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04-14-2008, 12:42 AM
In First Place, Lakers Look Second To None In West
By J.A. Adande
ESPN.com
(Archive)
LOS ANGELES -- It's foolish to draw any conclusions in the Western Conference, where the playoff picture changes in the time it takes to click the refresh button on your browser. But as the regular season draws to a close the Los Angeles Lakers are starting to match results to their ability, which would make them the team to beat. They're starting to think in those terms, too.
"We've put ourselves in position to firmly believe," Lakers guard Derek Fisher said.
They also put themselves atop the Western Conference with a 106-85 victory over the San Antonio Spurs at Staples Center Sunday.
The strange thing was how unplayoff-like it felt at the end, with Kobe Bryant sitting out the entire fourth quarter and Tim Duncan heading to the bench for good with 6:40 remaining. But the lack of suspense at the end came about because the Lakers dominated the third quarter, playing some postseason-caliber defense, holding the Spurs to 14 points on 3-for-17 shooting. Defense has been the biggest question mark for the Lakers. They've been burned by quick point guards (Tony Parker was at it again in the first half, when he scored 18 points). They have failed to rotate out to 3-point shooters. They haven't had a full-time presence in the middle since Andrew Bynum went down in January.
That changed in the third quarter Sunday. They stayed in front of Parker, who scored only two more points. Pau Gasol blocked a Duncan hook shot, one of 13 misses by Duncan.
"I think we've found our defensive identity," Bryant said. "We're very aggressive. We have a tremendous amount of versatility in wings and bigs who are athletic and long. We can get after guys."
Lamar Odom continues to do work on the defensive boards. He grabbed 12 of them Sunday, his third consecutive game with double figures in that category. Ronny Turiaf provided the usual boost of energy off the bench. And Fisher's torn tendon in his foot is feeling well enough that he went to Jackson and requested more playing time last week.
The Lakers had some doubts about their playoff readiness as recently as coach Phil Jackson's pregame media session Sunday, when he lamented, "We're playing minutes well, we're not playing large segments of games well."
The second half of a nationally televised game against the defending champions should count as a large enough segment. Afterward, Jackson called it a complete victory, with Vladimir Radmanovic the only member of the Lakers' top nine players who didn't make a significant contribution.
Fisher made an interesting comparison to the Lakers' three-peat teams of the start of the decade. They were built around Shaquille O'Neal, with Bryant able to play off him, and veterans around to plug in the gaps.
Now, "We're built to play as a team and not rely on individual talents of other guys," Fisher said. "Hopefully that can carry us a long way." Bryant has been more than happy to involve everyone and not carry the load himself. As a result he'll be fresher for the playoffs, when superstars have to make the difference.
Bryant had 20 points, five rebounds and five assists in 32 minutes Sunday, and was already icing his knees as the final minutes elapsed.
Instead of engaging in hand-to-hand combat with Bruce Bowen, then contending with Duncan at the rim, Bryant whipped passes to Fisher or dumped it inside to Gasol. Occasionally Bryant pulled up for a jumper of his own. And he capped the third quarter by gathering a lead pass from Gasol, collecting himself just behind the 3-point arc and shooting a shot that dropped through the net with 0.1 seconds left.
"Estamos aqui," he said to Gasol back on the bench ("We're here"), as Bryant gestured to their eyes.
The Spurs could have used some more Spanish in their lineup. Their star from Argentina, Manu Ginobili, sat out with what the team called a strained left abductor. In addition, Brent Barry and Robert Horry missed the game with injuries.
"I'm really concerned about Robert," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "I don't know when we're going to get him back [if] at all. The knee is really bothering him.
"And Brent has been gone forever. I'm hoping I can get him some minutes either tomorrow night or the Utah game."
It's possible the Spurs could go into the playoffs banged-up and without home-court advantage. They have enough experience to win on the road, but would they wear down from the extra travel?
And can they beat anybody in the competitive West if they don't address the offensive problems and defensive lapses they showed Sunday?
"Sometimes we get in ruts when we're not moving the ball," Bowen said. "Third quarter, it was evident today.
"We didn't do a good job on [defensive] transitions today and it's evident in a lot of 3-point shots they got in transitions or the lay-ups in transitions. Those are our areas that you can correct, fortunately. This was a game that we wanted to compete better than we did today."
They can get Ginobili back, they can get their championship ways back. The thing is, this isn't the time to go on a search-and-rescue mission. You want to have everyone and everything accounted for, peaking for the postseason. Like the Lakers are.
At the end of March the Lakers lost back-to-back home games to Charlotte and Memphis. Since then they've won seven of eight, including victories over playoff-bound Washington, Dallas, New Orleans and now the Spurs.
"Going into the playoffs it's about momentum," Bryant said. "It's about who's playing well. We sure are playing good basketball right now."
J.A. Adande is the author of "The Best Los Angeles Sports Arguments." He joined ESPN.com as an NBA columnist in August 2007 after 10 years with the Los Angeles Times. Click here to e-mail J.A.
