Lakers beat Warriors as SS&R ignores game completely

The "staff" here at Silver Screen and Roll does our best to provide you with the most comprehensive Lakers coverage on the web.  Every game has a preview, an immediate post-game reaction, and a next day recap or editorial regarding the team, and of course a game thread where we can all enjoy (or revile) the game together.  With the other two staffers on travel right now, all of those responsibilities fell to me for last night's game.  Then life sort of dealt me some events that required my attention, and the blog fell to the side.  My bad, I'd say it won't happen again, but it probably will sometime in the future.  It certainly won't happen often, though.

I really don't have time to provide more than a cursory analysis of last night's game.  You all managed to take care of yourselves on the game thread quite nicely, now here's your chance to do so on the analysis as well.  Please feel free to fill in the holes in the comments section.

The Lakers started the game looking like a team that was playing it's 4th game in 5 nights.  They looked tired, and were clearly conserving energy by simply not playing defense.  The Warriors jumped out to a quick lead by getting out on the break, and the Lakers could not keep up.  Too many first half turnovers, and too many first half bricks led to too many Warriors run outs and too many easy buckets. 

The first quarter was encouraging on one note though, because the Lakers were making a clear attempt to run their offense.  Kobe Bryant was the main proprietor here, you could see him making all the right cuts, and looking for teammates who were doing the same.  When the Lakers could be bothered not to turn the ball over, I think 70% of their first quarter possessions ended in a dunk.  Defensively strong, the Warriors most certainly aren't, but at this point, we'll take whatever execution we can get.

The 2nd half saw the Lakers start down 9.  At this point, two things happened.  The Lakers cleaned up the turnovers, and Kobe Bryant got really pissed off at the thought of losing 3 out of 4 games.  He came out in the 2nd half aggressive, and ended up with 27 points in the half, for a a total of 44 points on 27 shots for the game.   It's really nice to have a Kobe Bryant in games in which no one else came to play.

Unfortunately, the bad defense continued, and I really do think there were some tired legs out there.  The Lakers starters have logged heavy, heavy minutes over the last 5 days, and it really showed.  But this is certainly not an excuse, as the Warriors were on a back-to-back as well.  C.J Watson was eating the Lakers alive, hitting 4-5 from 3 pt range.  Monte Ellis got whatever shot he wanted at the rim.  And the entire Warriors team was getting just enough blocks and fast break opportunities to stay in the game. 

In the end, Kobe was too much, the Lakers picked it up on D just enough to get the victory, and the bench actually provided some nice play in the 2nd half.  It wasn't pretty, and nothing the Lakers do seems to be pretty these days, but it was another victory, allowing the Lakers to continue to set the pace for the league.