Laker vs. Heat Tonight is a Pivotal Game for Los Angeles

Big game tonight in the NBA as two star-studded, but very different teams take each other on for the first time this season. Los Angeles has struggled to get everyone healthy and on the court while Miami has been relatively healthy this year. Here are the keys to tonight’s game:

·         Defense.

I can’t stress this enough, the Lakers need to help each other out on the defensive end to have a chance to win tonight. Metta World Peace is a great defender, and has the strength to bang with LeBron James in the post, but he can’t stay with him on the perimeter, as James constantly drives in against bulkier opponents like World Peace. Earl Clark, on the other hand, is too much of a light weight to handle LeBron in the post. Help defense will be required, more than likely from Dwight Howard, but the other players have to rotate to help Howard. Make Miami take jump shots, and not layups and dunks.  Kobe Bryant will likely be covering Dwyane Wade in what is the most balanced matchup of the night and Bryant better be ready for the physical game Wade brings to the table. He’s not Kyrie Irving or Brandon Jennings (speedster point guards with good jumpers), Wade is a whole other beast. I expect Bryant to sag off of Wade, as he is not the best 3 point shooter (Wade knows this and his limited his outside jumpers the past couple of years. He has only taken 39 three pointers this season). Wade is fast, agile and can jump out of the building. Think of him as a 6’4’’ version of James, as he is physically gifted and has great vision and passing ability to accompany his drive heavy offensive game. If at all possible, the Lakers want to make Chris Bosh and Co. beat them, not James or Wade. It’s possible for the Lakers to play the old Kobe Defense teams used to do against them. Let James play one on one with World Peace and don’t send too much help D, while putting the clamps on the rest of James’ teammates, though I seriously doubt they go this route.

·         Rebounding.

The Heat are a notoriously bad rebounding team, they are 30^th in rebounds, and are 5^th in opponent rebounding. The Lakers need to take advantage and get second chance opportunities for themselves, while limiting the second chance opportunities for Miami. The Lakers way out size and out bulk the Heat with Howard in the middle, and complimentary pieces like the 6’10’’ Clark and Pau Gasol (who will play tonight). The Lakers are 8^th in rebounding, and 14^th in opponent rebounding. Los Angeles needs to come out crashing the boards with energy to have a shot at winning.

·         Sink their open jumpshots.

We know the offensive skills of Bryant and Howard will be the main work force for the Lakers tonight, but when Bryant, Howard and Steve Nash pass the ball, the role players need to be prepared to sink their jumpers. World Peace needs to be consistent from deep, as well as Antawn Jamison and to a lesser extent, Clark from mid-range. This extends to free throws as well; the Lakers can’t leave points on the board and expect to beat the defending champions.

·         Pound the ball down low.

Miami is a very undersized team. Their tallest player who gets regular minutes is Bosh at 6’10’’ and there’s no way he could handle Howard in the post, as Bosh only weighs 228 pounds to Howard’s 265 pounds. Miami’s starting center is Joel Anthony, who is also a bit undersized for the position (6’9’’, 245 lb). If the Lakers establish their dominance down low with Howard and Gasol, it could open up the game for shooters like Jamison and Meeks.

·         Last but not least: Limit turnovers.

Against most teams, turnovers will keep the Lakers down, but not out. Against Miami, turnovers will completely take Los Angeles out of the game. Miami is the best fastbreak team in the NBA, mostly on the speed and athleticism of Wade and James. Considering how much older and slower the Lakers are, they can’t afford to make this game a track meet. Grind out possessions and take care of the ball and L.A. has a chance.

The good news for the Lakers is Gasol is coming back tonight, but he will be coming off the bench. His size will be important for rebounding purposes and help defense. Gasol will most likely anchor the second unit when Bryant, Howard and Nash go out of the game late in the first quarter, early in the second quarter. The big story tonight is Kobe vs. LeBron, but if the Lakers let it get to that, they will lose tonight. A team game must be played in order to beat Miami. 

The More Things Change, the More Things Stay the Same

This has been the whole Lakers' team mentality during this run, save for Nash.

The Lakers have been seemingly cursed this season as they have lost 40 games of injury to their starters alone, but it was usually in balanced fashion, as in one perimeter player and one post player is out. Not for this stretch, as everybody over 6’10’’ not named Robert Sacre is injured right now (Pau Gasol with a concussion, Dwight Howard with a torn labrum, Steve Blake with a torn abdomen and Jordan Hill with loose fragments in his hip which will require season ending surgery). The Lakers are going with the smallest ball possible, as they have had stretches where Metta World Peace and Earl Clark/Antawn Jamison are playing center and power forward and this is a bigger problem than turnovers and bad shots combined. The positive news here is Clark’s and Hill’s Per 36 numbers are nearly identical, the only difference really being how physical Hill is compared to Clark, though Clark is far more versatile, as he can slide to the outside and defense perimeter players (like he did on Wednesday vs. the Spurs, as he took on Manu Ginobili).

