Lakers at 76ers (12/16/12)

The Philadelphia 76ers had only given up over 100 pts to an opponent once in their last nine games.  That is until the LA Lakers showed up this afternoon.  With a final score of 111-98, the Lakers ended their 4 game road trip by winning their last 2 games.  From the onset the Lakers were focused.  For the first time in a long time they were running the 4 out 1 in offensive sets really well.  The spacing was there and the shots were falling.  With Jrue Holiday out for the Sixers the Lakers could switch everything on the pick and roll, and it worked well.  Their defense was there all night and they rotated well in help the helper situations.

If you don't follow the NBA or the Lakers regularly you'd be hard pressed to recognize some the lineups the Lakers are fielding. With Nash (shin fracture), Gasol (knee tendinitis), Blake (abdominal surgery), and Hill (back spasms) out it's not uncommon to see lineups of Morris, Meeks, Ebanks, Jamison, and Howard on the floor.  The bench played well tonight so that was not a factor.  Morris and Meeks were the bench scorers tonight providing 15 and 12 points respectively.  Those were huge for the Lakers and allowed Kobe to pick his spots when to switch from being the Mamba or the facilitator. MWP was also huge for the Lakers tonight first setting the tone defensively (4 steals), the adding 19 points and 16 rebounds.

Notables:

The Good:
- Great team effort defensively and offensively
- The Lakers did a good job rebounding the basketball, limiting second chance points for Philly
- I liked how the Lakers got the lead and maintained it throughout the game. Once the Lakers went up by 10 they never led by less than 9
-Duhon played really well.  He'll be a great backup guard when Nash gets back.

The Bad:
- Ebanks and Jamison played a combined 33 minutes for a combined 0 pts
- Big minutes for Kobe again, although he said he's not tired, only sore
- 15 turnovers is still a little too high

Overall a nice finish to the road trip.  Hopefully the team will continue to buy into the new offense/defense and the team will grow.  Let's look for them to build on the momentum against the Bobcats on Tuesday.