Kobe Awesome, Knicks Opposite of That

by DexterFishmore on Nov 24, 2009 11:03 PM PST in Game Recaps Comment 20 comments

When the New York Knicks come to town, you kinda know you're in for a ludicrous night. Then on the first possession of the game you notice Wilson Chandler, who would be the second-string small forward on a decent team, trying to guard Pau Gasol in the post, and you realize you've misjudged the whole Knicks Experience. They're just so much worse than you'd ever think possible.

The Los Angeles Lakers looked bored as hell tonight, but it didn't matter. They led by 25 in the fourth quarter and won 100-90. The game had all the electricity of an Amish farmhouse.

The Lakers were actually pretty bad on offense, managing barely a point per possession thanks to an unsexy 25% turnover rate. But their ginormous height advantage - the Knicks' starting "center" is 6'8" David Lee - led to an overwhelming mismatch on the boards and forced the Knicks into a long, long series of outside jumpers. Chris Duhon, Larry Hughes and Chandler took advantage of the situation to hit 10 of 38 shots. Hughes, by the way, makes about $14 million this year.

Kobe Bryant faced a variety of Knicks defenders and rocked them all. He scored 34 points on 74% true shooting, handed out four assists and finished +25 on the night. Adam Morrison played only nine minutes and somehow finished -15. I don't think he'll be back next year.

Here are your game numbaz. The Lakers are 11-3.

	Poss.	TO%	FTA/ FGA	FT%	EFG%	TS%	Off Reb%	Def Reb%	PPP
LA	99	25	0.21	83	49	53	40	84	1.01
NYC	100	14	0.13	75	45	47	16	60	0.90

0 recs | Comment 20 comments |

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

1st

kobe all day,all night,for the rest of time,ballin

YOU CAN PUT IT ON THE BOARD YES!
www.reverbnation.com/czheckproductions

by Czheck on Nov 24, 2009 11:17 PM PST reply actions

So when Drew interfered with Kobe's shot in the 4th

Does that count as a missed FG for Kobe?

"This is not a game for boys. This is a game for men." - Phil Jackson

by Gils_Keloids on Nov 24, 2009 11:34 PM PST reply actions

No, it doesn't

It just counts as a turnover for Bynum.

by DexterFishmore on Nov 24, 2009 11:37 PM PST up reply actions

Spank you very much!

"This is not a game for boys. This is a game for men." - Phil Jackson

by Gils_Keloids on Nov 24, 2009 11:44 PM PST up reply actions

Drew looked very frustrated today

I just wished he had released some of it on defense tonight. He gave some easy layup in the 4th

by Madz on Nov 25, 2009 12:11 AM PST up reply actions

And tonight was a prime example of bench FAIL

Needing the starters come back in the 4th when there was a 25 point lead at the start of the 4th is exactly what I meant by the bench players not caring.

Garbage time or not, it’s still a game, there are players on the opposite side that won’t just fold because they’re down by 25.

My problem with the bench is they don’t treat garbage time as a time for them to get better, execute the offense, or do anything remotely productive. Last game, the game before that, they kept giving away the lead. I know it’s garbage time and thus “meaningless” but if bad habits are being built during garbage time (ie like not passing to Drew when he’s fought for a good position) it’s just building for big epic lead-fails like tonight.

These problems, if they persist throughout the season, will play out exactly like they did in the playoffs last year. We only survived through the playoffs because our starters were THAT much better than everyone else’s starters. But I’m pretty sure we all facepalmed more than once when we saw the bench give up multiple leads in the 4th quarter when the starters SHOULD have been resting.

Again, I may be too harsh on the bench and overreacting, but I do believe if players play “knowing” it’s garbage time, it’ll show in their body language, their lack of hustle, their bad decisions, etc. And when it comes to important playing time, all the mistakes they make during garbage time, will definitely carry over.

Lakers 2009 Road to Redemption: TREVOR, DEREK, LAMAR, PAU & KOBE.
Play the game of which Lakers reminds you of: TA - TI, Shannon Brown - Chris Brown, Pau Gasol - Jesus, Machine - Luis Scola/Russell Brand, PJ with mustache and beard - Colonel Sanders.

by PeanutButterSpread on Nov 24, 2009 11:44 PM PST reply actions

Phil had an interesting post game comment about the bench.....

He basically said they are just using up minutes while the starters rest…….subtle, but harsh.

Overdue in my opinion.

Billy Mac: "Lamar, can you see yourself actually getting in the (boxing) ring"?
Lamar Odom: "No. My face is too pretty."

by pslakerfan on Nov 25, 2009 12:01 AM PST up reply actions

Ding's got a good point over at his OC Register Blog

Who’s going to be on the court at the end when the Lakers start having close games? Someone’s going to feel left out.

"This is not a game for boys. This is a game for men." - Phil Jackson

by Gils_Keloids on Nov 24, 2009 11:54 PM PST reply actions

*Someone's going to feel left out.

