Nuggets & Jazz Vs Lakers

Wounded Animals
In the third back to back set of the year, you got to see a microcosm of the best and worst this Laker team can offer. What makes it frustrating for the fans is that from game to game you rarely know which team is going to show up.
For instance, in that Denver game, one of the best of the year after the 1st quarter, you saw a Laker team lethargic, sleepy, passing incredibly soft, running no plays, watching the ball handler, rarely moving off the ball completely switch to a motivated awake and active group that ran away with the game in the later stages.
Among the highlights of the Nuggets win, the 45 point turnaround. It wasn’t just a turnaround b y the starters or by a star driven core of players. That flip-flop in the game was predominantly run by the bench unit and secondary players. It’s a rare thing when Phil plays complete bench units in the meat of a game. That entire 4th quarter wasn’t just run with bench guys, it was run without a scorer or a prime time type of player on the court at all. Most encouraging was that the Lakers not only preserved the lead in the 4th but they built on it and most admirably played with hustle until the final buzzer.
Flash forward to Utah where an again sleepy, listless, and above all sloppy Laker team came trudging onto the court. The big difference was obviously that the Lakers never dug themselves out of this hole.
Which brings me to the main point of both of these games.
It’s vitally important that the Laker team doesn’t get into the habit of coming into games soft. At the outset of this year the Lakers were coming into every game with strong, assertive play. That type of play both won them games and kept them in games when they were behind until the last couple of minutes. Now for some reason that theory of play has been abandoned. Chalk it up top another Laker mystery. It’s been a long time since a Laker team has thrown this many schizophrenic games together at such an early point in a season.
What the guys have to realize is that they are nowhere near good, experienced or complete enough to expect the type of Denver comeback every game. Even the best teams can’t turn it on and off at will. There’s no reason this team should EVER come into a game thinking it’s a n easy one. Whether the team is crippled by injury or running at full strength, the best lesson this young squad can take to bed at night is that every game, no matter who the opponent, deserves your full attention and energy – every, single game.
Against the Jazz the Lakers did a terrible job o f pulling Kirilenko off of the weak side of the ball. Most of that is due to Lamar’s soft defense. Lamar has got to learn how to put a player on their heels by making them play more active defense against him. If he plays assertive and aggressive on the offensive end his assignment won’t have the type of rhythm or energy they have now in their offense. Likewise, by pushing that ball right into them at every given chance, Lamar wears out defenses, opens up shots for others, takes pressure off of Kobe and best yet, contributes the stats to the game he need to contribute in order for the Lakers to be successful on any level.
In other words, yeah, a lot of the Laker game plan hinges on Lamar and right now, he’s not delivering in the slightest. This can’t continue, it simply can’t go on if Lamar is expecting to stay a Laker or the Lakers are expecting to jump up to the next level of NBA teams.
In the Denver contest the Lakers were making one cardinal mistake that haunted them straight into the Jazz game – sloppy passing. It’s not just a sloppy pass here and there, the Lakers are promoting the mistake by keeping planted when dribbles are picked up. Nobody is coming to help with the ball, so passing angles are flattening out instantly, and the Nuggets were jumping into every passing lane.
This kind of unforced error is absolutely deadly. Its one thing to get an occasional pass jumped on due to hustle, but it’s another to literally be throwing the ball to the other team. There’s yet another thing that cannot become a habit any more than it has.
The thing about the early deficit in the Nuggets game and the ongoing drubbing in the Jazz game was that the problems were self-inflicted. In an odd way, it’s a positive, a very odd way, that they can be corrected with smarter play by the Lakers.
In the Nuggets game, it was slow off ball movement and lazy passing (along with a penchant to watch transition offense from the wrong end). In the Jazz game it was unadjusted soft defense (and moreover help defense) in the middle. Sure the Jazz are a pound it inside kind of team, but there’s no reason to make the job even easier for them by 1) not helping on a beaten player and 2) straight up sidestepping drives with matador defense.
That smacks of communication problems. The blind steals in the first half of the Denver game and the entire game in Utah were victims of a Laker team that was not talking to each other whatsoever. This team doesn’t know the offense or defense well enough to let the court go silent at any point. In fact, when they get better, there should never be a point where the Lakers become mute.
This game is motion, determination, teamwork and communication at its heart. If any of those elements are missing things get awfully tough – and in a hurry.
Alright, enough preaching, now for some positives…
Kobe – He struck an incredibly perfect balance of offense, aggression, scoring and passing against the Nuggets. The leadership skills of Kobe really came to fore in that game and it served as a huge lynchpin to the Lakers running the game more as a team in last ¾ of the game.
Sasha – Well that was a game of a lifetime for Sasha and even for a long time detractor like myself, it was good to see. Sasha played an all around good game as well. What was most impressive was Sasha’s best Rip Hamilton impression. Motion off the ball was fantastic. It was so fantastic that it frustrated the Nuggets to the point of knocking Carmelo out and essentially sealing the game. I also liked seeing Sasha keep shooting. There was no break in confidence or persistence from Sasha on and off the ball and paid off huge for him.
Jordanr – He did a great job of pushing the ball up the court even into half court sets. Getting the ball up on the offensive end with that kind of aggression does a lot of good. Versus Utah Jordan was the sole bright spot. His confidence in his jumper continued and he played undaunted throughout the whole game. Again, defending the Utah point guard core after the Lakers let them get into such a rhythm is nearly impossible, but Jordan played with good energy and hustle as he has all year so far.
Andrew – What is most impressive about Andrew in both the Jazz and Nuggets game was Andrew’s positioning. He was getting early deep post position in the spots he needed to be in on set plays and didn’t give up ground. Once he got rooted into the paint it was pretty damn hard to nudge him out. The Jazz and Nuggets had trouble with it; the difference in the game s was the soft high post and middle defense in Utah that took Andrew out of position early and often. He keeps the ball high on traffic rebounds and puts the elbows out in light traffic, securing the ball and never turning it over after it was in his hands.
Derek – (In the Nuggets game) had yet another solid offensive performance. He’s been really sharp on shot selection and thus has shot an impressive percentage. Defensively, he was over-matched with Williams and his side to side dribbling speed. Allowing himself that extra step of space would have served him better, though keeping up with Williams was a long shot to begin with.
Luke – He did a real good job cleaning up his sloppy play in a hurry. What he had trouble with these last 2 games was the physical play of his assignment. It’s nothing Luke can instantly improve upon, it’s something he has to account for and ask for early help with.
Team wise, there weren’t a lot of positives in Utah. This was a horrible game by the Lakers. Again, in the last two games you got to see what makes the Lakers who they are – unpredictable, sometimes amazing and sometimes baffling – all leading to sometimes winning.
What can kill that frustration is a Laker team playing at 100% awareness, not matter who the team is. When you see a wounded animal of a team con your schedule, you can’t relax. When your opponent is weakened you go in for the kill even stronger. And when a team is at full strength, you go in for the kill again. There can never be a game or a quarter in a game where you take it easy – NEVER.
Alright, so the Lakers and the Magic come into Sunday’s game on a loss. The game will come down to which team decides to use that loss as inspiration – and which team plays with their head and heart the entire 48.

by Crucifido's Corner
ClubLakers.Com