On Tuesday night the Lakers roasted the Knicks, putting on a scoring display that was pretty incredible to watch. After only scoring 14 points in the 1st quarter, the Lakers proceeded to hang 44 on the Knicks in the 2nd quarter to pull ahead at the half.
The real fireworks occurred in the 3rd period, however, when the Lakers scored 51 points to set a franchise record for points scored in a quarter (which was also a record for the Knicks for most points allowed). By my count the Lakers boasted an offensive efficiency (points per 100 possessions) of 204.0 for the period, though other calculations had it at 197 192 and some change. Either way, the Lakers essentially scored 2 points per every possession that quarter, running the Knicks out of the building in the process.
As I said on twitter at the time, the game got embarrassing and this time the Lakers weren’t the victims. No, this time it was the other team who couldn’t bother to make rotations on time, lost their man off the ball, and looked generally hapless defensively. The funny thing about the that fateful 3rd period is that the Knicks were actually quite good themselves offensively. They managed to shoot over 50% from the floor and put up 31 points of their own. If only they didn’t allow the Lakers to score 20 more points than them in that 12 minutes.
Anyways, enjoy the video above. In a season that has offered way too many lows, the Lakers bombing away on the Knicks was certainly one of the high points all season and is worth celebrating for at least another day.
PurpleBlood says
Yeah! That was fun to watch
Ko says
Only bad thing about last night .
“We are in a talent hunt”
Quote from Phil after game.
Price for Henry, Young and Hill went up for Lakers.
Not so much for Marshall , Kelly or Johnson.
You know Phil would love to steal Lakers .
P. Ami says
Lets just say, any talk of the basketball gods dropping a bad karma blanket on the Lakers for tanking is really not holding any water. The players are definitely trying to win.
rfen says
Good win. Assuming this is the direction they’re going in, any time the Lakers play well, it’s a good step. There’s more to building a team than wins, and more to winning than acquiring stars.
It just shows how irrational people are about the draft and “tanking” when they’re calling the season a waste before there’s even a pick. What if the Lakers just happen to come up with a Paul George, Love, Lillard, Curry, Carter-Williams, Noah, Monroe, Cousins, or K. Leonard? All these guys and many more good ones were picked at or lower than the Lakers will likely be drafting. Why not at least wait til they get a dud before jumping off a cliff? 🙂
Craig W. says
Liked Ko and David H’s comments in the last thread.
Many discussion revolve around our getting a top 5 pick, or trying to, in the upcoming draft. Since it would appear there is no real franchise player, it is interesting to think of trying to trade down a bit and try to get 2 first round picks from a very deep draft. On draft night, if Mitch thinks we can safely do it, I can see this scenario because we need more talent than one player can provide. Say a PG and athletic front court player???
P.S. I am in the camp of always cheering for a Laker win and last night was sweeeeeeet!
Mid-Wilshire says
I’m very impressed with Xavier Henry. He’s extremely tough, playing through what would be a catastrophic injury for most mortals–a torn ligament in his wrist. His attitude: “It’s already torn. It can’t get any worse.” Who does that remind you of? (Hint: he wears number 24.)
On a slightly different topic. Too bad Pau Gasol has come down with vertigo. It’s not serious but it’s very disabling. I’ve had benign vertigo (occasionally called “positional vertigo”) for 20 years. The walls spin, the ceiling spins, the floor spins, and it feels as if the axis of the Earth has been tilted an extra 20 degrees. There’s no way you can play basketball with vertigo. In fact, I believe it ended Brad Daugherty’s career (former center with Cleveland in the 1990s).
The most recent theory is that vertigo might be caused by loose crystals in the inner ear. (At least, that’s what my doctor said.) There are exercises for it that supposedly help put the crystals back in place. They involve lying on your side on the bed and tilting your head up. I hate the bloody things because they tend to intensify the dizziness and can even make you nauseous. But over time they do seem to work. Vertigo is no joke.
I hope Pau gets well soon.
Baylor Fan says
That looked more like a game of “horse” than basketball; very humiliating for the Knicks. It would be interesting to see what these Lakers would be like on a team that tried to play defense on a regular basis. Playing to win means also trying to keep the other team from scoring.
gene says
If D.A. only had a better personality wrt players…His system does have merit..If you could combine it with better defense you can win with it…Maybe all the running gasses the players on D..Sub in and out more often?? BTW Paul Westhead had a similar offense long time ago…Lakers were 10 out of 19 without Kobe…then the injuries.This system with Pau/Kaman/Hill would work…Little adjustments with having bigs involved
rr says
It just shows how irrational people are about the draft and “tanking” when they’re calling the season a waste before there’s even a pick.
—
It is not irrational at all. People in that camp just want to improve the team’s odds of getting a really good player. It is not complicated. Here is where the guys on your list were chosen:
George-10
Love-5
Lillard-6
Curry-7
Carter-Williams-11
Noah-9
Monroe-7
Cousins-5
Leonard-15
The best player on the list is probably Love; he went 5.George’s development has been very unusual, as has Leonard’s. Paul Pierce, Andrew Bynum, Eddie Jones, and Joe Johnson were #10 picks, but OTOH, so were Jarvis Hayes, Saer Sene, Adam Keefe, and Luke Jackson.
Basically, the lower you go, the tougher it is, and the higher you are, the more likely you are to get a foundational player.