Let’s get one thing straight: Defense wins championships. No team has a chance of winning it all if they allow 105+ points per game. It’s the reason why the D’Antoni-Steve Nash led Phoenix Suns never made it past the Western Conference Finals. The Lakers have some excellent man to man defenders with World Peace, Kobe Bryant and Howard but the team’s lack of defensive fundamentals is seriously disturbing; nobody on the team rotates to help the help defender, and on occasions, nobody rotates to help the initial defender. This is the cause of the uncontested shots most opposing teams have in or around the paint. The Lakers lack of trust in each other this late into the season is something to seriously be concerned about and it makes me question whether this team can ever make a deep post season run. D’Antoni may have fixed the offense, or better said, D’Antoni made it easier for Nash to fix the offense (103.2 PPG, good for 4^th in the league) as the Princeton wasn’t a system apt for Nash but D’Antoni hasn’t been preaching defense at all this season, save for the rare occasions when an opposing team makes an early run, only to have D’Antoni call a time out to get everybody organized. The Lakers defense is among the bottom of the league, as they surprisingly don’t allow more points than they score despite their 15-21 record. The Lakers allow 101.7 points per game, good for 26^th in the league, and that’s something that’s not even close to cutting it in this league. The one constant though out NBA history has been: the team that plays defense usually ends up winning it all. It doesn’t matter how offensively oriented the league has become; defense is still the most important aspect of the game.

I am hopefully Howard’s injury won’t keep him out for long, and Los Angeles can get back to having somebody back there to protect the rim, as having World Peace and Jamison back there made for a lot of easy layups and in the paint, uncontested jumpers. Howard’s presence alone is a huge difference maker (reference the last time LA played OKC), as guys generally change their shots as to try not to get swatted into the 10^th row. And while Gasol may be softer than marshmallows, he still provides some defensive value as his length is still there to help contest shots (though I still insist on trading him while he has value, especially now that Earl Clark as made a name for himself and Artest is reverting to last year’s horrid form). The Lakers are very fixable because of the talent the team has, but it won’t get done until the team itself does some serious soul searching and starts to work hard on the defensive end.

As an end note, kudos to Howard about a month ago for calling Kobe on his free safety style defense. Bryant told him not to do it again; Howard said he would do it again if Kobe didn’t rotate. It takes some serious guts to tell Kobe what to do on his own team, definitely the make of a Franchise Player. 

Plan B For The Lakers? Keep The Ship Afloat

Remember how tedious and boring the Dwight Howard drama was in Orlando? It could happen again and very soon. The reality is: the Lakers’ star center is on his final year of a contract he signed in Orlando; he came to Los Angeles to team with the large amount of star players it has in Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Steve Nash. Obviously, it’s early in the season so an 11-14 start means little to a team that is extremely banged up (remember: the 2003 Lakers started out 11-19 before getting a healthy Shaquille O’Neal back and ended up winning 50 games), but if the Lakers don’t find their groove come playoff time, Howard will likely be packing his bags to go elsewhere.

What would the potential plan B be for this team? The Lakers have been known to care little about the luxury tax, no matter how harsh it is with the new CBA, but the 2013 free agent class isn’t exactly star studded, so, should Howard leave, the Lakers will likely fill in the cracks by taking their choice in some quality but not exactly star players, and be ready for the 2014 free agency where Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki and potentially the whole Miami Big 3 will be free agents. (Note: This is assuming Pau Gasol isn’t traded during the season):

·         With D’Antoni getting a 4 year deal, I’m sure the Lakers would like to get a backup point guard to be able to run the show when Nash isn’t on the court (Nash has never played more than 34 minutes a game in his career), and this free agency class has some nice options to choose from, the best (and most realistic, so no Chris Paul or Brandon Jennings on this list) being:

o   Mo Williams: The former Clipper and current Jazz point guard isn’t the fastest player on the court, doesn’t have the best court vision out there and he isn’t exactly the best passer on the list, but he is a lights out shooter. For his career, Williams is shooting an excellent 38.6% from long range, as well as 87% from the free throw line. His assists per game for his career is a low-for-a-point-guard 4.9 (although he’s doing a good job this year as he is averaging 7 per game so far). He may not be the prototypical run-n-gun point guard Mike D’Antoni requires, but he can get the job done better than Chris Duhon, Steve Blake or Darius Morris ever will. Realistically, he could be had from the Mid Level Exception (5 million a year) to his current 8.5 million a year salary.

