Lakers News: Monday 7/8/13

The Lakers finally made some moves post-Dwightmare. Let's dive right into it, shall we?


Lakers sign center Chris Kaman: I love this signing. Kaman is quality big man that can provide solid defense and offensive output, as well as depth and give some minutes of rest to the Lakers' star big man Pau Gasol. It wasn't so long ago the 7 footer was giving the Clippers 15 points per game with 11 rebounds per game, so at the very least, Kaman will be a nice player off the bench. While certainly not the best shooter, he has a nice stroke for the center position, hitting 50.8% of his shots taken, as well as making 52% of his 16 foot jumpers. D'Antoni will likely use him in pick and fades with Steve Blake and Steve Nash to help open the paint for the rest of the team. 

Kaman will recieve the Lakers' mini Mid Level Exception (3.1 million a year) for one season, according to Ramona Shelburne (via twitter). 


Lakers use amnesty clause on Metta World Peace: It's a bit sad to see Metta leave so abruptly; he wasn't that good of a player, but always a strange personality to have on the bench. The Lakers are shaving off 7.7 million in cap space. The Lakers cannot resign Metta to a cheaper deal until the summer of 2014 (though I see no reason why they would want to). 

So, thanks Metta. Your three pointer in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals will live on in Laker history. 

The Lakers are interested in Former Clippers Elton Brand and Lamar Odom: According to Ramona Shelburne, the Lakers have been in talks with former Laker Lamar Odom and former Clipper Elton Brand. With the signing of Kaman, however, Brand is almost guaranteed to not sign with the Lakers, as they can no longer offer him more than 1.4 million per year. Odom, however, is a different matter, as he hardly played with the Clippers, so his value on the open market should be at an all time low. For now, we can only speculate whether or not Odom will want to rejoin the team or seek a contract elsewhere. 

2012-2013 Lakers in Review #7: Metta World Peace

Taken from the 09-10 season, before
everyone hated Dwight Howard

Much like at Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness, Hack-a-Shaq will have end of the year reviews.

Same rules apply as grades are handed out according to pre-season expectations vs. actual production. 


Small Forward/Power Forward: Metta World Peace

12.4 PPG, 1.5 APG, 5.0 RPG, 3.0 WS, .086 WS/48 on 40.3% shooting and 34.2% shooting from three point range. Grade: C+


2012-2013 in brief: World Peace was coming off of two bad seasons in a row and was an obvious candidate to receive the Lakers' Amnesty clause. He had his best offensive output since the 2009-2010 NBA season when he was on the Houston Rockets.

2014 status: One year left on his contract, is owed 7.7 million for his contract year. 


************


Metta World Peace is an interesting case, to say the least. A fan favorite because of his eccentric, to say the least, behavior over his long career. His time in Los Angeles alone includes:

* Changing his name from Ron Artest to Metta World Peace (Ironic because he is possibly the most violent player of the modern NBA era).  

* Tossing former Laker Trevor Ariza's shoe into the media section of the court.

*Thanking his psychiatrist after the Lakers won the 2010 NBA Finals.

*Making a rap song titled "Champions" after the Lakers won the 2010 NBA Finals. 

*Going on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" wearing nothing but his boxer briefs. 

*Elbowing then Oklahoma City Thunder guard James Harden in the head while celebrating a dunk. 

*Getting surgery on his left knee that was supposed to sideline him for 6 weeks; he ended up missing 12 days (this is the same injury ended OKC's Russell Westbrook's season).

It's safe to say that Metta is the oddball of the Laker family and that's perfectly fine if it doesn't affect on court production. It certainly didn't this past season, as he put up the best numbers he's had in his time with Los Angeles. 

Always known for his excellent defense, World Peace has declined on the perimeter thanks to a combination of old age and gaining muscle weight throughout the last two seasons (which has made World Peace a decent low post defender capable of giving the Lakers minutes at the power forward position). While World Peace is no longer an All-NBA defensive player, his offensive production was a nice surprise from last year. 

