BOBCATS -at- LAKERS - 1/26 - Thoughts and :-(( ratings

[DancingBarry]

A New LO... For the second time in the season, the Lakers lost to the Bobcats in overtime -- this one on their home floor, 106-97. They added an injury to insult when Luke went down in the game with a sprained ankle. We get Lamar Odom back in the lineup and lose Luke. Crazy.

The Lakers played Stupidball for most of the night. They didn't recognize situational advantages from start to finish on the offensive end. They allowed guys like Matt Carroll to D up Kobe Bryant as Kobe settled for jumpers or lost the handle in crowds...and then Carroll would haunt the Lakers on the offensive end, at his worst when he banked in a three in the middle of overtime that killed the team. Carroll, again, had a big game against us, scoring 24 points. Any reason we couldn't get the ball in the low post with either Luke or Kobe when Carroll was covering him?

We lost the points in the paint battle 58-34. That shows some of our defensive weaknesses in the game, but also a lot of settling by the Lakers from the perimeter. The Lakers had the Cats in the penalty early in quarters and didn't throttle them by manufacturing points from the line.

The Bobcats would take away one thing, giving us another, but we'd try to force the action where they wanted us to. Our triangle execution was poor once again, giving up 21 turnovers. It wasn't just one person, it was multiple players displaying some low hoop IQ at times. There are a lot of ways to get to the rim out of the offense or take advantage of mismatches -- unfortunately tonight we had to set up some of these basic sequences out of timeouts. "Subtlety is part of the game plan that you have to have against a team like this," Phil said.


Kobe -- -- Great shot to tie the game and send it to overtime. Sensational three. Clutch. Got to love it. Now that we got that over with, the rest of the game was very out of rhythm as Kobe and the team struggled mentally to take advantage of the Bobcats. Kobe had 9 turnovers, nearly half of the team's total amount. They let him work quite a bit out of the wing/post position where he can iso. It generally drew the double team, and he rarely attacked as soon as he got the ball to try to get into the lane before it came. When the doubles came, we didn't take advantage of it with any efficiency. With LO back, we didn't run the pick and pop with a shooter like we had been and we never once ran the Kobe-LO rub play. So, yes, there is some adjustment to be made as far as shifting gears with the change at PF. Kobe scored 32 points on 10-24 shooting, grabbed 6 boards and dished 5 assists in 50 minutes. The long minutes could have had some effect on Kobe missing a few jumpers late, but he did get his legs into that three nicely. Early on, he missed a fading pull-up jumper. He missed another jumper over Anderson. Finally, we decide to post up Anderson with Kobe on the wing and it resulted in two fouls, one for FTs (which Kobe made both) and Anderson got to sit. He worked out of the mid post and hit a short jumper off some nice footwork. He sank a two-for-one wing jumper. He swished a three from the wing when Smush stole the ball in the backcourt. He lost the dribble on the perimeter and it resulted in a layup on the other end. He missed a flat wing jumper and a three. He had 9 points and 3 turnovers at the half. He missed a jumper over Anderson. He lost the dribble again for another turnover. He scored a layup off a transition feed by Luke (should have been an And-1). He was fouled before the ball was inbounded and made one of two FTs. He hit Bynum with an interior bounce pass for FTs. He cut down the lane, Bynum found him with a no-looker and Kobe drew FTs, making both. He hit Bynum with a return feed out of a double for a dunk. He set up Lamar for FTs with dribble penetration. He hit a jumper at the top of the key off a screen by LO. He missed a jumper getting Wallace into the air (he should have drawn the contact as that would have been Wallace's fifth foul in the third). Great high bounce pass to Ronny running the floor for an And-1 dunk. He hit a stepback jumper on the baseline against the double. He stepped back on the wing from the other side and hit a jumper. He overpassed from the front of the rim instead of trying to finish. He attacked off the dribble and drew FTs, making both. He drew a foul on a jumper and made two FTs. He missed a jumper over Carroll. He hit a jumper over a double team in the corner. He got a defender in the air after attacking, took contact, missed and didn't get the whistle. With just over a minute left, trailing by a point, he attacked off the screen, lost the ball, got it back, went up to shoot again and lost it again screaming for the foul (looked like a clean strip). He missed a wing jumper out of a timeout. With 9.6 left, we brought the ball up from the backcourt out of a timeout, the Bobcats got confused on a double and left Kobe open and he tied the game with 1.6 left. Overtime: Pretty uneventful first couple minutes. Then, he tried to attack Carroll off the dribble down the middle of the lane and he loses the handle for a turnover. Trailing big, he chucked up a long turnaround three an airballed. He dunked against token pressure when the game was all but over.

