Game Preview: Denver Nuggets at Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers are back in action tonight after having a long couple of days to think about their horrid offensive performance against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night at the Staples Center. Tonight, they’ll play their Western Conference Quarterfinal opponents from last season, the revamped Denver Nuggets, who return largely unchanged except for their participation in the massive four-team trade during the offseason by the Lakers, Nuggets, Philadelphia 76ers and Orlando Magic; the Nuggets sent defensive and three point specialist Aaron Afflalo and stretch four and strictly a scorer Al Harrington in return for swingman Andre Iguodala. Personally, I think the Nuggets got a great deal out of this, acquiring a player who has had experience being “the man” and has pretty extensive postseason experience for a team who is largely inexperienced in that aspect.

Los Angeles (7-8) dumped Denver (8-8) out of the opening round of last spring’s postseason, winning 96-87 in Game 7 at Staples Center as Kobe Bryant averaged 29.1 points in the series and Steve Blake had an enormous 19 points and 3 assists in the final game, having replaced a largely ineffective Ramon Sessions.

The Superstar guard isn’t far off that pace this season, leading the NBA with 27.7 points per game. He’s averaging 31.8 over the past four games, but the Lakers have dropped three of them to fall to 2-3 under Coach Mike D’Antoni.

They failed to capitalize on another big night by Bryant in Tuesday’s 79-77 home loss to Indiana, giving up the decisive basket with 0.1 seconds to play. Bryant overcame the flu to pour in 40 points, but he committed 10 turnovers while Los Angeles shot a season-low 31.6 percent from the field and missed 20 of 43 from the line. 

The Lakers have been the most polarizing team so far this season. The Lakers have had games where they look completely horrid on the fundamentals of the game; Tuesday night was an excellent example as the Lakers missed more free throws than they made (23 missed) and continued to turn the ball over at an alarming rate, turning it over 19 times to increase the season average to 17.20. On the other hand, there are nights like last Saturday in Dallas, where the Lakers looked like the best team in the league scoring with balance, playing hard on defense, and not turning the ball over at such a high rate.

The leaders for the Lakers so far: Bryant in scoring with 27.7, Dwight Howard in rebounds with 10.5, Bryant in assists with 4.9, Bryant in steals with 1.5 and Howard in blocks with 2.8. So far, this has largely been a two man team with Howard being second in scoring with 17.9 and clearly being the second option behind Bryant. Surprisingly, Pau Gasol seems to have taken a backseat to Metta World Peace, but it seems unintentional because Gasol still has more shots taken and free throws taken than World Peace, yet he’s averaging 13.1 points per game to World Peace’s 13.3; this speaks more of Gasol’s struggles within D’Antoni’s offense than World Peace’s best start to the season since the 2008-2009 season.

For Denver, Iguodala leads the team with 15.7 points per game, Ty Lawson in assists with 7.6, Kenneth Faried in rebounds with 11.1, Lawson in steals with 2.1 and Kosta Koufos with 1.7 blocks per game. This is a very balanced team that could be a sleeper in the West. Lawson and Andre Miller could be the best one-two punch at the point guard position in the league, not to mention the size this team has in the middle with Koufos, Timofey Mozgov and JaVale McGee all being over 7 feet tall. This without mentioning the talented Wilson Chandler coming off of the bench for Danilo Gallinari, and Denver suddenly becomes a very dangerous and deep team.

In Laker injury news: Steve Blake will be out for another 2 weeks after an MRI on Wednesday revealed that he still has an abdominal strain. Steve Nash will also be sidelined for at least another week as his leg fracture appears to be healing at a snail’s pace. In the meantime, Darius Morris and Chris Duhon will continue to fill in at the point guard slot.

Starting Lineups:

Position	Nuggets	Lakers
Point Guard	Ty Lawson	Darius Morris
Shooting Guard	Andre Iguodala	Kobe Bryant
Small Forward	Danilo Galinari	Metta World Peace
Power Forward	Kenneth Faried	Pau Gasol
Center	Kosta Koufos	Dwight Howard

The Lakers look old and tired; lose 79-77 to Indiana

The Lakers took the court tonight against the Indiana Pacers having come off of the most balanced scoring attack of the season and a thorough beat down of the Dallas Mavericks. Kobe Bryant was playing with flu-like symptoms; he still had his 114^th career 40 point game. 