World Peace is possibly the streakiest player in the NBA; never afraid to shoot, he sometimes pushes his team over the top with hot 3 point shooting and other times, keeps the team back while jacking up missed shot after missed shot. That said, his offense was something the Lakers sorely needed this season thanks to injury; World Peace, for the most part, delivered. A 34.2% FG percentage from three point range is not bad at all; the only problem was World Peace would keep shooting, even if other players were in better position to score, or he was missing a bunch of shots, or it was heavily contested, or.. well you get the point. World Peace's shoot first, pass later mentality was something the Lakers had to live with, and it often wouldn't work out so well, evidenced by his very inefficient 40.3% from the floor. At the very least, Metta found ways of putting the ball into the bucket, being 3rd on the Lakers in total points scores with 929 and 5th in points per game with 12.4.

World Peace's season was similar to that of Jodie Meeks; inconsistency from the perimeter combined with some awful decisions with the ball leading to a below average WS/48. And inconsistent is the perfect word to describe World Peace last year, as he was sometimes brilliant in his decision making and play making, while other times making awful, rookie mistakes. 

World Peace was one of the few Lakers to play 75 or more games this past season, so while he was incredibly inconsistent, at the very least, World Peace provided some stability in the rotation while he was healthy enough to play and he put up better-than-expected numbers. With some fine tuning to his shoot first mentality, World Peace can become a much better role player for the Lakers.

I expected a massive decline out of World Peace this season, age combined with some awful previous seasons had me believing World Peace's career was coming to a close. Overall, World Peace was a pleasant surprise in a season full of unpleasant ones. Let's just hope he can keep it together for next year. 

Knicks @ Lakers December 25, 2012: Merry Christmas from the Staples Center!

Happy Holidays from Hack-a-Shaq!

What a wild ride Saturday was, right? In what was the game of the season so far for the Lakers (and maybe the league), Los Angeles just happened to pull off a gutsy comeback over a red-hot Warriors team, willing their way back into the contest and getting out of Golden State with a 118-115 OT victory (the team’s first OT of the year).  The game was relatively lopsided for the first 3 quarters, however, the entire 4th quarter and OT was an incredible slugfest, including some amazing shots, smartly drawn up plays and some surprising misses from both teams, The 4^th included 7 lead changes in the last 4 minutes of the game with both teams going back and forth after the 2 minute mark.

This looked like a game where the Lakers could have broken down, like they have in so many close contests to start the year.  With Dwight Howard committing quick and dumb fouls in the beginning of every single quarter (save for OT) and Kobe Bryant tossing up shot after shot after shot and never once reaching the free throw line (technical foul FT doesn’t exactly count); facing a young, relatively healthy (let’s not forget: big man Andrew Bogut is still riding the pine with injury) and loaded Warriors team on the road seemed like a recipe for disaster. Of course, in typical Laker fashion, the team went down big for the second game in a row, looking like the frustrating side of this team by going down 14 in the 3rd quarter and taking a 13 point deficit into the 4th.  The defense looked slow and nobody was rotating on backdoor cuts, while the offense wasn’t working like we anticipated with Steve Nash in his first game back.  Somehow, off of the brilliance of Metta World Peace, Jodie Meeks and the incredible energy Jordan Hill brings, the Lakers’ backups brought the team back within striking distance, before Mike D’Antoni brought the starters back in the game to close out the game in OT.

The biggest headline of the game – one we didn’t know would happen until gametime – was the return of All-Star Steve Nash.  How would the Lakers use him and how many minutes could he play, not having played a game in about two months? D’Antoni used him for 41 minutes in his first game back, something nobody expected, especially with him coming off of a 2 month injury layoff and never having played heavy minutes throughout his career. A very good sign though: he didn’t look like he was laboring or fatigued, so his conditioning seems to be in a decent place.  Much like I though, Nash controlled most of the game for the first three quarters, using D’Antoni patented Pick and Rolls with both Howard and Pau Gasol. Time after time, he would weave his way into the lane; looking to set up his teammates rather than himself (he only had 8 shot attempts). It seems my only two gripes with this game was the lack of defense played by Los Angeles and Bryant still forcing up shots despite Nash being back to create offense for others, though I will commend Kobe for sinking some key jumpers despite having missed so many of them earlier. Not a lot of players would have come through being as cold as he was, but time and time again, Bryant came through in the clutch.

