SPURS -at- LAKERS - 5/21 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Win No. 9 - The Bermuda Triangle... Like a kitten toying with a mouse, Kobe watched most of the first half never going for the kill. In the second half, the panther struck. As soon as he throttled up his game, the Lakers pounced on the Spurs to erase a 20-point deficit.

Phil suggested Kobe was running The Bermuda Triangle. His lack of aggression, hurting the Lakers badly in that first half.

"Sometimes the Bermuda can be a little entertaining," Kobe responded with a smile afterward.

The Lakers took their first lead of the game with 2:42 left and held off the Spurs to win 89-85.

Who was that No. 24?

That was Passive Kobe.

I hate losing by playing stupid. Getting out-played is one thing, not playing to your strengths or playing smart is another. And Passive Kobe didn't get us here. Aggressive Kobe did.

That doesn't mean you have to take shots -- it means you collapse the D off the dribble, in the post or with aggressive cuts. Whether you shoot out of that or pass, it doesn't matter. But your teammates have been living off you doing those things all season. Don't suddenly stop to make swing passes or let others see what they can do.

So, early in the third, we had Phil benching both Lamar and DFish...two guys who have made a living off Pau and Kobe being aggressive. With the absence of our one-two punch, it's no wonder we couldn't get them going. At the same time, Phil ran a play for Kobe out of a timeout, trying to get him aggressive. Kobe turned it on, went into a frenzy and the Lakers went on a 14-0 run.

We finally took our first lead late in the game. But the key makes came in the last 24 seconds. We went up by 2 after Kobe hit a short jumper in the lane. The Spurs missed a three and Sasha scooped up the board. He was fouled and made both clutch freethrows with 7.3 seconds left. Nicely done, Machine.

The Lakers will have to do a better job using Kobe early on. Hopefully, that will translate once again to Fish and Lamar having better games. Props to our bench tonight. Farmar probably had his best game of the playoffs and Sasha played even with Manu.


Kobe -- -- A tale of two halves. He started off way too passive. I know you want to get the other guys going, but you also need to do that by pressuring the D to make it easy for your guys. He had a ridiculous first half, shooting just 3 times and scoring 2 points. He scored 25 in the second half and set up a number of shots in that third quarter. The Kobe/Pau two-man game started to click. Phil left Kobe in to start the fourth and Kobe was able to keep the momentum going and still close strong. He had 14 points in the fourth. His defensive game seemed to mirror his offensive one. He played a little soft in the first half, but again tightened it up in the second half. He only had 1 foul, but only had to cover shooters. Kobe talked about defense in the second half, but I hope he doesn't go back into passive mode to start the next one. Get the crowd into. Get your teammates into it. And the defensive energy will pick up. "Kobe was doing his trust the teammates thing," Pop said afterward about Kobe's first half. The Stats: He scored 27 points on 11-21 shooting (1-3 from three, 4-4 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 9 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 44 minutes. The Action: He missed an easy look at a bank. He set up Pau for the lob off the two-man. He left Bowen alone for a couple jumpers. He attacked and fed Pau for a dunk. He missed a wing jumper, first shot after several minutes. Wow, finally an attack for a layup and he makes his first field goal of the game with 1:24 left in the half, trailing by 10. He had 2 points on 1-3 shooting and 5 assists in the first half. Second Half: He missed a wing jumper, short. He missed an early offense 20-footer. Very soft start to the second half by Kobe again. Phil called a timeout and set up a play for him and Kobe sank a 15-footer from the FT line. He hit a 21-footer over Udoka. He threaded a pass to Pau on the break for a layup. He drained a wing three on his next touch. He iso'd, blew past Udoka and drew his fourth for FTs, he made both (his first two FTs of the game...took 32 minutes...and suddenly Udoka and Bowen were on the bench). He missed a three. He attacked and was blocked by Duncan. He attacked and lobbed to Gasol for a score (Kobe in a third-quarter frenzy now and the Lakers are starting to click). He flashed to the ball and lobbed to Gasol for another score. He lost Manu on iso with a step-through and banked. He attacked and fed Gasol for the layup. He had 11 points and 4 assists in the third, finally becoming a part of the offense. He bricked a long three to start the fourth. He swiped a ball in the backcourt and scored a layup over Duncan. He sank an 18-footer off an in-bounds pass. He blew past Bowen and hit a runner over Oberto. He hit another runner in transition to cut the lead to 3. He deflected a pass, but then sagged off Bowen and gave up the three. He missed a short jumper. He forced a tough fade away bank out of a timeout. He blew past Bowen on the baseline and drew an easy foul for FTs, he made both to take a 2-point lead with 2:42 (first lead of the game). He hit a wing jumper off the two-man game with Gasol on the next possession. He couldn't pull down a board and Duncan tipped it in. He hit a jumper in the lane with 23.9 left to lead by 2.