So what went wrong for these Lakers? Well, it appears, despite having changed coaches, that the same old problems haunt the Lakers night in and night out. Coming into this game, the Lakers were averaging an absolutely TURRIBLE 17 turnovers per game, all while shooting an extremely frustrating 66.8% from the charity stripe. Los Angeles chose not to break that trend by turning the ball over 19 times and hitting only 23 of 43 free throws. That’s only 53.5%, a percentage that I would expect from Dwight Howard, but not from guys like Metta World Peace, Antawn Jamison or Darius Morris. On top of continuing the dismal free throw display, Los Angeles took a whopping 28 three pointers, connecting on 6 of them (21.4%). It seems Mike D’Antoni’s offense is struggling when Bryant isn’t in a passing mood; rest assured, he was in a shoot first mode tonight, having taken 28 shots in the contest. Right now, Los Angeles desperately needs Steve Nash back so the offense doesn’t hinge on whether or not Bryant feels like passing the ball. 

And yet, despite all of the flaws in the Lakers’ game tonight, they still only lost on the final possession. The Lakers have been playing a surprising amount of defense with D’Antoni at the helm, having left the Pacers with 79 points on 36.7% shooting from the floor. I will say that the Lakers had every opportunity to win it, but they couldn’t convert on open shots from the perimeter; if Dwight Howard were hitting his free throws, this wouldn’t be a problem since you could always just spam it to Howard and have him take it to the rack. The Lakers really let this one go with their shooting woes all around and it stings even more since it was at home, and the Lakers had just come off of beating the living hell out of Dallas, however I think we should be patient until Nash is up and running again; there is no telling how good or bad this offense is going to look once Nash makes his way back to the hardwood. It appears Nash and Steve Blake will be key for the Lakers during this season, and I believe once Nash comes back, these kind of games will be far and few.  

The Age Old Key to Success: Feed the Ball Down Low

The Lakers lost to the Sacramento Kings last night despite a huge 38 points from Kobe Bryant and it seems all the same problems that got Mike Brown fired still exist with the D’Antoni led Lakers: Turnovers still plague the Lakers as they gave the Kings 20 extra possessions last night. That’s fairly normal for the Lakers, who have averaged 16.67 turnovers every single night; this wouldn’t be such a huge problem since the team, dating back to the Phil Jackson era, has never been known to hold on to the ball all that well, but those teams made up for all of the turnovers with excellent transition defense and above average half court defense. This team has not played any transition defense throughout the year despite having one of the quickest and fastest shot blockers this side of Hakeem Olajuwon and having some young and fresh legs at the point guard and shooting guard spots in Darius Morris and Jodie Meeks.

I fully expect the turnovers to go down a notch once Steve Nash and Steve Blake make their back to the court (reports have said that they are at least two more games from coming back), and now that D’Antoni is the coach, Nash should be playing up to his standards upon his return. But that won’t make a difference if Los Angeles doesn’t feed off of its two dominant forces in Bryant and Dwight Howard.

So far, the Lakers have had Bryant at his absolute best as he has been scoring with efficiency (27.3 points per game on 53.1% shooting) and has been playing the role of Playmaker with Nash still sidelined (5.2 assists per game), however, last night saw a disturbing trend with the team as they seemingly refused to give Howard touches in the post. For the first time all season, the opposing team outscored the Lakers in the paint and it wasn’t even close: the Kings had an enormous 50-22 point lead in that aspect and considering the players Los Angeles has down low, this number is completely unacceptable. It’s common knowledge that D’Antoni dislikes using true post players, but Howard is the NBA’s most dominant force down low since former Laker Shaquille O’Neal; in a league that’s notorious now-a-days for the lack of true centers and size down low, the team has to go with the league’s most dominant player on the low block. Last night, Howard only took 4 shots making two of them. His four free throws came thanks to the Hack-a-Dwight strategy in the fourth quarter (Howard sank 3-4 from the line last night). This is the one major problem I had with the D’Antoni signing: He doesn’t use post players in his system and, until Nash comes back, it seems Howard’s role with the team will diminish unless Bryant and the rest of the perimeter players actively seek Howard in the post. This could be similar to the Bryant-O’Neal Lakers if D’Antoni allows it; so far, it’s looking less likely for that to happen as it seems like D’Antoni wants Howard in more of an Amare Stoudemire role, setting screens and getting open shots because of Nash (in this case, Bryant) but never really getting any touches as a post player. This is the absolute worst strategy to apply with this team because: Howard is the best player in the post in the Western Conference; notice how he is never left one-on-one because nobody can handle him. If teams let him play one-on-one, he would likely have one of the best scoring performances of all time since he still shoots an extremely efficient 61% from the floor. This coupled with the fact that he does not have any of Stoudemire’s game within his repertoire, should make D’Antoni changing up his system inevitable however; he has yet to do so. I said it before: the team doesn’t have the right personnel for Mike D’Antoni to be the coach for this team. The amount of veterans and post players doesn’t make this system ideal for this team, but we won’t know how good or bad it is until Steve Nash comes back from his leg fracture.

