Record: 18-13 (Pythagorean 19-12), 5th seed in the East
Record last 10 games: 5-5
Offensive Rating: 105.7 (21st in league)
Defensive Rating: 102.2 (3rd in league)
About the Pacers: With Ron Artest, the Pacers were 11-7, without him 7-6, which includes a win last night in Sacramento (a blowout that allowed some key guys to get rest). Due to injury and illness (in the case of Artest, mental illness), this is the starting lineup the Pacers had to go with: Stephen Jackson, Anthony Johnson, Danny Granger, Austin Croshere and David Harrison. Not the title-contending lineup pictured before the season.
The best guys had to come off the bench. That starts with Jermaine O’Neal, who had missed the previous three games with a bout of pneumonia. He was still +20 last night, not bad for a sick guy. Not sure how much energy he’ll have for tonight, but he is still dangerous — shooting 47.9% (eFG%) from the field, scoring 24 points per 40 minutes and pulling down 10.9 rebounds in that same time (15.9% of the available boards).
Two other guys to watch are Austin Croshere — who can fill it up (a true shooting percentage of 61.9%), grabs 14.4% of the available rebounds when he is on the floor, and is +9.3 per 48 minutes — and Stephen Jackson, who is second on the team averaging 17.4 points per 40 minutes (he had 31 last night in Sacramento).
There’s a couple of rookies I’m really looking forward to seeing — Sarunas Jasikevicius and Danny Granger. Jasikevicius, who for three straight years led Maccabi Tel Aviv to the Euroleague title before coming to Indiana, has a true shooting percentage of 62.4% (third best in the NBA), is shooting 40.5% from three point range, is +7.3 per 48 and is averaging 15.4 points and 4.9 assists per 40 minutes. What I have seen of him so far has impressed me, he makes good decisions with the ball. With Granger, I really liked the stuff I saw before the draft, he was very athletic, and he is averaging a solid 11.4 points and 7.7 rebounds per 40 minutes.
One thing you should see: Yesterday my wife and I went to see the Cezanne & Pissarro exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Having lived with an artist all through college, I’ve been told and shown more than my share of art history stuff before, but this exhibit was set up in a way that really made the points they were getting at clear and enjoyable. It’s not there much longer but go if you can
One thing I hope not to hear tonight: Too much Artest-to-the-Lakers talk. Just because they are playing the Lakers doesn’t mean the trade is going to happen right after the game. By the way, I think the Pacers are doing the right thing being patient, some team will eventually panic and give them a deal they can live with. If you want more Artest talk, check out the Hoopsanalyst breakdown.
The Lakers coming in: How about that Kobe Bryant? He is a marvel and just fun to watch, wherever he is stealing his moves from. (Michael Vick? Well, it’s better than stealing a move from Marcus Vick and getting another suspension.)
Today though, Phil Jackson and Kobe both say what is has been bothering me more lately — the other Lakers are looking to Kobe too much to bail them out. During the winning streak, other players were stepping up, taking and hitting their shots, they need to do that again, and Kobe has to let them. There are times for Kobe to take over, but that can’t be every night.
What I am liking — Kobe and Cook on the pick and pop. (Again the Times beat me too this note, nice to see some good stuff out of them.) Cook was 6 of 9 against the Clippers, 2 of 3 from beyond the arc, and led the team as a +9.
Key’s to a Laker win: Again the Lakers get good timing — this is the last game of the road trip for Indiana, they are in the second game of a back-to-back, no Artest and O’Neal is just starting to get healthy.
This is a night that Odom should step up, defending the four is a weakness of Indiana and Croshere can’t hang with Odom, he needs to be aggressive. Smush (or Sasha) also should have a big night, the Pacers have had trouble defending the point this season.
