This season, rather than recapping everything about every Lakers game that is played, I will periodically put together a shortened recap that focuses on One Thing that Mattered from the contest that just took place. This could be something good from a game the team lost, something bad from a game the team won, or vice versa. Sometimes it may be the most important thing — like an important performance or a game winner! — or sometimes it might be some random substitution or a tactical shift that stood out to me. Either way, it will be us trying to look at one thing that mattered. Hope you all enjoy the series. Now, on to it…
The Lakers got their first win of the season Sunday night, defeating the Grizzlies in a game that was stressful as hell down the stretch, but illuminating in some of the tactics the team used to actually get the victory. In today’s look at one thing that mattered, it’d feel disingenuous to not focus on Carmelo Anthony, whose 28 points in 27.5 minutes paced the team and really gave them a boost off the bench. Melo was, truly, fantastic on the offensive side of the floor, hitting nearly every open shot he took and a few not so open ones as well…
Beyond the highlights and general idea of “making shots is good”, the thing that stood out to me about Melo’s game and, I thought, a key reason to his success was a particularly favorable matchup that really worked in his favor and one that the Grizzlies did not do a good enough job avoiding.
In the 28 minutes that Melo played against the Grizzlies on Sunday, 20 of those came while Xavier Tillman was on the floor. Tillman, a 2nd year PF/C is a fine young player who is a lot of things: physical in the paint, a good rebounder, and someone who can score efficiently in and around the restricted area.
Unfortunately for the Grizzlies, he was also a very good matchup for Carmelo Anthony. In the 20 minutes that both Melo and Tillman shared the floor, Melo scored 22 of his 28 points, including all of his makes (and attempts) from behind the arc (6 makes in 8 attempts). Additionally, the Lakers as a whole were a +23 in those 20 minutes, hitting 22 of their 34 shots overall, including 9 of 15 from behind the arc.
Now, I don’t want to act as though this was all Tillman’s fault. One player doesn’t allow all those points and as you can see from the highlight clip above, it’s not like Melo was abusing Tillman the entire time. What Tillman’s presence did allow, though, was a natural defensive matchup for Melo in the first place.
Tillman isn’t exactly a long range shooter, isn’t a major off the dribble threat, at 6’8″ isn’t exceptionally tall, and one of his better attributes offensively is leveraging his short area quickness and strength in order to do his damage around the paint. If there’s an offensive profile that Melo can do well against, it’s the one that Tillman brings to the table!
So, on one end, Melo was mostly able to be comfortable in his individual matchup and then, on the other end, Melo was able to get into a rhythm and hit a bunch of shots that domino’d into a wonderful offensive night. Maybe the latter happens without the former — Melo has scored a ton of points in this league, after all — but it certainly couldn’t have hurt, you know? Remember, Vogel is a defensive coach first and his first instinct is almost always going to be to protect his defense by catering his lineups to the guys who can do the best job on that end of the floor vs. whatever lineups the other team throws out there.
Fortunately for the Lakers, though, Melo found a matchup that seemed to work in his favor. And, when it worked, he was able to get to work too — which helped the Lakers get that W. Now, it’s on to San Antonio…