Lamar -- -- It's good to have LO back. Obviously, he's going to take a few games to get back up to speed. Tonight, you could see some instances where the timing was off or where he wasn't sure how to attack within the confines of the triangle. He'll need to get his wind, too. He finished with 12 points on just 3-10 shooting (0-3 from three), 7 boards, 3 steals and 4 assists with 6 turnovers. Some of the turnovers were definitely from not playing since the middle of December. He threw a soft lag pass that was easily picked off. He charge in the lane trying to come to a stop. He missed a jumphook, but Drew cleaned it up. He missed a runner over Okafor. He missed a pull-up three. He attacked May off the dribble and drew FTs, making both. He hit a runner over May that could have been called a charge. He pulled up and hit a jumper over Morrison (probably should have attacked him off the dribble). He fell to the ground trying to post up Wallace, he then got back up and knocked Wallace down (both got Techs). He overpowered Wallace off the dribble, missed but Drew cleaned it up. He swiped the ball from May, took him off the dribble and dunked. He had 8 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists at the half. He took an offensive board, then bounced a pass behind his back to Bynum for a dunk. He attacked from the top of the key, drew FTs and made one. He Karl-Malowned Okafor with a knee to the groin as he went to finish strong and drew a foul for FTs, he made one FT. He hit Smush in transition for FTs. He hit Mo with an outlet in transition for a score. He missed a three late in the fourth. Out of a timeout, he attacked off a weakside handoff, took contact and drew the whistle, he made both FTs. He was called for a charge trying to shoot over Wallace in overtime. He screened Evans man out of a timeout and it led to a dunk. Okafor got away with a shove of Lamar in the back for a putback score in OT. After the game, LO said, "I don't think we have our identity yet. Until we start playing the same way all the time, we'll be up and down, up and down."

Walton -- -- He went up to challenge Morrison's shot and came down on the side of Andrew's foot and rolled his ankle badly. Unbelievable. Looked like a two-week job, called a moderate sprain. He had Carroll on him defensively early, yet we didn't go to the low post or give the ball to Luke when he was there. Carroll was scoring early on Luke, picking up where he left off against us. Luke clanked a wide open baseline jumper. He took a kickout from Kobe and drained a three from the left side. He hit Kobe in transition for a layup. Luke scored 3 points on 1-2 shooting and had 2 assists in his 18 minutes. We're going to miss his ability to read defenses and set up others, especially well trying to get Kobe and LO back into a rhythm. Hopefully, no one throws a zone at us, either...because our execution may go south quick.

Smush -- 8) -- Well, we didn't get as killed by the high pick and roll as in previous games. Sure, there were a few breakdowns, but I thought Smush did a pretty solid job of it in this game. On iso situations he seemed to have more trouble. Solid game from Smush as he led all Lakers with 4 steals to go along with 12 points on 5-12 shooting. He couldn't hit a three, going 0-3...and his freethrow shooting hurt us. He went just 2-5 from the line. Those kill you in a game that goes to OT (got to clean up that 66 percent shooting from the line). He attacked in transition, took contact on Okafur and banked in an And-1 before going down, he made the FT. He stole a pass, pushed it up and hit an elbow jumper. He stole a pass from Stash and took it in for an uncontested reverse dunk. He hit a floater in the lane. He swiped the ball in the backcourt and fed Kobe who hit a three. He had 9 points on 4-8 shooting at the half. He should have drawn a charge on midcourt when he was run down by Felton. He took the handoff from the low pinch post and spun in a layup. He deflected a pass, then got the ball back in transition and drew a foul at the rim, he made one FT. He couldn't finish an And-1 at the rim, then missed both FTs. He got swatted in transition on the next play. He gave up penetration to Felton for a couple of scores midway through the fourth. He missed an open three and a scoop on the baseline in overtime.

