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A Lakers Blog. Thoughts, reflections, and the odd rant on the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA (even the Clippers).

Preview and Chat: The Indiana Pacers

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Records: Lakers 45-15 (1st in West), Pacers 20-39 (14th in East)
Offensive ratings: Lakers 108.6 (10th in NBA), Pacers 101.8 (28th in NBA)
Defensive ratings: Lakers 101.8 (1st in NBA), Pacers 106.4 (14th in NBA)
Projected Starting Lineups: Lakers: Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Ron Artest, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum
Pacers: TJ Ford, Earl Watson, Danny Granger, Troy Murphy, Roy Hibbert

The Lakers Coming in:  The Lakers are undoubtedly on a mini-high after Sunday’s win over Denver.  They vanquished a team that they had yet to beat this regular season and the team that is the team most likely (or second most, depending on your views on the Mavs) to challenge them for the Western Conference crown come playoff time.  That win ups their record against the league’s best teams and they once again proved that they have an ability to raise their game.  However, as we’ve covered, there are still things that can be improved upon and the Lakers can’t get fat and happy on one win.  Sure, it was a big win, but it doesn’t count double in the standings so time to forget about that one and move on.  The effort to build momentum begins tonight against the Pacers and the Lakers must be prepared for a new opponent’s best effort – since that’s what they get every game.  And with a tough schedule looming this month, no better team to start out against than the one from Indiana.

The Pacers Coming in:  I’ve been trying to find good things to say about the Pacers and…umm…Danny Granger is very good.  That’s about all I’ve got.  And even with for him, things have been pretty rough lately.  But through it all, Granger is still playing quite well.  Besides Granger though, things have not been that good for the Pacers this year and, sadly, that is a running theme for this franchise over the past several seasons.  They’re second to last in a weak conference only above the lowly Nets.  And in a season that has seen perennial doormats like the Bucks and Bobcats make a push for the playoffs, the Pacers are stuck in the mud.  Add to that an inner ear infection putting rookie Tyler Hansborough on the shelf and Solomon Jones getting suspended for conduct detrimental to the team, and you’ve got a rudderless squad that Larry Bird is captaining into the abyss.  (On a side note, even though he’s an old Celtic, I feel bad for Larry Legend.  He had a good run as coach for this team and now he’s overmatched as a GM.  He’s truly built a bad team.)

Three up and seven down in their last 10 games is pretty much par for the course for the Pacers and that is pretty depressing for a team from a state that loves its hoops.  I’m pretty sure that the upcoming documentary on the Reggie Miller era teams squaring off with the Knicks will be the most exciting thing that most Pacers’ fans watch all season.   Like I said, I was looking for something nice to say.

Pacers Blogs:  The Pacers do have great blogs though (I new I’d find a compliment).  Eight Points, Nine Seconds is relatively new on the scene but they’re very smart and providing strong analysis.  And there’s always Indy Cornrows -another great site for all you could ever want in Pacers coverage.

Keys to game:  Another game, another advantage for the Lakers’ front line.  The last time these teams met Bynum, Gasol, and Odom combined for 60 points and 39 rebounds.  Indy aided in this by starting a front line consisting of Granger at PF and Dhantay Jones at SF, but I don’t care about that too much.  Tonight, even if O’Brien comes to his senses and starts players in their natural spots (which I expect), the Lakers should feast on the inside and go from there.  Oh, and going to that Kobe guy would be nice as well.  We’ve all seen Mr. Bean struggle with his shot lately, but this is the team to get it going against.  Kobe loves to go up against Dhantay Jones and if he’s not in, Earl Watson or Brandon Rush will do just fine as well.  In the last meeting between these two teams, Kobe joined the Lakers’ front line in dominating the Pacers to the tune of 29 points and 7 assists to go along with his 9 rebounds and only a single  turnover (that turnover number is nice considering what we’ve seen the last few games).  So, the Lakers should go inside and into Kobe.  I’m not sure you really need me today.

On defense, the Lakers need to understand that the Pacers want to jack up the three ball, so running them off the perimeter stripe should be a priority.  Indy is in the top 5 of attempts % from three point land (number of 3pt FG attempts to FGA’s overall) and their plan is to get the ball upcourt fast and then fire away.  They’re not shy about this and if they get hot from out there, it will be a problem.  So, close out on shooters and play the P&R (where anyone but Hibbert sets the screen) as a pick and pop scenario where the screen man is looking to float to the arc to fire up another jumper.   This is espcecially true for Troy Murphy so whichever of our bigs is on him they need to be really aware of him popping to the three point line and our team help schemes need to account for “helping the helper” in the instances where our big man has to hedge out to slow down Ford and Watson trying to turn the corner comming off the pick.

