<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Records: Lakers 27-14 (6 seed); Cavaliers 23-19 (6 seed) Offensive ratings: Lakers 111.9 (6th); Cavaliers 106.2 (17th) Defensive ratings: Lakers 106.0 (8th); Cavaliers 110.4 (26th) Projected Starting Lineups: Lakers: Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Luke Walton, Lamar Odom, Kwame Brown Cavaliers: Larry Hughes, Ira Newbie, LeBron James, Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilgauskas Lakers Notes: It’s raining in Southern California, but if you listen to Lakers fans you’d think the sky is falling. It’s not. Three weeks ago people were debating if this team could beat the Spurs in a seven game series, and after two losses in a row half the fan base is willing to trade anyone and everyone just to stop the bleeding. Relax, people. This is not the time for a panic move to “salvage the season” because that is how you end up with the Knicks roster. The Lakers are 2-3 without Bynum and those losses are to Phoenix, San Antonio and Dallas. They beat a good Denver team in that stretch (and Seattle). Sure, the Lakers looked bad on a trip through Texas, but a lot of teams look bad in Texas. The Lakers are still trying to find themselves without their second best player. Good teams find a way through this, the Lakers have and need time to figure it out. Doing so makes them better come the playoffs, better for next season. Not that the Lakers players, fans and coaches shouldn’t expect better and more consistent play than we saw the last couple of games. I rewatched the third quarter of the Lakers game against the Mavericks yesterday afternoon. Because I’m a masochist. But the lessons from that experience have been well documented before — the Lakers start ran too much isolation offense; then when someone (Kobe, Fisher, Farmar) drive into the paint, the help defender comes off Kwame, something teams dared not do off Bynum; the help defense is slow; Odom is not being aggressive and does not fight for position on the block to get a pass; Walton his hobbling. But none of that is reason to panic. The Cavaliers Coming In: Since the Lakers played Cleveland last month, the Cavs have gone 11-4, looking like a team that Boston and Detroit would like to avoid in the playoffs. How have they turned it around? I asked Brian Windhorst, the Cavs beat writer for the Akron Beacon Journal (and True Hoop favorite, one of the beat writers around the league that really gets the blogging thing right). The Cavs turned things around when they starting using a defensive lineup to start games — with big guards Larry Hughes and Sasha Pavlovic defending the perimeter — and using a small lineup to finish them. This often means Anderson Varejao at center, LeBron at power forward, versatile Devin Brown at small forward and Damon Jones and Daniel Gibson at the guards. This is a hard lineup to defend because LeBron plays point guard and attracts double teams and he can kick it to the shooters or play pick-and-roll with Varejao, who is hard to deal with. They have been a great fourth quarter team for most of the season, they play many games close and then let James make plays at the end to win it. The Cavs will not start Pavlovic as he got injured and is out for six weeks. James is still having an MVP-caliber season — he is shooting 51.2% (eFG%) while using 32.5% of his team’s possessions (the highest percentage in the league, and nobody else in the top five shoots over 50%). He also has the highest PER in the league right now. And in those clutch moments Windhorst talks about? (Fourth quarter or overtime, less than 5 minutes left, neither team ahead by more than 5 points). James is shooting 53.9% (eFG%), a higher percentage than he shoots the rest of the game. The best way to stop him from beating you at the end of games? Don’t let it be close. Last time these two met: This was one of the few times this season the Lakers bench cost them a game. The starters (with Bynum and Walton) built up an 11-point lead that came completely unraveled with a 16-0 run from late in the third into the fourth. The Lakers got close and even took a 2-point lead back in the fourth. But it was a close game. And James took over. And the Cavs won by four with a 6-0 run to close the game. Keys To The Game: The Lakers have to crash the boards hard. Yes, Kwame and Lamar, I’m looking at you. The Lakers gave up 13 offensive rebounds to the Mavericks and now they go up against the third best offensive rebounding team in the league (Cleveland grabs 29.8% of their misses). The Lakers can’t give up a bunch of easy second chances. Besides James, only other player who has provided a season of good offense for the Cavs is Ilgauskas, who is