very vulnerable defensively without Dwight in there. Having Jordan Hill might've helped probably. Some teams like the Bulls are not so affected by injuries but in our case, this is probably like the 5th game we lost due to Dwight not playing what because of injuries, what because of ejections. The second he is gone, teams just exploit it and do whatever they want. That kind of a season, I guess.
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Crazy yes......Nostrodamus no way because my predictions fail!!!!!

[George the Greek]

DB, I'm surprised you didn't blame MDA for not subbing out Peace for Jamisone and generally allowing Peace in the game to keep firing 3's without consequences, while he was getting torched by Beasley.
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[A Mad Chinaman]

Suns did what they suppose to do, play to the end and continually run the same.play until the opposing team adjusts.

If World.Peace can't stop Beasly - who is not Lebron or Durant - it means that he now needs more help, especially in ISOs. One wonders why World Peace didn't make him drive tl his left or force him.out of his sweet spots.

Hopefully the Lakers will LEARN from this bitten lost that they had won.

Hope D12 is healthy.

Seems like the Lakers need to do more to get Pau into Black Swan mode so that he will cause some fear to be players driving to the paint. Maybe he needs to knock some.of these players with a hard but CLEAN foul saying that he will not take any s..t!

[limchrc]

Sad.. hope we bounce back to get the win.

[MickMgl]

[OregonLakerGuy]

Thanks DB. Was only able to watch pieces of the game. You filled in the blanks very nicely.

[Chronicle]

blake had a block?

[ForrestHump]

Dwight imo had a very good game until he got injured, was a monster on the boards and kept PHX from going inside, as soon as he went down PHX scored on every possession and we bricked on the other end..

why we lost - missed 3s, PHX left MWP open and he bricked like every single open three, can't blame Kobe for passing because an NBA player that's wide open should make that shot at least 8 times out of 10.
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[Laker7]

Just sad and disgusted watching us lose to such a crappy team.
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Darvin Ham is an idiot!

[angrypuppy]

Thanks DB.

I missed most of the game last night, I'm grateful that you recapped it.

I wish we had a real coach.


World Peace + D'Antoni's "system" = Disaster

[yinoma2001]

Went to bed when we were up by 10. Then woke up to find out we lost the game in the 4th. Sad summation of our year.
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From 2-10 to the Western Conference Finals

[ribeye]

[moonwalker8701]

DAntoni hasn't been shy about benching guys when they're cold and keeping the hot guys in the game. Why was Jamison on the bench last night??? He had it going. It should have been Kobe, Nash, Clark, Jamison, and Gasol.

[Dr. Laker]

[Dr. Laker]