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Lakers can correct fundamental errors
Charley Rosen / FOXSports.com
Posted: 30 minutes ago
The Lakers' 107-92 loss in San Antonio Tuesday night was not unexpected. After all, the Spurs are the league's gold-standard. To determine where the Lakers will be when the final curtain comes down, let's turn a front-stage spotlight on their latest performance.
The Good
Credit the trio of Kwame Brown, Ronny Turiaf and Andrew Bynum for shutting down Tim Duncan's offense. The Big Fundamental could only manage five points on 2-for-11 shooting. An occasional double-team helped the Lakers — especially those executed by Kobe Bryant and Luke Walton — but for the most part L.A.'s big men managed to stand their ground and refused to be suckered by any of TD's clever fakes.
Kobe (especially when helping on defense), Turiaf and Jordan Farmar played with remarkable energy. On three explosive bursts to the rack that resulted in a like number of resounding dunks, Farmar showed a combination of speed, power, and quickness off his feet that were noticeably lacking last season. Apparently, the second-year guard is much more comfortable these days.
Bynum showed adhesive hands in the lane, particularly when in hot pursuit of offensive rebounds.
Kobe and Kwame showcased a classic give-and-go that concluded with a forceful dunk by the big man.
Walton knocked down a trey and also a 20-footer, which was good news for the visitors considering his early-season shooting woes.
The Lakers led the Spurs by a point after the initial 19 minutes. Their passes were snappy, their movements agreeably synchronized, and their offense admirably triangulated.
They committed only four turnovers in the second half.
The Bad
The Lakers got zero production from their low-posters. Brown was 0-for-3, Chris Mihm missed two jump hooks, and Radmanovic and Bynum missed one shot each down there. Odom is clearly their most effective scorer on the blocks, but why wasn't he ever stationed there?
While Kobe did come up with three steals and three blocks, he also came up empty on several other defensive gambles that directly led to at least a dozen Spurs points. For the most part, Kobe's attention was focused on the ball instead of on his man, a failure of judgment that proved costly.
Bynum (twice) and Kobe (four times) put their teammates at risk by repeatedly being lifted by the simplest of head fakes. Bynum often got lost on defense, neither coming to help on ball-penetration, nor staying home on his man.
Bad defensive rotations abounded. Bynum in particular was frequently caught under the basket and was therefore unable to attack layups. On one third-quarter sequence, Radmanovic and Farmar two-timed Darius Washington and left Matt Bonner all alone. His eyes widened with disbelief, Bonner easily sank a 3-ball.
The Ugly
After managing their one-digit lead, the Lakers were overwhelmed by an 18-2 Spurs run that clinched the outcome midway through the second quarter. A flurry of Laker turnovers keyed a barrage of 3-pointers, open jumpers and uncontested layups.
The Lakers defensive game plan called for their guards/wings to go under high screen/rolls and have their bigs try to push the ball toward the sideline. Even so, they could not stop Tony Parker from turning the corner and slicing into the paint.
An outlet pass thrown by Turiaf hit Fisher in the back of his legs, and the Spurs pounced on the loose ball. Blame this mishap on Fisher for not keeping his eyes on the whereabouts of the ball.
When Kobe and Turiaf bumped into each other while playing weak-side defense, Bonner wound up with an unimpeded layup.
Walton over-handled the ball on several occasions, destroying whatever fragile offensive rhythm the Lakers had established. During a rush downcourt, Walton found himself involved in a 2-on-4 disadvantage but decided to hoist up an off-balance jumper that barely grazed the rim. Kobe later trumped this misdeed by doing the same on a 1-on-5 foray.
Farmar attempted a neat give-and-go pass to Bynum, but Bynum was already long gone and the ball sailed out of bounds.
The Lakers' wings and guards tended to sink too far into the middle whenever one of the Spurs carried the ball into the lane — and were unable to get back out quickly enough to hinder the open perimeter shots that kick-out passes created. That's why the Spurs were 13-for-27 from beyond the arc. (The Lakers shot 2-for-16 from there.)
In the first half, the Lakers committed 15 turnovers, most of them self-inflicted. For example, a lob pass by Lamar Odom into the pivot that was 10 feet too high. They were also shaky while under no defensive pressure whatsoever.
Overall, however, the Lakers still rate a cautious thumbs-up, primarily because most of their transgressions (from bad to ugly) are correctable — and because the Spurs capitalized on every mistake. Look for the Lakers to get better as the season progresses, but not good enough to avoid a first-round exit stage left.
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