shooting 48.4% for the season. Kwame can use his strength to defend him in the post, but he’s got to step out with him because Ilgauskas can hit the 17-footer if you give him the look. Watch out for the pick-and-pop with him. With teams like the Cavs that rely so much on one player, I’ve always been a fan of letting him have a big game but not letting the other Cavs get in the action. When LeBron drives and dishes to an open Gibson for a three, that’s when they make runs. The Lakers need to stay disciplined on defense. On offense, Kobe should be able to get his and if the Lakers just run the offense and don’t fall into an isolation game they will be fine. Where you can watch: Game time is 12:30 p.m. (Pacific) and no matter where you live you will be subjected to the ABC broadcast.</div> Source: ForumBlueandGold
This is an important game for us tonight. The Lakers fell flat on their two game road skid and Odom has been dragged through the fire after his pathetic production. He was 0007 in the the Dallas game not scoring, rebounding, or getting a single assist in the 2nd half of the game. The Cavs are always a tough matchup for us because we don't really have anyone to defend LeBron and the Cavs defense makes it tough to score easy baskets and get a rhythm going. A week ago the Laker fans booed Kwame for not showing up, do the boo birds come out for Odom tonight to let him know how Laker Nation feels about him? How will Odom respond tonight now that his name is being circulated in the rumor mill? Has he completely checked out mentally for the team? At least Kwame had the class to apologize to his teammates after his poor showing, but Lamar took a different route after the Dallas game and got into a shouting match with PJax. Lamar has never owned up and taken accountability for his actions or lack there of.
Yep we'd better win this one. If we continue this poor play for another week, we will lose our playoff seed, as crazy as that sounds. We need to come out strong, and not have anymore mental lapses in the third quarter. Lamar must step up and score more than 4 points, but that seems to be too much to ask for, so Fisher, Farmar, and everyone else must pick up the slack. Btw, bench Walton too if that's possible
Adjustments for this game and RADMAN could be back tonight! <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>EL SEGUNDO — Lamar Odom was quite glum after the game Friday night in Dallas, where he stayed out of sync on offense, didn’t stop Dirk Nowitzki on defense and heard some words from Phil Jackson when Jackson pulled him in the third quarter. On Saturday back home, Jackson followed through on what I suggested in the game story would make sense: He tweaked the triangle offense to set up Odom for some advantageous scenarios to score in games. “Kobe (Bryant) came over to me last night and said he felt like there’s more pressure on Lamar to score now that Andrew (Bynum)’s out,” Jackson said, “and he’s pressing. So we did a few things here hopefully to advance some of those opportunities to score and be a part of it.” Luke Walton acknowledged that he feels more pressure to score by how he said he was going to go out and search out more shots now. “It has been weird,” he said. “The team has been moving the ball, but for some reason I haven’t been getting that many shots within the offense. I guess I’ve got to kind of get out there and start looking more for my shot instead of waiting for it to come to me.” There will be more depth coming at forward with Vladimir Radmanovic (ankle) perhaps returning Sunday against Cleveland. Radmanovic hit all 10 jump shots he took in a drill Saturday, which Jackson said wins Radmanovic (who is on a $30 million contract) a financial prize by team rule: $10.</div> Source: OC Register I hope those adjustments work, but those comments by Odom and Luke piss me off. They feel more pressure to score now? NO SHIT! They should be embracing it and stepping up to the plate.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Lakers vs. Cavaliers - 1/27/2008 Saturday, Jan 26 The Cavs have been in a pretty good groove since they beat us in the middle of December. They have been 11-4 but now have to overcome the loss of Sasha Pavlovic, who will be out for about six weeks. In their most recent game – a 2 point home loss to the Phoenix Suns – Ira Newble started in place of Pavlovic. They definitely lose something in the perimeter shooting department with that change. There are three main areas that we need to impact to beat the Cavs. Obviously the first is LeBron James. There are a multitude of ways that he can hurt the opposition. The first is in transition. He is a threat to rebound the ball and power out on the dribble