LAKERS -at- ROCKETS - 5/10 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

The Wounded Dog... It seems like a pleasant day in Rocketville. The skies are blue, a breeze is blowing, you're in a good mood. You relax as you stroll down the sidewalk. The neighborhood is empty, save for a lone dog, hobbling down the street on three good legs while holding a paw in the air. He stumbles and falls with a yelp. He limps in your direction.

"Hey, buddy, let me help you," you say as you kneel down. He whimpers and you get closer. That's when he bares teeth and snaps at you. The lunge throws you off balance, flat on your back. You try to kick, and back pedal but he's on top of you, snapping with a crazed look in his eyes, saliva flying in every direction. You hold him back by the neck. The dog's got more fight in him than you realized.

He grazes your ear with his teeth, his hot breath warmer than the blood coming from your wound. He twists to try to inch closer to your face, you can handle his muscle. That's when he uses that against you. He pulls away. He's not limping, he's wheeling around you with speed, biting your legs and arms.

Some 48 minutes later, you finally get back into your car...the dog chasing you all the way there. You're the one with the tail between the legs. There's a note on the dashboard. It's from DancingBarry:

The Four Horsemen were here. They thought the victory would be just handed to them, and they paid the price.

They will have to return here before this battle is over. I will continue to track them...

The first possession of the game, the Lakers fumbled away a pass and Ariza tried to save it back inbounds as his team stood flatfooted. The Rockets took it the other way for a layup. That set the tone for the game. The Lakers looked surprised the Rockets would play with heart after Yao went down. They trailed by 18 at halftime, lost the first 5 minutes of the second half and were buried.

If this was a boxing match, Phil seemed like he thought the Lakers were doing the Rope-a-Dope to start the game. "When you play with that much emotion, you burn a tremendous amount of energy," Phil said of the Rockets as the Lakers trailed by 13 after the first quarter.

Offensively, they forgot to work the body early on. The Rockets are down two centers. Put the pressure on their remaining bigmen. Work inside-out, not outside-in. Draw fouls, soften the middle up even more and it will collapse. Eventually, they went to Pau again and again in the fourth and managed to win the fourth quarter by 17 points. It was too big of a hole to dig out from and they fell 99-87 in a classic trap game.

With Yao out, a faster pace now favors the Rockets. They are going small. They need up-tempo ball more than the Lakers do. Slow it down, keep them to perimeter jumpers, but challenge them, please. Work the interior and own the boards.


Kobe -- -- He never got to the rim in the first half. He settled for jumpers and didn't help soften the middle. In the second half, he did a better job forcing the issue. Defensively, ugggh. He left Battier who came out draining a series of shots early on to lead the Rockets out of the gate. Kobe will need to bring it from the start in the next one. Play smart. Defend smart. "I just don't think we started the game with the right energy, the right focus or the sense of urgency," Kobe said. Battier had 23 points and said he may frame the box score from this game as he outscored Kobe. The Stats: He scored 15 points on 7-17 shooting (1-4 from three) to go with 2 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals and 1 fouls in 35 minutes. He was a -12. The Action: He missed a three on our first shot. He iso'd and hit a jumper over Battier. He swished a 12-footer in early offense. Battier had 11 early points with some soft D by Kobe. He swished a corner three. He got an early tech after getting hit with no foul call. He hit the side of the backboard rushing a three. He sank a 20-footer with Battier all over him. He missed a sideline jumper, falling away at the buzzer. He stripped Scola. He sank a pull-up over Artest. He worked off the high screen and rattled in a wing jumper. He missed a pull-up jumper, getting contact from behind and going down (looked like Pau got pushed into him by Battier). He missed a 22-footer out of a timeout. He had 13 points on 6-12 shooting, no freethrows and never got to the rim. Second Half: He missed a runner, his first shot within a couple feet of the hoop. He attacked again and scored a layup at the rim with his left. He missed a tough runner in traffic. Out of a timeout, he missed a long jumper. He kicked out to Sasha for a three. He attacked and kicked out to Farmar for three. He missed a wing three.

