LAKERS -at- SUNS - 3/12 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Dishing It Out... The road has been unkind to the Lakers lately -- a few close games, but four straight losses. With Dallas on a 13-game win streak and closing fast, the Lakers needed to respond.

They have faced a healthy dose of zone defenses, ball denial and overplaying of the passing lanes. All of this is designed to take the Lakers out of their initial offensive sequences and force them into their counters. The Lakers have to think the game. Unfortunately, they are struggling to exercise that muscle as a group on both ends.

The Suns brought more of the same, but it didn't seem to matter. The Lakers score an average of 102 points a game and hold teams to 96. What did they do? They won 102-96. Tonight, the Lakers shooters stepped up and the offense remained steady with all five starters in double figures. They didn't always run the offense the right way against the Suns (pound the ball inside consistently), but they were able to knock down shots.

Kobe zipped the ball around court at all angles to teammates. Although it wasn't always pretty, they hit consistently enough to cause problems.

"We made their defense pay for overreacting," Kobe said afterward.

The Lakers pulled out to a 15-point lead, but the Suns rallied back as the Lakers hoisted shots from the perimeter with too much frequency. Then things started to get chippy in the fourth quarter.

The Laker bigmen sent Lou Amundson to the floor twice and into the stands once. Alvin Gentry got tossed in response to a hard foul by Pau.

"I felt like a boxer out there," Amundson said. "Every time out, I had to have [Suns trainer Aaron] Nelson come over and patch me up." His face was puffy afterward.

Grant Hill went to the locker room for stitches off a Sasha Vujacic drive in the paint. It was a physical second half and the Lakers were dishing out the physical play.

Only a handful of teams have a better home record than the Suns, so this was a good test for the Lakers. They Suns average a league-high 109 points, the Lakers held them to 96.

"We went through a little malaise there, a little stretch where we weren't playing with a lot of energy," Kobe said. "Now it's time to turn it up."


Kobe -- -- Kobe nearly had a the rare quadruple-double tonight, if you count the turnovers. We'll get to those in a moment. A very well-rounded effort from Kobe. He mixed up the scoring and passing and depended on his shooters maybe to a fault at times. Although the Lakers struggled with the zone, they still kept scoring at a consistent rate. They made the defense pay for overplaying him, as Kobe mentioned. Kobe also set up his bigs nicely on a few screen-roll sequences. The result was a team-high 8 assists. Unfortunately, he had some very sloppy sequences -- passes that were way off the mark, unforced errors off the dribble. Some of these look like the ball is just getting away from him, which leads you to wonder what shape his finger is in or what type of finger support he's using night to night. It seems to vary. Defensively, it was vital for Kobe to get in on the boards. There were a few sequences where he ball watched and the team paid for it. With all of the help the bigs were giving, our smaller players needed to do some heavy lifting in help D and on the glass. So Kobe got in there for double digit boards. The Stats: He scored 21 points on 7-16 shooting (1-5 from three, 6-9 from the line) to go with 10 boards, 8 assists, 1 steal, 7 turnovers and 2 fouls in 42:20. He was a +15. The Action: He pumped JRich in the air and hit the And-1 baseline jumper to start the game, he made the FT. He set up Pau with a bounce pass off the screen roll for FTs. His pass was picked off, points the other way. He attacked the paint and drew FTs, he made one. He missed a wing jumper. He missed a baseline jumper. He picked up his second foul getting tangled up in transition and had to sit with 4:30 left in the first quarter. Bad pass to a cutting Powell, turnover. Another bad pass in transition, turnover on the next trip down. Not even close trying to hit Bynum, another turnover. He missed a three over the zone. Pau helped him on D, Kobe watched and Pau's man dunked when no one put a body on him. He sank an elbow jumper. He missed a two-for-one three. He got it back from Pau and drew FTs, he made both. He had 8 points on 2-6 shooting and 6 boards. Second Half: He hit Bynum with a high return pass for a dunk. He attacked to his left, twisted around a defender and banked the runner. He drained a three in early offense. He missed a three in early offense next time down, forced that one going for the kill up by 15. He was blocked on a dunk. He over-passed on a wide open 10-footer for a Artest three in transition, bad idea and Artest airballed for good measure. Soft pass to start the fourth, turnover. He scored a layup off the inbounds from Sasha. He flashed weak to strong and banked. He hit Shannon with a long bounce pass in transition for a dunk. He didn't go after a defensive board, expecting it to land in his hands and a Sun jumped in front of him to take it. He sank a turnaround in the paint. He lost the handle on a quick step, unforced turnover, arggh. He missed a long three. He ball-watched and Hill got an offensive board. He missed a bank while taking contact. He attacked down the lane and drew FTs with 16 seconds, he made one to give L.A. a 5-point lead. He was fouled on the rebound with 12 seconds left, he made just one again.