The most surprising part about Saturday’s game came in the 4^th quarter with Bryant, Howard, Nash, Gasol and World Peace on the court. Reaching the 5 minute mark, the team went away from the standard pick and roll offense and instead used the Horns offense, where the point guard has the ball at the top of the three point line, shooting guard and small forward roll to the corners and the two post players come up to the elbows and set double screens for the point guard. The Lakers ran the Mike Brown variation they had used last season and gave the ball to Gasol at the high post, but this time, Nash rolled around him and set a backdoor screen on Howard’s man to let him roll to the bucket, in which Gasol would give him the entry pass via alley-oop. It was uncharacteristic of D’Antoni, but it completely caught Golden State by surprised and worked to perfection. They used the same play later in OT, but Howard lost grip of the ball and couldn’t finish the jam. It was still not my favorite coaching move by D’Antoni, however, as he drew up an incredibly smart play toward the end of the 4^th quarter. A more standard pick and roll play, Bryant was on the strong side, and Nash and D’Antoni knew they would roll to his side once Nash cleared Howard’s pick. Nash gave the ball to a rolling Howard at the high post after passing the pick, and sure enough, Golden State made sure Bryant wouldn’t receive and open shot by keeping a man on him, but at the same time, collapsing the defense so Howard wouldn’t reach the paint. This opened up a wide open shot for my player of the game Metta World Peace, who calmly sank the three pointer to give the Lakers the lead.

Nash finished with an impressive 12 points and nine assists, including a huge three in the 4th and his signature, one-legged, mid-range jump shot in the lane to seal the game in OT. The offense looked incredibly smooth and seamless in his return as he helped set up his teammates to get them going and made a lot of smart plays down the stretch. His impact was immediate, and the validity of all the “wait for Nash” arguments seem supported now that he is back and has the Lakers offense looking like the best in the league.

Check out the subtle screen by Nash at the 1:10 mark and the aformentioned play at the 1:57 mark.

And hey, it’s Christmas, and what better gift could the Lakers give it’s loyal fans than a win against the Eastern Conference’s number one team, the New York Knicks, a team that already beat the Lakers on December 13^th 116-107; that team was vastly different from the one Los Angeles is trotting out today as Gasol and Nash were still out at this time. There’s nothing like a little revenge, right? It will be interesting to see if Mike D’Antoni will be starting World Peace today, as he has stated that Metta will start during games against star players at his position, and clearly, Gasol would be overmatched going up against Carmelo Anthony at the 4 slot. Devin Ebanks or Darius Morris could start, pushing Kobe to the 3 to cover Ronnie Brewer and World Peace to the 4 to cover Anthony, with Gasol coming off the bench for today’s matchup. For all intents and purposes, I will list the starting lineup that I would field against New York as the lineup will not be known until a later time, including Morris, who I would put in to help counter Jason Kidd at the 2.

Starting Lineups:

Position	Knicks	Lakers
Point Guard	Raymond Felton	Steve Nash (!!!)
Shooting Guard	Jason Kidd	Darius Morris
Small Forward	Ronnie Brewer	Kobe Bryant
Power Forward	Carmelo Anthony	Metta World Peace
Center	Tyson Chandler	Dwight Howard

Merry Christmas everybody and Happy Holidays! Enjoy Laker basketball today with your loved ones.

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

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. 

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. 

Lakers Turn the Ball Over 25 Times; Fall to Blazers 116-106

The Los Angeles Lakers played much differently tonight; they pushed the tempo, fed the ball to the Dwight Howard, and most importantly, hit their free throws. However, the Lakers committed a season-high 25 turnovers as the Blazers ran away with this contest at the end of the 3^rd and beginning of the 4^th quarter largely on a 24-7 run.

