Lakers at Pelicans (3/6/13)

Gimme dat! Got 'em coach!!  On a MONSTER block by Dwight, the Lakers erased any hope the Pelicans had at evening the score, and went on to win the game 108-102.

Going into the second night of a road back-to-back after a physical game against OKC, it was well known the Lakers would have to dig deep.  In the previous game Kobe aggravated his elbow injury. MWP sprained his ankle. Dwight's injuries have been well documented, and even Clark has caught a bit of the bug (see his braces and protective padding). To their credit the Lakers rose to the challenge.  After Dwight Howard was forced to sit with early foul trouble in the 2nd quarter, the Lakers found themselves down by as much as 25 points.  The game (and their season) was slowly slipping away.

In the 2nd half, the Lakers kept chipping away through Herculean efforts from Kobe Bryant and the huge bench spark or Jodie Meeks.  Meanwhile Howard was almost single-handedly revitalizing the defense.  His increased effort along with the rest of the team's intensity on that side of the floor changed the momentum of the game. It was instrumental in shutting down the Pelican's pick and roll attack. They held outscored the Pelicans 33-9 in the 4th quarter.

There were several key plays down the stretch.  With the game tied at 102-102 Jodie Meeks played great defense of Eric Gordon and forced him to step out of bounds.  Then Kobe and Dwight ran the high screen and roll forcing Robin Lopez to switch onto Kobe.  In a few previous plays Kobe had attacked the lane HARD off of the screen.  Kobe predicted Lopez would play it that way, so he stopped short for the pull up jumper -- money.  With LA up 104-10r2 the Pelicans ran another pick and roll with Gordon and Lopez.  Meeks got beat off the dribble by Gordon so Howard stepped up to contest the shot.  Gordon then passed it down to Lopez who rose for the dunk, but....STUFFED! D12 got the block and recovered the ball.  The Lakers called a timeout and then ran a pretty slick in bounds play that had the Pelicans defending the wrong basket. LOL.  It gave Kobe a wide open dunk, and that was all she wrote.

Notables:

The Good:
- Vingtage Vino yet again.  Putting up 42 points, 12 assists, and 7 rebounds on 67% shooting is just astounding.  Especially at his age.  In case you didn't know it, he's special folks...
- D12 was the defensive captain we need him to be.  Impressive sir. Most impressive
- Meeks with 19 big points off the bench.  His defensive effort was outstanding as well
- Largest deficit comeback win since 2002

The Bad:
- Defense in the first half
- Being down 25 points to anybody
- The Dwight foul trouble trend

People can say what they want about this team, but one thing is certain, they never quit.  I think as long as #24 is on the roster that won't change.  That will ALWAYS be a very scary thing for the rest of the league.  With the win the Lakers pull within 1.5 games of 8th place and 2.5 games from 7th.  Just gotta keep it up boys...