Archives For April 9, 2010

Lakers/Timberwolves: Sometimes Talent Is Enough

Darius Soriano —  April 9, 2010

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Coming into the game it was obvious that the Lakers had too much talent for the Timberwolves to handle over the course of an entire game.  Which, for a Lakers team that hasn’t put together a complete 48 minutes in some time, was the perfect combination of factors that led to this uninspiring win.  But, win the Lakers did and with the 97-88 victory the Lakers have now clinched the #1 seed in the Western Conference and have secured home court advantage through the Western Conference Finals.  So while it’s difficult to celebrate a lack luster game and an underwhelming victory, it’s not difficult to see the importance in what this game meant to the Lakers.  It’s never old hat to earn a #1 seed and this is now the third straight season that the Lakers have accomplished this feat.  For that, Lakers fans should be proud.

This game started out the way that you would think when one of the best teams in the league plays one of the worst.  The Lakers took control early and did so on the strength of Pau Gasol’s post game and the scoring of Ron Artest and Shannon Brown.  In the first period, Gasol scored 6 points on a couple of nice mid range jumpers while Artest and Brown showed off their outside shooting when each knocked down a three pointer.

But the game really turned for the Lakers in the 2nd quarter.  In the second twelve minutes the Lakers would blow this game open with a 31 point quarter while holding the ‘Wolves to only 17.  The Lakers forced turnover after turnover and turned Minnesota’s miscues into easy baskets and nice cushion.  Surprisingly, it was the bench that did most of the damage as Farmar, Sasha, and Mbenga led the charge.  The aggressiveness that defines Farmar’s game finally returned as he was active in the open court and confident with his outside shot.  And Sasha too seemed to have regained some of his lost swagger as he was knocking down outside shots, pestering players on defense with solid perimeter D and timely digs on post players, and capably initiating our sets when Farmar played off the ball.  And then there was DJ.  ’Congo Cash’ hustled on the glass, contested shots in the paint, and got interior buckets and tip ins when the defense got caught looking (all to the tune of a new career high of 11 points).  Really, it was nice to see our bench have productive stint – especially on the second night of a back to back.  By the time the starters came back into the game with a little under 6 minutes left in the half, the lead had reached double digits and the starters would then pile on and push the margin to 18 as the half closed.

But, it wouldn’t be a Lakers game (at least lately) if the other team didn’t make a run that made the game closer than it ever should have been.  Taking advantage of a lethargic defense and an undisciplined offense the ‘Wolves got out in transition, started making three pointers (Jonny Flynn had three triples in the period), and out hustled the Lakers on the offensive glass.  Led by Kevin Love’s beastly efforts on the backboards, Minnesota scrapped back and ultimately made the third quarter their own by outscoring the Lakers 31-22 and cutting LA’s lead to 9 going into the 4th period.

But in the end, it would not be enough for Minnesota.   Even though the ‘Wolves would get the the Lakers’ lead down to as little as 4 points against the taco unit, the talent gap was too large.  Gasol rained a couple of jumpers, Farmar continued his good shooting night, and Odom closed the game with an exclamation points of a long three pointer followed by a nice alley oop finger roll in the closing seconds.  And ultimately the game ended as it started, with the Lakers having too much talent and skill for Minnesota to match.  As I said earlier, it may not have been a great game or an inspiring win, but it’s a win all the same and it clinches the West’s top seed for the Lakers.  I’ll take it.

A couple of other notes on this one:

*I already mentioned Kevin Love’s rebounding prowess but it deserves another.  Love is one of the most natural rebounders I’ve ever seen.  There have been more impressive looking rebounders – Dennis Rodman, KG, and Moses Malone come to mind – but Love is just as effective as those guys.  Another 18 rebounds in this game for Love which brings his total in his last 6 games to 89 rebounds (14.3 average).  That average would lead the league by over a full rebound a game (Dwight Howard leads the NBA at 13.2 a game) if he could’ve replicated those numbers over the entire year (which I honestly believe is possible if he received the playing time).  The man is just a monster on the glass.  And to think, he’s only 21 years old.  I think he could easily do this for 12-14 more years just because he doesn’t rely on athleticism, but rather on positioning, timing, and instincts.