Bynum -- -- Bynum was 3 blocked shots shy of a triple-double with 11 points, 16 boards and 7 blocks -- career highs in blocks and boards. He did a great job playing with fouls, picking up his fourth in the third, but not getting any others for the remainder of the game. He also did an excellent job with his activity on the offensive boards again, this time pulling down 7. He still had his issues, of course, like screening his own man off trying to defend the pick and roll late in the game...not catch a couple passes he should have had...or just not being strong enough yet to dominate on the offensive end. But, overall, he played a quality game and did a nice job anchoring the D for the team. Most of his offensive touches seemed to come at the start of the game once again. He took a feed at the elbow, attacked off a couple of dribbles and banked from the right side. He had a couple of offensive boards that he couldn't finish on. Finally he put back in a miss by LO off the glass. He got called for offensive interference. He blocked Felton's drive attempt. He took a post feed, no one moved and the offense stalled, he tried to go to work and bricked. He couldn't catch a pass from Luke and we turned it over. He swatted Morrison in the lane. He cleaned up a miss by LO for an And-1, but he missed the FT. He had 6 points on 3-6 shooting at the half. He dunked when LO hit him with a behind-the-back bounce pass. He swatted Okafor from behind to save a hoop. He was fouled off an interior bounce pass from Kobe, he made one FT. He swatted Morrison again on a similar play as in the first half. He hit Kobe with a no-look pass from the post to draw FTs. He worked the give and go with Kobe and dunked, barely leaving the ground. He picked up his fourth foul trying to contest dribble penetration and had to sit with a couple minutes left in the third. Back in midway through the fourth, good contest on Wallace in the lane to help force a shotclock violation. He picked up a loose ball, went up soft and Okafor rejected him late in the game. On the other end, Bynum roofed Wallace under the hoop, then tapped it to a teammate to get the ball back. He grabbed a couple of offensive boards and reset the offense on the first overtime possession, but we couldn't score. After the game, Bynum talked about their need to get to loose balls better, which may have been referring to himself (as he often does) on a couple of plays where he was a step slow.

Turiaf -- -- With Luke going down, it sure would be nice to have Kwame so we could slide Ronny to PF and Lamar to SF for some stretches. Until then, Ronny will stay at back up C except for the occasional gamble here and there by Phil. Ronny scored 5 points in 13 minutes on 2-3 shooting and grabbed 3 boards while dishing 2 assists. He couldn't anchor the D as well as Andrew and the Bobcats took advantage when they had the chance. He faced up from the mid post and hit a wing jumper. He pulled down an offensive board and hit Mo for a reverse dunk. He challenged a shot on one end, busted down court on the other, took a bounce pass in transition in the lane and dunked while getting fouled, he made the FT. He deflected an interior feed for a steal at the buzzer of the third. Gone was the fluffy mop hair he was sporing in the last game.

Evans -- -- The Bobcats took a one-point lead with 3:12 seconds left in the game when Mo was called for a tech. Ouch. Got to keep your cool in crunch time. (Although that tech probably isn't called last year...but you've got to be mindful of the change in officiating. I'm sure Mo will.) All those little plays that you wish you could take back become magnified in a game that goes to overtime. Evans scored 11 points on a poor 4-13 shooting, he grabbed 7 boards and dished 2 assists in 33 minutes. Obviously, he's going to have to step up with Luke out. Hopefully, his triangle execution continues to improve. Tonight, Mo's perimeter game abandoned him and he didn't connect on a single jumper. He missed a jumper from the top of the key. He missed a jumper from the corner, Ronny got the miss back and hit Mo under the hoop for a reverse dunk. He drew a foul in the paint and made both FTs. He attacked off the dribble and kicked out to Sasha for a three. Nice hustle to save a loose ball on the sideline. He took an outlet from LO, attacked Morrison, spun and banked around him. He pushed out a rebound on the break, gave it up, got it back and dunked. He swatted Morrison against the glass and it resulted in a fastbreak score. He missed an open elbow jumper. He missed a couple of shots under the hoop late in the fourth, wanted the foul on the second one when he was hit by Morrison. On the other end, he then picked up the tech when he tossed his wristband to the bench. He got the Lakers first score of overtime after a couple minutes, when LO screened his man out of a timeout and Mo dunked in the lane. He missed a corner three on a kickout.