As for individual matchups, I’m interested in two.  The first is Artest on Granger.  After the Denver game, Ron said that he’s the type of player that can find a rhythm on defense.  Well, tonight he’ll need that as he’s facing one of the premier scoring SF’s in the league.  Granger is often lost in the shuffle of good SF’s in this league, but he can put up numbers.  This season his scoring at a clip of 23 points per game and last season that number was 26.  The guy can fill it up and can do it in a variety of ways – from 3, off the dribble, in the post, in the mid-range.  He may not deserve max money as a franchise guy, but he is a fantastic scorer.  The other match up I’m interested in is Bynum vs. Hibbert.  In the last game, Hibbert didn’t start but when he came in he had his way with Drew and scored 21 points on mostly post ups where he used his size and length to get off his jump hook.  Roy’s not the strongest guy, so Bynum should try to push him off the block to make him less effective and then on offense use his superior athleticism to run post lane sprints and punish Hibbert by outrunning him completely or pinning him under the hoop.

In the end, this should be a pretty easy win for the Lakers.  However, whenever I say that the caveat must be made that any team that plays the Lakers will give their best effort.  A win against the world champs is a nice consolation prize in an otherwise forgetful season.  So, follow the game plan on both ends and make this team realize that they don’t have much a chance early.  Because if you let them hang around, we know what can happen. Yeah, we don’t want to see that again.  Let’s get this win.

Where you can watch:  7:30pm start time in the West on Fox Sports West, also on ESPN Radio 710am.


Reader Interactions

Comments

  4. penston says

    Darius says “So, the Lakers should go inside and into Kobe. I’m not sure you really need me today.”

    Mimsy says “This is for Warren.”

    I think we are done here!

  5. Mimsy says

    It was close though! How dare you try to jinx it kaveh!

    I notice a lack of excitement compared to Sunday’s game… I’m still watching! I want to see Ron take on Granger.

  6. ray says

    i know the pacers suck, but lets not have a let down game. Take them seriously, and it should be an easy win.

  7. Gr8 Scott says

    This next stretch of games is a good way to get a nice winning streak going. It would be nice to see us handling the lesser/middle of the road teams with more ease, but a win is a win and you can’t discount that every team has you circled on their calendars. Don’t forget we lost there last year on last second tip in, so let’s not put it past the Pacers to take it to us. Pound it inside and let Bynum have one of his 25-12 games with great efficiency. Go Lakers!

  8. j.d. Hastings says

    I don’t feel like the Lakers have had many letdown games this year. A few, yes (Toronto comes to mind), but fewer than in years past, even last year. Denver has taken over in that regard.

  9. Mimsy says

    After a moment of thinking, I suspect we’ll see a lot of rotation players tonight. This strikes me as the type of game where Phil might leave Shannon Brown and Jordan Farmar on the floor for long stretches of time, possibly together with Josh Powell, just to see what they can do and how they adjust and play together.

  10. Bobji says

    Good words of caution at the end of the post by Darius.
    Let’s make an honest effort not to bash players if things go bad tonight.

  11. Darius says

    A couple more x’s and o’s notes:

    *I expect the Lakers to give TJ Ford the Tony Parker treatment on P&R’s by going under the screen and making him a jumpshooter. This will give them better angles to protect against the drive and make the recovery to the screener easier.

    *We may see Kobe a lot in the post tonight. Jones and Watson don’t have the size to bother Kobe on the block and Rush doesn’t have the savvy to deal with him down there either. I doubt his presence down there will be as pronounced as it was against Denver, but I think we’ll see plenty of it – especially when the he’s at SF with the Farmar/WOW back court and LO/Pau are at PF/C.

  12. KB24ever says

    I agree with Mimsy. Phil is definitely gonna use the bench more in this one, even if it’s close in the 4th.

    And for the love of god guys, please score at or more than the pacers’ points against (104.0)! I would really like to see our offense turn it up a notch and tune up a notch in our build-up to the playoffs.

    Also, I’d like to see guys like Mbenga and Powell have decent showings tonight. Something like 10/7/2, and 2 or 3 blocks would be nice to see on the stat line and pretty reasonable against a (crappy) team like Indiana.

