duncan228
12-11-2008, 08:29 PM
The Lakers have been exposed (http://www.ocregister.com/articles/lakers-bynum-defense-2253576-one-sacramento)
Ding column: Opponents have figured out how to beat them.
Kevin Ding
LOS ANGELES The way to play the Lakers has been unveiled, and it has left the Lakers with largely the same not-so-hot defense that failed them at the end of last season.
Andrew Bynum, injured and conspicuously absent during Boston’s layup line in the NBA Finals, was supposed to be the answer for the Lakers’ defense this season: a 7-foot, 285-pound goalie to protect the paint and deny the rim to all opposing players.
So what happens to the Lakers’ defense if the opposing team forces the Lakers to pull their goalie?
Well, to put it simply: more goals. You’ve seen it in recent Lakers games. Now let’s explain it.
Even before he wound up going to his great-grandmother’s funeral, Shaquille O’Neal wasn’t going to play against the Lakers on Wednesday night. The Suns are only using O’Neal in one game in back-to-back sets, yet they broke from their tradition of playing him against the tougher team when they decided to rest him against the Lakers instead of against Milwaukee.
Why?
The Suns got drilled by the Lakers in Phoenix last month playing the usual post-up game, so they wanted to try the only thing that has worked for everyone else against the Lakers: spreading the floor, drawing Bynum and Pau Gasol out and making the paint a nice little driveway.
So Phoenix attacked often with Amare Stoudemire standing out near the 3-point line, where he would set a pick and then take his pick: shoot a 20-footer when left all alone, drive by the slower Gasol or Bynum, or just watch Steve Nash dribble in to create offense.
When Stoudemire camped way out there, the Suns’ other big guy – Robin Lopez or Louis Amundson – would be careful to keep out of the paint, too.
(Yes, you can play zone defense in the NBA now, but you can’t stand in the paint unless you are within arm’s length of someone you are guarding. So Bynum, Gasol and Lamar Odom can’t just lurk in the lane without piling up defensive 3-second violations.)
And let Bynum tell you, it’s no fun at all for him when teams use this open alignment.
“I hate being outside, because it just takes me totally away from the basket and opens up the lane for layups,” he said. “And it’s tougher to rebound from out there. Guys get more running starts.”
It was the worst against Sacramento, which ran everything high on the floor with both big men up there, meaning Bynum was almost always stranded by the extended foul line. That’s how the pop-gun Kings implausibly fired off 113 points and beat the Lakers on Tuesday night.
Bynum said he’d much rather be chasing little point guards around while trying to show on pick-and-rolls than always be left out there against a team that is lifting both big men that far away from the basket.
This whole thing is Rasheed Wallace’s fault, really. He was the trend-setter back on Nov. 14, standing out there next to Allen Iverson, getting passes off simple picks and lobbing in 3-pointers over a reluctant-to-close-out Gasol.
No team had reached 100 points against the Lakers in their 7-0 start. With Wallace’s long-range help, Detroit scored 106 and won. That was the start of the Lakers’ defensive slide, with opponents averaging 103.1 points over the past 14 games – twice as big a statistical sampling as those first seven games that had the Lakers’ newly aggressive and double-teaming defense looking like the key to locking up the next NBA title.
We’ve mentioned the losses to Detroit and Sacramento; the Lakers’ other one came in Indiana.
The Pacers got 16 points apiece from jump-shooting big men Rasho Nesterovic and Troy Murphy, who combined to shoot 15 for 25 from the field, and dropped 118 points on the Lakers.
Bynum did not block a shot in that game. He didn’t block one in Sacramento, either. He has at least one block in 18 of the Lakers’ other 19 games. It would seem to make sense to pull him out of the way, if you can, eh?
The Lakers know what they have to do in response: get consistent perimeter pressure on the ball, keeping the dribbler from driving so easily, and shore up what have been very sketchy defensive rotations to open shooters.
They didn’t do it back on Nov. 23 at Staples Center, letting Sacramento hang around in what was a 118-108 Lakers victory.
After the latest Sacramento debacle the Lakers made a change Wednesday to commit to full rotations on defense, meaning each defender is also responsible for the next man. But without a full practice they weren’t quite ready to execute, leaving Suns shooters open in the corner for 3-pointers time after time.
“It’s just one more rotation, and I think once we start making that one, we’ll be all right,” Bynum said.
The Lakers get to practice it today. Then they get to apply what they’ve learned when they face Sacramento and that tricky bigs-out-high alignment again Friday night.