*Pau Gasol is really good.  I didn’t mention his stat line earlier, but he had another world class night with 29 points, 15 rebounds (7 offensive), 4 assists, and 4 blocks.  The only blemish on his stat line was his four turnovers, but most of those were late in the game where he was forcing cross court passes when he was getting crowed on the strong side post.  At least two of those passes were also the product of a awful player movement as everyone just stood around, expecting Pau to make a play.  The key to ensuring that those cross court passes don’t get stolen is to send a cutter through the paint to collapse the defense.  This way, the weakside wing gets drawn into the lane and that skip pass is easier.  Instead, Pau was making the right read, but the other players weren’t cooperating by doing their part.  This doesn’t relieve Pau of all blame – the passes weren’t the best ones he’s made – but there were reasons they ended up the way that they did.

*I really feel bad for Rambis.  It’s hard for me to tell if this team is bad because of personnel or if his coaching is really lacking but he’s in a tough spot.  I mean, I’ve disagreed with how he’s handled Love’s minutes (there was a point this season where Jefferson was out and he started Darko and Ryan Hollins while still bringing Love off the bench), but this is a young team and I think he’d be much better on a veteran team that had more experience dealing with the complexity of the schemes he’s trying to install.  I’m not sure if he would have ended up being the eventual successor to Phil, but it’s obvious that he has a great rapport with a lot of the current Lakers and I wish he could have stayed on with us rather than watch him struggle through these types of frustrating nights.  Did you see how PO’d he was when Lamar hit that three late in the game?  He really wanted this win and he doesn’t have the horses.  It’s a bit depressing.

In Game Recap
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Preview and Chat: The Minnesota Timberwolves

Darius Soriano —  April 9, 2010

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Records: Lakers 55-23 (1st in West), Timberwolves 15-63 (last in West)
Offensive ratings: Lakers 108.9 (11th in NBA), Timberwolves 101.7 (29th in NBA)
Defensive ratings: Lakers 103.5 (5th in NBA), Timberwolves 111.3 (28th in NBA)
Projected Starting Lineups: Lakers: Derek Fisher, Shannon Brown, Ron Artest, Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol
Timberwolves: Jonny Flynn, Corey Brewer, Ryan Gomes, Kevin Love, Darko Milicic

Injury Updtaes, Magic Numbers, the Playoffs, & Seedings:  First of all, it looks like Kobe will not play again tonight.  Kobe’s right knee is the one that he’s had surgery on, the one that he has tendonitis in, and the one that he wears a sleeve over during the games.  So if he’s experiencing any discomfort or swelling in that knee I say rest him.  As for Bynum, he’s likely to see his first game action when the post season begins on April 18th.  This would actually put his recovery time right at the 4 week mark, which for those that have familiarity with this injury, is a reasonable timeline.  Hopefully he can find his game legs rather quickly when he does return.

And speaking of the playoffs, for those that concern themselves with such matters, the Lakers magic number to clinch the #1 seed in the Western Conference (which secures them home court advantage in playoff series through the WCF) is one.  One more win, no matter the opponent, is all the Lakers need to lock this down.  Coming into the season, this was a goal for the Lakers and it looks like they’ll achieve it either tonight or one night soon.  And while there were also larger regualar season goals (like having the best record in the entire league), I think it’s a great thing that for the third straight season the Lakers look to be the class of the West.  I’m sure many feel that should be a given based off the Lakers talent level, but remember that this team has had many a missed game due to injury to some of it’s best players and it’s not easy to take every team’s best shot as the defending champ. 

As for home court in the Finals (should the Lakers get that far) there have been questions about what would happen should the Lakers and Magic end up with the same regular season record (they have the same record as of today) and face off in the Finals?  I’ll let John Hollinger (insider) explain how it would play out:

There has been some confusion about how a tie would be settled in the event of a Lakers-Magic Finals rematch. The league office confirmed for me this morning that since the two teams split their regular-season series, the tie would be decided by record against the opposite conference. That tiebreaker would favor the Lakers, who are 22-8 against the East, while the Magic are 20-10 versus the West.