Something is definitely wrong with the offensive system if Meeks, Morris, Metta World Peace and Pau Gasol all have more shot attempts than Howard. On the season, while Howard has a ridiculous amount of free throws (130 attempts in 12 games, making only 64 of them for a very bad 49%), he has 23 less shot attempts than Gasol (135-158) while sinking 15 more shots (83-68). So far, Gasol has been playing well below average on offense and has been taking shots well outside of his range. At this pace, Mitch Kupchak might shake the roster up before the trade deadline and pick up a few more three point shooters that can play small forward. The most popular rumor around being the reported Gasol for Josh Smith deal, though I personally think it’s highly unlikely, but if it opens up more touches for Howard, I’m all for it.

In some unrelated and personal positive news: So far, I have successfully predicted what Antawn Jamison and Kobe Bryant would play like so far in this season, give or take a few shooting percentage numbers. I’m extremely pleased with the Bryant prediction as he has been out playing even my high expectations for him; so far, his WS/48 is an insane .276, higher than LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Kevin Durant. He already has half of last season's OWS in 12 games! He is currently leading the league in OWS with 2.1. Kobe Bryant truly seems to be immortal. 

Metta World Peace's Role Could Change Significantly With Mike D'Antoni

I think most Laker fans appreciate Metta World Peace for what he is: a defensive specialist who can occasionally sink his three pointers with consistency. World Peace has seemingly lost the ability to dribble the ball well and has become extremely one dimensional offensively; he has yet to master that one dimension like other notable defensive specialists such as the retired Bruce Bowen or Miami’s Shane Battier. World Peace’s biggest problem with Los Angeles during his whole tenure with the team has not been his inability to consistently make teams pay from beyond the arch, but rather, his willingness to shoot despite the defense on him or the shot clock having more than 10 seconds left on it. World Peace is shooting as if he was still “the man” on his team, when in reality he has become the weakest link in the starting lineup.

He’s a fan favorite for his on court antics, his personality and this play that is forever embedded in Finals and Laker history:

The problem with Metta World Peace is his very streaky shooting and his general lack of speed; you need to be fast or consistent from deep to play within Mike D’Antoni’s extremely fast 7-seconds-or-less offensive style of play and World Peace doesn’t have either of those characteristics.  

There are a few replacements for World Peace at the Small Forward slot within the team. These options begin with:

Antawn Jamison: By far my favorite player to log in heavy minutes at the SF slot instead of World Peace, he lacks the speed to effectively run with Steve Nash for the whole game, but his shooting ability is much more consistent than that of World Peace. Jamison also has a post-game, can put the ball on the floor and is, in general, a better fit for the system than Metta World Peace is. Jamison is extremely versatile; he can play the Power Forward position and be a true “Stretch-4” for the Lakers, he can play his more natural position at the Small Forward, and he can, on occasion, play against bigger and slower shooting guards. 

We may see some experimentation from D’Antoni once Nash gets back on the court. This could mean D’Antoni going with a “small” lineup that can stretch the floor, with Jamison and Pau Gasol being the two post players, Kobe Bryant playing Small Forward, Jodie Meeks holding down the shooting guard role and Steve Nash running the show. Whether Jamison indeed becomes a starter or not, once D’Antoni finally meets with the team, his role should be expanded within the team, taking over Jordan Hill’s minutes at power forward, while splitting his playing time between power forward and small forward. Jamison’s Win Share per 48 minutes is a below average .084 so far in the season, this can be attributed to his relatively little playing time on the court, and his poor shooting start to the season; however this indicates that given more playing time, it should increase over the course of the season.  

Devin Ebanks: A very solid defensive player, probably the best perimeter defense player on the bench. He plays with high energy and a silky smooth mid-range jump shot. The problem with Ebanks, and main reason he rarely sees the court, is his relatively low basketball I.Q, and the extremely limited range on his shot; Ebanks can only shoot from about 15 to 20 feet without straining his jump shot and thus, making his shot extremely flat from the outside. Ebanks, so far, looks like a poor man’s World Peace with slightly better dribbling skills. Ebanks has been increasing his skill level bit by bit every year, however this year, he has not seen the court very much, only having played 41 minutes in 4 games, most of that being mop up work during the Lakers blowout wins. Ebanks’ Win Share per 48 minutes is a horrid -0.076, well below the league average of .100.

