Readers questions for Lakers beat reporter Mike Bresnahan. Question: Do you ever ask yourself, "Just what is Luke Walton doing starting for the Lakers?" Earlier in the season when the team actually seemed organized and on message, Walton was safely on the bench (buried like some frozen thing from a sci-fi film). Looking at his turnovers and low number of assists shows that he is not the "organizer" playmaker Phil Jackson says he is. Answer: Funny thing, but the number of anti-Lakers e-mails, including anti-Luke Walton e-mails, actually increased the day after the Lakers defeated Boston on Christmas Day. Happy holidays? At any rate, Lakers fans should remember something important before sending irritated / inquisitive / angry / polite e-mails (I've seen 'em all) about the starting lineup: What matters most is who finishes the games, not who starts them. If you throw away the recent Golden State game, which was a wipeout, here's a look at the Lakers' last seven games. * Boston: Trevor Ariza played 8:45 of the fourth quarter in place of Walton. * New Orleans: Ariza played the entire fourth quarter. * Memphis: Ariza played the entire fourth quarter. * Orlando: Ariza played only 1:12 of the fourth quarter, ceding a majority of the playing time to Vladimir Radmanovic. * Miami: Ariza played 8:58 of the fourth quarter. * New York: Ariza played the entire fourth quarter. * Minnesota: Ariza played 11:59 of the fourth quarter. In other words, with the exception of the Orlando game, Ariza was the Lakers' small forward in the fourth quarter. The way Phil Jackson has set it up, Walton gets the team going in the first and third quarters with his passing, while Ariza clamps down defensively and adds his finishing burst on offense in the second and fourth quarters. It's as simple as that. Really, the Lakers can't have perfect players at all five positions for all 48 minutes of the game. Once everyone gets past that notion, it'll be much better. Q: Why aren't the Lakers making any trade moves at the small forward position? The position is obviously our weakest. A: Sigh . . Q: The Lakers "brought it" for sure [against Boston]. Why can't they bring it every night like that? These guys are young men, they can rest during the off season . . . their window of getting this done soon will diminish with free agency, etc. This is their chance! A: Finally, a question that doesn't deal with trading half the team or juggling the starting lineup! Adrian (my new favorite e-mailer) brings up a good point. Will the Lakers be able to show they are an elite team, and perhaps the best in the league, more often than every other game, if not every other week? We'll know soon enough, at least as far as the regular season goes. If December was a month of boredom for the Lakers, with 10 of their 15 games against sub-.500 teams, January should be a time of piqued interest. Over the next few weeks, there are home games against New Orleans (19-9), Orlando (25-7) and Cleveland (26-5), not to mention a rapid-fire back-to-back trip to Houston (21-12) and San Antonio (20-11). If the Lakers win all five of those games, then, well, there's little wonder about their killer instinct. If they win four of them, that's pretty solid as well. But if they win only two or three of those games, there might be a little problem. At that point, maybe Adrian should show up at practice and remind everybody how young they are, how they can rest during the off-season and how their window of opportunity might be closing. Q: We are 25-5. Don't you think Laker fans just need to relax a bit? A: Yes. A thousand times, yes. Readers can e-mail their questions about the NBA and the Lakers to our beat reporters Mike Bresnahan and Broderick Turner. But please put "Q&A" in the subject field. SOURCE: LA TIMES
Yeah I read this a bit earlier. I don't like Luke starting at all (rather have Vladrad), but he brings up a good point that it doesn't matter as much as to who starts the games as who finishes. As long as we don't start seeing Luke play extended minutes after the first quarter, I guess I'll be fine. Phil is definitely making the right decision to finish games with Ariza on the court. Also, 25-5 amuses me. It amuses me that all we look at nowadays and measure ourselves up to is the Boston Celtics. It seems like the Western Conference doesn't even matter anymore. Nobody even cares about the Pacific Division. Remember a while ago when we were all shitting ourselves when we caught up to the Suns in the standings? Remember a while ago when we were jockeying for the 6th or 7th spot in the playoffs? Boy have things changed. Nowadays, 25-5 is not enough, and fans (including me) are still clamoring for trades. Now I know the situation now is different from the situation a couple of years ago, in that we are trying to compete for the championship, but it's funny how things have turned out. The Suns are now nowhere in our league.
i'll be happy once we clinch that guaranteed home - court advantage throughout the playoffs and the finals!