Gasol -- -- Pau and Drew combined for 33 points on 15-23 shooting. Feed the post, please. The Lakers had some good sequences of getting them the ball, but then would go on stretches where a post-entry pass was a forgotten skill for far too long. Some decent defensive minutes from Pau and he got in on a number of blocks. The bigs had to get up and down the floor quickly. There were a lot of help D sequences that allowed guys like Amundson to clean up. Eventually, the Laker bigmen seemed to get a little physical. Pau delivered another hard "Oakley" type foul in this game. This one ended up getting Gentry tossed as he went into a rage. Pau was fortunate not to get a flagrant since he got some above-the-neck contact. Earlier in the game, Pau had to deal with some foul trouble but played through it well. In fact, that hit on Amundson was his only foul after the two whistles he picked up early on. He got his money's worth. He didn't get his money's worth from the line, where he sank just 1-5. That'll kill you on the road. The Stats: He scored 15 points on 7-11 shooting (1-5 from the line) to go with 8 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, 4 blocks, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 37:20. He was a +14. The Action: He missed a lefty jumphook badly. He drew FTs on the screen-roll with Kobe, he missed both. He swatted Amare and it ignited a break. He backed down his man and scored easily over him. He was called for a clear-out foul out of the timeout, his second foul with 3 minutes lft in the first. He missed a baseline jumper. He scored an And-1 putback off Farmar's penetration, he missed the FT again. He was swatted on a layup. He sealed his man, took the corner entry and dunked. He was hit from behind on a layup and missed, thankfully, he got to the line...or maybe not, he missed the first FT and finally made his first FT in 5 attempts. He blocked Nash's shot. He tipped a Kobe miss to himself and reset the offense. Second Half: He missed a baseline jumper. He hit a jumphook on the right block. He blocked his man in the paint. Next time down, he swiped a Nash pass. With the clock low, he attacked left, stopped and swung the opposite way for a hook. Out of a timeout, he sealed his man and scored a layup. After dishing out a hard foul on one end, he swished a turnaround with the shotclock low on the other. Nice challenge on the JRich three in the final seconds to force the miss.

