LAKERS -vs- WARRIORS - 10/9 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Return to the Forum... Your boat stops near a familiar building that stands stubbornly amid rubble and uneven earth. You recognize her. She's an institution, a monument to glory.

"We're safe here," your companion says. She ties up the boat and hops out. You follow. As you enter the cavernous building it all comes back to you. There was a buzz here once, a pulse that beat within its walls and beneath its roof. You remember the haze that hung in the rafters, the electricity that ran through its aisles. It was excess. It was glamour. It was show biz.

Those memories are but ghosts from the past. Now she stands alone, happy for the visit but almost begging you to move on. You decide to set up camp for the night instead. Pulling apart a greasy wooden pallet, you place the boards on a pile of ash where someone else had apparently made their home.

Hanging on a nearby wall is a glimmering white suit -- a previous resident must have worn it, but who? As you light the fire, the flames make the shadow of the suit dance on the wall.

You stare at it a moment before opening up the "Tru Warier" file again. Sorting through the sordid past of this potential fifth horseman, you read an old comment from him, "I love the tension. I love when everything's going wrong." You wonder, does chaos just follow him around or does he actively seek it out? Does he need it to survive...to live?

DancingBarry has circled this quote and drawn an arrow from it to another quote. This one is labeled "Kurtz" and says, "I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That's my dream. It's my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight razor ... and surviving." You think about this and you ponder the large question mark scribbled after it.

As the shadows dance on the wall, you notice something in the pocket of the white suit. You get up, approach it and pull out a folded piece of paper. It's from DancingBarry:

The Horsemen were here ... on hallowed grounds. For moments, youth passed before some us. In this setting and in this time of the year, however, it was fleeting. We should expect nothing less.

They move on, and I will continue to follow them.

The Lakers returned to the Fabulous Forum for a night. You won't relive Showtime in a preseason game in October. These Warriors aren't the playoff contender the Lakers faced back in '87 when Sleepy Floyd once dropped 29 points in a fourth quarter.

There were sparks between Kobe and Stephen Jackson early on, but the lineup experiments, restricted playing time for stars and preseason flavor left the buzz decidedly lacking. In a turnover-prone game, the Laker fell 110-91.

"Golden State was quicker than we were tonight," Phil said. The combination of 25 total turnovers and 2-18 three-point shooting from the Lakers allowed the Warriors to get out and play at their pace.

This was more like the game we expected to see last time out. The triangle offense was confused by the Warriors overplaying on defense. The spacing saw players colliding and lost. Just the kinds of things you expect in early October.


Kobe -- -- Stephen Jackson and Kobe ended up jawing in the first quarter. This didn't go well for SJax, who ended up with 5 fouls and a tech in the quarter (Nelson then sent him to the locker room with 2:40 remaining in the first). Some surprising spark for a preseason game. Kobe himself got into some foul trouble. He seems to be in an aggressive mode defensively. Not sure if he's trying to set the tone for the season or just trying to overwhelm some young Golden State players. Maybe both. In any event, some short run for Kobe tonight but enough for this time of the year. The Stats: He scored 15 points on 5-11 shooting (0-2 from three, 5-6 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 4 assists, 4 turnovers, 5 fouls and 1 steal in 22 minutes. The Action: He dunked off the Bynum jumpball tip when Pau hit him in stride with a bounce pass. He was called for a 5-second count while backing his man down. He missed a tip-in attempt. He was fouled on a drive and drew FTs, making both. He crossed over SJax and swished a wing jumper after losing him. SJax was jawing with Kobe, then slapped Kobe's arm check away for an offensive foul. Kobe missed a three. He missed a layup on a drive. He scored an And-1 layup around Jackson, he made the FT. Kobe had 10 points on 3-6 shooting in the first. He overthrew an outlet to Artest on the break for a turnover. He was called for a carry (no advantage gained on that one). He sank a 17-footer from the elbow. Overly aggressive on the defensive end against Curry and he picked up 4 fouls with 4 minutes left in the half and had to sit. Second Half: He missed a long jumper from the wing. He iso'd and swished a 17-footer. He crossed over, attacked baseline and drew FTs, he made one. He missed a wide open three. He missed a 12-footer on a good look. He hit Bynum on a lob in transition. He saved the ball back under his own hoop and it led to a Warrior layup. He hit Pau ahead of the pack for a layup. He picked up his fifth foul on the perimeter with 2 minutes left in third and sat.