Gasol -- -- This is when Pau needs to demand the ball. Get aggressive with his teammates and opponents. You can't ignore him in the post, and he can't play soft in there, either. Get after it. Get to those boards. Don't back down, don't settle. Own the interior on both ends and make sure you're teammates give you the ball. They finally did that in the fourth quarter, going to him again and again and again. Too bad the other three quarters we played mentally and physically soft as a team. The Stats: He scored 30 points on 11-17 shooting (8-13 from the line) to go with 9 boards, 1 assists, 2 blocks, 1 turnover and 4 fouls. He was a -6. The Action: He missed a wing jumper. He missed a turnaround over Hayes. Hayes stepped around him to steal a post entry. He missed a jumphook in the post. He drew FTs attacking, he made one FT. He scored a layup when Kobe found him under the hoop. He posted up, spun and scored an easy layup. He posted up Cook and scored an easy up and under. He missed a rushed turnaround in the paint. He spun around Hayes on iso for the easy layup. He blocked a drive. He was hit on a drive for FTs, he made one. He had 10 points on 4-8 shooting and 3 boards. Second Half: He was fouled in the post on the first possession (good position before the pass came), he made both FTs. He posted up and attacked Hayes, more FTs. He scored a layup off a missed Sasha drive. He drew FTs in the post, he made both. He was hacked again on a triple team in the paint, he made one FT. He threw a kickout away. He posted up, faked to the middle, went to his left for the bank. He drew an illegal D. He hit a jumphook in the post. He missed a turnaround in the post over Artest. He dunked off the baseline two-man game with Luke. He faced up, attacked to his right down the lane and scored the layup. He threw down a putback dunk. He missed a three on a kickout. He scored an And-1 layup on an interior feed to cut the lead to 10 in the final minute.

Lamar -- -- Lamar went to the locker room to get treatment for his back which was spasming after he lost a battle with the floor. When you don't finish a team out as you should, when you play longer than you should, you worry about injuries mounting up that could affect you down the line. The Lakers didn't take care of business today. Other than hitting the floor, Lamar had little impact on the game in his 25 miutes. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-4 shooting, grabbed 6 boards, dished 3 assists, had 2 blocks, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 25 minutes. He was a -22. The Action: He blocked Scola's drive. He missed an awkward one-hander in transition. He missed a wing jumper. He grabbed a defensive board, pushed it out and scored a layup at high speed. Second Half: He missed a three. He attacked down the lane and hit the floor hard on his back when he got up ended while charging over Barrier. He picked up a tech as he walked over to the bench (he'll be sore tomorrow).

Ariza -- -- You would expect Artest to have a big game for the Rockets to win. Ron scored just 8 points on 4-19 shooting (0-6 from three). We weren't killed here. A shame we wasted such a bad game from Ron. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 2-4 shooting (1-1 from three, 0-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 2 assists, 3 turnovers and 2 fouls in 23 minutes. He was a -22. The Action: He missed a drive in traffic. He charged in transition. He scored a layup, curling into the paint. He swished a corner three on the Kobe kickout. He posted up and drew FTs, he missed both. Second Half: He was blocked from behind under the hoop. He booted a defensive board.

Fisher -- -- Brooks had 34 points. That's one of the main reasons the Rockets won. Right there. Fish got the start and Brooks got whatever he wanted. The Lakers have to keep the Rocket point guards in check. Do that and it's a win. Don't and you may struggle. The two-man D will be the focus of the Laker discussions. Late in the game, we trapped early in the halfcourt, but the Lakers will need better D between our bigs and PGs. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-4 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 2 boards, 1 steal and no fouls in 20 minutes. He was a -26. The Action: He missed a baseline three. He let his man fly by, moved in and hit the 17-footer. He airballed a pull-up three in early offense. He bricked a wide open corner three. Second Half: First defensive stand of the half was a layup for Brooks.

Bynum -- -- He had Cook on him defensively for a stretch, yet didn't go after that like raw meat. He came in early in the second half to run with Pau, still nothing. Offensively, he has shrunk away from the competition. He needs to impose himself on the game offensive against the smaller team. And we need him anchoring the D on the other end. The Lakers size should be killing the Rockets now. Step up, Drew, you look way too tentative. The Stats: He didn't score on 0-1 shooting, had 2 boards, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 12 minutes. He was a -12. The Action: He fumbled a return pass away. It looked like Luke was trying to find him on another couple passes, but threw the ball away (didn't seem like Bynum wanted it, either). Second Half: Over-the-back foul for FTs the other way. He was stripped trying to go back up slowly in traffic.

