We look at Bynum and Ariza as people who will add our own toughness. I suspect Phil is trying to get the other players to toughen up down low so that Kobe isn’t the only one driving the lane. Kobe will be injured if he is the only one doing this. I also feel Phil should let Turiaf have more minutes for this very reason.

All that being said, we are a pretty good team right now – without Bynum and Ariza – and I think we have to think now, rather than when Andrew comes back.

I don’t think the problem was with Pau showing poorly (even is he shows poorly, his length is still going to bother most pgs), it was by having Pau show against Jason Kidd in the first place. The guy is not going to score a high % coming off of a pick (whether he takes the jumper, puts up a runner, or drives for a contested layup- he’s only dangerous while shooting after receiving a pass flat footed and going straight up for a jumper, thus the .365 3fg% this year), but he will beat you every time with a pass if you show against him.

If you noticed later in the game when we stopped showing and in fact stopped sending bodies at him every time he got past his man (e.g., those strange plays we he and Sasha were doing circles around each other), he was no longer effective.

We’ve seen enough of Pau to know what his strenghts/weaknesses are. Steve Nash could have a 7 steal game….does that make him a great defender? Numbers don’t tell the entire story.

And I agree with Reed on Pau’s screen/roll D. He needs to show and recover to his man….sometimes he does one or the other, but rarely both effectively on the same play. Bynum and Ronnie have been strong at this all year, but Pau is leaving a lot to be desired in this area. I also think Pau has hit a wall in the past few games. He has still been pretty effective, but banging agains Pryzbilla (twice) and Dampier seemed to bother him some. They have the size to lay off him to deny his penetration and the length to still challenge his jumper, while also having the strength to body him when he drives the lane. Pau’s numbers were still good, but he looked a little off his game against these guys. But hey, you can’t shoot 60% forever (unless you dunk everything like Bynum).

But especially against the Blazers and to a lesser degree against the Mavs, Kobe neither quickly fought over a screen to get back to his man nor tried to switch but kind of trailed the play and made the rest of the Lakers’ defense rotate all over the place. I didn’t pay much attention to this early in the season but since they don’t have an imposing shot blocker right now to funnel penetrating guards to, this has seemed a noteworthy weakness to me.

What I’m really worried about with Pau is the pick and roll defense. Dampier abused him on it yesterday. Aldridge did in the two Portland games. Pau looks pretty solid man to man, but get him out on the perimeter defending screen plays and things get ugly fast. He neither shows well enough to take out the guard or rotates well enough to take away the big’s roll. Just a disaster waiting to happen against the Spurs, Jazz, or Suns — teams with really great pick and roll combos. Hopefully he figures this out before the playoffs.