May 9, 2012
The Lakers Stink….Still
As you may have noticed (but probably not) I have written some rather unkind words about one of my favorite sports teams, the Los Angeles Lakers over this season. It’s more out of love and high expectations than that of the typical disdain from the Laker-haters that encompass the country, but there seems to have been something(s) missing for most of the season, and it is becoming more evident as the playoffs are going on. They managed to get the 3rd seed in the Western Conference, but their season is destined to end relatively soon, no matter how you look at it.
As of now, they are ahead in the series with the Denver Nuggets, but their immaturity and complete lack of depth is glaringly evident, and annoying to fans like me. A good team would have closed out the Nuggets in game 5 at home, like the other teams in the playoffs this season, and like the dominant Lakers team of the past, but they were out-hustled, out-smarted, and completely out-played. Add to that, another immature and ridiculous comment from Andrew Bynum, who has acted like a giant baby on several occasions over the past few months, while intermingling occasional stellar performances on the court that have caused some analysts to profess him as the best center in the game. For some reason, he opened his big mouth, and claimed that closing our a series is easy, because the other team tends to fold when you get off to a good start, which only put a target on his (and the entire team’s) back, and provided more incentive for the Nuggets. Granted the score of the game was close in the end, only because Kobe Bryant made some shots at the end of the game to draw them into contention, but they were down by 15 points in the 4th quarter, and were outplayed from the opening tip off. For some reason, they seem to have some sense of entitlement, like all they have to do is step on the court at home and they will get the victory, but that’s not how it works, and a good team understands this. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if they lost this series, much like how they lost to the Suns a few years ago, when they had a 3-1 game lead in the series then, too.
Let us count the reasons why they have no chance this season. One of the most glaring issues, is that they have probably the worst bench of any team in the playoffs this season, not to mention the fact their coach refuses to put in some players who have helped the team at times earlier in the season (mainly guard Andrew Goudelock). It’s pretty darn obvious that Steve Blake cannot guard Andre Miller at any point in the game, but Coach Mike Brown still insists on keeping him in the game, instead of switching the lineup to put a bigger guard on him (I guarantee Phil Jackson would have changed that early in the series). When they go to the bench, they put in a few players who aren’t much of a scoring threat, so the opposition can double-team their post players right away with absolutely no fear of the outside shooters making anything when the ball gets passed back out, because they have been a poor 3-point shooting team all season, and even worse when their bench players are on the floor. When Metta World Peace (formerly Ron Artest) finally started to play well near the end of the season (mainly when Kobe was out with injury), that gave fans some hope, but then he reverted back to his old thug days and whacked an opponent in the head with his elbow and got suspended for a bunch of games. Even when he does come back, there’s no telling what kind of player he will be after all the time off (and the different dynamics with Kobe on the floor at the same time), and it still won’t help improve the bench much. In his stead, they have been starting Devin Ebanks at the small forward position, but moving him back to the bench won’t really boost their performance, because he hardly scores (or provides any sort of threat offensively) and there’s a good chance he won’t play at all, just like he didn’t most of the season when World Peace was in the starting lineup. Matt Barnes usually comes in off the bench at that position, and he provides some energy and hustle (which is needed on this team), but he isn’t a good outside shooter, and often misses lay-ups when he does get the ball close to the basket, to make matters worse. The only major contributor off the bench has been the newly acquired Jordan Hill, who has provided some interior defense and rebounds in a surprisingly efficient role, especially considering the fact that he barely got onto the court for the first ten games after they traded away Derek Fisher to get him from the Rockets at the trade deadline. He doesn’t contribute much in the scoring column though, adding to the glaring weakness that is their bench output.