Obvously, this is a long way off and there are no guarantees that either team makes it that far.  But, this is important information for many so that question is now answered.

The Timberwolves Coming in:  This season can’t end soon enough for the ‘Wolves.  After pulling out a win on March 31st against the Kings to avoid a winless month of March (can you imagine losing every game but one in an entire month?!), the ‘Wolves are back to their losing ways dropping their last three.  This is a squad that is poorly constructed and has not adapted well to the schemes that Kurt Rambis has installed.  Combined with the fact that Rambis (an old Laker favorite of mine) has made curious rotation decisions – especially surrounding Kevin Love – and this ‘Wolves team is one that could easily be labled the worst in the entire league.  Sure, the Nets have less wins, but the ‘Wolves have been even worse then New Jersey for the past month.  Just a bad, bad year for Minnesota.

As for tonight’s game, Al Jefferson is “questionable” due to personal reasons and may not play in this contest.  If Jefferson does in fact miss the game, the Wolves will start Love and Darko in the front court like they did against the Warriors two nights ago when the Dubs won the game that got Nellie the all time wins record.  A game, by the way, where Love made his case for more playing time by scoring 17 points on 9 shots and pulling down 18 rebounds (including 5 on the offensive glass).  Tell me again why this kid has only started 21 games of the 56 that he’s played in this year?

Timberwolves Blogs:  Check out Howlin’ T-Wolf and Canis Hoopus for all the latest news and notes on the ‘Wolves.

Keys to game:  Even though the Lakers are playing one of the worst teams in the league, it should be noted that this is the second game of a back to back where the Lakers likely did not arrive into Minnesota until very early this morning after coming off a hard fought game last night.  Also understand that becuase neither Kobe and Bynum played  last night, that some of our players played heavy minutes – especially Artest (38) and Pau (43).  When you combine all of this with a 5:00pm start time (PST) I would not be surprised to see the Lakers come out a bit sluggish to start the game and for them to have less than stellar energy for the entire contest.  If there was one night were strong performances were needed from some of our backups, this game would be it.

As for strategy, the Lakers should play to their strengths and attack the biggest defensive weaknesses in the ‘Wolves starting lineup.  That means an agressive Odom against Kevin Love and an active Artest against Ryan Gomes.  Neither of the two ‘Wolves excel on defense and will have probmlems staying  with both LO and Artest off the dribble and on the perimeter.  Also, going into Pau is always key, but tonight I’d like to see Pau have continued success with his mid range jumper.  Darko is a solid low post defender and Pau may have issues banging with him on the block.  So, I’d instead like to see Pau take Milicic out to the mid post where he can turn and face and then either shoot his short jumper or attack him off the dribble.

On defense, the Timberwolves’  only major offensive threat is Jefferson so if he misses tonight’s game the Lakers defensive schemes will not be as heavily tested.  That said, the ‘Wolves still have some strengths that will need to be accounted for.  Mainly, I’m talking about low post scoring and offensive rebounding.  Both Love and Milicic are capable scorers on the low block and both are also very good offensive rebounders.  And considering that Minnesota is such a poor shooting team, there will be many chances for them to grab their own misses.  If the Lakers can limit them to one shot, this game will be a lot easier. 

When marking Love, he is great at using his wide body to back down defenders and then using a step back or fadeaway jumper to score inside.  Love is also a capable shooter all the way out to the three point line so he’s not a player that can be left alone out there (I’m looking at you Odom).  As for Darko, he’s a player that relies heavily on his jumphook and he will take it with both hands and from both sides of the block.  Pau/Mbenga/Powell must fight him for position and make him go to the middle of the floor where he can’t rely on the window to cushion his shots.

Also understand that Minnesota plays at the third fastest pace in the league, which places them ahead of Phoenix and Denver.  This team wants to run and take advantage of the athletes that they have on their roster.  On the second night of a back to back, transition defense will be key and the Lakers must make a concerted effort to slow the ball in transition to allow everyone else to get back and set up the half court defense.