LINK: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-080414
By J.A. Adande
ESPN.com
(Archive)
LOS ANGELES -- It's foolish to draw any conclusions in the Western Conference, where the playoff picture changes in the time it takes to click the refresh button on your browser. But as the regular season draws to a close the Los Angeles Lakers are starting to match results to their ability, which would make them the team to beat. They're starting to think in those terms, too.
"We've put ourselves in position to firmly believe," Lakers guard Derek Fisher said.
They also put themselves atop the Western Conference with a 106-85 victory over the San Antonio Spurs at Staples Center Sunday.
The strange thing was how unplayoff-like it felt at the end, with Kobe Bryant sitting out the entire fourth quarter and Tim Duncan heading to the bench for good with 6:40 remaining. But the lack of suspense at the end came about because the Lakers dominated the third quarter, playing some postseason-caliber defense, holding the Spurs to 14 points on 3-for-17 shooting. Defense has been the biggest question mark for the Lakers. They've been burned by quick point guards (Tony Parker was at it again in the first half, when he scored 18 points). They have failed to rotate out to 3-point shooters. They haven't had a full-time presence in the middle since Andrew Bynum went down in January.
That changed in the third quarter Sunday. They stayed in front of Parker, who scored only two more points. Pau Gasol blocked a Duncan hook shot, one of 13 misses by Duncan.
"I think we've found our defensive identity," Bryant said. "We're very aggressive. We have a tremendous amount of versatility in wings and bigs who are athletic and long. We can get after guys."
Lamar Odom continues to do work on the defensive boards. He grabbed 12 of them Sunday, his third consecutive game with double figures in that category. Ronny Turiaf provided the usual boost of energy off the bench. And Fisher's torn tendon in his foot is feeling well enough that he went to Jackson and requested more playing time last week.
The Lakers had some doubts about their playoff readiness as recently as coach Phil Jackson's pregame media session Sunday, when he lamented, "We're playing minutes well, we're not playing large segments of games well."
The second half of a nationally televised game against the defending champions should count as a large enough segment. Afterward, Jackson called it a complete victory, with Vladimir Radmanovic the only member of the Lakers' top nine players who didn't make a significant contribution.
Fisher made an interesting comparison to the Lakers' three-peat teams of the start of the decade. They were built around Shaquille O'Neal, with Bryant able to play off him, and veterans around to plug in the gaps.
Now, "We're built to play as a team and not rely on individual talents of other guys," Fisher said. "Hopefully that can carry us a long way." Bryant has been more than happy to involve everyone and not carry the load himself. As a result he'll be fresher for the playoffs, when superstars have to make the difference.
Bryant had 20 points, five rebounds and five assists in 32 minutes Sunday, and was already icing his knees as the final minutes elapsed.
Instead of engaging in hand-to-hand combat with Bruce Bowen, then contending with Duncan at the rim, Bryant whipped passes to Fisher or dumped it inside to Gasol. Occasionally Bryant pulled up for a jumper of his own. And he capped the third quarter by gathering a lead pass from Gasol, collecting himself just behind the 3-point arc and shooting a shot that dropped through the net with 0.1 seconds left.
"Estamos aqui," he said to Gasol back on the bench ("We're here"), as Bryant gestured to their eyes.
The Spurs could have used some more Spanish in their lineup. Their star from Argentina, Manu Ginobili, sat out with what the team called a strained left abductor. In addition, Brent Barry and Robert Horry missed the game with injuries.
"I'm really concerned about Robert," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "I don't know when we're going to get him back [if] at all. The knee is really bothering him.
"And Brent has been gone forever. I'm hoping I can get him some minutes either tomorrow night or the Utah game."
It's possible the Spurs could go into the playoffs banged-up and without home-court advantage. They have enough experience to win on the road, but would they wear down from the extra travel?
And can they beat anybody in the competitive West if they don't address the offensive problems and defensive lapses they showed Sunday?
"Sometimes we get in ruts when we're not moving the ball," Bowen said. "Third quarter, it was evident today.
"We didn't do a good job on [defensive] transitions today and it's evident in a lot of 3-point shots they got in transitions or the lay-ups in transitions. Those are our areas that you can correct, fortunately. This was a game that we wanted to compete better than we did today."
They can get Ginobili back, they can get their championship ways back. The thing is, this isn't the time to go on a search-and-rescue mission. You want to have everyone and everything accounted for, peaking for the postseason. Like the Lakers are.
At the end of March the Lakers lost back-to-back home games to Charlotte and Memphis. Since then they've won seven of eight, including victories over playoff-bound Washington, Dallas, New Orleans and now the Spurs.
"Going into the playoffs it's about momentum," Bryant said. "It's about who's playing well. We sure are playing good basketball right now."
J.A. Adande is the author of "The Best Los Angeles Sports Arguments." He joined ESPN.com as an NBA columnist in August 2007 after 10 years with the Los Angeles Times. Click here to e-mail J.A.
LINK: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-080414