Thoughts on the Spurs Game

I know the final score was discouraging, but I came away somewhat impressed with the potential of this team last night. A few positives the team can build on include.</p>

- Dominating the Spurs on the glass</p>

At one point in the 1st half the Lakers had twice as many rebounds as the Spurs. We were limiting them to one and done by keeping Duncan and Oberto off the offensive glass. The Lakers ended up outrebounding the Spurs 50 to 40 last night.</p>

- Shutdown Tim Duncan</p>

The Lakers ran some interesting double teams last night on Duncan and it worked to perfection. He ended up shooting 2-13 from the field and only got to the free throw line one time. Everytime Duncan had his back to the basket and started making his move Kobe would sprint along the baseline and come from Duncan's blindspot. Duncan wasn't in a position to find the open man and Kobe was able to disrupt his rhythm and also had the one highlight block on him. The Lakers seemed focus on shutting Duncan down and they accomplished that. Unfortunately, Duncan's teammates were on fire from behind the arc and the team had no answer for Tony Parker's dribble penetration.</p>

- Andrew Bynum & Jordan Farmar</p>

These two are getting better and better each game. Farmar is playing with a lot of confidence right now and is starting to figure out how to balance being a playmaker and being a scorer. He still needs to work on his defense, but it's just a matter of time before he starts playing the majority of minutes at PG for us. He's becoming a lot more comfortable on the court and is becoming a floor leader for this team.</p>

Andrew Bynum had 11 points and 12 rebounds in just 26 minutes. He only had two shot attempts when the game was close and deserves A LOT more touches than he's getting. The Lakers most make a concerted effort to get him the ball in the post. In the past he didn't do a good of working for position, but he's been doing it this year and isn't getting rewarded. What pisses me off is when Kobe phases him out of the offense by settling for low percentage jumpshots or off balanced fadeaway jumpshots when Bynum has single coverage. Kobe doesn't seem to mind passing to Kwame when a double team comes, but he's been reluctant to pass it to Bynum. I think Bynum needs to be on the floor with Luke, Turiaf, and Fisher because they both make a point of getting him the ball in the post.</p>

The Lakers were able to stay close in the first half despite 14 turnovers. The turnovers were the difference in this game. I think San Antonio ended up with 21 points off 19 Laker turnovers.</p>

The negatives tonight were the same things the Lakers had troubles with in their loss to the Hornets.</p>

- Dribble Penetration</p>

It's a lost cause trying to stop Tony Parker with single coverage. He's too quick off the dribble, has the change of direction handle, and does a magnificent job of running you right into a screen. If a team doesn't have the rotations or shotblocking inside Parker is going to kill you. Chris Paul was doing the exact same thing to us in the Hornets game and the Lakers couldn't stop him either. The problem with the defense was the indecision making. If you're going to double team then get to your spot right away and force the ball out of Parker's hands so the rest of the rotation can adjust. The Lakers weren't doing this last night or in the Hornets game. They didn't commit to helping out and put themselves and the rest of the team in bad defensive positioning leading to several options for the ballhandler to go with.</p>

The indecision leads to leaving 3 point shooters wide open for jumpshots or leads to back door cuts without your last line of defense in a position to make a play. The Lakers need to work on trapping the point guard and forcing him into only one option to get rid of the ball and then have the defensive rotation jump that pass or force the guard into calling a timeout. The Lakers have the length to get it done, but they have to trust their instincts and commit to them.</p>

- Turnovers</p>

The rate the team is turning the ballover in losses is alarming. 14 first half turnovers against any team let alone the Spurs puts you behind the 8 ball everytime. Maybe the team had too, many days off and had some rust on them, but some of those turnovers last night were frustrating as hell to watch. The one that really pissed me off was when Fisher wasn't ready for a pass in the backcourt to bring the ball up and the ball hit his feet and went out of bounds. How can he not be anticipating that pass?</p>

The boxscore shows Kwame had zero turnovers, but he dropped 3 passes last night that should have been dunks.</p>

- Kobe ZERO Free Throw Attempts</p>

This should never happen and Kobe dogged it last night on offense. He wasn't attacking the Spurs interior enough. Watching Bynum operate in the post last night showed me the Spurs are soft in the middle. Kobe should've recognized this weakness and went right down the center of the paint to put pressure on Duncan. If Duncan rotates over hard, Kobe could have went into his chest to draw a foul or dished it off to Turiaf for a dunk. Kobe instead was settling for jumpshots. Hitting 9/19 from the field isn't bad, but those aren't the hard points the Lakers need from him.</p>

- Get the Ball in the Post</p>

Lamar Odom needs to start taking advantage of his size since he's back at small forward. The one time he went into the post he had Ginobili helplessly guarding him and Odom got an easy basket. Odom has to post up more and the Lakers need to remind him and feed him in the post. Even if he's not going to shoot it he can force the opponent to double team him and open the floor up for everyone else. The Lakers always have 3 viable options to score and draw double teams in the post, but they aren't getting the ball on the inside consistently.</p>

If you compare the shot charts from the 1st quarter thru the 4th quarter the Lakers were getting further and further away from the basket.</p>

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/shotchart?gameId=271113024</p>

The Lakers have to learn to play from the inside-out. Our team is built to win from the inside-out and it starts by getting the ball into the post and forcing double teams.</p>

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