Against good defensive teams it’s even more imperative that
the Lakers execute their offense crisply.
That is a tough task with no true point guard available to orchestrate
Mike D’Antoni’s offense. With Nash and Blake out, Kobe is essentially the only
facilitator on the team. He was under
the weather for today’s game and it showed.
Before the game Bryant skipped warm-ups.
Instead he chose to lay out in front of the Lakers’ bench with towels
covering his head. He struggled to get
his legs under him until late in the game, and turned the ball over 10 times. As a result the Lakers struggled to get
dribble penetration for easy buckets. To
compound matters their outside shots were not falling. Any type of offensive structure was
non-existent from start to finish.
Notables:
The Good:
-Kobe gutted this out despite clearly being sick. He played the most minutes of anyone on
either team, and didn’t rest in the second half. Enjoy him before he retires folks, he’s one
of a kind.
-The team showed effort and did not quit. This was true especially on the defensive
end.
-The Lakers did a good job on the boards against the best
rebounding team in the league
The Bad:
-Turnovers (Kobe being the biggest culprit, as the refs did
not agree with him or the Staples’ Center crowd)
-Poor free throw shooting.
23/43 will NOT get it done
-Poor offensive flow due to little ball/player movement, no
dribble penetration, missed open looks
-Terrible production from the bench
Even though it was ugly, I see this as a throw away
game. Because Kobe was sick it was a
huge disruption to the Lakers offense since Indiana actually plays defense. And we already know this team has a slim chance if
the Mamba isn’t 100%. Let’s hope he’s
better by Friday’s contest.
No comments:
Post a Comment