We all understand that this should be a win.  The last time the Lakers faced this team, it litterally only took 20 minutes of playing hard to secure a win.  But in that game, Minnesota kept the game close and made a couple of good runs (especially in the third quarter after Bynum strained his achilles) that had some folks wondering if the game would go down to the wire.  Let’s not allow that to be the case this evening.  Understanding that there are factors (mentioned above) that could keep this game tight does not mean that it must be.  The Lakers, even without Kobe and Bynum are better than this team. By a lot.  Let’s go out and get the win that secures the #1 seed in the West.

Where you can watch:  5:00pm start time in the west on KCAL.  Also on ESPN Radio 710am.

In Game Preview
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The Good, The Bad, and The God-Awful Final Possession

Phillip Barnett —  April 9, 2010

Los Angeles Lakers at Denver Nuggets

(Note: Sorry for the sound delay and lack of sound in the videos that are not even embedded in this post. I had some extreme technical difficulties with both my personal and work computer, and due to time restraints, I was forced to leave them as they are in their current state. I’ll work on fixing them for you guys. Thanks for baring with me.)

THE GOOD

I’m just going to completely ignore the first half of last night’s game because I was infuriated and frustrated with the things the Lakers were doing both offensively and defensively in that half. Besides, there was enough good and bad in the second half for me to completely erase that half from my memory (I might not even save that half of video on my computer, well see). What I do want to pay special attention to was how the Lakers were not only able to come back in the third quarter, but how they were able to go into the fourth quarter with the lead – and it was through their defense.

Check out this video below. All the Lakers needed was 4 1/2 solid minutes of hard nosed defense to completely rattle the Nuggets and erase a 10-point half time deficit (which got up to 15 in the third). You’ll see the Lakers showing on every screen, bigs falling back to their assignments after the parameter defenders got through screens, guys rotating over when a teammate gets beat off of the dribble – and most importantly, they contested every shot except for an offensive put back from Chris Anderson, which happened to be the Nuggets only bucket of the stretch. One play in particular, stood out for me and it came around the 4:15 mark in the quarter game. The Nuggets finally move the ball around and the ball ends up in the hands of what looks like a wide open Aaron Afflalo. Thinking he has enough separation, he takes his time shooting the three, but Gasol hauls ass over to the corner, gets a piece of his shot, which forces Afflalo to force up a wild, off-balanced runner on the baseline as the shot clock expired. The ball bounced off of the side of the backboard. Lakers ball. This short stretch of basketball just gives us a glimpse of the Lakers potential if they played with any kind of effort.

Lakers-Nuggets 3rd Quarter Defense

THE BAD

This second clip shows why the Lakers weren’t able to leave Denver with the win: defensive collapses. The very first defensive possession shown on this clip shows very good initial defense. Denver isn’t moving the ball well, and Melo ends up taking a bad, contested shot over Ron Artest. However, no one boxes out, extending the possession for the Nuggets. Anderson kicks it out to Ty Lawson, who rotates it over to the hot shooting JR Smith who knocks down the game tying three-pointer. There is one or two sequences where the Nuggets don’t score, but I included them just to illustrate the good looks that they got. Completely unlike the third, the Lakers were lazy on the S&R, they allowed penetration, help didn’t come over when that penetration was allowed and there were just too many uncontested shots. A lot of this had to do with fatigue, but then again, the Lakers as a whole just seemed uninterested in playing defense after the Nuggets got a couple shots to go down. It seemed to deflate them, which allowed the game to get away.

Lakers-Nuggets 4th Quarter Defense

THE GOD-AWFUL FINAL POSSESSION

Now, let me begin this by saying Derek Fisher did a lot of good things in this game. I thought he played Chauncey Billups very well on the defensive end of the floor. After a couple consecutive turnovers from Pau and LO in the fourth quarter, he took the liberty of driving, putting his body in the defender and drawing the foul when the Lakers desperately needed the points, and he knocked down the free throws. I was aware that Fish was on the floor last night, and it was for MOSTLY good things. That final possession, not so much. I don’t care if it’s Kwame Brown or Michael Jordan, on a final possession, with 12 full seconds, I never want to see one player bring the ball up court, dribble with no purpose and shoot a contested jumpshot, especially not an ageing Derek Fisher. That’s just despicable. I was going to include the video clip, but I don’t want to be pissed for the rest of the day after watching that again. You all saw it, and I’m sure none of you want to see it again.