Farmar -- -- Jordan was the only Laker not to score in this one, going 0-1 in 9 minutes. He got caught in the air with the shotclock low and threw the ball away for a turnover. He gave up penetration to McInnis a couple of times too easily, so Phil sat him in the second half for Sasha. No impact in this game from Jordan. We will definitely need his playmaking to step up with Luke out.

Cook -- -- Cook played 12 minutes and scored 4 points on 2-5 shooting and grabbed 1 board. With LO back, Cook's minutes will be reduced. With Luke down, you might slide LO to SF some and that will open up more minutes for Cook. Luke's playmaking will be missed, and Cook allows the game to be played at a more simple level with some pick and pops. We'll have to see how Phil compensates. In this one, Cook posted up and hit a short turnaround over May. He drained a long wing jumper on his next attempt. He missed an overtime jumper when the game was already on ice. Defensively, he matched up some with Sean May and didn't get as overpowered as you might have thought would happen.

Vujacic -- -- Decent minutes again from Sasha. He scored 7 points in just 7 minutes on 2-2 shooting from the floor and the line. On his first attack off the dribble he drew a foul, on his next he lost the ball, then fouled. He swished a wing three off a kickout from Mo. Heady play by Sasha, taking the long outlet, giving a head-fake under the hoop to draw contact, then throwing it up behind him to draw FTs, he made both. He swished a meaningless overtime jumper at the end of the game.

Phil -- -- Phil can't buy a break when it comes to having a healthy starting lineup... The Lakers showed low Hoop IQ right from the first quarter not taking advantage of multiple mismatches. We don't go to Kobe in the low post against Anderson, Luke in the post against Carroll or Lamar in the post against Wallace. Instead, we shoot jumpers or go to Bynum in the post over Okafor. Of course when they move May on to Bynum, we don't go to that either... The Lakers got into the Bonus early in the second quarter and never took advantage, settling for perimeter jumpers... The Lakers turned the ball over 12 times in the first half... The Laker defense was soft, especially when Bynum wasn't in the game to protect the paint. The Bobcats shot 50 percent to the Lakers 49 percent. They outscored us in the paint 28-16 in the half... The coaches hit on all those things at halftime... The Lakers got the Bobcats in the penalty early in the fourth, then started to settle for jumpers again. Smart... Out of a timeout late in the fourth, Phil set up the ball to Lamar with some speed on a weakside attack and we drew FTs (this is there for them all game...Kobe, too). Our next timeout we settled for a jumper when it looked like our play may have been scrambled...With 9.6 seconds left, trailing by three, Kobe brought the ball up from the backcourt and swished an open wing three when the Bobcats got confused. Nice to see us work from the backcourt out of the timeout for once... Vlad Radmanovic, DNP...

[dino]

thanks for the recap db...

think this loss maybe further obviates the need to bring help in? this team doesn't look like it can go 7 games toe-to-toe with phoenix/dallas at this point...

and andrew's numbers were fantastic - regardless of age...

[NBAGirl04]

I don't post much but I want to say how much I enjoy your recaps of the games, win or lose (which I'm sure you've heard countless of times).

It was great to have Lamar back but it's so frustrating to have one of your starters back and to have another go down. It's like playing tag-team out there with the amount of injuries we had to endure as a team this year.

I hope the team will step up in Luke's absence as they did of LO's, but what I'm worried about is how much we're going to miss Luke's IQ of running the triangle and the ability to find the open man, especially with this 8 game road trip we got coming up.

[DancingBarry]

[DancingBarry]

[8750]

Thanks DB...
the more i see this team, the more i think that our biggest problem is not offensive or defensive, but mental... soft players, as i said many times... inconstant, up and down, very far from great character... at this point, when this team always shows the same mental liabilities, we need to question also
the legendary motivational skills of our coach...
sometimes it seems to me that this team resembles a college team... still learning, still thinking -too much thinking... but that's professional game... that's about building a team able to win here&now... especially because otherwise we are really wasting the best years of the best player in the game... i deeply appreciate phil (not loving him) and deeply appreciate the wonderful intricacies of the triple post offense... but sometimes i think that a system that let the players -especially these mentally weak players- play without thinking too much would be a much better choice...