Their defense was overrated at the beginning of the season, like I was saying then, because teams weren’t scoring as much against them more because they were rusty rather than the Lakers locking them down. They were leaving wide open shooters then, just like they are now, but NBA players tend to make those shots, like they are now that they are in game shape. Their perimeter defense is porous, allowing open shots from the outside most of the time, or allowing their guy to get to the basket far too easily on other possessions, even though they should have an advantage in the painted area (close to the basket). Despite having two 7-footers who often play simultaneously, they allow far too many wide open lay-ups, because Bynum fails to hustle for most of every game, and Gasol is about as frail as a player his size can be, getting overpowered constantly by shorter players at both ends of the court. Sure, Bynum blocked ten shots in the first game, but he remains very inconsistent, as he fails to understand what his role is on the defensive end is far too often, and fails to run down the court constantly, which I really hate. In game 5 last night, he dunked a ball in the 4th quarter, and then sprinted down to the other side of the court, which actually pissed me off even more, because he typically lumbers down to the defensive end at what appears to be a jogging pace, so it’s sort of insulting to know he can run when he wants to, but simply never really wants to. I sincerely hate it when professional players fail to hustle, and he has been slacking far too often, and then acting like he doesn’t care after the fact, just to fuel the fire of my frustration even more. If he plays up to his potential on both offense and defense, it makes his team so much better, but it just doesn’t seem like he has the maturity level that is required for consistent play, but he isn’t the only problem.
If they have to rely on Kobe to score 43 points for them to score, they may as well just go home now, because they need a balanced attack to win in the playoffs against the best teams in the league. Kobe made about four 3-pointers when they were desperate for points at the end of game 5, but when he gets in that shooting mode, the rest of the team stands around and watches as he throws up another shot, and they have no offensive rhythm of their own if he does pass the ball to them, which has always been one of the problems when Kobe tries to carry the team on his back like that. If necessary, the opposition will simply double- team Kobe to get the ball out of his hands and take their chances with the other Laker players making shots, and those odds are usually pretty good for the opposition, since the Lakers fail to have proper ball movement most of the time to get the ball to an open player who can actually make a shot. Most of their players can’t make a play for themselves, so they have to rely on ball and player movement to get open shots, but their offense is stagnant most of the time, for some reason. Usually they take about 15 seconds holding onto the ball around the perimeter or passing the ball back and forth from the post, and then have to shoot a desperation shot near the end of the shot clock because they are out of synch. When Ramon Sessions first came aboard (another trade deadline acquisition) he was using his speed to get to the basket, running on fast breaks, and making plays on the pick-and-roll play (both rarities for the Lakers before his arrival), but now he seems afraid to drive to the basket, and isn’t producing much at all offensively (which was the norm at the end of the regular season as well). One would think that they would have figured out how to play (something close to) consistently on offensive by now, after more than 60 games in the regular season, but as I like to say, that’s what you get for thinking…. Maybe they will figure out how to get back to the style of play they used in game 1 to control the pace of the game, utilizing their height to their advantage on offense, while playing efficiently on both ends of the court, in at least one of the remaining games, because if they don’t, their season will come to an end before the upcoming weekend.
What’s worse, is that even if they do manage to beat the Nuggets, which will probably have to happen in game 7, after Denver annihilates them in the upcoming game 6 on their home floor, they have to face the #2 seed Oklahoma City Thunder (who were the best team in the league for most of the season). I’ve been saying all season that OKC is a far superior team, and that seems even more evident now, with the Lakers’ struggles and the Thunder’s dominance during the regular season and four-game sweep in their playoff series. Some fans will point to the Lakers’ victory a few weeks back, when they came back from an enormous deficit to beat the Thunder, but that was a complete fluke, and serves to put the Thunder on notice, so they will concentrate even more than before. After all, they built that 20 point lead because they are a far better team and were playing like it for most of the game, and only gave up the lead because of a plethora of missed shots from their two all-star players in the final minutes, which is more of an anomaly and can’t be expected to happen again. Add to that the extra incentive the Thunder will have (not just because of their failure to win that game) because of the brutish elbow to one of their best players, James Harden, from World Peace, which nearly knocked him out completely (and was also a contributing factor to the Lakers victory in that game). Harden is almost certainly the 6th man of the year in the NBA this season, and he anchors a bench that is far superior to that of the Lakers, and his team will play harder than ever to avenge that bully beat down, and reinforce their dominance. Looks like it will be another ’wait until next year’ scenario for the Lakers, but I’ve been resigned to that fact for most of the season…
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