LA Times rips Lakers, Kobe

I watched most of the Laker game last night. Normally, if I don't see green-and-white I'm gone, but I figured what the hell...

My friend says to me "what would be the difference between LA with sports teams and LA without any sports teams?". After a moment or two of inebriated thought, I gave up (a couple of wasted moments I'll never regain in this life). His response was "nothing".

Here's an article from the LA Times' Mike Medina about the Laker loss last night. If the Boston Globe ever wrote this about the Celtics the peasants would be marching on the Globe office with torches and pitchforks. If he turned out to be wrong he'd have to move to another state and get a job under a nom-de-plume with a small town newspaper (assuming he survived the lynching). If it was Jackie Mac, we'd give her a 1/2 hour headstart, out of respect for her sex. This isn't the only article on the topic but I assure you the rest are no more complimentary. In fact, Mike Bresnahan writes an article that goes after Kobe. In LA that's like attacking the Pope in Rome.

For what it's worth I agree with every point except #1, it ain't over until it's over, but that's exactly my point. Anybody in Boston, including and maybe even especially a Globe reporter, who says "it's over" just because the Celtics were down 0-2 and heading home, would be tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail.

Pride. We got it by the bucketful.


Some things to take from the Lakers' 77-75 Game 2 loss Wednesday to the Oklahoma City Thunder:

1. The Lakers can't recover from this loss. I'll break down the particulars in the items below, but the Lakers threw their season away by missing a prime opportunity to steal Game 2. The Lakers won't get swept. They provided a good blueprint moving forward on how to beat the Thunder. But it's not going to matter. Oklahoma City has this series locked up now that it's leading 2-0. The psychological disappointment in squandering a seven-point lead with two minutes remaining will be too overwhelming. It's presumptuous to think the Thunder will shoot 42% from the field and score only 12 third-quarter points again. And Oklahoma City has even more confidence now that it can have its way with the Lakers even in an ugly game it should've lost.

2. Don't blame Metta World Peace for passing to Steve Blake on the final inbounds play. Lakers fans shouldn't get up in arms over Kobe Bryant not getting the last shot. Ideally, that's what the Lakers should do. But Bryant wasn't open on the inbounds play and actually went away from the ball as he curled off a screen. World Peace's pass simply would've been way too dangerous to throw crosscourt in the middle of traffic. So instead, World Peace found a wide open Steve Blake on the nearside perimeter.

Blake had to make that shot. The Lakers have shown confidence in him through all his inconsistent shooting, an approach that recently paid off with clutch playoff moments in Games 1, 4 and 7 in the Lakers' first-round matchups against Denver. But this one just hit the rim. Criticize Blake all you want for not hitting a wide open shot. Wonder what would've happened had Derek Fisher been in that position. And wish the Lakers hadn't squandered a seven-point lead in the final two minutes to put themselves in this position. But don't blame World Peace for ignoring Bryant. The Lakers' forward would've passed to Bryant if he were open.

3. Blame the Lakers' collapse in the final two minutes mostly on Bryant, some on teammates. Besides not getting open enough on the final play, Bryant made a few plays he'd like back. Before the final play, Bryant killed 13 seconds off the clock dribbling in isolation before Thabo Sefolosha fouled him with five seconds remaining, giving the Lakers very little time to run a play. Bryant's poor pass that led to Kevin Durant's fastbreak dunk with 1:45 also sparked the Thunder's momentum.

Don't blame Bryant entirely on his final two missed shots, though.

An off-balanced fadeaway shot that James Harden blocked led to a layup and Bryant's ridiculously long three-pointer reflect other mistakes too. The Lakers didn't run any sort of offense before just dumping the ball to Bryant late in the shot clock. Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol didn't crash the boards with enough offensive aggression to get a putback. And certainly no one on the Lakers sprinted back fast enough to stop Oklahoma City in transition.

4. The Lakers, beforehand, made very good adjustments from Game 1. The Lakers aren't going to take any moral victories, nor should they since they're in the playoffs. But the Lakers provided a really good blueprint before their collapse in the final two minutes on how to beat the Thunder moving forward. Most important, the Lakers outworked the Thunder, knowing it had a small margin for error. That's not something the Lakers usually like doing in the land of Hollywood, but they had no other choice.

The other adjustments involved tactical ones that Coach Mike Brown deserves credit for doing. The Lakers controlled the pace by featuring the offense mostly with Gasol and Bynum (combined 34 points and 20 rebounds). The Lakers played the triangle offense at times. Bryant scored 20 points on nine-of-25 shooting by mostly attacking the basket. He remained effective on defense by playing the center-field position. That minimized the damage Ramon Sessions faced guarding Russell Westbrook, who scored only 15 points on five-for-17 shooting. It also helped the Lakers force 13 turnovers. Meanwhile, the Lakers remained more disciplined on contesting the Thunder's jumps shots off pick-and-roll coverages. By doing that early, Oklahoma City failed to establish much of an offensive rhyhthm.