  13. KB24ever says

    re: #8
    Actually, while I agree we’ve had fewer let-down losses this year, I’d have to respectfully disagree with you on Denver taking the cake in that department. I think we can all conclude Boston beats them out by a couple L’s (the loss to the Nets a couple days ago pretty much seals the deal. I still would like to see them in the Finals just so we can get revenge on their aging asses for our ’08 Finals collapse, even though everyone wants Kobe vs Lebron and Shaq!)

  14. Mimsy says

    I would love to see Powell and Mbenga get some serious minutes tonight! I haven’t seen Mbenga in a while. 🙂

  15. VoR says

    Mimsy, thank you for beating out Kaveh. Last thing we need now is someone messing with Warren’s mojo.

    I’m bummed that Sasha is out. He may have gotten some run this game.

  16. Mimsy says

    Anytime VoR, anytime. (I knew getting in trouble for checking FB&G from work would be worth it!)

  17. AusPhil says

    VoR, I was thinking exactly the same thing. Even hours before tip-off, this one felt like a Sasha game.

    Maybe it’s a bit sad to think that way! I just want SOMEONE to get their outside stroke going with some consistency, and he seems the most able of the bench guys.

  18. Mimsy says

    I would also have liked to see Sasha get some minutes tonight. He’d been improving his game and was starting to do a really good job fitting in the system. It’d be frustrating if he had to start over after his injury against a team stacked against us. The Pacers would have been a good warm-up round for him.

    (I missed my edit-window.)

  20. KB24ever says

    btw, once again if anyone’s interested, the C’s are about to lend further credence to my assessment of them as the most disappointing team of the year/team with the most let-down losses. They lead Detroit by 4 with 8:36 left in the 4th…

  21. KB24ever says

    Is it just me or do only the bad teams have the announcers who over-emphasize trivial things, like they’re trying to alleviate the dead energy of a sorry home team’s arena? You know, when the guy says something like “foul on #21 Tim Duncan…that’s his THHHHHHIIIIIIIIRRRRRRDDDDDD FOULLLLLL!!!!” You’d have thought something remarkable happened. I swear our guy, Lawrence Tanter, while not the best, does not pull lame s*** like that.

  22. Mimsy says

    Is it just me or do only the bad teams have the announcers who over-emphasize trivial things, like they’re trying to alleviate the dead energy of a sorry home team’s arena?

    You don’t have the NBA League Pass, do you…? 🙂

    The Spurs home announcers do it all the time. It’s almost as if they have no idea their team can actually be good at times. If Joel and Stu expressed that much surprised joy every time a Laker makes a shot, they’d be fired.

  23. VoR says

    AusPhil, I agree completely. Holding out hope that Sasha will find his shot probably doesn’t say much for our thoughts on the Laker’s bench. But here we are.

    Hoping I can turn off the game by the start of the fourth quarter. Let’s see if the guys can put this one away early.

  24. sT says

    I would also like to see the bench get many minutes tonight, it is the Pacers after all, right?

  26. AusPhil says

    So many people are mentioning the bench getting time that I’m now almost ready to assume it’ll come down to the last 2 minutes!

    But I’ll echo the rest & hope that we see DJ, Powell et. al. playing some extended minutes. It’s been too long since we’ve been able to talk about the Taco Unit.

  27. Ryan says

    I hope we get to see some Adam Morrison tonight. Who doesn’t want to see the very formiddable front court of Powel, Mbenga and Morrison.

    A blow out would be nice. It makes for a boring game, but I am probably too tired to stay up and finish watching the game (It starts at 9:30 here).

  29. Andreas G. says

    Most people here probably know that I’m always defending Pau, but he really, really, really has to start dunking more. The weird thing is that he’s really good at it too once he does it.

  38. Drew says

    Kobe has leaving his feet and getting trapped in the air alot lately…these have been leading to a good amount of his turnovers

  39. VoR says

    Joel, I was watching that play unfold and I was thinking Fisher might actually make this one. I had to laugh at that block. I love Fish, but man I understand why he does the whole PUJIT thing.

  41. VoR says

    If Fish finds his three point shot again for the last part of this season, that will be huge.

  44. Jay says

    Kobe still seems off. His jumpers are not even close right now. Not sure what the problem is, but he needs to get it together.

  46. AusPhil says

    Quick question: I’m probably noticing this because I watch more Laker games than any other team, but do we take more “heat check” jumpshots than other teams? Just hitting one shot, then going for it again, regardless of whether it’s the best shot available?

    Just wondering.

  49. Andreas G. says

    Our frontline should have a field day here. Hopefully Kobe can find his touch again too.