It won’t just be a revenge game. It will be a statement game for the Lakers to show they have the wherewithal to achieve their foremost goal of this regular season – becoming a dominant defense – one way or another.
Ding column: Opponents have figured out how to beat them.
Kevin Ding
LOS ANGELES The way to play the Lakers has been unveiled, and it has left the Lakers with largely the same not-so-hot defense that failed them at the end of last season.
Andrew Bynum, injured and conspicuously absent during Boston’s layup line in the NBA Finals, was supposed to be the answer for the Lakers’ defense this season: a 7-foot, 285-pound goalie to protect the paint and deny the rim to all opposing players.
So what happens to the Lakers’ defense if the opposing team forces the Lakers to pull their goalie?
Well, to put it simply: more goals. You’ve seen it in recent Lakers games. Now let’s explain it.
Even before he wound up going to his great-grandmother’s funeral, Shaquille O’Neal wasn’t going to play against the Lakers on Wednesday night. The Suns are only using O’Neal in one game in back-to-back sets, yet they broke from their tradition of playing him against the tougher team when they decided to rest him against the Lakers instead of against Milwaukee.
Why?
The Suns got drilled by the Lakers in Phoenix last month playing the usual post-up game, so they wanted to try the only thing that has worked for everyone else against the Lakers: spreading the floor, drawing Bynum and Pau Gasol out and making the paint a nice little driveway.
So Phoenix attacked often with Amare Stoudemire standing out near the 3-point line, where he would set a pick and then take his pick: shoot a 20-footer when left all alone, drive by the slower Gasol or Bynum, or just watch Steve Nash dribble in to create offense.
When Stoudemire camped way out there, the Suns’ other big guy – Robin Lopez or Louis Amundson – would be careful to keep out of the paint, too.
(Yes, you can play zone defense in the NBA now, but you can’t stand in the paint unless you are within arm’s length of someone you are guarding. So Bynum, Gasol and Lamar Odom can’t just lurk in the lane without piling up defensive 3-second violations.)
And let Bynum tell you, it’s no fun at all for him when teams use this open alignment.
“I hate being outside, because it just takes me totally away from the basket and opens up the lane for layups,” he said. “And it’s tougher to rebound from out there. Guys get more running starts.”
It was the worst against Sacramento, which ran everything high on the floor with both big men up there, meaning Bynum was almost always stranded by the extended foul line. That’s how the pop-gun Kings implausibly fired off 113 points and beat the Lakers on Tuesday night.
Bynum said he’d much rather be chasing little point guards around while trying to show on pick-and-rolls than always be left out there against a team that is lifting both big men that far away from the basket.
This whole thing is Rasheed Wallace’s fault, really. He was the trend-setter back on Nov. 14, standing out there next to Allen Iverson, getting passes off simple picks and lobbing in 3-pointers over a reluctant-to-close-out Gasol.
No team had reached 100 points against the Lakers in their 7-0 start. With Wallace’s long-range help, Detroit scored 106 and won. That was the start of the Lakers’ defensive slide, with opponents averaging 103.1 points over the past 14 games – twice as big a statistical sampling as those first seven games that had the Lakers’ newly aggressive and double-teaming defense looking like the key to locking up the next NBA title.
We’ve mentioned the losses to Detroit and Sacramento; the Lakers’ other one came in Indiana.
The Pacers got 16 points apiece from jump-shooting big men Rasho Nesterovic and Troy Murphy, who combined to shoot 15 for 25 from the field, and dropped 118 points on the Lakers.
Bynum did not block a shot in that game. He didn’t block one in Sacramento, either. He has at least one block in 18 of the Lakers’ other 19 games. It would seem to make sense to pull him out of the way, if you can, eh?
The Lakers know what they have to do in response: get consistent perimeter pressure on the ball, keeping the dribbler from driving so easily, and shore up what have been very sketchy defensive rotations to open shooters.
They didn’t do it back on Nov. 23 at Staples Center, letting Sacramento hang around in what was a 118-108 Lakers victory.
After the latest Sacramento debacle the Lakers made a change Wednesday to commit to full rotations on defense, meaning each defender is also responsible for the next man. But without a full practice they weren’t quite ready to execute, leaving Suns shooters open in the corner for 3-pointers time after time.
“It’s just one more rotation, and I think once we start making that one, we’ll be all right,” Bynum said.
The Lakers get to practice it today. Then they get to apply what they’ve learned when they face Sacramento and that tricky bigs-out-high alignment again Friday night.
It won’t just be a revenge game. It will be a statement game for the Lakers to show they have the wherewithal to achieve their foremost goal of this regular season – becoming a dominant defense – one way or another.