5. Ramon Sessions continues to struggle. With no one in front of him, Sessions clanked a fastbreak dunk. That personified everything about Sessions' two-point effort on one-for-three shooting. He remained tentative, as he feared Oklahoma City chasing him down. Sessions failed to deliver on the simplest plays. And with the play leading to Oklagoma City scoring on the other end, Sessions' poor play severely hurt the Lakers.

Yes, the Lakers' offense mainly features Bynum and Gasol. They need Sessions to control the tempo. But the Lakers can't afford to have a key starting player appearing afraid to make plays both on offense and defense. The Lakers are painfully finding out that their upgrade at point guard hasn't come close to solving their backcourt issues.



bob


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bob,

i watched a lot of this game, in paticuler the last quarter and...

i aint gonna count those lakers out just yet. yes i hate them, but well they got that Kobe Bryant feller who, though i despise i also realize he can still take over a game about as good as anyone whose ever stepped onto a basketball court.

do i think l.a. will win? nope. would i bet agaist them in this series? no, i respect muh money too much.

do i want l.a. to win?

h3LL no, much rather see Perk vs Steimsma in the finals, or KG vs Duncan..

as much fun as a lakers vs celtics series would be, i hate seeing kobe getting the spot liight.

lakers still have a lot of reasons to think they can win this series.. but this articule does highlight your point quite well..

Celtic Pride.. theres nothing else like it in Pro Sports.

Bob,
Thanks. Interesting read.
I didn't watch the game, so can't comment on the article. But I'd like to note a few things.
It's kind of unfair to compare Celtics and Lakers. Lakers are up against one of the best teams nowdays. Also, Lakers squandered 24 point lead (if I'm not mistaken) before.
Also, I think Jackie deserves at least 1 hour.
Also, who does the author think Ramon Session is? Second RR or CP3? He was picked as a best available PG at the time. I watched him in Cle: nothing to write home about.

AK

We haven't heard from any of our Lakers-fan members for quite a while. Obviously now is not the time to expect that to happen. But I do want them to know (if they should happen to read this) that we can definitely empathize with tough times (mostly due to injuries in our case), and we hope they're still our friends.

Sam

i wondered about them recently. sure do miss 'gator and the boys

Hi,
Here is another example of low life fandom in LA. Sad.

AK

LA keeping it classy

I have no pity on LA, do you think they cared about us? Anyway, it is hard to put the blame on Bryant, he is hardly getting any help from his teammates. Gasol had one good game, why are we not hearing about their ages and fading stardom? I have to tell you, I am really sick of hearing about it from ESPN about the Celtics.

You are right about one thing, fans would go crazy if we treated our home team the way LA has treated theirs. However, the writers are one thing, our sports announcers are another. There are a few flip floppers here in Boston also. The guy on the comcast channel, Tanquay, has flipped and flopped all year. One minute they are really OLD, done, tradeable, etc, the next minute he claims he has been backing them all year. Unfortunately for him, I listen every night so I know exactly what he has been saying.

Everyone loves a winner, LA, Boston, Chicago or elsewhere. This is one time I will cut Bryant some slack, he works his butt off on the court, he can't do it alone.

I do believe they will have no chance to beat Oklahoma, but, I've been wrong many times. Time will tell.

I really think the Lakers missed a golden opportunity to have a chance in the series after this collapse. With Kobe being worshipped for such a closer it gave me that much more satisfaction. A pass to Kobe from Ron Ron would have been a turnover. If Kobe thinks he should have got the ball he should have got open. The best outcome for that would have been Kobe shooting a off balance 3 pointers 4 feet behind the line-contested. Anyway it made my day.

BTW Mattie I think my avatar has more meat on it than yours!!!!

tardust wrote:BTW Mattie I think my avatar has more meat on it than yours!!!!

tardust,

I'm regretting ever posting that picture.

Sixers deserve to lose just because of that.

bob


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bobheckler wrote:

tardust wrote:BTW Mattie I think my avatar has more meat on it than yours!!!!

tardust,

I'm regretting ever posting that picture.

Sixers deserve to lose just because of that.

bob


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When that was on TV I had to get my wife to come watch it. It was hillarious. Can't believe anyone would expose themselves to the entire world like that. He will probably get a big FAT contract doing something on TV.