Gasol -- -- Phil left him on an island against Duncan and Pau had his hands full. I think that will continue. Late in the game, we will start sending some defenders. But the goal is to ice the shooters until late and see if they can hit. This is much easier to accomplish when you have Bynum's strength and size. Hopefully, Pau can be a little more disruptive. He did a good job staying out of foul trouble. "We have to be happy with the way we battled," Pau said about the Lakers comeback. "We weren't playing well. We weren't sharp." That Pau/Kobe two-man game looked a lot more disruptive to the Spurs when we ran it than it did to the Jazz. Look for more of that. Phil brought Pau up to the high post in the second half to feature it a bit more. The Stats: He scored 19 points on 9-16 shooting (1-1 from the line) to go with 7 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 2 turnovers and just 1 foul in 39 minutes. The Action: He scored off the two-man game with Kobe, finishing the lob. He missed a layup, taking contact from Manu with no call. He missed a 12-footer from the left side. He attacked Duncan and scored a layup with the shotclock low. He missed a rushed jumphook in the paint. He took a pass from Kobe for a dunk. He attacked Oberto, drew contact and bounced in an And-1 jumper, he made the FT. He spun past Thomas and lost him for an easy layup. He threw a pass away. Duncan scored back-to-back baskets on iso over Gasol. Gasol missed a jumphook on the other end. He had 11 points on 5-9 shooting in the first half and no fouls. Duncan had 16 points and 9 boards. Second Half: He couldn't finish at the rim with both hands around Duncan and wanted the foul. Soft entry pass to Kobe and it was stolen. He got rejected at the rim. He got it back on the other end, knocking a ball loose. He swiped a pass, then scored a layup off the pass from Kobe in transition. He got pushed into Duncan by Manu and Duncan was rewarded with FTs (this was Pau's one foul in the game). He stretched back behind him to tip in a tough lob from Kobe, very nice. He finished a lob from Kobe when Kobe drew the D again. He took the drive and dish from Kobe for a layup. He swatted Manu's drive. He blocked Parker. Looked like he hit the ball or Duncan's arm with 1:04 left on a reach and Duncan dropped the ball out of bounds to give us the possession back. Out of that possession, he missed a dunk, and then another bad call by the refs as it looked like Manu either fouled or knocked a ball out of bounds.

Lamar -- -- Ugly game from LO at times. Phil eventually benched him in the third and even waited to bring him back in the fourth. We've got to get a better effort. The Spurs sagged off him a bit, but Lamar can still go at Oberto off the dribble or post up the little guys they throw against him. I think, though, that if the offense goes more through Kobe and Pau, Lamar should benefit from some easy scores off extra passes. We never got to see much of that in this game. Look for that to improve in the next one. Lamar missed a lot of chippies around the rim. Got to finish those better. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 3-12 shooting (2-4 from the line) to go with 8 boards, 2 assists, 2 blocks, 3 turnovers and 2 fouls in 35 minutes. The Action: He was stripped under the hoop and wanted the call. He drew a blocking foul, attacking the paint, he missed both FTs. He rejected Duncan under the hoop to ignite the break. He attacked Horry, missed, but tipped it back in and wanted the foul. He missed a drive on his next attempt. He iso'd on Horry and missed a layup before going down. He bricked an odd jumper trying to post up Udoka. Nice challenge on Manu's drive to force a miss. He chucked a pass out of bounds trying to fire it to Kobe. He posted up Manu and scored the easy jumphook. He choked a breakaway layup. He scored 4 points on 2-8 shooting to go with 6 boards. Second Half: He missed a layup. He gave up an And-1 to Oberto with a soft foul under the hoop. Back in after getting benched early, he took a pass from Fish and drew FTs under the hoop, he made both. He missed a layup in transition again. He couldn't hang on to a defensive board and dropped it out of bounds. He posted up Finley and scored easily off the glass to tie the game with 3:11 left. He missed a spin and flip up in the lane with just over a minute left.