Jodie Meeks: Meeks is known primarily for his offense; he has good transitional speed and is a marksman from three point range as he shoots 36.8% from beyond the arch for his career. An excellent fast break player, but not from the same mold of Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, as Meeks is very good at recognizing what his point guard is trying to do, and he usually trails by the three point line for an easy, wide open shot. Meeks has probably been the most disappointing acquisition by the Lakers so far in the season. He is shooting barely 27.3% from the field and has looked lost so far, as he tries to find his shooting groove. His WS/48 has been absolutely atrocious at -0.126, and is the only player on this list with a negative total Win Share. Meeks is very similar to Leandro Barbosa offensively, with the exception of being able to slide to point guard, however Meeks is leaps and bounds better defensively. That’s not to say he’s a good defender, by all means he is not, but he is perfectly adequate at it, and generally plays with energy on that side of the ball.  In short, he’s the exact type of player Mike D’Antoni looks for in his system, but he has been extremely disappointing to start the season. Meeks would not play SF directly; he would play shooting guard and have Bryant slide over to SF if he were to ever start a game.

Obviously, World Peace would not be replaced; he will likely be the starter for the whole season, but that doesn’t mean he can’t receive less playing time in favor of one of the options listed above (Antawn Jamison being the best choice). Currently, World Peace is playing 35 minutes per game, and is becoming an offensive liability, especially during crunch time. Metta isn’t the biggest problem on the team, but he’s the one problem that can be easily fixed by Mike D’Antoni and co. however unlikely that may be. 

The Pro's and Con's of Mike D'Antoni on the Lakers

After two days of preparations for the Phil Jackson reunion parade, with widespread reporting that he was the overwhelming favorite to replace Mike Brown, in came Mike D'Antoni. The notion of anyone but Jackson taking over this star-studded roster received scoffs from the Los Angeles Lakers community, and seemed extremely remote.

In the wake of Mike D’Antoni being hired by the Los Angeles Lakers, many Laker fans are extremely disappointed by the signing of the former Phoenix Suns coach. D’Antoni is a coach who, at first glance, looks like an odd choice by Los Angeles. If Phil Jackson’s asking price was indeed too high, why not take a little bit longer in your search for a coach (especially with D’Antoni not being able to join the team immediately because of knee replacement surgery) and really take a hard look at Jackson’s former assistant (and known user of the Triangle offense) Brian Shaw or defensive minded, but not one dimensional Nate McMillan? At the very least, give legendary former Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan an opportunity to meet with Mitch Kupchak and then make your decision in a manner that doesn’t look rushed. Ultimately, Mitch decided the sooner the better, and pulled the trigger on a 3 year deal with an option for the 4^th year.

While D'Antoni has about as much post season success as Mike Brown does, in other words falling short of the Larry O’Brien trophy his whole career, he is innovative and bold in ways that Brown was never known to be. His vaunted seven-seconds-or-less offense led to a 232-96 regular season mark (70.7%) from 2005 to 2008 as the Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire-led Suns fell in two Western Conference Finals, a semifinal and a quarterfinal. His three seasons in New York (103-143 record, swept in his only playoff appearance) were extremely disappointing but I do not see this as deficiency from his part since he was given a patched together roster of players who could never and will never fit with each other. In other words, New York surrounded him with a dysfunctional team and a mismatched roster that hardly ever fit his point guard-reliant system.

I’m not sold on D’Antoni. At first glance, his offense system doesn’t seem to fit with the large amount of veteran players on the court, although he did work with Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant in the 2008 Olympic Games as an assistant coach, and again with Bryant this past summer.  His system in Phoenix was so successful because the personnel he had with those teams were perfect for it; of course, I expect Steve Nash to thrive once again with D’Antoni, but the rest of the team is truly a question mark, save for Howard. D’Antoni’s system is a mesh of the pick and roll combined with pushing the tempo to the maximum and looking a shot before the defense has a chance to set. Howard and Nash running the pick and roll should be a devastating duo, no doubt about it; however the rest of the team isn’t poised to be sprinting all game long. In Phoenix, D’Antoni had speed demons and three point specialists, something the Lakers have lacked since the days of Magic Johnson. The mid 2000’s Suns had prototypical “stretch-4’s”; Power Forwards with speed and/or mobility and outside shooting ability. The Lakers have Pau Gasol, who has excellent mobility for a 7 footer, but his shot only extends to about 17 feet and that’s pushing it. Meanwhile, Antawn Jamison has excellent shooting range, but he lacks the speed to truly run with Nash.

Still, this is the least of my worries when it comes to D’Antoni’s coaching philosophy; what I’m truly concerned about is D’Antoni’s complete lack of defensive coaching. D’Antoni’s philosophy is to simply outscore the opponent, defense or not. A sound strategy if you have a team full of Leandro Barbosas and Steve Nashes, players who lack defensive ability, but this team has 3 time Defensive Player of the Year Dwight Howard, 12 time All-Defensive team member Kobe Bryant, and one time Defensive Player of the Year Metta World Peace, obviously this team is worlds different from the mid-2000’s Suns. This, coupled with personnel that doesn’t quite fit his offensive system, is why I believe D’Antoni will work with Bryant, Gasol and Nash to tweak his system to fit the style of play of his star players; this is what any good coach would do, and I truly believe D’Antoni is a very good coach.

