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| 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
|