Fisher -- -- Well, that vet presence certainly wasn't there offensively. Rough game from Fish. We can probably survive that at home, but we will need him to step up on the road. Parker had his way early on, but was blanked in the fourth. Phil switched around his rotations, sitting Fisher. This matched him up with Vaughn, which may be something we want to do a little more of. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 1-9 shooting (2-2 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 2 steals, 1 turnover and 5 fouls in 30 minutes. The Action: He missed a 20-footer in early offense. He bricked a layup on the break, but Vlad cleaned it up. He missed another early offense wing jumper. He got swatted on a drive. He took a foul to give with a couple seconds left in the half. He didn't score on 0-4 shooting in the first half. Parker had 12 points and 5 assists. Second Half: He picked up an early foul, his third. He attacked the lane, took contact and shot the flailing layup out of bounds, he wanted the foul. Starting the fourth after an early benching, he missed a wing jumper. He attacked Vaughn and over-powered him for a layup. He clanked a baseline jumper in transition. He swiped a pass, pushed out the break and somehow drew FTs on the layup attempt, he made both to cut the lead to 2 with 4:32. He missed a step-back jumper instead of taking a three with 1:32 left. He was called for blocking foul on Manu to send him to the line on the other end.

Radmanovic -- -- We started off the game with the Vlad vs. Manu match up...and Vlad seemed to have his way with it. I'm betting the Spurs will look to take more advantage of that in the next one. (Later, Vlad played some PF when we rested Lamar at the end of the first.) Vlad did a good job using his height a couple times in that match up. I worry about Manu's hands when Vlad hold the ball, but he did a good job, even scored off the drive a couple times. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 5-5 shooting to go with 5 boards, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 24 minutes. The Action: He drained a top-of-the-key jumper to start. He threw a pass away not staying in the offense. He took Manu off the dribble and banked in the runner. He scored a layup coming weak to strong and shooting over Manu. He followed Fish's miss on the break and tipped it in. He ball-faked a three on Horry, attacked and scored a layup. He had 10 points on 5-5 shooting in the first half. Second Half: He had a lob pass picked off out of a timeout.

Luke -- -- Not much of a role for Luke in this game. We did see him briefly at PF in a smaller lineup. The Stats: He didn't score on 0-2 shooting to go with 3 boards, 2 assists and 1 foul in 10 minutes. The Action: He missed a long wing jumper. He missed over Finley in the post. Second Half: He went between his legs on the pass to DFish, but Fisher missed the jumper.

Turiaf -- -- A couple nice plays from Ronny in this game (a big dunk that got the crowd buzzing). He was also left on an island against Duncan. Phil said that wasn't necessarily the plan with Ronny, just that the situations prevented some good help D. He had a few fouls on Duncan, but he also managed to draw a couple on Duncan, too. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-3 shooting (1-2 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 1 block and 3 fouls in 9 minutes. The Action: He forced Duncan into an airball on a turnaround. Duncan spun and scored a layup on him. He faced up and drew FTs on Duncan shooting the swing through jumper, he made one. He took an offensive board from Duncan, then threw down with both hands (crowd went nuts). He drew Duncan's second foul on an over-the-back call. He blocked Duncan's attempt, but couldn't recover it. Second Half: He choked a layup. He missed a 17-footer. He gave up an And-1 to Duncan on a turnaround. He was called for another foul on a Duncan jumper.

Farmar -- -- That was the Farmar we saw early in the season. He had a good stint early and Phil jumped on it in the second half, throwing Farmar out there when DFish was struggling. Farmar answered the call well. I'm curious to see if Phil will try to match up Farmar's speed more with Parker in other games. He matches up so much better with speed than with stronger guards. Parker didn't score in the fourth quarter with Farmar and Fish on him. Phil thought he might have gotten a little tired. Good game by Jordan. String 'em together. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 2-5 shooting (1-2 from three, 3-3 from the line) to go with 1 board and 1 foul in 18 minutes. The Action: He drained a wing three on his first attempt. He scored an And-1 layup taking the pass from Sasha on the break, he made the FT. He missed a mid-range jumper. He drew FTs and made both. Good D with Pau to force Parker into an OC turnover. He had 8 points on 2-3 shooting in the first half. Second Half: In early after we went scoreless in 4 minutes. He missed a chuck from half court at the third quarter buzzer.

