The Lakers are 18-10, one game back of the vaunted Phoenix Suns (who the Lakers just handled nicely, thank you very much). Andrew Bynum is having a breakout year, Derek Fisher (with Jordan Farmar behind him) have been a huge upgrade at point guard and Kobe is being Kobe. Yet, last year the Lakers were […]
Lakers Analysis
Game Preview & Chat: The Philadelphia 76ers
Records: Lakers 15-9; 76ers 10-15 Offensive ratings: Lakers 111.4 (8th); 76ers 103.4 (23rd) Defensive ratings: Lakers 105.6 (11th); 76ers 104.8 (8th) Projected Starting Lineups: Lakers: Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Luke Walton, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum 76ers: Andre Miller, Willie Green, Andre Iguodala, Reggie Evans, Samuel Dalembert Lakers Notes: My junior high basketball coach taught me […]
Winning With The Other Things
Dean Oliver’s seminal basketball statistics book, Basketball On Paper, breaks down the game into the “Four Factors†for winning games — shooting efficiency, getting to the free throw line, offensive rebounding and turnovers. You can win games by doing those things so well on offense you’re opponent can’t match it (what Golden State tries to […]
And One For The Road
That was a great confidence-boosting, comfortable win for a team heading off on a four-game road trip. To be sure, the Clippers played poor defense on the perimeter (Kobe in the first and Sasha in the fourth got Clips to bite on fakes and that made their shots easier, the Clips rotations and coverage at […]
Winning is Golden
On the night the Warriors focused on not letting Kobe beat them — and it worked because while he had 28 points he was 9 of 23 shooting — the other Lakers stepped up. Outside of Kobe the Lakers as a team shot 60.4% (eFG%). That was the case during the key run in the […]
The Next Step
We’re almost 20 games into the season, and there have been some exhilarating ups (like last night’s win in Denver) and rather jagged downs. And through it all, here’s what I think we’ve learned about the Lakers — they are a solid second-tier team in the Western Conference. Which is an impressive sign of growth […]
Consistently Inconsistent
The loss to Orlando Sunday night was a bit of the microcosm of the Lakers season so far — streaks of tantalizingly good play followed by streaks of disinterested defense, an offense that resorted to “let’s watch Kobe†in crunch time and an egregious number of turnovers. Some days, the good is enough (or lasts […]
Credit The Second Unit
I made this note yesterday but it bears repeating: The top four Lakers in +/- per 48 minutes this season are Jordan Farmar, Andrew Bynum, Luke Walton and Vladamir Radmanovic — all guys who come in off the bench. It is that second unit and this team’s depth that has carried it to a 6-3 […]
View From Behind The Bench
Friend of the site Nate Jones — better known as Jones on the NBA, he of his own blog and Fanhouse — sat behind the Lakers bench last night. He posted some observations in the comments that I thought deserved their own space. I sat right behind the Lakers bench last night. First of all, […]
The Good and The Bad
Since this is the NBA and not, say, platform diving, there are no style points awarded with wins. Which is good, because while the Lakers were doing something with a high degree of difficulty — a back-to-back in Texas — they got the win that was far from graceful in Houston. And we’ll take it. […]