Bynum -- -- He's playing a more veteran-like, man's game right now. While the Lakers may be struggling to get to the top of their game, Bynum has been stringing together some of his better games of the season. Again, he put together another strong two-way game. He is way too big for anything the Suns have and imposed that size on the glass and in the post. He pulled down 5 offensive boards along with his efficient game in the paint. Defensively, he continues to show improvement. "I think we started playing a little bit better on the screen and roll defense," said Bynum. "In the third quarter we really pounded them on the inside and that's what got us back in the game." Drew got some long run in the fourth, even across Pau. Just goes to show that the two of them can play against an uptempo team and hold their own in crunch time. With a couple minutes left, Phil sat Bynum for Lamar and that didn't seem to go well. There was a point in the fourth where Drew pulled down a defensive board, then flung Amundson to the floor with a little bit of a 'tude. I like Angry Drew. The Stats: He scored 18 points on 8-12 shooting (2-4 from the line) to go with 9 boards (5 offensive), 2 steals, 1 block, 1 assist and 4 fouls in 34 minutes. He was a +6. The Action: He cleaned up an Artest miss easily. Low position and his jumphook was goaltended. He couldn't finish a lob pass wide open underneath the hoop. He filled the lane with Fish on the break and dunked. He tipped in an offensive board over Amare. He missed a wing jumper. He deflected a bounce pass to force a turnover. He swatted Lopez's turnaround. He missed a jumphook on iso. He grabbed a Kobe miss and drew FTs in the paint, he made one. He was swatted on a putback attempt. He hit a short jumper after wrestling for a pass. He had 11 points on 5-9 shooting and 5 boards. Second Half: He went up high for the Kobe pass, bounced back up high and threw down over defenders with both hands. He dunked off Fisher's drive and dish. He swished a jumphook over Lopez. After a long drought, finally a post feed and he drew FTs, he made made one. He tapped a Kobe miss to himself and it led to FTs for Shannon. He shed Amundson to the floor on a defensive rebound.

Artest -- -- Artest finally came out of his three-game offensive slump where he shot 4-24. Teams have been zoning, overplaying and we haven't made them pay the price. Tonight, he and DFish gave the Lakers a combined 6-14 shooting from three. Because those two don't finish well off cuts, they have to knock down some of those open looks. It is essential. Teams have to pay the price for overplaying defensively elsewhere or the Lakers need to sit one of DFish or Artest. Defensively, Ron did his thing. Grant Hill ended up with a -20 covered by a trio of Lakers. Ron doesn't have good speed in transition D, but the Lakers managed to handle that against a speedy Suns. There was a play in the final seconds when Ron tried to go for a steal in the backcourt, missed and Hill had him beat in transition, but Nash/Hill luckily couldn't connect. The Lakers were up by just 4 and that could have been a costly decision by Ron. The Stats: He scored 15 points on 6-13 shooting (3-8 from three) to go with 3 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 34 minutes. The Action: He missed a corner jumper. He posted up Lopez and scored with his left around him. He missed a wing jumper against the shotclock. He sank an open three over the zone. He sealed his man on the boards, took the missed three and scored a layup. He swished the corner three on the Kobe kickout in transition. He deflected an inbounds pass. He had 10 points in the half. Second Half: He swiped the ball from Amare, then missed a three in transition (this led to FTs on the other). He got tapped on an open wing three. He poked a ball loose from Hill. His pass to Kobe was telegraphed and swiped. He airballed a three in transition. He missed a three with the shotclock low. Back in and he swished an open three with 5 minutes left. He missed a sideline three on a Kobe kickout. He passed up on the three, worked the dribble until he sank a step-back wing jumper to just beat the clock.

Fisher -- -- As it was mentioned above with Ron, both he and Fish have got to hit their jumpers. It's mission critical. They can't cut well off the ball to finish in the paint, so the way they make teams pay is by hitting the open ones and spacing the floor. Both of them did that tonight and the Lakers got the win. They need to be careful about the early offense chucks, however. Defensively, Nash is a tough cover and there was a stretch in this game when he started to go after Fish for scores and helped regain momentum from the Lakers. The Laker help D wasn't very effective tonight. Phil mixed up the backup PG defense tonight with some Sasha and Shannon. The Stats: He scored 15 on 5-9 shooting (3-6 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 33:13. He was a +11. The Action: He sank a sideline jumper in early offense. He pushed out the break and hit Bynum for the dunk. He deflected a pass on one end, then missed a three on the other. He was crossed over badly and it led to a dunk. He gave up easy penetration without a screen and another layup. He sank a sideline three on the other end. Nice post entry to Pau from the corner (the only post feed Fish is an expert on) and Pau dunked. He missed an open three in transition. Horrible outlet and he gave the ball back with 2.3 seconds left. Second Half: Rare penetration from Fish and he set up Bynum for the dunk (ah, to have true point skills on this team). He sank a three left open against the zone. He then picked up his third foul of the quarter in less than 3 minutes. He missed a three in transition. Great help on the D boards to tip a ball away from a bigman. He went glass when Nash flew by with the shotclock low. He sank two techs. He rattled in a corner three. He missed an open three, long on the next trip down. He swiped a kickout on the final defensive stand.