Vujacic -- -- Clutch, baby. With 7.3 left, he scooped up a loose ball when Manu missed, he was fouled and hit both FTs to give the Lakers a 4-point lead. Ball game. Not only that, Sasha led all Lakers with a +25. Phil matched Sasha up with Manu for a good chunk of the game and the Spurs never got Manu on track. I noticed in the Hornets series that Manu was content to settle for three-pointers. He's got some injuries, and if he's going to do that and not attack relentlessly, that plays right into Sasha's defensive game. That allows us to keep Sasha on him, Kobe on a shooter and allows us to spread the floor on the other end. The Spurs might try to focus their efforts on this match up in the next one. "Defensively, that was one his best," Phil said of Sasha. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 3-8 shooting (2-5 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 1 block and 1 fouls in 32 minutes. The Action: He got tapped on a three at the first-quarter buzzer. He sank the next three attempt to start the second quarter. He stripped Manu on iso D, pushed out the break and fed Farmar for the And-1. He missed an open corner three. He missed an open fading baseline jumper. He got blocked on a reverse attempt. He drained a long jumper as the shotclock buzzer near the end of the first half. Second Half: He lost the handle on a drive. He sank a wing three. He drew an offensive foul on Manu on a cut. He missed a three on a kickout. He scooped up a loose ball off a missed three by Manu and he was fouled up by 2 with 7.3 seconds left, he went to the line ... hit the first ... and made the second. Clutch.

Phil -- -- I know Phil wants Kobe to get others involved, but that had to drive him a little crazy tonight. They talked about it at the half. Nothing happened. He called a timeout. Made some changes to the lineup and setup a play to get Kobe going. Finally it happened. Hopefully, it won't occur again... With Kobe passive to start the game, the Lakers offense ran through others. We trailed 22-14 with with 3 minutes left in the first. Phil called a timeout, trailing 24-16... We trailed 27-24 after the first. "He just hasn't decided to bring it yet," Pop said of Kobe after the first quarter... The second unit took it to the Spurs with Pau and Kobe on the bench and we tied the game up 33-33... Kobe re-entered the game and the Spurs went on another run... The Lakers trailed 51-43 at the half, shooting 44 percent to the Spurs 50 percent. The Spurs had just 2 first half turnovers. Lakers got 16 points from their bench at the half... The coaches said they told Kobe to be far more aggressive in the second half and to pick it up on the D end... Very soft start to the second half by the Lakers. The energy was low and Kobe was not aggressively attacking. Phil called a timeout 4 minutes into the half after we went scoreless. He set up a play for Kobe, who hit a freethrow jumper. (He also subbed out DFish for Farmar, Sasha for Lamar)... We cut the 20-point lead 65-59 when Kobe started to get aggressive and attack. We went on a 14-0 run. No coincidence... We trailed 72-65 after three quarters... Phil's rotations would have to be different to start the fourth, considering his early third-quarter shuffle. We had a lot of momentum and Kobe should have been well-rested considering he took off the first half. "He went to Bermuda or something," Phil said of Kobe's first half... Phil started a Ronny, Luke, Kobe, Sasha, Fisher lineup to begin the fourth. Note Phil riding Kobe's hot hand and Luke at PF instead of Lamar, who sat out 8 minutes of the third, as well... He went back to Pau, Lamar, Kobe, Sasha, Fisher at the 8:41 mark... We trailed 81-77 with 5:50 left when the timeout came. Lakers could cut it to 2 running a good play out of the timeout. Kobe ended up missing a tough fadeaway bank when our play busted... We tied it up with 3:11 left when Odom finally came through, hitting easily over Finley in the post... We had a 10-0 run to eventually take the lead... The Spurs had 10 turnovers in the second half, after just 2 in the first... The Spurs scored 13 points in the fourth. "It hurts like hell," Pop said afterward of the loss...

Game Flow -- LINK -- A couple runs by each team. The key for the Lakers was what changed during that 14-0 run. We changed our attack, going to a more aggressive, attacking Kobe. Didn't do that up until that point.

[Icy_wiz]

great read thanks again
_________________
“We were wonderful traveling companions but in the end no more than lonely lumps of metal in their own separate orbits.”
Sputnik Sweetheart

[Magic'sSon]

DAMN!!!

[Magic'sSon]

So not fair...I went to congratulate one of my shipmates for advancing to Senior Chief Petty Officer for like 1 miilisecond and missed being first. I'm going back over to his desk and jack his ass up!!

