I don't know what kind of New Year's resolutions the Lakers made, but it certainly didn't look like they were related to improving as a basketball team. They dropped their game tonight against Philadelphia 99-103. The Lakers started off cold from their 3 days off, and quickly found themselves in an 11 point hole. They battled back against that deficit all night. They were able to take the cut it to 2, tie, and even take the lead by 4 (in the 2nd quarter), but they could never string together enough offensive/defensive sequences to control the game. Credit Philadelphia for playing hard. However, there's no question the Lakers were capable of winning this game.
The offense never had a rhythm the entire night. Scoring mostly on ISOs due to missing a bevy of open shots, the Lakers had only 8 assists at half time. They shot a putrid 3/22 from behind the arc. Pau & Dwight shot a combined 3/19 from the field. Several players missed a ton of open looks, and collectively the team shot only 39%. That will not get it done. Kobe scored 36 on nearly 50% shooting, but there were several forced shots. Despite all this, the Lakers found themselves down only 2 with about a minute left to play. A slow close out from Pau resulted in a 20 footer by Hawes. Then on the next possession Kobe was trapped off the dribble and threw an ill-advised pass where he thought Howard would be, resulting in a turnover and easy score for Philly. There was another play where the Lakers needed to foul to extend the game. Instead of doing that, their miscommunication allowed Jrue Holiday into a wide open lane for a dunk. The Lakers fell apart in the clutch, and that was that.
One continuing trend I really don't like is the extended minutes Kobe is having to play. I don't think he sat at all in the 2nd half. He is conditioned well, but you can see the lift in his jump shot start to fade late in the fourth because of it. He was 14/29 tonight, but most of his made attempts came at the rim. I thought his jumper was a little flat all night. He needs more rest. And with the way Meeks is playing I think they can get away with it. The team has a tendency to stand around when he has the ball, so it might be better for everyone. If Kobe is rested heading into crunch time tonight, I think the Lakers pull off the ugly W. Coach D'Antoni will have to find a better balance.
Notables:
The Good:
- Good bench contribution from Jordan Hill (10 pts, 8 reb), Meeks, and at time MWP (made his fair share of mistakes as well)
The Bad:
- Disappointing games from Kobe, Pau, Nash, & Dwight. I don't think any of them played how they are capable of playing. Nash didn't control the offense enough, Kobe forced it at times, Dwight missed too many bunnies and didn't run the lane strong, and Pau's shot was off.
- Poor defensive rotations. Several times I saw two players rotating to the same guy.
- Bad shooting from the field, 3-point land, and the free throw line.
- Poor ball AND player movement on offense
The Lakers have their work cut out for them. They've got the Clippers on Friday, which should show if they have or haven't improved.
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