to lead the break where he can take it coast to coast, run a “drag” screen and roll, or simply penetrate and pitch out to open shooters. In the half-court they will run pick and rolls with James handling (and some with him setting) and they will also isolate him with the ball. These isolations can occur in the low post, on the wing, or at the top. Each location provides different obstacles for the defense but when he is at the top with the ball and a live dribble it is especially difficult. Like with many of the great players, it will be necessary to mix up our coverages to try and keep him guessing. A steady diet of any kind of defense usually doesn’t work with the great ones. The second area of concern is center Zydrunas Ilgauskas. He is a big long player and is capable in the low post or in pick and pop actions. They like to try and go to him early to make sure he is involved in the game so we need to be ready to defend him without fouling. If he is able to put our big men in foul trouble it could make for a long afternoon. The third area is rebounding, especially on the offensive end of the floor. In the game at Cleveland we gave up 15 offensive rebounds which is too many. Anderson Varejao is capable of creating multiple extra possessions in a game for the Cavs with his offensive rebounds, his active hands tipping the ball, and by taking charges (flopping). We cannot let him out-work and out-hustle us. This is a much better defensive team than when we saw them a little more than a month ago. They do a good job of keeping a ‘foot in the paint’. It kind of makes their man-to-man defense seem like your facing a zone when it comes time to penetrate. We really need to move the ball from side to side to get opportunities. In the game at Cleveland they tried to pressure our ball handlers and deny our wing entry passes. When this happens, regardless of what play is called, we should switch into our sequence of “Automatics”. These options are designed as pressure release actions and if everyone executes it can get some easy baskets for us.</div> Lakers scouting report for tonight from Lakers.com
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Bynumite @ Jan 27 2008, 02:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Bench Odom and Walton. Lakers 2-2 with an injured Bynum. </div> Actually we're 2-3 now, but a win tonight puts us back on track for the .500 goal. The Lakers have been competitive the last two games, but the 3rd quarter differential has been overwhelming for us. Spurs outscored us 31-12 Dallas outscored us 35-19 That's a combined 66-31 difference in the 3rd quarter. I think PJax might need to switch up the rotation coming out of half time and start Farmar to keep the energy level up. He can't sit back and not call a quick timeout when his team comes out slow and the ball isn't moving around on offense and no one is moving their feet on defense. PJax needs to have a quick leash tonight.
Losing against Dallas, Phoenix, and San Antonio without Bynum, Ariza, Mihm, etc. aren't really disappointing losses. 3 of the best teams in the West. As the Lakers play teams that aren't in the top 4 of the West, their record will be better than 2-3.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lavalamp @ Jan 27 2008, 03:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Losing against Dallas, Phoenix, and San Antonio without Bynum, Ariza, Mihm, etc. aren't really disappointing losses. 3 of the best teams in the West. As the Lakers play teams that aren't in the top 4 of the West, their record will be better than 2-3.</div> I agree it's not the end of the world for the team, but what's disappointing is we had a lead in all 3 games and gave it up after halftime. All 3 of those games were winnable for us, but we couldn't close those teams out.
ODOM SCORES, GOOD TAKE FOR HIM. CAVS MISS AGAIN LAKERS UP 4-0 FISH MISSES A 3 HUGHES MISSES A 3 HUGHES MAKES A 3 KWAME WITH A TIP IN OFF A LUKE MISS!
BIG Z WITH A TIP IN OFF A MISS ODOM SCORES AGAIN! LAKERS LOOK SHARP EARLY ON AND HAPPY TO BE ON THEIR HOME COURT.
I just realized my caps lock was on LOL. Odom attacks the rim again and draws the foul. Lakers leading by 1 point 8-7 early on. Lamar misses the 1st Lamar misses the 2nd
LeBron scores and gives Cleveland the lead. Luke on LeBron is a real ugly match-up for us. PJax just called a timeout after Luke got beaten down the court for an easy LeBron layup.
Lamar looks sharp early in the game, he put the ball nicely on the court past a couple of defenders for a pretty lay-up. He's 4-4 with 8 points.
Odom and Kwame came to play tonight so far. Lakers are doing a good job of getting out and pushing the tempo for 3 on 2 advantages and easy baskets.