THE LINKS

From ESPN’s Daily Dime: Tough to learn anything from a Lakers-Nuggets game without Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum and Kenyon Martin. At least we learned the Nuggets learned what to do when one of their players gets hurt. On Thursday night, when Joey Graham sprained an ankle in the second quarter and stayed in the backcourt while the Lakers advanced the ball, the Nuggets at least had the presence of mind to foul and stop the clock. That’s more respect than they accorded to their leading scorer, Carmelo Anthony, on Wednesday night in Oklahoma City when he was knocked cold in a collision with the Thunder’s Kevin Durant. While Carmelo was on the deck, the Nuggets kept playing at the other end of the court, and then Denver guard J.R. Smith grabbed a rebound and steamed toward the basket, stepping right past the sprawled Anthony in the process. Anthony has no recollection of what happened from the time he hit the floor until he was walking off the court. He’s only heard about it from teasing teammates and doesn’t want to see a replay.

From Silver Screen and Roll: Phil Jackson should’ve called the timeout. Why he didn’t, with the Lakers down two to the Denver Nuggets with 12 seconds to play, I have no idea. If Kobe Bryant had been in the game, that’s one thing. In that situation, you know where your shot is coming from. The guys on the floor know their roles. But Kobe sat out tonight – for reasons that, depended on whom you asked, ranged mysteriously from fatigue to swelling in his right knee, though I personally suspect he didn’t respond quickly enough to Brian Shaw’s Facebook friend request – so the normal endgame playbook was unavailable. You have to call the timeout, to set up a play and to make sure everyone understands what their assignments are. If you don’t, you might end up with a farcically inept offensive possession, something with essentially no hope of success. Like, oh I don’t know, an isolation set for Derek Fisher. Let’s be clear about this: never at any point this season did I expect to type the words an isolation set for Derek Fisher. That’s not an offensive play that should be run by the Lakers under any circumstances. It’s not an offensive play that should exist in theory or practice. It’s not really an offensive play, period, in that it doesn’t offer a more than de minimus expectation of producing any points. It’s Derek Fisher. He has trouble scoring when there’s no one guarding him and he has four seconds to line up a wide-open jumper. When he has an actual, athletic defender on him, like, say, Carmelo Anthony? And he’s forced to create his own shot – I really can’t believe I’m typing this – off the dribble? At some point you cross the line from the sport of basketball into science fiction, or avant-garde surrealist theater.

From Land O’ Lakers: The final play was, to be frank, a disaster from the start. With 12.7 seconds remaining and the Lakers down by two to the Nuggets in Denver, Pau Gasol inbounded the ball to Derek Fisher, who quickly pushed up court against Chauncey Billups. With about seven seconds to go, Lamar Odom popped out and set a screen for Fish, blocking off Billups. The other three Lakers –Gasol, Sasha Vujacic and Ron Artest (you’ll notice an important name missing) — were closely guarded. Here Fisher missed what would be his best chance to fire away. It would have been a deep three, but compared to what followed would have been ideal.  Off the screen and heading right at the wing, Fish was picked up by Carmelo Anthony on a switch. Six seconds to go. Fish tries to find space to make an entry to Odom, who is fronted by Billups, but can’t do it over/around the much larger Anthony. Fish tries to probe with the dribble, but it’s hardly his strength. With about 3.5 to play, Artest flashes high beyond the top of the arc. Maybe Fish could have hit him there? Moving away from the bucket and with J.R. Smith in the vicinity, it would have been a tough look.

From SLC Dunk: I hope you weren’t expecting any help from the Lakers last night.  And this is the total fanatical/conspiracy side of me with no rationale and nothing to back it up, but I think Phil Johnson Jackson loves sticking it to the Jazz.  He knows what it at stake in the playoffs.  He “rested” Kobe last night on purpose against the Nuggets, giving Denver a better chance to win. LA had nothing to gain last night by beating Denver.  Sure, another win might get them HCA if they make it to the finals, but it’s likely that Cleveland is coming out of the East anyway and they’re not going to get HCA.  If he was looking just to rest Kobe, there are three cupcakes left on their schedule where he could have sat Kobe. Maybe it wasn’t to stick it to the Jazz, but it was a strategic move so that they wouldn’t have to face Denver until the WCF instead of possible in the second round.