Luke -- -- Luke led the Lakers in turnovers. Some very poor passes and sloppy possessions. On a lot of these, he seemed like he was trying to do the right thing -- get the ball to our bigmen, but the passes were off the mark or poorly executed. I think every one of his turnovers was trying to get the ball to Pau or Bynum. Be nice to see us throw the ball up to the rim more for them to clean up. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 2-3 shooting, had 5 boards, 1 assist, 4 turnovers and 1 foul in 22 minutes. He was a +11. The Action: He drew an offensive foul on the Rockets battling under the boards. He threw a pass away trying to hit a cutter at a bad angle. He forced Artest into a brick on the drive. He powered in a layup in early offense. He got caught in the air and threw a pass away. Horrible post entry pass on the next possession, And-1 score the other way. Second Half: He sank a wing three. He missed a one-handed, short runner. He hit Pau off the baseline screen-roll for a dunk. He had his drive and dish deflected, bounce pass or lob and that's a dunk for Pau.

Brown -- -- One of the few players who seemed to bring it today. Brown was aggressive and led the bench in scoring. He needs to be taking every one of Sasha's minutes right now. Sasha is giving offensive possessions away. The difference is pretty sizeable. You expect Brown to make open shots. You expect Sasha to miss them. The Stats: He scored 14 points on 6-11 shooting (2-3 from three) to go with 3 boards, 1 steal and 3 fouls in 18 minutes. He was a +14. The Action: He hit a pull-up jumper in transition. Second Half: He drained a pull-up 16-footer. He attacked to his left and swished a 10-footer off the dribble. He got tapped on a three on the next possession, heat check. Nice effort to jump a passing lane and knock a ball out of bounds. He gave up an And-1 layup. Then missed a reverse on the other end. He pushed out a rebound and hit the floater. He drained a three after backing the ball out. He sank an open wing three.

Farmar -- -- Kobe on Brooks: "He just cut us up." Farmar was back to the bench for DFish. That hurt, but no one defended the Rocket guards well. All of our guards and all of our bigs struggled with it. DFish, however, led the team with a -26. Farmar had a +9. That's a pretty big swing. We've seen those kinds of numbers before, but usually with the roles reversed. I'm sure DFish was ready for the game, but the Rockets pressed their advantage here. Farmar should see earlier minutes, if the Rockets get after this matchup right from the start like you would expect them to. The Stats: The Action: He gave up a layup to Lowry, no help from his bigs. He attacked, hung and bricked a short bank. He missed a pull-up three next time down (Phil benched him for that, one of those compounding error sequences). Second Half: He pushed out the break for a layup. He missed a drive. He drew FTs on a drive in transition, he made both. He drained a three on a Kobe kickout. He missed a heave at the shotclock buzzer, surprised he was able to hit the rim. He gava up a 55-foot alley-oop to Brooks with 0.7 on the shotclock (great catch by Brooks, but you have to get in front of him before that to prevent him from getting an easy lane for the catch and finish). He missed a three.

Powell -- -- Some better minutes from Powell. He seemed to finally be grabbing some boards again. Not much to write about. The Lakers had worse problems today than anything Powell did. The Stats: He didn't score on 0-1 shooting. The Action: He missed a long baseline jumper at the halftime buzzer. Second Half: Back in for LO who went down hard. He worked the defensive glass.

Vujacic -- -- Probably a better game from Sasha, but he had no where to go but up. He still missed wide open looks. An NBA shooter should knock those down. He's not doing it. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 2-7 shooting (2-4 from three, 1-1 from the line) to go with 1 assist, 1 steal and 2 fouls in 19 minutes. He was a +8. The Action: He gave up a layup to Wafer. He fouled Wafer on a drive. He swiped the ball when Wafer fell. Second Half: He sank a sideline three on a Kobe kickout. He missed a transition three, not squaring up completely. He missed a layup, but Pau cleaned it up. He missed a wide open three. He made a tech. He missed a fading baseline jumper. He missed another fading, open baseline jumper. He swished a wing three in transition.