[tw-lakbfan]

Disappointing is an understatement.

I really don't know what to think of this team or what the Lakers are made of.

I think a trade is neccessary. The team just has too many soft players.

[angel]

Thanks DB!

Losing to losing teams is getting old quickly. I'm glad LO is back in time to get rolling prior to Playoffs. Too bad about Luke, but it's supposed to be a moderate sprain as opposed to Kwame's severe sprain.
_________________
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that." ~~Martin Luther King Jr.~~

[Drifts]

what a let down, we took a long break so we could lose to tbe freaking Bobcats.


_________________
"Now, if life is coffee, then the jobs, money & position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold & contain life, but the quality of life doesn't change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."

[Drifts]

I was hoping we could celebrate LO's return with a bang... darn stupid loss.
_________________
"Now, if life is coffee, then the jobs, money & position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold & contain life, but the quality of life doesn't change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."

[kups]

[guillermo0130]

The first thing I do each morning after a Lakers game (even before The LA Times) is read the Dancing Barry recap.

Thank you!

[angrypuppy]

Thanks DB.

Ugly execution, the team looked confused running the offense in the fourth quarter and overtime. The Lakers had three points in the game in which they mentally crumbled: a) Once they had the 7 point lead, they stopped attacking; b) When Bynum sat and Turiaf subbed (disaster on both ends of the floor); c) OT when they couldn't buy a basket on the opening possession (almost like they decided that it wasn't their night).

Despite some nice talent, the Bobcats are absolute lightweights. And yet they were the ones scoring in the paint and not turning the ball over repeatedly.

I think this game showcases why the front-office feels they need Jason Kidd. Some gritty vet leadership would help keep this Laker team focused.

[Sage_10]

Thanks DB!

Sorry you had to write about this crappy game.
_________________
"You Must Be Willing To Give Up That Which Can Be Lost In Order To Gain That Which Cannot Be Lost." - FORTUNE COOKIE

[Mr. EiGhTy-OnE]

Im sick of Kobe's constant whining to the officials. A couple of those turnovers were clean steals. Just turn around and get back on defense.

Its gonna take a big win over the Spurs tomorrow for me to get over this disgusting loss. Even then I will still never understand how we lose 2 games to the Bobcats.
_________________
"When (Kobe) gets you on life support, he won't give you mouth to mouth. HE PULLS THE PLUG." -stu

[D Nice]

[wolfpaclaker]

The DNP for Vlad was much like the DNP's for Cook and Sasha early on in the season. A clear motivational tool to light a fire in Vlad and stop him from thinking no matter how stupid he plays out there he'll still get his minutes.

With Walton going out - it's no or never for Vladimir. He MUST step up and play like the player he is capable of if he wants to be a big part of the rotation in the playoffs.

[LakersSpirit]

At the risk of causing a big uproar: I really think we should decrease the time that Kobe has to bring the ball down the floor. We keep seeing Kobe exposing the ball, for turnovers, and we don't adjust. My feeling is that Kobe should be running the wing, and working himself open.

Overall, the Bobcats were able to apply too much pressure. Hate to say it, or even think it, but the Lakers just wilted under the pressure. I think this may be the key. We just wilt under increased pressure. Teams are learning, that if they apply just enough pressure, we fall apart. We lose confidence, in our teamplay, and we turn everything over to Kobe. When Kobe becomes the main guy, teams only have one person to stop.

Ironically: it may just be, that the stronger contenders are so confident, that they don't even think of applying increased pressure. The stronger teams are probably so confident, of their star players, that they just continue playing at the same pace. In effect, the stronger teams give the Lakers a chance to stay together, and make comebacks. [just my theory]
_________________
"Teamwork is a nebulous thing. It is as ephemeral as love, disappearing at the latest insult.".... Phil Jackson

[maddprophet]

i haven't been that angry with the fellas in a while. quite a disappointing game, i was so frustrated throughout.

my big issue is one you harped on db, we had anderson or carroll guarding kobe throughout, and carroll on luke as well, and we never found either of them in the post. if we see it so clearly, what the hells their problem in identifying these mismatches and exploiting them?

