Game Five Recap: Lakers Advance

…is what my text message said that I got from a friend who was also watching the game. He sent it to me right after Price was inserted into the game and the lead was cut down. As great as Phil is he cannot coach the willingness to defend and the toughness to close out a game. But, let’s hope that the Lakers learned from this leason and that they understand the importance of playing all 48 minutes. It is not their scoring that is an issue but their defense. Especially by the second unit. But at the same, we are fortunate that the Lakers didn’t face a team with more height or post presence. The Laker’s talent got them through the first round but it is going to be their toughness on defense and rebounding that will win them a title because on paper they are champions already. No matter how many 50 point games Lebron can muster up the Lakers are more talented then them. So, that means that the title is for the Lakers to loose. They just have to want it bad enough and have that translate onto to the floor.

Great recap, and I agree with most of what you had to say, in particular with what you said about Odom. If Odom continues to play like this then the Lakers really are going to be unbeatable simply because there are no teams out there who have any kind of an answer for him. Well, Boston does, but their answer for Odom is on the bench wearing a suit and tie these days. Odom is playing the best ball of his life, bar none, and he is finally looking like the player everyone always thought he should be. With him in there and on like this it just gives the Lakers too many weapons for any team to be able to defend.

I also agree about the shortening of the rotation (as you probably could have guessed), and would really rather see the top 7 guys get almost all of the minutes while using short 4-5 game series and the time off in between to rest, rather than only playing the key guys 35 minutes a game. For the most part Phil seems to be doing this now, and the only real issue has been down the stretch after the Lakers have seemingly blown it open. I don’t suspect this will be much of an issue in the coming rounds though, because while I do expect the Lakers to win it all, odds are good they won’t play another team the rest of the playoffs who defends even half as poorly as Utah did. The probable road to the title looks to go through Houston, Denver and Cleveland, and all are teams that value defense (yes, even Denver). I think most of the games the rest of the way will be more hard-fought than these Utah games were, but none of the remaining teams should be able to beat the Lakers if they’re playing to their capabilities.

The only part of what you wrote that I disagree with is the dismissal of Bynum, as I do think he’ll ultimately be an important contributor in these playoffs. Against a Utah team that featured undersized PFs and (briefly) an outside-shooting center, Bynum’s role may have been in question, but that will not be the case against Houston (or Portland). I think Bynum is definitely going to get a decent amount of minutes in this next round, so long as he stays out of foul trouble. Hopefully he is able to get some good minutes and will be able to develop some kind of rhythm, or at least a defensive presence out there.

All in all I’m glad the Lakers now will probably have a little time off to rest up for the next opponent. My guess is that Portland will win tonight and force a Game 6, so the Lakers should definitely have a few days to get ready.

We’ll need his length against Yao. Plus, he’ll beat Yao down the floor every time, and if he’s matched up with their bench. He’ll have a decided height advantage.

I agree with the main post on all points except Bynum. It is troubling that Bynum has pain in the knee and has seemed mentally out of sorts, but the Jazz were a bad matchup for Drew. Think about what little time he spent on the court against Collins, he did his thing and played OK. Then, the Jazz went with a small but more physical lineup, and it gave Drew fits. We all know he’s struggling with his defensive timing and footwork currently, and Millsap and Boozer are exactly the types of players to take advantage of those issues.
Looking ahead (and for the sake of not having to worry about both teams, I’ll only address Houston for now), Yao is a better post player than anybody the Jazz have, but he’s not going to outquick Drew. He’s not going to find seems to get better position for offensive rebounds. This isn’t to say that Drew will be able to deal well with Ming, but Yao is a more comfortable matchup for Drew than the Jazz bigs, because Ming fits more easily into the mold of post player. That won’t make it easier, but it should be at least a bit more familiar, which could help him a lot.
Also, regarding the blown leads, I wanted to elaborate on a point Josh made last night about when the blown leads are occurring and who is in at the time. Whether we like it or not, it’s clear that Phil is still trying to play his mind games about mental toughness with his bench, as evidenced by the fact that he let the starters close the game strong in Utah (where a Jazz run would have been met with absolute hysteria and the starters would have struggled to stem the tide) and then let the all too familiar formula happen last night at home.
I’m just going to go ahead and trust the guy to know when the Lakers are dealing with an opponent that they can toy with. Let’s face it, in all three home games of this series, the Lakers were clearly the better squad, got out to big leads, let the Jazz back into it by playing the reserves a lot, but in the end they closed out strong and won each one by double digits (with some slight free throw inflation). In the road game that we won, PJ didn’t mess around with the big lead and it was an easy victory. I can’t be mad at his mind games, because we’ve seen in the Kobe-Shaq years just how effective they can be, how much mentally stronger his team was because of the little tricks (like not calling time out) that he plays. I don’t think the game 7 WC finals comeback against Portland happens without that mental toughness (and lack thereof on the other side of the coin). Phil thinks he can still get away with it even in the opening round of the playoffs, and, well, he was right. Is it having the desired effect on the bench? That’s a completely different conversation.

He’s an inconsistent player. For Utah, he was on his up side.

I’d rather see him do his disappearing act for the next two rounds, as long as the Lakers get by, and then reappear for the Finals.

Mostly I’m saying this because I’ve been fooled before that he’s “figured it out”, when that’s the nature of inconsistent play. Let me add that I hope I am wrong.

I’m sorry, but this losing last night’s lead didn’t concern me at all.

Both coaches just about decided the game was over. Jerry Sloan put in Ronnie Price for the first time in the series, and pretty much decided the season was over for Deron and Boozer.

Then, Kobe decided to force his way to the 30 point mark and the team was lazy in auto pilot mode. It was not a real game situation. Blame Phil for relaxing on substitution, or blame Kobe for gunning for 30 (then he blames the 2nd Unit….funny), but it was not your typical blowing of a lead like Game 3.

The fact is we were up at least 13 in every game in this series. Do people prefer 5 close games? Everyone agrees that the NBA is a game of runs, but we’re always ready to say this team has no killer instinct when the other team makes their run. What about when we opened the lead up? How about when we erase leads? The Lakers dominated this series. Credit the Jazz for not completely folding like the Hornets.