From the LA Times: Shannon Brown winced in pain in the second quarter and after the game, his sprained right thumb giving him so much pain. Sasha Vujacic was happy and sad. He was happy because he was out of the “doghouse” in a big way, starting in place of the injured Kobe Bryant (swelling in his right knee). Vujacic was sad because he was unable to perform the way he preferred and because the Lakers lost to the Denver Nuggets, 98-96, Thursday night Pepsi Center. Even though they didn’t shoot the basketball well, Brown and Vujacic played a role in helping the Lakers come from 15 points down in the third quarter.

From the LA Daily News: The Lakers hit the road once more, knowing a victory Thursday night over the Denver Nuggets would give them the best record in the Western Conference standings for the third consecutive season. The Lakers also realized they had five regular-season games to play in seven days before beginning their defense of their NBA championship. They had to balance rest versus readiness in the final days before the playoffs start April 18. So, Kobe Bryant didn’t play a minute and didn’t put on his uniform for the Lakers in their 98-96 loss to the Nuggets in front of a sellout crowd of 20,044 at the Pepsi Center. The Lakers said right knee swelling had sidelined Bryant. Denver rallied from a seven-point deficit in the fourth quarter to defeat the Lakers for the third time in four games this season. The game wasn’t secure until the Nuggets’ Carmelo Anthony blocked Derek Fisher’s 3-point try at the buzzer.

From Lakers of Fire: The Lakers came up just shy of upsetting the Nuggets tonight.  But why would that have been an upset you say?  Well, because Phil Jackson surprised us all by holding Kobe Bryant out of the game without so much as a heads up to anyone.  Oh, Phil, you clever little devil you.  Even in a narrow loss, that crafty bit of gamesmanship was either a stroke of genius… or perhaps it was just cowardice in disguise. On one hand, benching Kobe for the night was brilliant tactic by the Zen Master.  This game had a playoff atmosphere around it, especially from the Nugget fans, but by sitting Kobe, that intensity was negated.  Any sense of rivalry was removed right then and there.  This went from a potential message game for both teams to a no-lose situation for the Lakers.  If they lose, well, of course they did, they didn’t have Kobe.  If they win, suddenly Denver has to be feeling pretty lousy about their post-season chances if they can’t beat a Kobe-less Laker team on their own court.

From T.J. Simers: Unless the Lakers are trying to make the case they are better without Kobe Bryant, they have bagged the rest of the regular season, but then you’ve known that for weeks. No more phony baloney about gaining momentum as they go into the playoffs, it’s all about flipping the switch on April 18, and by Phil Jackson’s calculations the Lakers will be opening against Oklahoma City. The tiebreakers and the schedule favor Portland, he said, and so the Lakers have the Blazers finishing sixth when the season ends next week. San Antonio has the tiebreaker over Oklahoma City, which would leave one of the hottest teams in the Western Conference in the Thunder taking on the defending champs. Young legs versus playoff know-how.

In Morning Links
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Lakers/Nuggets: A Missed Opportunity

Darius Soriano —  April 9, 2010

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If this game could be explained in two words they would be the ones that are in the title of this post: missed opportunity.  On a night where Kobe or Bynum didn’t play, the Lakers still had a lead in the final five minutes and couldn’t close out the game.  Instead, Denver seized control of the contest and held on in the final moments to secure a win and take the season series over the Lakers three games to one.  They earned their 52nd win of the season and made the Lakers wait (at least) one more night to clinch the #1 seed in the Western Conference.  Like I said, missed opportunities.

This game was defined by the hot shooting of Carmelo Anthony and JR Smith, the Lakers grit and fight in the second half, and a lack of execution in the closing minutes by the Lakers.