Gasol -- -- Not enough post touches for Pau. Pretty typical in our losses last year, however, he only played 22 minutes in this game. A regular season game and you would have likely seen us milk him against this team. He seemed to overpower Biedrins in the couple good post touches on iso he got on the block. The Stats: He scored 12 points on 5-7 shooting (2-2 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 3 assists, 2 turnovers, 1 steal and 2 fouls in 22 minutes. He was a -16. The Action: He took the tipoff from Bynum and immediately hit Kobe in stride for a dunk. He missed an open 17-footer. He charged on a break, getting a pass in traffic. He drew FTs when Luke hit him with a bounce pass off the two-man sequence, he made both. He swished a baseline jumper off the LO kickout. He overpowered Biedrins and hit a jumphook at the front of the rim. He posted up Biedrins and hit the lefty jumphook on the baseline. He had 8 points on 3-4 shooting. Second Half: He hit a 10-footer when his man gambled for a steal and missed. He missed a short one with his left. He hit Bynum with a quick interior feed for a dunk. Out in transition and Kobe spotted him alone for a layup.

Bynum -- -- This is looking like Bynum's best preseason so far (even compared to previous preseason Warrior games). Drew led the Lakers in scoring again. The Lakers weren't setting him up with the consistency of the last game, however. It seemed like whenever the Lakers would make a run, it would be as a result of feeding the post. Defensively, he had to deal with the speedy guard penetration, unlike last game. "Andrew's got to step into the vacuum and help on guards," Phil said. "He did a little better job in the second half." His best defensive play might have been a perimeter switch where he blocked Ellis's jumper attempt. Good agility there and showing his recovery from the injury. The Stats: He scored 19 points on 7-11 shooting (5-7 from the line) to go with 6 boards, 2 blocks, 2 turnovers and 4 fouls in 31 minutes. The Action: He came up short on a jumphook. He drop-stepped his man and reversed. He took the high entry from Kobe, pivoted several times under the hoop then dunked. He got hit on a jumphook with no call and missed. He drew FTs getting a pass in the middle of the lane, he made one. He faced up from the right side, attacked to his left and was fouled on the running jumper, he made both FTs. He overpowered Moore and scored the And-1 jumphook, he made the FT. He had 10 points on 3-6 shooting (4-5 from the line) and 4 boards. Second Half: He worked the post across the middle of the lane and missed the layup. He then gave up a layup getting up-faked on the D end. He dunked off the Artest interior feed. He was called for three seconds in transition as the Lakers biffed the possession. He put in an oop in transition. He swatted Biedrins drive. He dunked on the other end on an interior feed from Pau. He gave up position to Biedrins and fouled trying to get the defensive board. He swatted Ellis on iso D on the perimeter. He took the pass on a kickout, stopped on a dime and hit the jumper over his man from about 7 feet out. He was called for a travel, facing up from the perimeter. He was fouled in the post and made one FT.

Artest -- -- With the offense out of rhythm, Ron's game suffered. "He hesitated on taking shots a few times," Phil said. "We've got to get him in rhythm." Ron also tried to get in the post, but the confusion and lack of spacing seemed to thwart any touches there. "For the most part, I'm catching on," Ron said. He added he needs a couple more games to get the offense down better. Defensively, we saw him match up with Maggette a lot. Maggette seems to light us up typically, but Ron's strength and D helped keep him to just 7 points on 2-8 shooting in 28 minutes. His active hands were also apparent on a number of occasions. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-7 shooting (0-4 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 1 assist, 2 steals, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 25 minutes. The Action: He stripped his man, then got stripped right back. He attacked off the corner three line and jammed with his left. He doubled LO's man, stripped him and ignited the break. He missed a face-up 16-footer. He drew FTs battling on the offensive glass, he made both. He missed a three in early offense, not getting set. He missed an open three from the other side, this time squaring up better. He was called for an offensive foul trying to get post position. He overpowered his man on an offensive FT rebound and tapped it out to get another possession. He had 4 points on 1-4 shooting and 2 boards. Second Half: He gave Maggette a straight line to the hoop for a score. He overpowered his man on a drive and fed Bynum for the dunk. He got away with a travel on a drive, muscling a layup in off the glass. He missed a corner three. He poked a ball off Maggette for a turnover.