o   Jose Calderón: The Spanish point guard is already being linked to the Lakers in a potential swap for Gasol and we know what he brings to the table: good passing (6.8 assists per game with only 1.9 turnovers), good spot up shooting (45.6% from deep, 91.4% from the line) and generally an above average point guard to keep things moving. I’m sure Gasol would like to play with another fellow Spaniard and vice versa, which could lower the price down a bit. I think he could be had for the mini mid-level exception (3.6 million a year).

o   Jarrett Jack: Another good scorer and shooter, though he isn’t a top guard in the passing department. He does have one thing going for him that neither Williams or Calderon does: defense. I know D’Antoni doesn’t require good defenders, but if Howard indeed bolts, it would be time to get better perimeter defenders, and Jack fills that need while providing a quality back up on the offensive end. He is making about 5 million a year with Golden State, but he could lower his price range for the sake of a championship opportunity.

·         The Lakers look set at the shooting guard spot with Bryant having one more year on his contract and Jodie Meeks having a team option that will likely be picked up for a measly 1.5 million a year. I would be seriously surprised if the Lakers thought about picking another player for this slot (the best of the bunch being Andre Iguodala).

·         The starter role for the small forward slot is also filled with Metta World Peace still having another year on his contract with an early termination option (though the odds of him using it are near 0% as he is making a lot of money at over 7 million a year). However, the team is missing a decent back up who can either play defense or is a dead-eye shooter (no, Antawn Jamison doesn’t really count as a SF).

o   Kyle Korver: one of the best three point shooters in the game, Korver has bounced around in recent years, going from the Jazz, to the Bulls and now is on the Hawks, but he is a very affordable player, as I doubt he gets the contract he got from Chicago a couple of years ago for 5 million a year. Korver is notorious, however, for playing little, to no defense. Still, the Lakers will likely take a look at him, as he is what D’Antoni prefers to have for his system.

o   Luke Walton: No, not really.

·         With Howard leaving, it’s likely Gasol moves over to the center position to make room for a player with perimeter skills at the power forward position. Though I doubt the Lakers will actively pursue a stretch 4 with Howard gone, they would more than likely take a more versatile player who has some speed and some defensive capabilities with Howard’s shot blocking gone. Here we have:

o   Josh Smith: I don’t really need to say much about him. He’s a second tier star in the league, with enormous amounts of athleticism and a knack for blocking shots. He is nearly as good as Gasol is at passing the ball and has the excellent ability to put the ball on the floor. His only true weakness is his willingness to take the jumpshot when he should be trying to get to the rim.

o   Paul Millsap: Millsap is a do it all type of forward. He has a nice mid-range game, can put the ball on the floor and his sheer energy makes up for him being undersized in the big heavy Western Conference. It’s doubtful the Lakers get him because it looks like he will be trying to cash in after being a quality player in the league for the past 7 seasons.

o   Lamar Odom: Out of shape coming into the season for the Clippers, Odom has worked hard to get into game playing shape. Odom is the most versatile player in the NBA. He is still a fan favorite for his services during the repeat from 2009 to 2010. The Lakers will definitely be asking his agent what his price would be about returning to the purple and gold.

·         It’s possible that Mitch Kupchak could be looking to fill in the void left by Dwight by getting another center who dominates the low-block. With Howard being the biggest free agent prize, there are other quality big men on the market such as:

o   Al Jefferson: The Jazz big man likely has the most complete post game in the NBA. His array of lefty and righty hook shots often leave opposing centers wondering what they can do just to slow him down. He has a very nice turn around jumpshot from anywhere within 15 feet and a decent enough spot up jumper to keep defenses honest. He has had his issues with injuries, however, which is why he is never mentioned among the top players in the league, but Jefferson is definitely a sleeper.

o   Chris Kaman: Not exactly dominant in the low-block, but he has a nice enough skill set at 7 feet for the Lakers to take a look. A good enough jump shot to help create space for his fellow teammates, Kaman is a guy who isn’t shy about doing the dirty work to help his team win. He isn’t a player with the biggest name, but he’s a guy who can get the job done.

o   Andrew Bynum: Highly unlikely the big man comes back after his comments about the Lakers following his team’s 111-98 loss to the Lakers on Sunday Night.

The reality is the Lakers, aside from Howard, are looking more and more like an old folk’s home: going into 2013, Gasol will be 33, Metta World Peace will be 34, Bryant will hit the 35 mark and Nash will likely be the oldest player in the NBA at age 39. The Lakers will need to help keep the ship running while they wait for 2014 where the Lakers will only have Nash on the books to make a run at some of the big names on the market, like Bryant himself, or potentially LeBron James. 

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 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. 

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. 

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. 

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.