The obvious dilemma lies in the players Los Angeles has, however I believe that D’Antoni will likely make his offense into a primarily pick and roll based offense, while adding some isolations in the post for Gasol, Bryant and Howard.

It certainly appears that Mitch was attempting to create something similar to the Showtime Magic Johnson Lakers, with minimal defense and a spectacular transitional offense leading to multiple championships and the consistently leading the league in points scored. And while certainly a spectacular style of play, this type of offense hasn’t had much success in the NBA since those Magic-led Lakers were running teams off of the court.

I seriously doubt we see the Phoenix Suns version 2.0, the players simply don’t fit into that style of play, but I do expect to see something between what the Lakers are now and what the Suns were then; an improved offense once Nash makes his way back to the court, as well as a major improvement from the bench since it appears running a simplified offense with one star player on the court has done wonders for the second unit under Bernie Bickerstaff (the bench has averaged 29.5 points per game without the Princeton Offense), but enough defense from Bryant, World Peace, Howard and Gasol to be ranked about 10^th in total defense. That sounds wonderful on paper, but can the Lakers make the transition? We will find out soon enough, for now Los Angeles must focus on the San Antonio Spurs tonight with Bernie Bickerstaff still coaching until D’Antoni can report to practice.

Steve Blake will not play in tonight’s game against the Spurs (6-1) with an abdominal sprain. He is listed as day-to-day. A few interesting stats for tonight’s game: the Lakers and Spurs are nearly identical when it comes to points per game (98.6 PPG for Los Angeles, 98.4 for San Antonio) as well as average points allowed (94.4 for L.A, 94.1 for San Antonio), yet their records are vastly different, as the Spurs have jumped out to an extremely good start.

Starting Lineups:

Position	Spurs	Lakers
Point Guard	Tony Parker	Darius Morris
Shooting Guard	Danny Green	Kobe Bryant
Small Forward	Kawhi Leonard	Metta World Peace
Power Forward	Tim Duncan	Pau Gasol
Center	Boris Diaw	Dwight Howard

Report: Mike Brown has Been Fired by the Lakers

Let’s get one thing straight: I was never in favor of hiring Mike Brown as the coach for the Lakers last season. His career regular season record is impeccable, of course, but most of that was on the merit of having LeBron James on his team and playing in the Eastern Conference. While Brown was and still is an excellent defensive coach, but there was always much to be desired offensively. The simplicity of his system was something that doomed his Cavaliers and Lakers come playoff time, when competition played smarter to the simple isolation based system he would run with James and Kobe Bryant. This is the main reason he brought in Eddie Jordan to be his assistant and run with the Princeton Offense.

I’m also not against firing him now, although firing him 5 games into the season would be the NFL equivalent of being fired during the 2 minute warning of the first game. It’s just so unorthodox and almost never seen at any level of professional sports. That being said, hiring Brown was never a good option for the personnel L.A. had, but firing him so early might be a mistake by Los Angeles. Seeing as how this team is relatively new to playing with each other, there was so many acquisitions during the off season that the team never really had a chance to “gel”, all while changing to a new offensive system. All of this will reset when they bring in a new head coach, unless it’s Phil Jackson, who coincidentally canceled being the key note speaker at the Schwab Advisor Services IMPACT conference in Chicago next week, the whole squad will have to learn a completely new offensive system in short time, or risk losing even more games to start the season.

The coaches who are available are: 
Jerry Sloan: Known for the brutally efficient pick and roll run by John Stockton and Karl Malone, Sloan has had major NBA success, and fell just short of the NBA championship two years in a row, courtesy of Michael Jordan. Steve Nash and Dwight Howard should both be crossing their fingers and hoping Mitch Kupchak brings in Sloan, as Nash and Howard would likely replicate the things done by Stockton and Malone. This, if Phil Jackson isn’t returning, would be my ideal choice to coach this squad.

·         Nate McMillan: McMillan’s track record is nowhere near as good as Sloan’s, however he plays a very smooth, team first style of basketball centered around a good passing shooting guard and either a dominant finisher in the paint, or an excellent shooter from a big man, all three of which L.A. has with Bryant, Howard and Pau Gasol. McMillan is also known for his defensive approach to the game.

·         Brian Shaw: Known user of the Triangle offense, he was an assistant coach to Phil Jackson, as well as having played under him during the 2000-2002 ShaKobe three peat. Shaw has no previous experience working as a head coach, however, the important players on the team know how to run the Triangle, and can exploit it efficiently.