  50. Brandon says

    I wonder why our 3pt percentage is low this year. It isn’t like we’re getting bad looks… And basically the same personnel, I mean Ariza didn’t start making them in bunches until the playoffs.

  51. Jay says

    Alright, that ends the Ammo good feelings for me. He plays defense on Shannon, cutting him off on the baseline on one play, then immediately gives up an and 1.
    THIS IS WHY YOU DON’T PLAY

  52. Jay says

    Brandon:
    Lots of guys are just having bad years.
    –Fisher is washed up (sorry, don’t want to start that but it’s true)
    –Kobe hasn’t shot well all year. His early 49% FG% was because he was camped out in the post and shooting 12 footers, he hasn’t been threatening from deep since Game 1 of the Finals.
    –The Machine is still broken, but he was replaced (largely) by Shannon Brown who is not a shooter.

    Artest’s 3 point % is fine, it’s just that everyone else who shoots 3s probably needs to just stop.

  54. AusPhil says

    Wow – what’s the turnover count now? It seems that every chance I get to check out the GameCast, we’ve racked up a couple more.

  58. VoR says

    That’s not fair, AusPhil – he made a layup.

    And as I was typing…another buzzer beater

  60. harold says

    At least Kobe is making FTs. That’s always a good sign, since something is working.

  61. AusPhil says

    Yeah, as I watched my edit window time tick, he makes a jumper!

    But we’ve all seen this before, and there’s probably some high-volume scoring to come in the 2nd half.

  62. Busboys4me says

    Good catch Jay on Ammo. I was the only one here who caught him do that against Farmar on the baseline. He got in the way (in the passing lane) and caused a turnover.

  66. harold says

    Assists for our starters…

    Kobe : 3
    Artest: 3
    Fisher: 3
    Gasol: 2
    Bynum: 0

    But Bynum is shooting 75% from the field and 100% from the FT line, so he gets a ‘pass.’

    Odom leads everyone on our team with 6 tho.

  67. Darius says

    The ball is moving better today and our bigs are just too much for Indy. And when Fish (or any of our guards) are consistently knocking down the three, we become really tough to beat.

  69. Mark says

    Not to beat a dead horse here, but whenever Fisher has a good game, Farmar and/or Brown has a better game.

    Right now:
    Fisher 3-of-8 (3-of-6 in 3pt) 1 reb, 3 ast, 1 to, 1 stl = 9 points

    Farmar 3-of-4 (1-of-2 in 3pt) 1 reb, 2 ast, 1 to = 7 points

    You would think Fisher is better but he played at 24 minutes while Farmar at 9 minutes.

    Sorry, can’t help. ;p

  71. sT says

    Let the bench finish this game out, that includes Mbenga at Center, they can’t blow around a 30 point lead can they?

  73. lakergirl says

    Ron Artest is really putting his mark out there. If i were a 3 i would not want to play while he is out there. He is pretty much assaulting them all….attaboy

  74. Busboys4me says

    Trevor is a great off ball defensive player like Camby, but damn Artest is one bad dude!!

  76. AusPhil says

    That should be Kobe icing his knees for the remainder. Just hope the Taco Unit doesn’t somehow let Indy back into this.

  79. 3ThreeIII says

    Loved reading all of the negatives during the first quarter.

    We are now at the part of the season where the coaching staff is doing fine tuning.

    Patience.

    Go Lakers.

  82. sT says

    If you want to talk about black hole, that is Mbenga, no matter where he is on the court, if he gets the ball it is going to be a J.

  83. Busboys4me says

    Look at Granger and Ron Ron’s end of game stats. OMG. Ron had more assists, more steals, more points, and fewer turnovers. WOW!!!

  85. BOOBOO says

    Has Morrison always moved so awkwardly? Or is it due to his past knee injuries? And I agree with #80, I would not pick him for a pick up game. What’s wrong with his game? Confidence issues or what? I feel bad for the guy.

    Well, at least the fans got the tacos. Tacos > Win.

  90. Adrian says

    Good game, well played by the Lakers. Jordan and Shannon on FIRE, that third quarter was impressive.

  91. Joel B. says

    Lakers did what they were supposed to do. Plain and simple. Good game. Now they have a semi-tough road trip coming up. A back to back starting in Miami(you know wade is looking for revenge after the first game) and Charlotte (whom the lakers normally lose to). Then they head back to Orlando, which will be a tough game. Looking forward to the lakers finishing this week strong.