Phil -- -- The Rockets opened up to a 9-0 start. Phil didn't call a timeout until the mandatory came midway through the quarter when the Lakers trailed 17-4. The Rockets extended that to 17... They were down 15 when we went to Luke and Farmar in our first subs... The Rockets led 29-16 after the first quarter. The Rockets made 4-7 from three and 12-22 in the quarter, the Lakers 7-19 shooting with 4 turnovers... He started a Bynum, Lamar, Luke, Sasha, Farmar unit. Then subbed out Farmar for Brown... After 5 minutes he brought in Kobe and Pau for Luke and Bynum, who were playing horrible... The Lakers faded again in the last couple minutes of the half and the Rockets stretched the lead to 18. The Lakers lost the second quarter 25-20... The Lakers trailed 54-36 at the half. Battier had 15 points, Aaron Brooks had 11. The Lakers shot 46 percent, but had 8 turnovers and made just 2-6 from the line. The Rockets shot 50 percent from the floor, making 6-14 from three and had just 4 turnovers... The Laker coaches said the players thought the Rockets were just going to hand it to them... Phil subbed out Lamar for Bynum just 3 minutes into the half, going big... The Rockets won the first 5 minutes and stretched the lead to 27 points... Phil pulled Pau for Lamar midway through the quarter, bringing in Farmar and Sasha for Fisher and Ariza... He mixed things up more, looking for anyone to provide some spark... The Lakers trailed 83-54 going into the fourth... The Lakers finally started giving the ball to Pau in the post everytime down and cut the Rocket lead... Down 21 with 5 minutes left, Phil put Kobe back in the game. The Lakers cut the lead to 13 with 2:48 left. (Hack-a-Hayes might have cut the lead a little more)... Just too big a hole to dig out of. The Lakers had just 14 assists. They got outrebounded 11-8 on the offensive glass and made just 61 percent from the line...

Game Flow -- LINK -- Horrible start, 19-4 Rocket run. Pau had 18 points in the fourth quarter when the Lakers went to him again and again. Too late then.

[lakermaniac]

First. But I can't imagine that there are many who can bear to endure much more today. Thanks DB. Rain or shine, we depend on you. I don't think I'm the only one asking why? So thanks for your take.

[doven]

thanks though

[drzucchini]

[spflakers]

This has to be one of the fastest writeups in history, DB. I hope you didn't stop watching early to start writing. Fair-weather.

[KINGD]

I'm not that mad. I've learned not to expect much from this team. Lowering my expectations will help me cope with yet another year without a championship.

[angrypuppy]

Back injuries are tough to diagnose (in terms of determining severity), slow to heal, and drastically alter your mechanics. I sure hope some treatment and a good nights sleep is sufficient. If Lamar is impaired by this back injury, two of our four horsemen are ready for the glue factory.

[spflakers]

But back injuries can also be fine after a day, especially when caused by a fall. I'm not worried yet about it. My dad usually recovers from back pain in a day and he's 62 and fat.

[lakermaniac]

Agree about Brown being the only one who came to play. There were camera shots while he was on the sidelines that showed he was standing up with game-face intensity while he wasn't even playing. He was the only one that didn't seem confused, hesitant or tentative on offense.

[Qsmiff]

A Pitiful pitiful showing by "9 rings" and the Lakers....Its bad when the fans are more embarrassed by this than the players are....I've always been a Phil fan but I'm starting to wonder if he has the energy for this anymore....as I said in another thread, I got no rings but I know if Yao is out we should pound the ball inside, Fish has no shot in covering Brooks, Brown should either start or play more minutes than any guard that doesnt start....Phil reminds me of parents of a large family...they were real strict and energetic with the first few kids....by the 12th child the only rule was dont do heroin at the dinner table....the rockets jumped on us at the start of the game and "9rings" sat there with his thumb in his back eye..and even worse it seems he has managed to destroy Andrew's confidence...way to go genius......OK now I feel better ...lol

[Sister Golden Hair]

A poor performance all around, coaches included. The only laker who didn't embarrass himself was Shannon. I liked the smart, consistent effort he gave out there. I don't know what else it will take before PJ sends Fish to the glue factory, 'cause Fish is done as a starter in this league. But as long as he keeps atarting Fish you will see the Lakers having to make up staggers to even inferior teams.

