Now, does that mean that our defense can’t improve? Of course not. Against Toronto we did not play a good defensive game overall and I mentioned that in the game wrap up. And against Orlando, there were specific areas that we struggled in (penetration by Jameer and Carter). The same could be said of the Bobcats game. There will usually be one or two aspects of defense that any team can perform better in each game.

That said, I fully believe that this teams struggles this season are mostly on the offense side of the ball. And just as you reference what your eyes tell you about this, I see our struggles on offense and they’re much more consistent (with recurring themes) than what is going on with our defense.

I’ll make it plain for you. Regardless of our defensive rating, we haven’t been that good defensively over the last 10 games.

We haven’t played a good defensive half, forget an entire game, against any team other than Denver in the last 10 games.

Kobe, Fish, Lamar, Phil and even Bynum are concerned more about the team’s defensive intensity not their offensive intensity.

All year the Lakers have been one of the better defensive teams, ranking in the top 3 in Def. Efficiency pretty consistently. On offense, they have not been. They’ve hovererd around 10th in Off. Efficiency all season and currently sit at 11th. I don’t see anything fluky with either of these stats (off. or def. efficiency), so unless you’re saying that these numbers don’t mean much and that there is no correlation between how the team is playing and the statistics that play generates, then I’m not exactly sure what your argument is besides “the other team missed a lot of shots” with some sort of implication that our defense really isn’t good, it’s just that the other team misses.

Regardless of the current defensive ranking, which can be attributed more to our great start than our current play, we’re not a great defensive team over the last 10 games. Check the field goal percentages and field goal attempts of our opponents.

The only team we did a great defensive job on was the Denver Nuggets and that was only in the 2nd half. All other teams have shot 41% or better against our defense and many have more field goal attempts than we do. And I watched those games, those teams missed alot of shots just like we missed, it wasn’t because we played great defense.

There are no bullet proof arguments that’s why I don’t give a lot of credence to those 4 games we won without Kobe. They were against teams that were without key players or teams we beat anyway. As soon as we met the Boston Celtics at home no less, we saw what we could expect from good to great teams without Kobe in line-up.

We’ll never know, but I wonder what that record would have been had we played Cleveland, Boston, Denver, Miami, Phoenix and Orlando during that stretch, instead of Golden State, a slumping Spurs team, a Portland team with 3 of it’s best players out, and Utah.

By the way our shooting can be atrocious for long stretches over the last 10 games. And everybody is at fault for that.

Where you see a drop off is on offense. And while I agree with the statements that our guards aren’t the best passers, that argument isn’t bullet proof. These guards are the same guards we had last year and the ball moved just fine. These guards are the same ones that executed the offense well when Kobe was out earlier this year. Their passing in those games was fine.

In order for the ball to be able to move, players have to cut and screen harder and pass with more decisiveness. Too often, it looks to me like the Lakers players have already determined what they want to get out of a possession rather than playing the offense the way it’s been designed and taught. The Triangle is a read and react system where players must be moving together and seeing the same things on the court as a unit. That is what’s missing. So people can blame Pau or our guards, but in the end this is a team game and the players need to start playing, and executing, like it.

Rudy and Wondahdap have hit the proverbial nail on the head.

1. Our guards aren’t the greatest at passing the ball.

2. Good defensive teams aren’t going to let us just do what we want on offense.

3. Pau is still concentrating on the wrong side of the ball. Defensively we’re not getting after it.

4. The offense is not the problem, our defense is.

Until Pau gets his head out of his butt about the offense and starts to be tougher on the defensive side of the ball, the Lakers will continue to struggle.

In my honest opinion, Pau is attempting to prove his point to the detriment of the team. Not cool. He continues to have the same complaint. Does he really not see that teams aren’t making it easy for the Lakers to pass the ball into the interior in addition to our not having great passers, is he really that blind or just that stubborn about making what he thinks is his point.

Offense will not win championships, ask Phoenix about that, defense wins championships.

http://www.forumblueandgold.com/2010/03/10/around-the-world-wide-web-the-good-the-bad-and-the-game-winner/

“Well, good defenses, they’ll try to take away your first and second options, forcing you to go to your third and fourth one. That’s what we need to understand. They might force Kobe into double teams and tougher shots and might force me to get rid of the ball in the post and make the extra pass, and that’s what we need to do. Understand that’s how we’re going to free ourselves up, too.”

Basically, he’s just pointing out how he doesn’t force shots like Kobe. I have a bit of a problem with that, because one of the problems on offense has to do with his lack of aggression in taking advantage of advantages. He WAITS for double teams, or lets it affect him when he CAN score. Teams *want* him to kick it out, because our shooters just haven’t gotten it done consistently. Pau needs to realize this as well.

Another thing I want to mention is the *re-branding* of this team as a defensive team. I could care less if our offense isn’t as good as long as the collective and consistent effort on defense is there. I truly believe that this team can be a great defensive team once they all get on the same page and all play well and communicate. There have been many times where there might be 3-4 players playing well, and 2 guys killing us. That goes for every one on the team. Once that happens, we won’t care if our offense if just top 10 or top 15. I’m all for that.

I think that was the goal coming into this year. The powers that be have to know that Pau and Drew just won’t have the same fluidity, and they are willing to accept that. We need Bynuum and Pau to both have good games on defense. Then the offense won;t matter. Teams wont score. That’s why I think it seems Phil (and sometimes Kobe) stress the problems on defense more than offense.

On another note, I don’t think good defensive teams will just let us move the ball fluidly from one end to the other. If you see, the good defensive teams tend to play the passing lanes well making it difficult to pass multiple times in a possession. Lets face it, this Lakers team does not run the triangle well which is why we see a lot of isolations and pick-n-rolls. Maybe someone needs to get in Pau’s ear and tell him he needs to be more aggressive.

“Again, Pau implies the ball isn’t moving enough. One thing fans have to remember- he’s not simply talking about shots. It’s not a question of him saying “Get me 20 hoists a night.” He’s talking about moving the ball, keeping lots of hands on it, and working to use the totality of the team’s skill. “Touches” and “shot distribution” aren’t necessarily the same thing, yet are often used interchangeably.

It’s a hard point to argue. If Gasol simply meant “I want more shots,” his position would be far less compelling.”
Now, I understand that when Pau is getting the ball, he could (seemingly) be doing more with it. However, Pau is not a selfish player and (sometimes to his detriment) can be quite the opposite and too unselfish. The ball needs to move and change sides of the court and all players (not just him) need to be involved and a part of the action. So, while I understand being frustrated with Pau’s effectivness, let’s not allow that frustration to disregard the truth that he speaks about the overall flow of our offense. Pau is not off base there.