·         Stan Van Gundy: Out of the question at this point because of big man Dwight Howard. His offensive system is similar to Brown’s, except it works from the inside-out, and ensures an open shot either for Howard, or his 3 point specialists.

If the Lakers don’t get a coach with a known track record of success, things might get ugly in the City of Angels.  Right now, the best realistic candidate is Jerry Sloan; however both McMillan and Brian Shaw could realistically work with the Lakers. 

Steve Blake Has Stepped Up in Steve Nash's Absence

I’m sure everyone knew Steve Blake was going to be an important role player off of the bench for Los Angeles; what with Steve Nash never having played more than 32 minutes a game in his career. And with Nash out for what looks like a week (although other reports have said a month), Blake was going to be instrumental in L.A’s plans to start off well this season. Blake has been underwhelming in his first two seasons with the team compared to how well he was doing with in his stint with Portland.

With Mike Brown and assistant Eddie Jordan implementing the Princeton Offense this summer, it looked like Blake was going to have to work hard, or risk losing his job to Darius Morris or Chris Duhon. So far, Blake has not disappointed. In just 4 games this season, Blake has managed to equal his Offensive Win Share from last season, recording a good 0.2 to start the season. He had 0.2 OWS in 53 games last year, which was one of the lowest in the league for players that participated in 50+ games. At this pace, Blake will finish with a tremendous 4 OWS in 82 games. His offensive rating (an estimate of points produced by the team per 100 possessions when the player is on the court) is a sky high 119. His true shooting percentage (a tool used to measure shooting efficiency taking into account 2-point field goals, 3-point field goals and free throws) is a ridiculously high 62.2%.

The Princeton Offense clearly agrees with Blake, as he keeps the offense running smoothly and efficiently around star players Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard. While his PER rating is a below average 12 (mainly because he’s shooting 43.8% in total field goal percentage), it’s still much higher than the past two seasons in Los Angeles, which were 7.5 and 8.5 respectively. Blake has been everything the Lakers have needed at the point guard position, more so than All-Star Steve Nash has been so far this year, as he really seems to be working hard to keep his job. It is a very small sample size, but he has been one of the only players off the bench to actually do his job. If Blake can continue this pace this season, the Lakers have a chance to go far into the playoffs. 

In unrelated news, Steve Blake was fined 25,000 dollars by the league for some...lets go with colorful language directed at a fan during last Friday's game against the Clippers.

Lakers Dominate Pistons, Win 108-79

On Steve Nash’s first missed game since an MRI revealed a small fracture in his leg, the Los Angeles Lakers put it all together in what was an incredibly synchronized performance from just about everybody on the team. The Princeton Offense was run perfectly by Steve Blake, as he finished with 6 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds. The starters shot a terrific 58.1% from the floor, with Howard completely dominating Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond to the tune of 28 points, seven rebounds and three blocks. Of the 32 baskets from the starting unit, 20 of them were assisted on, the majority coming from Kobe Bryant and his stellar 15 point, 8 assist, 7 rebound night. Steve Blake harassed opposing point guard Brandon Knight into 5 turnovers.

Metta World Peace looked somewhat confused in between his flashes of brilliance tonight; he had two turnovers and looked somewhat lost to start the game, but he rebounded and finished with a stellar 7-11 shooting from the floor and 18 total points, more proof that every single thing was going right for Los Angeles tonight. The Lakers, for the first time in the season, had less turnovers than their opponents, and while the final margin is very slim (17 T.O. for Detroit, 15 for LAL), the starters completely out played, out hustled, and out smarted their opponents tonight. It helps, of course, when the whole Laker team shoots 51% from the floor (thank you, Princeton Offense!). It also helps to have nearly double the points scored in the paint than the opponent (34 for Det, 56 for L.A.) Los Angeles finally played up their ability, and gave Howard the Shaquille O’Neal treatment for tonight, making him the No. 1 option offensively despite having Kobe Bryant on the same team. Howard, of course, delivered tonight, being extremely efficient offensively, hitting 12-14 shots from the floor, and staying out of foul trouble, which is something he had failed to do in the first three games. Overall, Los Angeles completely dominated Detroit from tip off by playing smart, selfless basketball, playing excellent defense, and limiting the turnovers when the game really mattered. This is the Lakers we all expected in game one, and if they can play as smart as tonight, the rest of the league has some long nights of scouting ahead of them. 

Report: Steve Nash is Out for at Least One Week With Leg Fracture

Los Angeles could be in trouble for at least another week or so.