First, Carmelo and Smith were simply terrors on offense.  After having a terrible outing against the Lakers in these teams’ last match up, Carmelo showed that he can not be easily slowed in two consecutive match ups with Artest.  He made jumper after jumper and did so from all over the court.  He may only be shooting 30% on three point attempts this season, but tonight that stat didn’t matter.  ’Melo hit 3-5 from deep and 10-20 from everywhere to score 31 points on the evening.  He also limited his turnovers this time around and only had one miscue after having eight in the last game vs. LA.  Just a very good night from Anthony.  As for Smith, he is quickly joining the ranks of other players that can be defined as Lakers’ killers.  No, he’s not as consistent as other players that have his all around game and talent level, but when his shot is on it makes his lack of offensive discipline irrelevant as he just buries shot after shot.  Smith made 10 of his 19 attempts from the field (including 5-11 from three point range) for 26 points on the evening.  He had 16 points in the second quarter alone.  Most of his threes barely moved the net as they went through the hoop and he hit several shots that either extended Denver’s early lead or kept them close when the Lakers went on their second half run.  And when he wasn’t bombing away from deep, he was attacking the rim and hitting a variety of pull up jumpers and floaters that befuddled help defenders.  Just as with ‘Melo, this was a fantastic offensive performance from Smith.

But the Lakers would not fold in the face of Smith and ‘Melo’s offensive explosions.  After trailing by 10 at the half and by as many as 15 in the third quarter, the Lakers battled back with the type of effort that has been absent in too many of their recent losses.  The Lakers defended, rebounded and then took the ball the other way and hit shots.  It wasn’t always pretty and, in fact, at one point I compared the Lakers run to slop shots in billiards (with all the rattled home shots and broken plays that ended up leading to a bucket), but they made the plays they needed to in order to systematically cut the Nuggets’ lead down and eventually take a lead of their own.  Nearly every Laker got in the act, too.  Shannon and Sasha hit threes.  Odom grabbed offensive rebounds and got a put back.  Fisher hit a runner.  Gasol hit mid range jumpers and earned trips to the foul line.  Everything was going right for the Lakers.  Until it wasn’t.

Because with a bit less than 5 minutes to go in the game, Carmelo once again showed why he’s one of the elite scorers in the entire league.  Anthony poured in 7 straight Nuggets points, culminating in a game tying three pointer with only two minutes and forty seconds to play.  Following that basket, the Lakers would take the lead behind two Derek Fisher FT’s, but it would be their last of the game.  On their next offensive possession Smith would hit a baseline jumper to tie the game and then the breakdowns for the Lakers began.  On the ensuing Lakers possession, they’d run down the shot clock and earn a 24 second violation after Nene poked away a pass to Gasol.  Then, on a Gasol post up, Nene would again get his hands on the ball and force a turnover and two Nugget free throws.  After Fisher earned another trip to the foul line and sank the corresponding FT’s on the next possesion, the Lakers trailed by one point and only needed one stop in order to get the ball back and have a chance to win.  And when Smith drove the ball, Shannon made a superb defensive play to block the shot from behind but threw the ball away when he tried to save the ball to Fisher.  One more FT by Denver after the subsequent foul meant that the Lakers still had one more chance to win.  But it turned into one last ill fated play where the execution went awry.  With 12.7 seconds left and Phil deciding against a time out, Fisher dribbled the ball up court, ran a P&R with Odom, forced Denver to switch, but then couldn’t get the ball into Odom in the post on Billups.  Instead, with only a second remaining, Fisher fired up a desperation three that got blocked by ‘Melo.  Ball game.

So, here we are.  For the fourth time in five games the Lakers lost.  But unlike those other games, I don’t feel the same sense of anger or frustration that stems from blowouts where poor play is out done by even poorer urgency to win.  Tonight, against the Nuggets, the Lakers fought and came up short.  They had a very good chance to win but were out executed down the stretch by the team that had the best player on the floor making crucial buckets to win the game.  And while watching the other team do the things that you wish the Lakers would is frustrating, the overall feeling that I get from this game is that the Lakers are getting closer.  Closer to playing well, closer to being ready for the playoffs, closer to having the necessary mindset that they’ll need to defend their title.  And sure tonight’s game was tough, but really it was just a missed opportunity.  I’m starting to feel more confident that when these chances become available in the playoffs, it will be the Lakers that are making the winning plays.

In Game Recap
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