Lakers are better than expected

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">In his second go-round with the Lakers, Phil Jackson has undertaken an unaccustomed challenge — instead of trying to boost a contending team to a championship level, Jackson's task is to lift the Lakers from the humiliations suffered last season into the respectability that has long been the hallmark of the franchise. And he must do this with a roster (with the noticeable exceptions of Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom) full of severely flawed players.

Since Jackson believes that defense is the heart of the game, imagine his distress when the Lakers exhibited total confusion in relinquishing 122 points to Phoenix last Wednesday in their home opener.

Not only did this impotence constitute absolutely the worst defensive performance of any team that Jackson has ever coached, but the team's abysmal attempts to run the triangle were likewise inept.

For sure, the introduction (and re-introduction) of Jackson's concepts will take time. But the evidence presented by the Lakers' 112-92 win over Denver on Sunday points to two conclusions: The Lakers are somewhat better than expected, and the Nuggets are considerably worse than advertised.

Let's break down the Lakers' game plan and see where they are and where they need to be.

Offense
The current version of the triangle is vastly different from the offense Jackson utilized to such wondrous effect in Chicago and in his previous incarnation in Hollywood. And the difference is due to the total confusion of Kwame Brown.

In the low post, the young man is slow with the ball and doesn't know whether to dribble, shoot or pass. (Brown did play well when he was involved in two-man combinations and with his options limited.) Add chronic foul trouble to Brown's woes and he spent more time on the bench than he did on the court. But this turn of events was a boon for the revised offense in that Chris Mihm was able to slide over into the center slot.

So, instead of the triangle being anchored by a big on the box (a la Bill Cartwright, Luc Longley, Shaq), Mihm was positioned at the high post or midway along either foul lane. This alignment left the middle wide open for cutters.

If Mihm's scoring is limited to put-backs, mid-range jumpers and right-handed jump hooks, he was able to pick out the cutters and effectively deliver the ball to them. Denver was unable to cope with this tactic. Also, the constant flow of dive cuts put the Lakers in optimum position to attack the offensive boards. (They accumulated a total of 15, with Mihm nabbing six.)

Devean George and Kobe also took turns manning the high- and mid-post stations. Whereas George's effectiveness there was limited to a single ferocious drive-and-dunk, Kobe was virtually unstoppable on his way to scoring 37 points.

Now for the bad news: Over the course of the entire game, the Lakers reversed the ball a total of only 10 times. A better team than Denver could easily have sealed the ball along the sideline and overloaded the strong side with long-armed defenders.

Thus far, Lamar Odom isn't much of a facilitator. Sure, he can drive and kick, but he has trouble initiating the offense. A telling example was his failure to deliver the ball to Mihm at the high post early in the third quarter when the game was still up for grabs.

Instead of tossing a lob-type entry pass that would allow Mihm to seal his defender on his back while he came to meet the ball, Odom threw a bounce pass. This meant that Mihm had to wait for the ball to get to him and gave his defender a chance to step around him and challenge the incoming pass. Fortunately for the Lakers, Odom's pass was deflected out of bounds by Marcus Camby.

Odom was much more comfortable either attacking the basket or hoisting up jumpers. Yes, he tallied 20 points, but he forced several drives and frequently slowed the offensive movement to a standstill.

Smush Parker showed quick hands, a clever handle, and an earnest desire to master PJ's geometry lessons. When Parker erred, he did soon the side of caution. (He had zero turnovers.)

Sasha Vujacic hit a 3-pointer, but was very shaky with the ball. And, as always, Brian Cook can do little more than catch and shoot.

Kobe is as Kobe does — taking a ton of shots, forcing several pounds worth and weighing in with an astonishing number of spectacular makes. (He was 16-for-31 for 37 points.) Without Shaq (or Brown) clogging up the middle, Kobe had much more room in which to maneuver. The only passes he was interested in making were potential assists (he had five of these; against four turnovers). For the Lakers to squeeze in to the playoffs, Kobe has to maintain his 30-plus point per game average — a piece of cake.

To summarize, there's more lane space in the triangle than ever before, more dive cuts and more of an emphasis on high-post play. There needs to be more ball-reversals, as well as an accelerated learning curve for both Brown and Odom. By the All-Star game (and with the return to health of the Lakers' most savvy passer, Luke Walton), count on the triangle to be much sharper from the baseline to the apex.

Defense
Kobe certainly worked hard in denying wing passes, doubling ball-handlers as they crossed the timeline and sneaking up on post players to jam their shots from behind. Jackson has obviously given Kobe more of a license to chase the ball, and the cover-up rotations behind him were spotty but adequate. In his routine eagerness to block shots, however, Kobe let little Earl Boykins lift him with a head fake 20 feet from the basket.

Brown was off-balance on too many occasions, which was the primary reason why he incurred so many fouls. Mihm was active but was often hypnotized by the ball — as when he let Camby get behind him to catch (and dunk) a 30-foot pass. George battled Carmelo Anthony on every possession.

Parker reached too much, and his four steals were trumped by the five or six times his man beat him into the paint. Parker also had difficulty defending screen-and-roll situations and usually chose to go under the screen.

Odom's defense was not very noticeable — in baseball terms, no runs, no hits, no errors. If the 6-foot-7 Vujacic had shorter arms, he wouldn't be able to play any defense at all. Laron Profit looks to have the potential to some day become a defensive stopper.

Overall, too many players played defense with their hands and not their legs. But the Lakers' so-so defensive efforts were aided considerably by the incompetence of the Nuggets.

Forget about snappy ball movement. Denver's offense was mostly comprised of post-ups for Anthony, drives by Andre Miller or pop shots by Boykins and was punctuated by mostly unforced turnovers (a total of 20) and a puzzling lack of intensity.

It was a very sloppy game, but one of the signs of a good team is being able to win sloppy games.

Yes, the Lakers still need a powerhouse big man and a dependable point guard. But, on the basis of their manhandling of the Nuggets, it seems that all the rest of their negatives are fixable.

As the season wears on, things might get worse for the Lakers before they get better, but they WILL eventually get better.</div>

FoxSports


Alot of this is good criticism, but they can be unfair. Such as the part where they say Kobe only passes to get assists. I haven't seen the game's, but he isn't that bad is he?

 

Thats just stupid he passes to get assists? Uhm no ****? They try to find something to bash him for pretty dumb.

 

Smush is key in the Lakers play IMO, Kobe is being Kobe which is a good thing, Kwame isnt living up to expectations and Mihm is surprising lots of people. Lamar Odom is playing well too, and I think if you add all those factors up it leads to a pretty good team, I've always really liked Smush Parker, I liked him when he was in Cleveland and when he was in Detroit and Phoenix but in no way did I expect him to be a key player on a team like the Lakers.

 

The lakers still have 79 games left to screw up...plenty of time. But seriously, Kobe is the *censored*. He might be the best player in the league.