It has been reported that Lakers’ point guard Steve Nash has a small fracture in what was previously thought to be simply a leg contusion in his left leg. The Lakers have had enough troubles to start the season, but with Nash being out for what appears to be at least a week, the Lakers woe’s look like they will continue. Of course, Steve Blake has been a perfectly adequate point guard in substitution of Nash so far this season, limiting his turnovers, hitting his three point shots (60% on the season), and keeping the Princeton Offense running smoothly around Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard. He had his struggles vs. Chris Paul and the Clippers (mainly foul trouble), but he rarely has negative plays for the team, and knows how to play with the starters.

The bench, however, has been the exact opposite, and without Blake leading the second unit, the Princeton Offense takes a hit with the second unit, as players like Antawn Jamison and Jordan Hill have looked absolutely lost in the pass and move nature of the offense. Other than turnovers and transitional defense, the biggest problem for Los Angeles has been the few quality minutes given by the bench, and as a result, the few minutes of rest the starters have had. Other than Steve Nash (who is only averaging 25 minutes a game), all of the starters are playing 35.7 minutes per game or more, with Pau Gasol topping the list at 39.7 minutes per game. It’s an insane amount of minutes for players who are old (Gasol and Metta World Peace are the youngest of the “old” starters at 32 years of age) or coming off of a major injury like Dwight Howard is. The bench has been the second worst unit this season averaging a measly 16 points per game on 41.9% shooting, the second worst offensive efficiency rating in the league at 19.3 and a negative defensive efficiency rating at -14.7. Despite acquiring Jodie Meeks and Jamison this off season, the bench has managed to be worse so far than the 2011-2012 Lakers bench.

Los Angeles is likely in trouble with Nash out for so long because of depth issues. On paper, the bench looks like a very solid group that can spread the floor and give the starters some rest. In reality, that bench is thin, and doesn’t seem to understand the nature of the Princeton Offense. Antawn Jamison, as stated earlier, continues to struggle as he is only averaging 3.7 points per game, 4 rebounds per game and is only playing 16 minutes per game. Jodie Meeks has hardly played or made a difference in his time in. Blake is being pushed into the starter role. Jordan Hill has been disappointing to say the least and Devin Ebanks has been a non-factor to start the season. If Nash is indeed out for a week longer, that will be 3, potentially 4, games in which Nash will not be available, and the bench will have to step up, something I think they won’t be able to accomplish this early in the season, playing in an offensive system that they don’t quite understand yet.

In the positive news for Los Angeles, the next four games will be vs. the 0-2 Detroit Pistons, 1-2 Utah Jazz (after two days of rest), 2-1 Golden State Warriors, who the Lakers (particularly Kobe Bryant) have had a history of playing well against, and the 0-3 Sacramento Kings. This is the stretch the Lakers can handle, on paper, without Nash in the rotation, and it will certainly test the 2^nd unit on whether they can insert themselves within this scheme head coach Mike Brown and assistant coach Eddie Jordan have placed over the summer. A visit from Detroit could help Los Angeles get back on track. Though the Lakers had their five-game winning streak against the Pistons end with an 88-85 overtime road loss on March 6^th of last season, they've won the last two at Staples Center by a combined 38 points. And in more positive news for L.A: Veteran guard Rodney Stuckey has totaled 10 points on 1-of-17 shooting and has missed all six of his 3-point attempts through two games.

Starting Lineups:

Position	Pistons	Lakers
Point Guard	Brandon Knight	Steve Blake
Shooting Guard	Rodney Stuckey	Kobe Bryant
Small Forward	Tayshaun Prince	Metta World Peace
Power Forward	Jason Maxiell	Pau Gasol
Center	Greg Monroe	Dwight Howard

Kobe Bryant drops 40, Lakers lose 105-95

Kobe Bryant scored 40 points vs. the Clippers

The Lakers fell to old demons tonight against the Clippers. Los Angeles was averaging 19 turnovers per game coming into this contest; they turned the ball over 20 times. Los Angeles was averaging 60% from the free throw line; they shot 71.4% tonight, courtesy of legendary Laker Kobe Bryant who finished 10-10 from the line. The Lakers were coming into this game off of a terrible 3^rd quarter meltdown to the Trailblazers, and were looking to rebound without All-Star point guard Steve Nash.

The Lakers managed to hang around for the majority of the game; however it’s been the same old song and dance for the 2012 Lakers; too many turnovers to a team who has far superior speed and athleticism, too many missed free throws from everyone (especially Dwight Howard), not enough defense being played on pick and rolls. The Lakers once again shot 50% from the floor, but wasted so many opportunities to get back into this game, mostly from the charity stripe. Steve Blake did an admirable job filling in for Steve Nash, however the Lakers were forced to go to 2^nd year point guard Darius Morris as the first option at point guard off of the bench. Morris had an alright game by any standard as he scored 7 points on 3-5 shooting; however the bench play continues to be absolutely wrenched.  The Clippers bench outscored the Lakers bench 46-16, as the Clippers starters got long enough breathers to come back in and continue to be as dynamic as possible. No Clipper starter logged in over 33 minutes in tonight’s game as the bench completely dominated the Lakers’ 2^nd unit. 