Fisher -- -- Not a pretty game from Fish in any regard. He couldn't decide whether he was building a brick house or bakery. He served up some horrid stone-cold shooting and a steaming hot batch of turnovers. He looked very rusty. Defensively, Ellis could get what ever he wanted, but the turnovers and bricks were especially helpful to get the Warriors out in transition. Both Fish and Kobe, of course, had played in the Forum. "Thank you for allowing us to come back home just for one night," DFish announced to the crowd before the game. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-6 shooting (0-3 from three) to go with 1 board, 2 assists, 4 turnovers and 1 foul in 21 minutes. The Action: He threw a pass away. He missed a 21-footer on a heave from the wing. He clanked a corner jumper. He got lost on a give-and-go and gave up a layup. He then forced a jumper trying to get it back, missed, got the ball back and threw it away. He threw a 70-foot pass over Bynum's reach. He sank a pull-up, 15-footer on the break. He had 3 turnovers in the first quarter (Ellis had 11 points and 4 assists in the first). Weak And-1 foul in transition D, bad decision. He missed a wide open corner three. He missed a wing jumper. He had 2 points on 1-6 shooting and 3 turnovers in 12 minutes. Second Half: He threw a corner entry pass away on our first possession.

Lamar -- -- Light minutes from LO, but he still led the team in assists. He had a couple nice sequences of ball handling to manufacture some scores. His jumper looks better to start this season than last. I wonder if he will get off to a quick start this season instead of his usual slow start. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 3-5 shooting (0-1 from three, 2-4 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 5 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers and 2 fouls in 18 minutes. The Action: He grabbed a board, pushed it out in a crowd, went around a defender and scored a layup. He was called for a travel on a double team. He swished a catch-and-shoot wing jumper on an inbounds. He posted up, drew the double and hit Pau for the open jumper. He missed a corner jumper. He posted up and drew FTs, he made one. He missed a wide open corner three at the end of the half. He had 5 points on 2-4 shooting. Second Half: He turned the corner, attacked and drew FTs. He attacked from the wing and scored a layup.

Luke -- -- Not much to report from Luke's game. He had a nice set-up play to Pau for a score, but not much else than that. Phil is going very light with his minutes early on in the preseason. The Stats: He didn't score, didn't shoot, had 1 board, 1 assist, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 8 minutes. The Action: He pushed off on a defensive board and gave up FTs. He set up Pau for FTs off the two-man game with a nice bounce pass. Second Half: Nothing to report.

Brown -- -- He entered the game and immediately got the crowd going with another dunk. He played some of the better D from the PG spot tonight until he managed to get called for undercutting a couple of shooters in the second half. We saw the Brown, Kobe and Artest trio out there together which could be a real strong defensive unit against some teams. Phil liked Shannon's activity out there and mentioned it after the game. His time was limited by a nose bleed. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-4 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 1 board, 3 assists, 1 block and 3 fouls in 11 minutes. The Action: He filled the lane next to Farmar, took the pass, elevated and threw down with both hands. Nice D fighting over the top of the screen and he drew an offensive foul. Second Half: He missed an open baseline jumper. He missed a wing three. He attacked to his left an hit a fading jumper with the shotclock low. He undercut a couple of shooters for three-point opportunities.

Vujacic -- -- He didn't hit a shot, but he wasn't taking them, either. The Lakers ran Shannon Brown some at the SG tonight. One would think that will be the biggest threat to Sasha's minutes this season. Keep an eye on this battle. Some good hustle on the glass by Sasha and he ended up as one of the top Laker rebounders, which shouldn't happen. The Stats: He didn't score on 0-1 shooting, grabbed 5 boards, had 1 turnover and 1 foul in 10 minutes. The Action: He got Maggette into an offensive foul, when Mags got caught trying to shed him with a forearm. He threw an entry pass away in transition, points the other way. He missed a long wing jumper coming off the double screens. Nice hustle on the offensive glass to get the Lakers and extra shot (which he immediately asked for, but Ron thought better of it by waiting to run clock down at the end of the half instead). Second Half: Nothing to report.