[DrumR]

great great win!

[sickomatic]

The Machine!!

Thanks for the recap!

[DancingBarry]

[stillmatic]

DB great write-ups.

Keys to next game are to hold down Timmy and for LO and Fish to pick up the slack.

[Sister Golden Hair]

B-ball isn't that complicated. Why does PJ always seem to wait unti half-time to make adjustments? Often, that makes for a bigger deficit to climb out of. I mean, how long does it take to tell someonel like Kobe to be more aggressive?

And Phil did his usual "icing" job on one of the few guys (Rad) who was hitting in the first half -- takes himout when he's 5 for 5. PJ's stuborness is aggravating at times. I just think that ultimately, Rad is more important against he Spurs than Luke is. I think Rad needs more minutes because the Lakers need someone to help spread the floor. And he especially needs more minutes -- continuous minutes -- when he starts off shooting well.

SGH

[Qsmiff]

Big time escape tonight...it's going to be interesting to see what effect this comeback has on the *purs! Hopefully we cant play any worse!

[Aces25]

Thanks DB. Enjoying your recap as always.

Glad to see Farmar step up on both end. nice for Sasha, he earned it for out playing Manu.

[big E]

The Black Mamba Rules!!!!

[Dr. Laker]

Good job, DB.
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On Lakersground, a concern troll is someone who is a fan of another team, but pretends to be a Lakers fan with "concerns".

[MedRomLaker]

Thanks for the cap DB, great win by our club, have to fight hard against the defending champs to pull this series out but I'm glad we showed some grit and pulled out the W.

PS Sasha the Manu stopper?
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11/9/12 the day the brown was flushed down!!!!!!

4/30/14 the day the ant left the building!!!!!!

[tw-lakbfan]

Big escape from the Bermuda.

Next game, hope we'll be aggressive from the start and defeat the Spurs solidly.

[Tanlentueux]

thanks for the great recap as usual!

[sec 110]

If we play like that on the road we lose by 25. I think the pressure of playing the Spurs, in addition to the time off, screwed up everybody's head - even Kobe. I'm confident that they'll bring their A game on Friday.

[waterman40]

Thanks for the recap. It looked to be a bust early. Hopefully Kobe comes out much stronger next game.
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LAKERS 2019-2020: NBA World Champions!

[jwbrown77]

Gotta love The Machine's +25 tonight.

[Siguy]

We got a little lucky in this one. Dumb first half by Kobe. We weren't getting awful looks though (lot's of missed shots near the hoop), so I think he thought the team could get going and then was shocked when they were suddenly down by so much.

VladRad with his best playoff game in my opinion. He effin abused Manu. Just crazy. I couldn't believe it. Usually he doesn't punish the other team for putting bad defenders on him because he has no post up game, but he really seemed to like playing Manu and he also seemed to like playing PF which was a lot closer to his more successful Seattle days.

Great job by Phil making the necessary changes in the second half and being willing to throw away his rotations to get the comeback started.

[krstell]

thanks again =)
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“I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.” - Kobe

[D-Dogg]

Kobe's reliance on jumpers early pissed me off...as the game wore on, the drove more and I was happy.

You will NOT beat the Spurs on jumpers..that's what they funnel you to. You have to drive...make them foul or give you layups. Do it Kobe..DO IT!!
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17 on the horizon.

[8750]

thanks, DB
definitely bipolar, winning their game... that's very important for selfconfidence of this team... at the same time, next game we can't again play their game... i still don't understand why we don't use multiple screens when their defense tries so much to separate kobe from the ball...

[prisma8slg]

thanks DB

I sat staring at my TV in disbelief, wondering how we got down by 20. then Kobe got aggressive and we went on that huge run

LMAO at Phil's Bermuda Triangle comment
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"I define success by championships, by winning..." Kobe Bryant

"I've seen it all. Sasha dunked on somebody," Kobe Bryant said. "I'm ready to retire now."

[NY_LakerFan]

I realize the Spurs are a veteran group and less prone to letting such a tough loss affect them but ...

considering that Fish and Odom combined to hit 4 out of 21 shots and combined for 12 pts/11 rebs/2 assists AND they had a 20 points lead halfway through the third ...

they have got to be wondering just what it takes to beat LA.




Thanks for the writeup DB. Best recap period. As always.