The Los Angeles Lakers have been in a win-one, lose-one slump this past week, beating the teams they should beat, but losing two key games against playoff caliber teams.
Two Sundays ago the Lakers lost a game against the Memphis Grizzlies at home, the sixth seed in the playoff standings in the west. Then on Thursday night the Lakers hosted the Oklahoma City Thunder, tied for the best record in the league at 40-12 with the Chicago Bulls, and despite a great first quarter and a half time lead, the Lakers could not find their rhythm in the second half and lost 102-93.
The Lakers enjoyed a 12 point lead at the end of the first quarter and sustained that lead for most of the second quarter, but gave up a run at the end of the half that allowed the Thunder to cut the lead to five. Despite the heart warming video montage and touching welcome back from the Lakers fans to Derek Fisher, it was Fisher who provided the spark off the bench for the Thunder. He scored all of his seven points in the second and his play seemed to wake up the Thunder. Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum came ready to play from the tip, combining for 48 points, but it was not enough, as the defense could not stop the Thunder in the second half. Russell Westbrook showed the Lakers why he is an All-Star scoring 36 points in 42 minutes. Most impressive about his play, he had only one turnover for the game.
This was the second meeting between the Lakers and the Thunder, and in both meetings, the Lakers played a great first half but were unable to maintain their play in the second half. They have to start playing this team for a full 48 minutes with the same intensity level throughout the game.
The week was not all bad as they beat the Golden State Warriors twice, and the New Orleans Hornets. In the first meeting against the Warriors, the Lakers played their typical road game by jumping out to a comfortable lead and giving it up late. The Lakers gave away the lead with under a minute to play, but Kobe Bryant did what he does best, close out games. He scored back-to-back shots over the outstretched arms of the defenders from the left corner. The first shot tied the game while the second one regained the lead.
The 104-101 victory over the Warriors was not the biggest concern for the Lakers leaving the Bay area, but it was the attitude and benching of Andrew Bynum. Bynum took an ill-advised 3-point shot with 16 seconds left of the shot clock. The combination of the shot and lack of focus and energy had Bynum watching the end of the game from the bench. There is no reason for him to shoot a 3-point shot if it is not to beat the shot/game clock. His demeanor was unacceptable as he was laughing on the bench and stating in a post-game interview that he will keep shooting 3-pointers. He is only 24-years old, but he needs to quickly mature.
Next Page: The Weed Ahead
Although the Lakers are home through Friday with only two official home games, Tuesday versus the New Jersey Nets and Friday against the Houston Rockets, the Lakers are technically on the “road” Wednesday night as they battle the Clippers for the third and final time this season.
First off for the Lakers this week are the New Jersey Nets who are on a west coast road trip. At 19-35, the Nets have a player that always give the Lakers trouble, point guard Deron Williams. Leading the team in both points and assists, he is a floor general who can lead a team to victory any given day. They come into town on a three game winning streak beating Indiana, Golden State, and Sacramento, so the Lakers have to be ready to get a team that is going to be playing with confidence. They must get production out of Bynum and Pau Gasol as they have the size and skill edge over Brook Lopez and Kris Humphries, and Ramon Sessions has to take care of the ball and be more aggressive on the offensive end. His seven points, five assists, and five turnovers will not cut it. He needs to average 10-plus points and six plus assists for the Lakers to be successful.
Wednesday night is the cross locker room rival game between the Lakers and Clippers. The last time these two teams met, the Clippers had the better record, but times have changed as both teams added and dropped players and lost players to injuries. This time the Lakers are the team with the better record as the Clippers try to surpass the Lakers for the best team in LA. The match-ups to watch in this game are Blake Griffin versus Gasol and Chris Paul versus Sessions. Gasol usually gives Griffin a bit of trouble because of his height and athleticism, but Griffin has added a 15-foot shot to his arsenal that Gasol will have to respect. If Griffin can consistently knock down the shot, he will force Gasol to step out and guard him, which will allow Griffin to use his speed and strength to drive to the basket.
The other match-up is that of the point guards, CP3 and Sessions. Sessions needs to be proactive on the offensive end to make Paul play defense and expend energy. In the past Paul has been able to get whatever he wants against the Lakers guards, so it is imperative that Sessions keeps Paul out of the lane as much as possible, easier said than done. Another thing the Lakers need to do is not switch the pick-n-roll with Paul and a big man. The Big needs to show and stay until the guard can come back and defend Paul because that is when Paul kills the Lakers, taking advantage of the miss match against Gasol or Bynum.
Stopping the Clippers’ fast break opportunities and taking advantage of the miss match Gasol has offensively against Blake Griffin are the Lakers keys to victory. Griffin cannot defend against Gasol’s height, not to mention he is a lazy defender, but the 10-15ft shot up and over the smaller defender will be there all night for Gasol.
The last two games of the week for the Lakers are home Friday against the Rockets, and in Phoenix Saturday. Both teams play very similar to each other. They are both undersized so they rely on their speed and outside shooting. The Lakers must not get into a track meet versus these teams and contain the guards from driving to the basket at will. The drive opens up the kick out pass to wide open 3-point shots that both the Rockets and Suns thrive on. Again, the Lakers need to utilize their height in the post and run their offense through Gasol and Bynum to be victorious.
The Lakers have four games this week in back-to-back spurts, Tuesday and Wednesday and Friday, Saturday. The good news is that the first one has no traveling involved as the game is against the Clippers. These are four games the Lakers need to win to stay atop in the west going into the playoffs. Even though the Lakers are technically at home Wednesday, it is still an important road game for them to win to keep their lead in the Pacific Division, and rank as the best team in LA.