Farmar -- -- Farmar made 2-5 from three. The rest of the team went 0-13. Not pretty shooting and, really, quite the opposite of what you want to see against a running team like the Warriors. Had any of the others actually hit some threes, we might have had more of a game. While he was the only one hitting threes, Farmar wasn't immune to the sloppy play. He had a couple pretty plays, but some of the basic post entry passing from our guards tonight left a lot to be desired. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 3-7 shooting (2-5 from three) to go with 2 boards, 3 assists and 3 turnovers in 17 minutes. The Action: He missed an open sideline three. He attacked and threw a pass away. Bad clock management at the end of the first and we didn't get a shot off. He stopped on the dribble and swished a long wing jumper. Next time down, he pulled up like Kobe and drained the transition three. He missed a wing three from the other side short. He had 5 points on 2-4 shooting. Second Half: Sloppy, telegraphed post entry pass to a wide open Bynum and it was easily picked off for transition points the other way. He drained a three off the high pinch post. He broke his man off the dribble, drew the D and flipped a pass to Powell for the dunk. He didn't get squared up cleanly and bricked a three. He stepped on the baseline for a turnover. He attacked baseline and was blocked. He found Gelabale on a dive cut for FTs.

Powell -- -- Not much action in the heat of the battle, but he seemed to pick it up in garbage time. The team has kind of forgotten how to use him. You got to work the pick and pops. Call him out to set screens instead of dumping it to him in the post. That will come. It's a bit subtle for the chaos that is early preseason ball. The Stats: He scored 4 points on 2-3 shooting (0-2 from the line) to go with 2 assists, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 16 minutes. The Action: He played 6 minutes in the first half and was briefly matched up with Maggette again. Second Half: He dunked off the drive and dish from Jordan. Another post up move, another brick. He spotted Gelabale under the hoop for a layup. He got out in transition, took the pass, up-faked defenders and scored an And-1 layup, he missed the FT. He faked from the three line, attacked and drew FTs.

Morrison -- -- Adam seemed a hair more active out there on both ends of the floor. It's rare that you use the word "aggressive" with him in his Laker stint, but he scored his only points on an aggressive move down the lane. Nice to see. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-2 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 3 boards, 1 assist and 2 fouls in 9 minutes. The Action: Did not play in the first half. Second Half: He came in for Artest with under three minutes left in the third and helped get an 8-second violation with the full-court press. He attacked from the pinch post with some aggression and hit the floater in the lane. He had to chuck a three at the shotclock buzzer and missed.

Gelabale -- -- Of the bubble bench guys, he has seemed like the most worthy of winning a roster spot in the first two games. He just looks comfortable out there. Has shown range on the jumper, but also an ability to work around the rim. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-3 shooting (2-2 from the line) to go with 1 board and 1 turnover in 6 minutes. The Action: Did not play in the first half. Second Half: In with 6 minutes left. He missed a baseline jumper. He scored a layup off a Powell feed. He sank a wing jumper while standing on the three line. He drew FTs on a dive cut when Farmar spotted him, he made both.

Gaffney -- -- He was active on the boards...active in general. That seems to be his M.O. He also showed some ability to slash and set up a teammate. The Stats: He didn't score on 0-2 shooting, grabbed 4 boards, had 1 assist, 1 block and 1 foul in 6 minutes. The Action: Did not play in the first half. Second Half: He missed a baseline jumper. He attacked and kicked to Gelabale for a jumper.

Fey -- -- Some garbage-time run. Nothing stood out in his game. His lone score was off a defensive mistake that gave him a gimmie layup. The Stats: The Action: Did not play in the first half. Second Half: He missed an open 14-footer. He put back in a missed FT that fell right into his hands.

Kelati -- -- He came in for Kobe and immediately sank a jumper. That was his main highlight tonight, but good to see. Probably some of that confidence gained from playing Euroleague for the past few years. He missed his next two shots. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-3 shooting (0-1 from three) to go with 1 board and 1 foul in 8 minutes. The Action: Came in for a few seconds. Second Half: He came in for Kobe with 2 minutes left in the third. He immediately drained a wing jumper on his first touch. He missed a wing three. He chucked up a long pull-up off iso and missed.