Pau is also starting to exhibit a pattern to his play -- a couple of good, even great games, followed by an absolute, no-effort stinker. Tonite's box-score is deceiving. He was milquetoast out there most of the game.

And what's happening to Bynum is what I said would happen the minute PJ jerked him from the starting line-up against Utah and started giving him minutes grudgingly: he would lose all confidence and crawl into a shell. Amazing how Bynum's lapses were unforgivebale (for a young player returning from injury, no less!) but Fisher's chronic failures are somehow worthy of continued loyalty and even praise.

Hey, must be a zen thing.

SGH

[Sister Golden Hair]

[Vishnu]

Thanks DB

[Nnamdi21]

phil im pretty sure will be done win or lose. I dont see him even attempting to do this again. great coach no matter what happens. players should be held accountable somewhat.

[Laker7]

We have got to find a way to get the ball to Gasol and Bynum in low post and make the Rocket pay. Period. No excuses. No coulda, shoulda, woulda. Gitterdunn!
_________________
Darvin Ham is an idiot!

[DancingBarry]

[smiles]

Brown was mvp today.

[Rick12322]

Phil said he didn't want Bynum to waste his energy on offense. He got the memo. He's not fully recovered yet. At this point, because of the little guys Houston has I think we should try DJ.

[DancingBarry]

[Rick12322]

[ChefLinda]

Thanks, DB. Your intro was about a thousand times more entertaining than the game.

As for the pathetic effort from our guys:

[DancingBarry]

[calistrtballr]

I cant for the life of me figure out why Fisher is playing in a quick guard series. And Bynum continues to play like a wuss.

[MedRomLaker]

I actually woke up late and caught the game mid way into the 3rd, and to a certain extent I'm glad I did. I turned on the Tv and was like wtf? 20 point lead?? 1st thing that popped into my head was "random but not surprising" I knew we might lose if our player thought the rox's would just roll over after losing Yao. Usually losing a player has the opposite effect and makes other players step up. After watching the post game on abc/cbs and listing to post game am570+spero/thompson and then reading your recap puts everything into perspective. How could the team not pound it down low with drew and pau force the issue, rox have no size but of course we fell for the run and gun trap and we got blown out. Brooks should not go off, since I didn't watch the 1st half I can't say anything about Fish but brooks is a bad match up for him. Also the 1st two plays I saw the refs seemed to be give the rox's a good homecourt advantage. 1st one ticky tack call, then the next laker possesion was when LO was in the undercut while in the air, should have been a block but refs called bs charge. After those two plays I knew this was going to be one of those "half-assed effort" losses.
_________________
11/9/12 the day the brown was flushed down!!!!!!

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

[Sister Golden Hair]

I just viewed the first qrtr again, which the lakers lost by 13 points. Kobe gave up 12 first quarter points (1 of them a tech FT) to Battier himself by basically playing zero defense. It was embarrassing. If he plays regular "play-off" intensity D against a guy like Battier, I doubt Battier even gets a shot off. What's Kobe excuse? Helping out against Yao inside? Hmm. No, because Yao was in streetclothes. There was no excuse.

What’s worse, he seemed to think it was okay so long as he made up for it on the offensive end. This is apparent by his cocky strut after hitting a difficult shot. This has become emblematic of the Lakers, especially guys like Farmar and Fish (who got similarly lit up by Brooks): "It's okay, you don’t need to buckle down on D –- just keep shooting, and embarrass them on the other end."

Kobe also began (bleep) to the refs long before that technical –- he started yapping within the first two or three minutes. Enough, already.

The backcourt was hugely responsible for the hole this team fell into. And the faults were largely on defense. What’s surprising is that it’s the two most veteran Lakers doing the greatest damage to their own team. Fisher you can excuse, somewhat, because even in his prime he was overmatched by most PGs. Now, on the down side of his career, he’s become cringe-worthy. But Kobe? There is no excuse. He sets the tone for this team, and the tone he set today was, “Defense? Me?”

That’s all that needs be said.

Kobe is turning into a huuuuge disappointment, and that's coming from a long-time Kobe jocker.

A huge disappointment.

SGH