The whole bench played confused, lost and generally terrible, except for Steve Blake, who did a very good job defensively on Damian Lillard, and generally ran the offense with smoothness. Blake played 28 minutes due to Steve Nash injuring his left leg during the second quarter. He attempted to come back after a time out, but couldn’t put much weight on to it; he was ruled out for the game. Despite the turnovers, the Lakers stayed in the game with great efforts from Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant, who channeled their inner Shaq-Kobe, Super-Mamba combo for this game vs. the Blazers as both scored 30 or more points, however both were also plagued with foul trouble as they had 5 fouls a-piece. Bryant was making mistake after mistake with the ball as he had a season-high and team high seven turnovers. The Blazers pushed the tempo and managed to get 28 very easy points off of turnovers, combined with 10 offensive rebounds largely leading to easy points in the paint and with their 45% (9-20) shooting from deep, and you can easily see why they scored 116 points.

 Los Angeles looked helpless against the pick and roll in the first half, as Damian Lillard had his way with Steve Nash and scored the majority of his 23 points against him in the first half. Steve Blake managed to stop some of the bleeding defensively, and pressured Lillard into a couple of mistakes that helped keep the Lakers in it. Ultimately, turnovers from Bryant and Metta World Peace kept giving the Blazers easy points in transition, and keeping the Lakers from making up any ground. Foul trouble plagued the Lakers; Pau Gasol had 3, Bryant had 5, Howard had 5, World Peace fouled out; the only starter that wasn’t in foul trouble was Steve Nash, and for obvious reasons. Los Angeles played a sloppy game all over the court, except in offensive execution; they shot 50% from the floor, and had 21 assists to the 36 baskets made and the assists coming from everywhere: Howard had 5, Nash had 4, Bryant had 3, Gasol had 2, even World Peace was getting into the passing action and also contributed 2 assists.

Los Angeles had another good offensive night; ultimately, turnovers and poor defense dooms the Lakers against the Blazers, wasting an excellent game from its dynamic duo in Dwight Howard, who finished with 33 points on 9-15 shooting (15-19 from the charity stripe!), 14 rebounds and 5 assists and Kobe Bryant who chipped in with 30 points and 6 rebounds of his own, while shooting 50% from the floor (10-20) as LA falls to 0-2 for the second season in a row under head coach Mike Brown. 

Los Angeles Lakers @ Portland Trailblazers, October 31st, 2012

The Trail Blazers begin their season at home Wednesday night against a Lakers team seeking to avoid a second straight 0-2 start.

Portland went 28-38 last season, after averaging 50.7 wins over its previous three seasons when it appeared to be a team on the rise. Coach Nate McMillan was fired during last year's campaign and the roster has been overhauled along with a new general manager in Neil Olshey and new coach in Terry Stotts.

All-Star big man LaMarcus Aldridge, forward Nicolas Batum and guard Wesley Matthews are the mainstays with new blood brought in that includes first-round picks Damian Lillard, a point guard drafted 6^th overall, and Meyers Leonard, a center drafted 11^th overall.

While Portland's new faces are unproven, the same cannot be said for those with Los Angeles. With Dwight Howard and Steve Nash on board, the Lakers are among the favorites as they seek the franchise's 17th championship.

Los Angeles, however, opened with a surprising 99-91 home loss to Dallas on Tuesday, where Los Angeles missed more free throws than Dallas attempted, and neither Howard nor Nash excelled in their team debuts.

Howard had 19 points and 10 rebounds while missing 11 of 14 free throws before fouling out with 2:02 to play. Nash managed just seven points and four assists with seemingly little to do in the Lakers' new offensive scheme. Pau Gasol led the Lakers with 23 points and 13 rebounds while Kobe Bryant scored a wonderfully efficient 22 (11-14 shooting) while playing on an injured right foot. The offense was smooth last night, as it created fairly easy opportunities that the Lakers didn’t convert (especially free throws).