Lamar -- -- If Lamar is on the top of his game, the Lakers usually are, too. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case lately. He seemed to be a mess on both ends again in this game. His timing and rotations were off defensively. We'd often send no one on help or two players. Lamar was usually in the mix of that and Phil had a few words for him. The Suns are a crafty team with the ball in Nash's hands, but we struggled even when it wasn't. Lamar had some foul issues that may have limited his time, but Phil went with a Pau/Bynum lineup in the fourth for a stretch because Lamar just wasn't getting it done as well. Offensively, Phil has put the ball in Lamar's hands late in the games to try to bring it up and get the offense in gear. The result has been no touches for Kobe at times and poor offensive sequences. Kobe was becoming an instant double late in the game. You need to run the ball through that. Kobe was dishing and setting teammates up. The Lakers just seem to get bogged down when teams play ball denial (whether to Kobe or in the post). The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-8 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 4 boards, 1 assist, 1 block, 2 turnovers and 4 fouls in 19 minutes. The Action: He grabbed a Pau missed jumper and powered it back in. He missed an open three. He swatted Amare's drive and it led to transition points. Second Half: Soft flip up at the front of the rim and he missed. He missed a layup on a drive. Next time down, he iso'd, attacked left and scored the layup. He was called for a charge on a drive baseline (man was still in the restricted area, it looked like). Early offense miss on the baseline, looked like he got hit. He was swatted on another drive, killing the Lakers on both ends in crunch time.

Brown -- -- Shannon led the bench in scoring, but didn't run the offense very well. The team got perimeter happy and didn't feed the post. Shannon had some easy post entry passes he could have made, but opted to chuck in a couple sequences. Not what you want to do against the Suns. Phil mentioned the Lakers perimeter-happy ball afterward as one of the team's problems. He did have a couple good plays getting into the paint to try to finish around the rim. The Lakers need that badly. Brief stint for Shannon defending the PG spot. More of that please. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 3-5 shooting (1-2 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 1 turnover and 3 fouls. The Action: He missed a top-of-the-key jumper. He got away with a travel and hit a floater in the lane. He drained a sideline three. Second Half: He charged on a floater in the lane. He ignored the post and missed a three. He dunked off the great bounce pass from Kobe in transition. He attacked the paint and drew FTs at the rim, he made both.

Farmar -- -- Half the team has hand issues, Farmar included. He played only briefly in this game and sat after tweaking his left hand. That left minutes for Sasha and Brown at backup PG. The Lakers definitely need defensive help in that rotation, so maybe some positives can come out of this while Farmar recovers. The Stats: He didn't score on 0-2 shooting in 2:54. He was a -1. The Action: He stripped a ball off Collins and tweaked his left hand. He got into the paint and missed, but Pau cleaned it up. He missed a three at the buzzer. Second Half: He did not play in the second half.

Morrison -- -- With Kobe picking up some early foul troubles around the time that he'd normally slide over to SF to back up Ron, Phil went with Stache for a brief stint. He missed his only shot and the Lakers were able to tread water during that stint. The Stats: He didn't score on 0-1 shooting in 2:54. He was a -1. The Action: He missed a three over the zone. Second Half: He did not play in the second half.

