LAKERS -at- SONICS - 4/6 - Thoughts and :-)) ratings

[DancingBarry]

Smells Like...Victory?... The Lakers played a lifeless second quarter to trail by eight at the half. Like the last game, they throttled up their intensity in the second half and bounced back. A huge third quarter by Kobe and great efforts again by Turiaf and Farmar and this time we closed out an opponent, beating the weakened Sonics 112-109.

The Lakers seem to have problems matching up with the Sonics. With Ray Allen out and Ridnour injured for the rest of the game early on, they still managed to have their hands full with Chris Wilcox, who went for 32 and 18 against our weakened front line. The post scoring was completely one sided in this game.

Kobe cranked it up for 46 points on 13-27 shooting and 6 assists with just 1 turnover. The bench had 33 points and were critical in the fourth.

[NOTE: DB was out late tonight and didn't take any notes on the game. Just whipped up a quick version for ya today.]


Kobe -- -- After the Lakers sputtered in the second quarter, Kobe put the team on his shoulders in the third with a 20-point quarter. He was relentless in his attack and shot 19-24 from the line in the game. A couple of the highlights: an attack to his left past three defenders and over another, banking with his right as he went to the ground for the And-1. He and LO teamed up for the sweetest looking play of the game, Kobe taking the high post pass and hitting Lamar in stride with a no-look, between-the-legs pass and LO finished a tough reverse before going to the floor. He also hit a clutch 20-footer with the score tied with a minute and a half left. Kobe had a little trouble with his FTs, missing one in crunch time and a few others during one stretch, but he connected on several more to keep the game on ice.

Lamar -- -- Efficient game from LO offensively, going 9-11 for 20 points, dishing out a team-high 7 assists, but only grabbing 4 boards. He had a couple of excellent baseline attacks when the D was concerned about where he might pass the ball. His length is our best match up with Rashard Lewis and LO spent some key minutes on him...Lewis went 4-14 (1-8 from three) for just 9 points.

Luke -- -- Seattle always seems like a tough match up for Luke because of Rashard at the SF. Phil had Luke covering the PF off and on. He came up with a key late-game stop on Collison. Luke sank a couple of key FTs to keep the Sonics at bay in the last minute and he hit a big bustout reverse layup off an outlet from Farmar. Luke had 10 points on 3-8 shooting, 4 boards and 3 assists.

Smush -- -- Next.

Bynum -- -- He played 12 minutes and had 4 fouls with just 2 boards. He only shot the ball once and missed. We went to Ronny in crunch time.

Evans -- 8) -- Nice job by Warm Mo. He wasn't lighting it up or stone cold in this one. He played some important fourth-quarter minutes, hitting a big corner three and playing with his usual energy.

Turiaf -- -- He was critical again to our success, anchoring the D in the fourth and coming up with 6 points in that quarter. He hit a couple jumpers in the game and had some fourth-quarter dunks. He took a flying elbow to the chops by Watson and was called for the foul. He finished with 10 points on 5-6 shooting in 25:36, grabbed 4 boards and blocked 4 shots before fouling out. He had an impressive swat on Wilkens who attacked him off the dribble, Ronny showing that great lateral speed and rejected him at the rim.

Cook -- -- Not a bad job from Cook. A little slow at first, but he hit some shots when we needed them. He scored 11 points off the bench on 4-10 shooting in 22 minutes. He went 0-1 from the line, missing a tech FT when Kobe was on the bench. He also grabbed 6 boards in that time. He played a key stint to start the fourth with Kobe on the bench and came up with a couple of big threes. That offense is critical and allowed Kobe to get some rest to close out the game strong.

Shammond -- -- Yawn. He got a kind bounce to get his one jumper to fall. He got swatted, forcing up another and went 1-3 in 8 minutes.

Farmar -- -- Big minutes from Jordan. He brought the energy and effort off the bench again. He immediately sank a three in the corner for his one make. He set Ronny up for a dunk with penetration. He threw a long outlet to Luke late in the fourth, over the D and right on the money for a breakaway score. He came up with a big stop with just over a minute left, helping out in the post to strip the ball and come up with it.