There are a few minor injuries on the Lakers’ side of things; Kobe Bryant is listed as day to day with his injured right foot and ankle, but he still played last night and is expected to play tonight. Backup center Jordan Hill is also listed as day to day with a bulging disk he suffered early in the preseason, he will also play. On Portland’s side, backup point guard Ronnie Price is out for tonight’s contest.

Position	Lakers	Trailblazers
Point Guard	Steve Nash	Damian Lillard
Shooting Guard	Kobe Bryant	Wesley Matthews
Small Forward	Metta World Peace	Nicolas Batum
Power Forward	Pau Gasol	LaMarcus Aldrige
Center	Dwight Howard	J.J. Hickson

Lakers Falter at the Line, Fall to Dallas 99-91

You can’t win them all. It’s a simple, yet very true phrase that applies to all North American sports (except you, 1972 Dolphins). The Lakers came out of an 0-8 preseason to a very hyped up and anticipated regular season opener against the Dallas Mavericks without power forward Dirk Nowitzki or center Chris Kaman. With a starting lineup of Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, Metta World Peace, Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard, I’m sure everyone outside of Dallas thought the Lakers take this in a landslide. Alas, here we are with Dallas winning in Los Angeles 99-91.

What went wrong for L.A.? Plenty of things went wrong for Los Angeles, starting with free throws; the Lakers took 13 more free throws than the Mavericks, however, Dallas ended up making two more than Los Angeles. That’s right, out of a whopping 31 free throws, L.A. only manages to make 12; while Dallas made 14 out of 18 free throws. That is unacceptable. What is also amazing: No backcourt player on the Lakers took a single free throw; Howard took 14 free throws (nearly half of L.A.’s total free throw count), Jordan Hill took 6 free throws, only making 1. Pau Gasol had a respectable percentage, as he made 6 of 8 free throws. Antawn Jamison made 1 of 1 to complete an And-1 play, and Metta World Peace only made 1 of 2.

Dallas spent most of its time stopping Howard from getting easy put back dunks, effectively applying the Hack-a-Shaq strategy to perfection as Howard went on to make only 3 of 14 from the charity stripe. The Lakers just couldn’t stop the pick and roll Dallas was running, and that’s without the possibility of it becoming a pick and pop (a play that’s very common and hard to stop with Dirk on the floor). Steve Nash is still the below average defender we all know as Darren Collison ate him alive tonight to the tune of 17 points on 8-12 shooting, and Howard seems to have been off on his timing; he only had one block tonight, and allowed countless shots to go uncontested in the paint.

Los Angeles allowed too many rebounds to Dallas. On paper, it doesn’t look bad, as L.A. hauled in 46 rebounds to Dallas’ 40, but when you realize the Lakers have Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol, while Dallas is missing its twin 7 footers, then you know you have a problem. LA looked generally slower than Dallas, and played with less enthusiasm than the Mavs, a problem common with the late 2000’s, Kobe Bryant led Lakers.

Not all is dark in Laker land. Of the team’s 38 field goals, 24 of them were assisted, and not just by Nash, who only had four, but by the whole team, who really seem to be buying into assistant coach Eddie Jordan’s Princeton Offense. It seems the Princeton Offense is making things easier for the team offensively as Los Angeles shot 49.4% from the floor and the offense generally looked fluid and efficient. My only complaint tonight would be the lack of fast break points for the Lakers; after every rebound, Los Angeles would slowly job up the court instead of pushing the tempo with Nash (which is his bread and butter after the pick and roll) to get even easier shots early in the shot clock. Dwight Howard also got too few touches in the post, as most of his shots came off of offensive rebounds and last second passes to him to try to clean up LA’s offensive mistakes. This especially bothered me because Dallas had the much smaller Elton Brand on Howard for most of the night; nonetheless, Howard still managed to score 19 points despite only 12 shot attempts, and very few offensive possessions in which he was the focus. The brightest spot for Los Angeles was the spectacular Kobe Bryant, who is really feeding off of the Princeton Offense to make his own offense efficient and effective; Bryant shot 11-14 from the floor, only forcing up 1 shot (which he made in spectacular fashion over Vince Carter), and forcing zero unnecessary three pointers.