Hawks? Klosed. The Mamba struck again spewing venom as he did it, and the Lakers defeated the Hawks in a thriller 99-98.
The Hawks strategy in this game was to fast break the Lakers to death, and also take advantage of their size mis-matches. They went repeatedly to Al Horford over MWP or Jamison, and Josh Smith over Kobe. They had some success doing that. The downside to their strategy was that it took away their strength of running their point guard Jeff Teague in the pick & roll. Historically the Lakers have had trouble defending the pick & roll with speedy point guards. The Lakers did their best to defend with a much smaller team.
The Lakers led by as many as 16 points in the 3rd quarter, but they let Hawks back in the game by turning the ball over. It led up to a tie ball game with about 2 minutes to go. And that's when the Mamba struck. He threw down a MONSTROUS jam over Josh Smith that fired up the team. In each ensuing possession he drove to the rack repeatedly either scoring or drawing a foul. A miscommunication between Dwight Howard and MWP allowed a wide open layup for Al Horford, and the Hawks led 98-97. On the next play Kobe took Horford to the rack and scored again with an acrobatic finish. That the Hawks with the ball down by 1 with 9 seconds remaining. It was time for a defensive stop. A similar play was run by the Hawks, this time getting Josh Smith a wide open look under the basket. Fortunately he fumbled the pass. The Lakers then swarmed him, and tipped the ball when he tried to pass it out. Steve Blake intercepted the pass and that was all she wrote.
Notables:
The Good:
- Some retro #8 Frobe dunks in this game. (Recommend you watch the highlights if you missed it)
- Nash looked VERY aggressive tonight, and every point was needed
- Solid contributions from MWP and Jamison
- Got a win despite a lot of missed easy ones, and miscues
The Bad:
- 21 turnovers
- Offense was stagnant at times
- Bench was outplayed
The Lakers next play OKC in Oklahoma on Tuesday. As Kobe said in the post game interview, "Let's get it on." Vintage Vino.
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