Phil -- -- No Sasha. No Smush in the fourth. We saw some rare Kobe/Mo backcourt late in the game. Smush got to watch that from the bench. Phil then went back to Farmar... I don't envy his position having to deal with no Kwame and Mihm. Hard to survive with a Bynum/Turiaf/Cook center trio, especially when guys get into foul trouble... The Lakers got killed on the boards, 50-31, giving up 15 offensive boards... The Lakers did a good job with the turnovers, holding theirs to just 12 while the Sonics had 21 turnovers... After trading jabs with Phil, Smush reeled his comments in after a game in which he went 1-5 for 3 points and 5 turnovers. "Jordan did a great job off the bench," Parker said. "Coach played him because he deserved to be out there. Jordan just did a better job, gave us a lift and we won."...

[dcarter4kobe]

Smush said that what happend to his ego
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"He's a Zen master, so he can speak to you, and he doesn't need a microphone; you can hear him in your head, 'Ron, don't shoot, don't shoot.' Whatever, pow, three. I love the Zen, though."

[uberzev]

Great job DB

Here's the tonight's gameflow...

http://popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/gameflow.cgi?date=20070406&game=LALSEA

+9 Farmar
+16 Turiaf


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Lakers Gonna Lake

[Sage_10]

Thanks DB good stuff!
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"You Must Be Willing To Give Up That Which Can Be Lost In Order To Gain That Which Cannot Be Lost." - FORTUNE COOKIE

[golakersgo121]

DB, no game notes, but great 'feel' of the game in your 'quick version'.

I can't compliment you enough for this job you do after every game

Just one request for everybody, if I may: I have been hard on Smush for a long time. At this time though - enough already with this 'bash Smush' threads. We are heading into playoffs, still with depleted roster.

Last I checked, Smush is still on the Lakers roster (as of this morning). As well as Farmar played defensively, he is no match for bigger PGs. We still might have to use Smush and, most likely, will for different matchups. Enough of this name calling - you can do it all in the off-season.

[Klone_dd]

[Mr. EiGhTy-OnE]

Smush- how and the hell can you get called for traveling when your man is at the other end, on the ground, screaming in pain?
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"When (Kobe) gets you on life support, he won't give you mouth to mouth. HE PULLS THE PLUG." -stu

[Texas_Pete]

Thanks for the recap DB. I am not sure this Laker squad deserves your efforts.

One question: Did LO shut down Shard? I see he shot horribly from the field! If so, THAT is a Pippen-type effort in a time that we sorely needed it.

[ProjectAB]

Bynum's eyes are filled with resignation at this point. That is not, not good. If there's one thing I'd tell him, it's that this is not an overnight process. He's still young, there's no reason to give up so early. Keep building up his body and things WILL change.

[NBAFan07]

[BigE32]

Thanks as always, DB. I hope you and your son had fun at the Angels game. I thought Farmar came in off the bench and provided a spark again for our team. I loved his strip of Lewis late in the fourth. I loved LO's aggressiveness at the beginning of the game. You just gotta love Turiaf's energy and hustle on a nightly basis. Bynum will get better. He didn't do anything last night, but there are going to be peaks and valleys with him. He's only 19. He will improve over time. I'm just glad that we got a W in Seattle because we've had problems up there in the past.

[Klone_dd]

[24KaratGold]

That group that we played to start the 4th won us the game. If they give up 5 points, come has to come in early, not rested, and the Lakers are down by 8. Instead, they put us up by 1, and Kobe got to sit out the first 5 minutes of the 4th. It reminded me of our 1st game at Minny but to a smaller scale, when the bench was so huge, that Kobe didn't even have to come back in our game.

BTW, how deep was that last three that Wilkins hit. That was like Kobe range. Must've been at least 30 feet out.
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Double rings > Double rainbow

[DancingBarry]

[DancingBarry]

[ProjectAB]

DB, does it look like Bynum has lost a lot of muscle mass to you? I don't think I've ever seen a player took such a nosedive in such a short amount of time, and this is the only reason I can think of.

I was surprised that Phil started him in the 2nd half yesterday, because I thought he was a big liability out there. He just can't seem to do ANYTHING right now.

I think Bynum needs to do nothing but eat a ton of protein and work out this summer. His diet may be keeping him durable right now, but I don't think it helps him as far as building up muscles.

The good news is that if he can somehow add that muscle AND maintain it, he will be able to improve his defense greatly. All one has to do is look at Odom. There's no way he would be able to play this kind of D on Brand a couple of years ago.

[LakersSpirit]

[LakersSpirit]