Vujacic -- -- Some scrappy minutes from Sasha with a few of the usual issues. Sasha got into the mix in the PG rotation. Phil ran Sasha with Shannon as Farmar sat to start the second quarter. He later had Sasha defending the point. Sasha sank his only three and had a couple of nice passes, including hitting Kobe for a score on inbounds. He was a bit foul prone, although a couple of calls were of the cheap variety. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-2 shooting (1-1 from three) to go with 2 assists, 1 turnover and 4 fouls in 12:15. He was a -4. The Action: Nice swing pass to Shannon for the sideline three. He missed a baseline jumper trying to beat the shotclock. He got it back by forcing Hill into a travel in the backcourt. He then drained a wing three out of the timeout. He followed that up with "The Sasha" by fouling his man 85 feet from the hoop. Second Half: He was called for a clear-out on a layup when he caught Hill with an elbow with his off hand. He was called for a foul on a strip on Amare on the other end. He hit Kobe on an inbounds pass under the hoop for a layup. He was crossed over and gave up penetration and FTs.

Powell -- -- The Lakers wound up in some serious foul trouble in the first quarter on multiple fronts. Phil turned to Powell to help fill the void in the first half. He played to his strengths and the team stayed afloat. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-2 shooting to go with 2 boards in 5:17. He was a -1. The Action: He flashed to the elbow, took the pass and hit the turnaround. He missed a wing jumper. Second Half: Nothing to report.

Mbenga -- -- He came in with 22 seconds left in the first half to save Pau foul issues. The Stats: No stats. The Action: Nothing to report. Second Half: He did not play in the second half.

Phil -- -- Phil had to go to Shannon when Kobe picked up his second foul after 7:30. The Lakers were tied 18-18 at the time. The Lakers quickly trailed by 6 points before Phil called a timeout (the Suns were in a zone defensively)... Phil had to go with Morrison for Artest with Kobe out... The Lakers trailed 31-24 after the first quarter... Phil started a Bynum, Powell, Kobe, Sasha, Shannon unit... It's amazing how bad the Lakers are playing the zone. Doesn't matter who is in or who is out of the game, the whole team doesn't seem to have a clue... The Pau, Lamar, Artest, Kobe, Fish unit finally got the Suns out of the zone and took a 7-point lead. A 19-6 run... Phil sat Lamar and Pau with 22 seconds left for Mbenga and Powell to prevent foul issues... The Lakers led 53-46 at the half. The Lakers shot 48.8 percent (21-43) and the Suns shot 38.6 percent (17-44). The Lakers were 6-12 from the line... The Lakers opened up a 12-point lead, forcing a Suns timeout... Phil called a timeout as the team was getting three happy up by double digits. He set up Pau for a post-up score... Nash started to go at Fish. Finally Phil subbed in Sasha for Fish to try to make a change defensively, but the lead was cut and momentum shifted. The Suns crawled back into the game... After pulling out to a 15-point lead, the Lakers led just 77-73 heading into the fourth. The Lakers didn't shoot a FT in the third. (Suns had 10 points from the line)... Phil started a Bynum, Lamar, Kobe, Sasha, Shannon unit... He went with the Bynum/Pau duo (rare we see that in the fourth)... Gentry picked up double techs with the Lakers up by 8 points when Pau dropped Amundson with a hard foul... Up by 7 with 2:40 left, Phil brought in LO for Bynum. The ball was put in Lamar's hands to set up the offense and bad things began to happen... Despite the Laker bigmen playing a little tougher down the stretch, Phil said, "I wasn't that pleased with our physicality out there."...

[City_Dawg]

Thanks DB.

It was comical watching the Suns D at times, the Lakers shooters were given sooo much space it seems.
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*sighs*

!...

[uberzev]

Second!

thanx DB!
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Lakers Gonna Lake

[lounger]

Thanks DB! So the Horsemen weren't here?

[DancingBarry]

^ I'm totally burnt. Very long week for me. (But at least we're done with our taxes.)

[night89]

Normally, I'd give Drew an A, but because of the expectations I have of him, I'll give him a C, one of the reasons is because he didn't defend Amare as well I expected. I thought he'd do a better job of impeding his drives, and picked up 3 fouls on him by the half at the other end(although this can be excused since Amare ended up guarding Gasol), but I guess he's still sticking to that "yoyo training"(which is still working as evident by his improvement on his S&R defense), and as a result, Amare looked like the most imposing big man out there.