As much as Kobe Bryant would like to think that he can put the team on his back; he also needs some help from the rest of the starters. Dwight Howard, plagued by foul trouble all game long, only finished with 13 points and 8 rebounds. His 5 blocks in tonight’s game represent an improvement over his 1 block in the last game. Pau Gasol was just not on his offensive game tonight; he finished with 10 points and 14 rebounds. My last gripe about this game: It is never OK to have Metta World Peace take more shots than both Howard and Gasol. World Peace took 10 shots, only made 3 of them as he had another terrible game plagued by foul trouble (5) and rarely did he make a good offensive play. And, of course, Kobe Bryant saves this game from being a complete dud. His ridiculous efficiency continues this season as he shot 14-23 from the field tonight, 10-10 from the charity stripe, and hauled in 6 rebounds on his way to his 113^th 40 point game in his career. Bryant is 35-67 from the field in the Princeton Offense, a ridiculous percentage of 61.4%. If the Lakers could stop giving the ball away like candy on Halloween, Bryant’s efforts wouldn’t go to waste every night. 

Steve Nash's Injury Could be a Disaster for the Lakers

Steve Nash injured his left leg during the 2nd quarter of Wednesdays game vs. the Blazers

Steve Nash will be a game time decision for the Los Angeles derby on Friday night as the Clippers “visit” the Lakers for the first game between the two LA teams of the season. The way he came off the court, it's likely to be doubtful for him to play. What does this mean for the Lakers? It means the bench gets even worse as Steve Blake is pushed into the starting lineup, a role in which I’m sure he’ll thrive because of his firm grasp on the Princeton Offense, and his better-than-Steve-Nash’s defense.

Steve Blake hasn’t been phenomenal coming off of the bench, but he’s been exactly what the Lakers have needed this season at the point guard position; he hasn’t been turning the ball over (0.5 per game so far), he’s been leaving his fair share of assists (4.5) and isn’t trying to do too much within the passers paradise known as the Princeton Offense. This hasn’t been as good for a bench that has trouble creating their own shots, and doesn’t seem to understand the Princeton just yet; however this is great for a starting lineup that appears offensively in sync.

What this means is 3rd string point guard Chris Duhon has to learn, and learn quickly; in his short time against the Blazers, he contributed to absolutely nothing offensively, and while normally this wouldn’t be much of a problem in the Princeton Offense, except for the fact that he was holding on to the ball for much longer than needed, and taking away precious seconds from his teammates to go to work against a Blazer’s defense that was on its heels as Los Angeles was closing in on them 76-73 at the time; it resulted in bad shots taken (and missed) and easy rebounds for the Blazers; most of their points from the 13-0 run to end the 3rd quarter were off of fast break points coming off of long rebounds from bad Laker shots.

But Duhon is only part of the problem; the whole Lakers bench has been horrid offensively and defensively as they haven’t been giving much rest to star players Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard. As I predicted in an earlier article, Antawn Jamison has been completely below average for the Lakers, shooting 33% from the field and is 0 for 3 from three point range. His Win Share per 48 minutes is a below average .095 during these two games. If the Lakers wish to win their first game of the season, and keep bragging rights against their Staples Center roommates, the bench has to wake up.

Steve Nash’s injury is doing more damage to the Lakers’ rotation than just Nash not playing; it’s forcing the bench to step up and fill in some big shoes, something the bench isn’t ready for at this stage of the season.

If there's a positive sign for the Lakers, it's Dwight Howard's dominance Wednesday with 33 points and 14 rebounds. Howard fouled out with 19 points and 10 boards and missed 11 of 14 foul shots in Tuesday's 99-91 home loss to Dallas.

The Lakers, though, struggled defensively against the Blazers, who placed all their starters in double figures and shot 50.6 percent.

This will be the fourth head-to-head matchup between Howard and Clippers big man Blake Griffin. Howard has averaged 25.7 points and 14.0 rebounds while shooting 66.7 percent in those meetings, and Griffin has averaged 18.3 points and 12.7 boards while making 45.7 percent of his field-goal attempts.

Starting Lineups: 

Position	Clippers	Lakers
Point Guard	Chris Paul	Steve Blake
Shooting Guard	Jamal Crawford	Kobe Bryant
Small Forward	Caron Butler	Metta World Peace
Power Forward	Blake Griffin	Pau Gasol
Center	DeAndre Jordan	Dwight Howard