"This is not a game for boys. This is a game for men." - Phil Jackson

by Gils_Keloids on Nov 24, 2009 11:54 PM PST up reply actions

This point was brought up numerous times earlier in the season

Because Bynum is looking like more of a force, it’s not automatic that Lamar will replace him to close games. I think it will depend on match-ups and may vary night to night. If Lamar is doing one of his disappearing acts, for example, I wouldn’t be surprised if Phil uses the big lineup to close out the game. When we need Lamar to defend a versatile bigman though, ie Dirk, I bet he gets the nod.

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.

by Justin N. on Nov 25, 2009 12:51 AM PST up reply actions

consistency will always trump inconsistency

Lamar has a history of dissapearing so if his feelings get hurt so what. We all know that Bynum is finally playing like everyone was expecting. Besides, the most impressive thing about Bynum is that he has seem to improved on his ability to stay out of foul trouble and that is huge. In the playoffs/Finals LO came off the bench to replace him and he doubled Bynum in minutes played. I don’t see that happening anymore.

I think smashing the Suns made me realize how far Kobe and the Lakers have come from five years ago, when the Suns had the world at their feet.

by PURPLE AND GOLD FOR LIFE on Nov 25, 2009 8:31 AM PST up reply actions

Meh, this is essentially the same problem we had last season

It’s just aggravated this season because our entire backcourt with the exception of Fisher has forgotten how to shoot from distance. In garbage time, teams can just clog the paint and watch as Farmar/Brown/Morrison/Vujacic/Odom/etc. throw up bricks. The lack of intensity doesn’t help either; same with the stat-filling behavior that most of this group exhibits in garbage time. I could see it being less of a problem in close games given that there will be enough starters to counterbalance the reserves and keep them in line, but it would be nice for the long-term health of our starters if they didn’t have to close games.

The problem is that fixing this using external methods (signing/trading a player) is difficult because of the options available, which is essentially Jerry Stackhouse and Wally Szczerbiak, both of whom aren’t exactly panaceas, but Stackhouse can score and Szczerbiak can shoot, so it would be helpful. Trading implies using Morrison’s contract and possibly Farmar, but the question is whether Buss wants to take on any money with the huge payroll he’s opening his wallet up for now. The other method is hope that this resolves itself internally as the season goes on, but given how long this has been a problem, it’s doubtful it will ever fully go away.

To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.

by Ben R on Nov 25, 2009 12:35 AM PST reply actions

Didn't see the game, but

luckily I did catch the fourth quarter on the radio so, if it were up to me alone, the Lakers lost this game :P

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.

by Justin N. on Nov 25, 2009 12:45 AM PST reply actions

I hate to nitpick after a win but..............

This makes me kind of sick……….

Our 6 starters (if you are a Laker fan you get that) have a net +/- per 48 minutes of +12.217
Our 7 bench players have a net +/- per 48 minutes of -9.4.

That’s a differential of 21.6 points!!!!

That’s just disgusting! Of course the bench is playing weaker competition most of the time. Our starters are playing great, but this has to change.

For reference the Celtics starters are +8.4666 and their bench is +8.1666 which is a minuscule difference of .3 points.

Just imagine if our bench was a net “zero”? We would be killing every team.

Billy Mac: "Lamar, can you see yourself actually getting in the (boxing) ring"?
Lamar Odom: "No. My face is too pretty."

by pslakerfan on Nov 25, 2009 12:54 AM PST reply actions

It seemed like a big reason why the Lakers’ starters were so dominant on offense was because of a very good combination between size and quickness. The bench sans Odom at this point looks mediocre. Remember the Suns a few years back?

As for the Celtics, I don’t know how big of a lead their starters get before subbing in their bench, but maybe their performance has something to do with playing with a greater sense of urgency? Anyway, there’s a ton of room left to grow, as I already see even Morrison getting more minutes per game than he’s ever seen last season.

by brianfbb on Nov 25, 2009 3:29 AM PST up reply actions

That is the worst part of this team

which is the lack of production by the bench. This is not much of a surprise because this has been an issue since the Shaq/Kobe era. It was actually worst then because Kobe and Shaq scored about 70-75% of the team’s points because the bench could not produce as well. They were also known as the team that couldn’t keep a lead or a team that would get beat by below 500 teams. It just took for Kobe or Shaq to get in foul trouble and it was over. Actually, their offensive production is more balanced than those teams but yet the bench is obviously not pulling it’s weight.

I think smashing the Suns made me realize how far Kobe and the Lakers have come from five years ago, when the Suns had the world at their feet.

by PURPLE AND GOLD FOR LIFE on Nov 25, 2009 8:36 AM PST up reply actions

Pau's worth in the l.a. times

Why does the times keep writing articles about how nobody notices Pau, or how he’s underrated? Come on, this is ridiculous – everyone knows how good he is, at least the basketball fans. The people that don’t are the same people that don’t know what a post move means.

Anyways, I also think there should be a thread where people can post the most disturbing things Joel Myers says during a game broadcast. My favorite (from the pre-season, in reference to a foul call against the Lakers that Joel thought shouldn’t have been called) -

“I’ve seen more pushing in the men’s room!”

umm… what was that Joel?

by _logan_ on Nov 25, 2009 2:33 AM PST reply actions