To me, Drew has the ability to make things SO much easier for everyone, just with his strength alone. All of this he and Pau doesn't have enough spacing point would be moot because he has the strength to operate without spacing. He can literally "force it to work," against ANY team.

In addition, it's a lot easier to play defense, once he put the other team's best bigs in foul trouble. I mean, we can make quick work of the Nuggets(who is now down to one good big), just by him simply being strong enough to put Nene in foul trouble, before the quarter is over(not half because we want him to be able to do that against Shaq, at that point.)

Certainly, I think he'll need to be strong enough to put Okur in foul trouble, because watching them, they are a very very dangerous offensive team with him out there.

And I don't think he'd need to have any worries about the extra weight on his knees at this point(once again, just look at Shaq, and all of Yao's injuries can be said to be a result of trying too hard to block a shot, which caused him to land awkwardly), because if you were to look at Amare, the worst thing the extra weight can do is force him to have microfracture, but Amare seems to be doing just fine.

[night89]

[lounger]

[A Mad Chinaman]

DB - Glad that you are done with your taxes.

Appreciate your words "They have faced a healthy dose of zone defenses, ball denial and overplaying of the passing lanes. All of this is designed to take the Lakers out of their initial offensive sequences and force them into their counters. The Lakers have to think the game. Unfortunately, they are struggling to exercise that muscle as a group on both ends."

As Stu Lantz has often stated, zone defenses should be easy for teams to attack if the ball goes to the center of the court and with two 7 footers - one wonders why it is so hard. Is it that the bigs are not making themselves open or they are unable to make effective entry passes.

[Texas_Pete]

Thanks DB.

I'm watching the replay of the game via my trusty DVR. The Lakers should hire a rebounding coach. All they have to do is box out and they will kill teams. I mean, put back dunks, 2nd chance points (3's), and fast break points are what are keeping teams in games against us. And there is no way the Suns should outrebound this team.

[ishi331]

Just saw the highlights on BSPN, surprise surprise, they show the "flagrant" on Gasol and fail to mention the Sons foul-free 3rd quarter.

[limchrc]

good win

[Rick12322]

Thanks, DB. Another amazingly detailed write up.

When Phil said he wasn't happy with our physicality, I think that can be read a number of ways, but what I think he meant was weren't as tenacious as Amundson was and that's what he wants more of.

[Klone_dd]

Taxes? Thanks for reminding me.

The D clamped down to close the 2nd and 4th Qs, not so much in the 1st and 3rd. Seems to coincide with the 2nd unit.

Bynum looked very strong there. He's been running freely lately, like he's more confident with his knee or maybe he's in better shape. Great sequences with both Bynum and Pau taking turns at some paint domination. I thought the Lakers would gain total control, but they got perimeter happy.

[ssiknick833]

Thanks DB.





It was a good win overall. I liked how our offense looked (for the most part). Defense was great.
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[wolfpaclaker]

Great to see BOTH Pau and AB have good games at the same time. Coincidence that Kobe plays more facilitating role and takes 16 shots?

The key for them to succeed (the two bigs) is the starters playing with some sort of deliberation to get the ball inside.

But I do acknowledge they went inside more last night because of the Suns lack of size and post D. However IMO that is the case on most nights/games for the Lakers. They have that advantage virtually against 27/30 teams in the NBA.

[JTS1]

[Rick12322]

[JTS1]

[RVCdesigns]

Thanks DB as always.

[A Mad Chinaman]

If the "bigs" are not missing gimmes and free throws (hello Pau), would they be getting more opportunities?

Re: RonRon
He will get his shooting together since he produced last year with the Rockets

[THE_MACHINE]

Thanks DB i love reading these.....when do you have time to write all this?
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Where were the Sasha haters in 07?..........

"I was playing. I was playing," Vujacic said. "When you're sitting on the bench, you can't do those things."

[DancingBarry]

[DancingBarry]