Phil -- -- Sloppy start by the Lakers, particularly DFish, and the Lakers trailed 16-8 after 6 minutes. Phil brought in LO for Pau... Down 21-20, Phil finally brought in Farmar for Fisher, running a Pau, Lamar, Luke, Sasha, Farmar lineup... The Lakers trailed 29-24 after the first quarter. The Lakers had 10 turnovers in the quarter, Fisher with 3... Phil sat LO for Powell, then ended up going with a Bynum, Powell, Luke, Brown, Farmar lineup... He brought back in Kobe and Artest shortly later, sliding Brown to the PG... Poor job in the first half feeding the post or setting up their bigmen to take advantage of their size. The offense was out of synch with players running into each other on multiple occasions... The Lakers trailed 52-48 at the half, surviving 16 turnovers and 4 Kobe fouls. The Lakers shot just 1-10 from three... Coaches were irked at the turnovers with helped ignite the Warriors uptempo game. The missed threes also played into that... The Lakers trailed by 14, but then started pounding the ball into their bigmen and cut the lead to 71-63, forcing a timeout... The Lakers trailed 76-68 after three... Phil went with Bynum, Lamar, Ammo, Kelati and Brown. They cut it to 6, but after a couple Warriors threes, the Lakers quickly trailed by 12 again... Garbage time the rest of the way... Execution and spacing was horrible tonight. Pretty much what you expected to see in that last game. The Warriors defended a little better, taking away our first options at times. That will typically confuse a preseason team... The Lakers ended up with 25 turnovers and shot 2-18 from three -- an ugly combination... Phil on the replacement refs: "They're interesting to look at. I always wonder what their profession is."

[Indianer1]

first!

edit: i logged in just for this

[Ray_Gonzoles]

Very sloppy game by the Lakers. They looked out of sync all night. Don’t know if it was playing at the Forum or they didn’t respect playing the Warriors twice in a row. The now have a week to work out the kinks before the Sacramento game.

As always, thanks for the recaps DB.
_________________
"Just show up ready to work, ready to play, Have your big boy pants on, leave your diaper at home." Kobe Bryant
Anything less than a championship is a failure. Period.

[angrypuppy]

Mistah Kurtz. He dead.

And so was the execution last night.

[DancingBarry]

[Tanlentueux]

thanks for the recap DB !

[TooMuchMajicBuss]

Thanks DB. Lackluster game but a good write-up! I missed about half of tonight's game with a broken door lock I had to fix; and it sounds like I had a bit more fun than most people did watching this stinker.

Actually what I did see wasn't bad -- Drew looks good again, Artest too. Good to see a brief flash of life from Ammo, however fleeting it was. Shannon seems intent on at least 1 highlight reel dunk per night. No complaints there!

As far as the score well it's just a preseason game, the win/loss column takes a back seat to evaluating players, combos, and matchups.

[IPK]

[Sage_10]

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

[Laker7]

Fisher 2 assists 4 turn overs 2-7 FGM-A
Farmar 3 assists 3 turn overs 3-7 FGM-A
Brown 3 assists 0 turn overs 2-4 FGM-A

Can't have that out of our PG position and still win.
_________________
Darvin Ham is an idiot!

[20,000]

You have Brown listed ahead of Farmar. Is this because Brown came in ahead of Jordan, or just personal preference?
_________________
Courage doesn't always roar.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying...'I will try again tomorrow.'

[limchrc]

thanks

[oldschool32]

I've only watched parts of both games... so how does Gelabale look? Ready to resume his nba career?
_________________
"It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up."-The Greatest

[Rick12322]

Poor DB, must hate recapping crap games like this. Oh well, it's preseason, this is what I expected from our first game.

Nellie's small ball game plan was to have his guards run into our bigs to get them tentative on defense and in foul trouble, and the rookie refs fell for it.. That set the tone for this game.

The spacing was piss poor for us because we were cold as ice from the perimeter.

Still, inspite of all that, we could have gotten the ball to our bigs and made them pay, but our post entry passes were pathetic. But had we continued to work on getting the ball inside and ran our starters longer, like in regular season games, we still could have pulled this game out.

[revgen]

I find it interesting that Phil criticizes the defense for losing the game when the problem was really turnovers. I guess Phil just wants them to focus on that end.
_________________
I Recommend VLC Player: http://www.videolan.org/

[dcarter4kobe]

What was Kobe and S.Jax fussing about? anybody got a link?
_________________
"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."

[Prometheus8]

It feels so good to read these write-ups again after every game. Thanks DB.

Interesting factoid looking at the box score:

Golden State used 10 players
Lakers used 16 players
_________________
"Every time he got an offensive rebound, it was deflating," Hornets coach Monty Williams said ... "I thought Bynum decided the series. He was that good."

"...one of the most valuable players in the league…"– Phil Jackson about Ron Artest in 2005

[pg22]

The only thing more annoying than Fisher's game is his overly cliche quotes. And he wants us to keep him for one more year? Good riddance.

[Mation]

Thanks DB! Too bad Gelabale got cut.

[prisma8slg]

thanks DB!
_________________
"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."

[LakerLanny]