That said, even without Artest and a full-strength O’Neal, the Pacers are a good defensive team. The Lakers are going to need to match that and play good defense to win, this is a Pacer lineup that can be slowed. Before the season this was a game you may have thought the Lakers would struggle in, but timing is everything — this is a chance for the Lakers to pick up a win against a good team that is in a tough spot.
chris henderson says
I also agree that seeing Brian Cook working with Kobe on the Pick and Pop is something that seems to work very well….hope to see it exploited again tonight, and see that worked into a regular play. I think Cook has great potential and love to see more of it used tonight.
and I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, why do our “bigs”, (including LO when he goes to the hole) why do they try these finesse finger rolls, instead of going for the slam dunk? I think Phil should put together a tape showing them how many times they try these finesse shots and they get blocked, vs showing how many times they’ve had great success with the dunk, maybe they’ll start getting the idea…go to the hole with authority!!
Kurt says
Chris, I was thinking the other day the Lakers probably have the lowest shooting percentage on layups in the league. I’d love to find out for sure, but the odds of me developing a NBA play-by-play parsing program to look it up are between slim and none.
I really wish they would just try to dunk more of these, even if some end in blocks, just because they aren’t aggressive enough.
Gatinho says
Esp. Kwame punishing the backboard with some of those point blank missiles. Von Wafer has seemingly had more dunk attempts than our bigs.
LO needs to redeem himself defensively tonight and get some confidence back.
chris henderson says
so far this year, it sweems like Smush is the strongest guy going to the hole, and he’s our POINT GUARD!!!
I get so frustrated when Lamar decides to cut to the basket, and sometimes he does finish strong, brings the momentum our way, the crowd the team all respond, and then sometimes he, (or Mihm, or Kwame) get open down under and they try this soft bank shot and it gets swatted into the stands…BIG MOMENTUM SHIFT,
it just ain’t right that Smush has the most slam dunk highlite reel shots of the season.
back to utilizing Cook, if we use the Pick and Pop between he and Kobe, and he gets into his usual groove, we get multiple benefits, 1) he’s hitting 3’s, helps the score, 2) opens up the inside, and keeps the D honest on Kobe, and 3) starting Cook, and bringing in Kwame off the bench seems to work better, having Kwame and Mihm rotate, keeping the center position solid and on fresh legs.
kwame a. says
I agree with Chris about utilizing the pick and pop with Kobe and Cook, but I actually like bringing Cook off the bench. With Profit out for the season and George and Walton playing inconsistently on offense I think bringing Cook off the bench is the only way to ensure scoring from the second unit. Kwame is killing us on offense, but he seems to get up for the games against better 4’s, i.e. Garnett and Brand. If the offense continues to be one dimensional they may put Cook back in the offense, but I like the big guys pulling down boards and blocking shots
Derek Banducci says
Comments on this evening’s game…
Tonight, and in recent nights, the Lakers seem to have played within their offense while Kobe still went for huge points.
This is not something that we saw early in the season. If Kobe scored 45 earlier this year, it meant that the rest of the Lakers were standing around on offense and watching Kobe do his thing.
For example, this evening it was nice to see Kobe dish off to Sasha, who drew his defender in the air, put the ball on the floor, and then dished to Kwame for a two-handed dunk.
Sure, I’d like to see more than two players in double figures, but beyond the numbers there’s a real difference between what we are seeing right now and what we saw earlier in the season. I can live with two players in double figures if that’s just what happens in the flow of the offense.
The Lakers can win if there is ball movement and Kobe gets 45 because he’s Kobe. The Lakers cannot win if Kobe gets 45 because everybody else stands around and watches Kobe be Kobe.
Finally, what got into Bynum tonight? To get his last field goal, he went down low on the break and practically begged Odom to toss it in. Instead, Odom passed to Kobe, so Bynum went out and set the pick. Then when Bynum’s man left him off the pick, Kobe HAD TO to pass it to Bynum, who converted. I wanted to see more Bynum and less Kwame in the second half.
chris henderson says
but, how about that 4th qtr “2 handed dunk” from Kwame?? and Lamar taking it to the hole from the sideline ala Eddie Jones??!!
Overall, I think I saw LO do several nice finishes when driving to the hoop, maybe the message is getting to them.
Finish strong! … be Aggressive!!
just imagine, 2 to 4 slams/game from LO, 2 or 3 from Kwame, a couple from Mihm…
and who’s missing Shaq any longer???…eh?