The Lakers were looking forward to this game as a measuring stick. They got their answer. They're good, but they're not quite there yet as a team. They fell to the first place Clippers 102-107. Although the Lakers never led, they battled back from 18 and 19 point deficits. Amongst a bevy clutch buckets from Bryant, and a clutch 3 from Nash, the Lakers pulled within 2 (97-99) with about a minute left in the game. CP3 drove to the hoop and was blocked by MWP, but a foul was called on Dwight Howard. It was his sixth foul so he had to leave the contest. On the next play Kobe attempted a tough 3 that barely rimmed out. Chris Paul made 2 free throws to extend their lead to 6. Jodie Meeks hit a 3 pointer on the following play, but CP3 made his free throws from then out, effectively ending the game.
Early on in the game the Lakers were force feeding Dwight. These were mostly post looks. It was a good strategy because Dwight was scoring and getting the Clippers frontcourt into foul trouble. The only problem was the Lakers defense couldn't get stops on the other end. They went into the second down 22-29. It was a manageable deficit. To start the second however Coach D'Antoni went with a Morris, Meeks, Peace, Gasol, Howard lineup. As color announcer Stu Lance pointed out, Coach D'Antoni should always have at least Bryant or Nash in the back court, and Gasol or Howard in the front court. In that manner you always have at least 1 shot creator and 1 inside threat on the court at all times. I couldn't agree more. Especially with Blake and Duhon out, the Lakers have no facilitator on the second unit. The Clippers were able to expand their 7 point lead to an 18 point lead during that stretch, until Bryant and Nash re-entered the game. When their two hall-of-fame guards came back in, they cut the 18 point lead down to 4 (which the Clippers were able to push back to 10 by the half).
The Lakers struck quick with a 7-0 run to start the 3rd, but the Clippers responded with a 7-0 run of their own. Then the Lakers found themselves down 19 points in the 3rd, but fought back to bring it within 2 before the crunch time moments I described earlier. There were also some injury scare moments with Howard (shoulder) and Jordan Hill (ankle). They will be evaluated soon.
Notables:
The Good:
- The Lakers showed some heart coming back from big deficits. Ideally they would keep falling behind by double digits though.
- The Mamba was clutch and efficient all game (15/25 FG). Only 1 or 2 of his shots was forced.
- Nash shot the ball really well. I would like to see him shoot more.
- Jordan Hill gave a big spark off the bench. He's part of the reason the Lakers bench almost matched the Clippers bench (27 points vs 30 points). Although it should be noted the Clippers were without Jamal Crawford
The Bad:
- The Lakers gave up too many offensive rebounds
- Poor performances from Pau and Metta. Both shot 1/6 from the floor. There was one play where Pau received a pass 2 feet from the rim, and he couldn't even jump to shoot. His health issues are serious.
- Inconsistent play offensively and defensively.
- Lack of player movement offensively
- No defined team "style." Are they uptempo, slow it down, in the middle?
- Why wait till the 4th to play bettter defense?
- Dwight still looks way less than 100%.
Adjustments still need to be made strategically. I liked the Dwight guarding Griffin matchup in the 4th. I didn't like Nash and Bryant sitting to start the second. I'm still worried about the Spanish Wonder Pau fitting in. I think when fully healthy, he's versatile enough to do it, even being naturally a little flat footed. But it's clear he's not and it makes the team very slow on defensive rotations. The front office is probably entertaining trade ideas at the moment. Hopefully he can get healthy and do what he does best, play basketball at a high level.
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