just shoot jumper after jumper. and continue to get pummled on the offensive glass. it seems like theres been alot of tip outs for extra possesions by whoever we play recently. gotta shore up the defensive glass, it's killing us.

but overall, just poor recognition of where we have decisive advantages to attack from. but i imagine we'll come out with a strong effort sunday on national tv and beat the spurs, further confounding the perplexing nature in which we piss games away like last night.

onward fellas, we'll continue to grow, but something has to be done about these letdowns. it's gonna cost us if we don't figure it out now.
_________________
Spark the ism, my expertism, is lyracism, my flow will take you over like I was hypnotism...so where's the lighter, to start the cypher....

[Klone_dd]

Welcome back, LO. I know you'll need some time to re-adjust, and apparently your teammates will need to re-adjust to you. Sloppy play, too many moments of indecision. Not enough good plays to balance out the bad ones.

Kobe - on the one hand, a clutch 3 pointer to send the game to OT. On the other hand, some absolutely awful passes and turnovers.

Bynum - on the one hand, 11/16/7 woweee! On the other hand, poor high p&r defense. He never seemed to be able to show and recover, and he didn't force the PG away from the basket, allowing Felton to easily turn the corner.

We can only imagine how good this team would be if we could consistently beat up on the lotter teams.

[Freakout]

I blame Phil as well. The Bobcats threw our a Emeka/May/Wallace lineup a few times and when those 3 were out there together they seemed to kill us on the boards. Phil made no adjustment.

[VEN_150]

[wolfpaclaker]

Kobe and Odom both are TO machines at times this season. Which is why I didn't think it was neccesary to excuse Lamar - he has had TO issues in the past too.

It's something that as a team we will just have to get past.

TO issues are primarily because of low percentages passes. The Lakers are one of the best passing teams but they also have some players that through low percentage passes far too often.

I really think Phil needs to slow things down. Not so much that I don't want to see Lamar push the ball after a defensive board (that is a big strength for this team) rather in the halfcourt set stop rushing. We rush waaay too much. We don't get the ball inside to Bynum, Odom or Kobe enough. The problem with Kobe in the post is that he takes too many shots against doubles and triples. I would like Bynum and Odom to be our two post players who we play off more often in the halfcourt set.

Not that I want them to start but that is where our O-only guys help most. Walton and Cook are very effecient offensive players and that's why we saw far less TO issues when they were starting.

[golakersgo121]

^^^

Wolf, I WOULD excuse Lamar in this game. His TOs yesterday are nothing but timing coming back. Yes, he did have his share of TOs before as well. None-the-less, he gets a pass this time.

Kobe does NOT. He was not ready for a fight at home with Bobcats. And, overall, the refs (see - this topic again) have done their fair share to help the home team. Nobody better than Kobe knows: if your team has gotten your share of "home team whistles" (which we have in this game) and the refs put the whistle down in the fourth for both teams - it ain't coming. They have officiated the game consistently in the fourth - no whistle for anybody. Man, you just have to know it by now...

[TheProdigy]

I thought we took too many out of rhythm shots in this one. When you're behind and feeling the pressure, your shot selection has to be flawless. A poster in the game thread criticized Farmar for passing up shots, but I thought he was the only one that understood this concept.

Also, why does Kobe panic so easily? Does he understand that with 5 sec on the clock, you can still take a couple of dribbles to get yourself closer? And since a 23-footer counts the same as a 30-footer, there's absolutely no reason to take the 30-foot one, unless you had absolutely no choice.

Finally, Phil's lack of attention to details to defense cost us again. When you have Ronny and Cook matching up against May and Voshkul, and May seems to be the only one that could create shots, the logical choice is to put Ronny on May.

The Bobcats were able to find mismatches and iso all night, which is amazing in itself, because it's rare that a team can do that for even three quarters, and here they did for most of the game.

We could have EASILY taken away all their options tonight. Philosophically, once you take away all of a team's isos, their last option is the pick-and-roll. Yet, I thought Bynum could have easily defended that by staying back in the paint(since Okafor doesn't have much range.)

Bad coaching, bad shot selection, IMO, did us in.