First off, the latest Blogsphere Poll Rankings for the NBA are up over at yaysports.com. Detroit is now on top, with San Antonio, Dallas, Cleveland and Indiana rounding out the top five. The Lakers are ranked 22nd in the league, which is one spot below where I had them in my poll. ————————————– Losing five […]
Lakers Analysis
Triangle? Trapezoid? What Is That?
After two poor offensive outings, I decided to do some offensive charting for the Memphis game to get a detailed look at what the Lakers were doing and why it wasn’t working. Picked a great game to go through every step of — didn’t miss a minute of that beauty. The first three games of […]
The Good Stuff
Sometimes I feel I focus too much on the negative, on the things that need improvement, but there are a lot of things to smile about five games into the Laker season, and not just that they are above .500: • What was the biggest problem with the Lakers last season? Say it with me: […]
How Does 6-7 Sound?
It’s human nature for us to put too much emphasis on the first game of the season and on the first weeks of the season. Blame it on hope and the raw enthusiasm of our team starting play again. Especially here in LA, with a new coach, new faces and the desire to get the […]
Laker Preview — Offense
Note: This is the second of two Laker preview articles, this one focusing on the offense. The defensive preview can be found here. Meet the new offense, same as the old offense. The triangle is back in L.A. But this is not your Shaq-daddy’s triangle — there’s more motion, attacks from the wing rather than […]
Laker Preview — Defense
Note: We’re doing a two-part Laker preview this week, one part for each end of the court. Defense goes first, with offense to follow (likely on Saturday). We love our fancy statistics here at FB&G, but you really didn’t need them to figure out what was wrong with last season’s Lakers— it was the defense. […]
Preseason Stats
Let’s say this up front, six games — preseason games at that — is too small a sample size from which to draw big conclusions. That said, I love to jump to conclusions. Don’t even look where I’m leaping. Now that I’ve got this post’s cliche quota out of the way, we can say there […]
Spread The Love Around
Last season, when Kobe Bryant was on the floor he took shots (or was fouled) on 30% of the team’s attempts. For some perspective, that was the third highest level in the league (Allen Iverson was at 32.7%, Jermaine O’Neal in his limited time was at 32.3%). What was impressive is that Kobe was still […]
Notes From The First Preseason Game
Preseason games are not about winning and losing, although winning is nice. They are really about seeing players and how they fit in your system. Here are some notes from the first preseason game (which I was able to find and watch on NBA League Pass), but be sure to take them with some salt […]
Triangle 101
It’s the one offense even casual basketball fans can name, thanks to Phil Jackson and his nine titles with it. But ask those fans what the triangle offense is and you’d likely get a blank stare or an answer along the lines of “Well, your best players form a triangle…†The offense is more complicated […]