The Aftermath:Recap of Game 4, the series, and other thoughts

Honestly, I could see from the beginning that Lakers just didn’t have it. Kobe starting the game 6-8 and the rest of the team 2-12 wasn’t a good start at all. I knew Kobe would have to have a huge game and put himself beyond the team, but he just would not have been able to beat them by himself. Pau was nonexistent as he was all series and Bynum wasn’t the dominating presence that he’s been recently. I can’t really remember any highlights of the Laker offense past Kobe’s first quarter scoring. Maybe a couple of Fisher shots here and there, Gasol and Artest connecting once in a blue moon, and a couple of free throws by others here and there. The reason I can’t remember anything the Lakers did offensively is because of the HORRENDOUS defense. I just can’t emphasize how terrible their defense was. I would think they would refactor their defense to lock up the perimeter due to the repeated dribble penetration and three point baskets killing us game after game. But no, there were no adjustments whatsoever.  Scrambling on defense almost every possession with the Mavericks guards dissecting our defense at will. I mean if in multiple games, a 5’6 player can run through the defense and get layups and shots up uncontested through a so called "championship" defense, something has to be wrong. When Terry and Peja can spot up in the corner and get fairly to wide open three pointers every single time, something has to be wrong. 

They turned our defense inside out at will and had us on our heels the whole game. On top of that our pick and roll defense has been ridiculously bad all year. Almost every opposing point guard has killed us(which can also be attributed to an aged Derek Fisher). Chris Paul destroyed us last series, and it wasn’t much different much different with the Maverick guards. Pau, supposedly highly mobile and versatile wasn’t able to accomplish the task of containing the opposing guard while his guard fought over the screen. They went around us, over us, through us, and between us. It was beyond my comprehension as to why we didn’t change up our defensive arrangement at all. Artest is a great defender don’t get me wrong but he is just way too slow on the perimeter. Kobe just helps off way too much and is a big reason about why they got a lot of opportunities for three pointers. When one person helps, the whole defense has to rotate, and the Lakers just rotated way too slowly. Wide open 3’s accounted for 60 points. 20 three pointers. 15-16 for Terry and Peja combined. They say you live and die by the three and the Mavericks lived well through those 4 games. Dribble penetration led to Tyson Chandler dunks, free throws, mid-range jumpers by Peja, Terry, and Dirk, and layups for Jason Kidd. They got any shot they wanted. I really don’t remember a single solid Laker defensive possession, especially in the 4th quarter of the games. Another thing was that Dirk, who had been destroying Pau and the Lakers all series didn’t go off. If Dirk went off for 42, I wouldn’t be as mad, because Dirk is going to get his regardless. Jason Kidd didn’t get his stats wise, Tyson Chandler and Brendan Haywood weren’t getting inside often. It was three players who beat us, three players who had been beating us all series. Three players who we couldn’t stop.

                The Lakers had no sense of urgency throughout the game and throughout the series.  Everyone was far too relaxed. Once the Maverick’s got up, they didn’t look to put a quick stop to it. They let it get out of control, until everyone in American Airlines Arena was on their feet, hollering at the top of their lungs, the Dallas bench jumping up and down, and the Dallas players celebrating on the court as the Lakers sulked off into a timeout. They screwed up unbelievable in the end of game 3, with the Fisher pass which careened off Odoms hands out of bounds with the icing on the cake. They let the Mavericks back in that game, along with game 1. I just feel like they were much to relaxed and cocky. Bynum was the only one who expressed some sense of urgency off the court and responded on the court. Kobe didn’t have that killer instinct, Pau was nonexistent, and Lamar didn’t play like the Sixth Man of the Year. Again, no one made any adjustments, everyone just tried to laze through it and consequently got beat.

                Kobe Bryant’s play over the series surprised me in a bad way. He played extremely well in game 1 and was on fire, hitting his three pointers(which he has been shooting at a low percentage all season) and every which shot as usual. 36 points and 23 points in games 1 and 2 respectively shooting a shade under 50%. Nothing stellar by Kobe Bryant standards but still solid. Then in games 2 or 3, the games where we needed Kobe to lead us, he came up with 17 point performances in both games and didn’t shoot well. So much for the Michael Jordan comparison. Throw that comparison out, regardless if Kobe gets six ships, I never want to hear it ever again. It wasn’t even a star player performance. Everyone says we need to get Bynum involved, we need to get Pau going, but look what happened. Pau never got going and we lost the series. We needed #8 back for just a couple of games, just to get us tied up, just to get us back on our feet so we could start at square one 2-2 and win 2 out of 3 and advance to the next round. But he was nonexistent. His demeanor was alarmingly calm also. I didn’t see the stone cold killer instinct that I’ve seen in Kobe when he dominates. Not only in his face, but in his overall behavior, there was a clear difference. There are all the excuses that people have: Kobe’s finger, his tweaked ankle, other minor injuries etc. Honestly if Kobe was the top 5 player of all time that everyone calls him, he needed to step up and put the team on his back. And I know those excuses are BS after the dunks in the Hornets series. I know he still has it, I am confident that he can take it to the rim every possession or atleast get in the paint, but I don’t understand why he doesn’t. He could easily draw fouls on the opposing bigs and get to the free throw line, which he has been seeing less and less of, but he didn’t. I know he still has it in him. I know it. He just didn’t go all out. He is on the tail end of his prime and there is no better time to go all out and exhaust everything you have to squeeze out that championship that he supposedly was dying for. But he didn’t. And he was calm about it. He lost without a fight. Flashbacks of Game 7 vs Phoenix. We needed dominant Kobe, finals MVP Kobe, 81 point game Kobe, but we didn’t even get a glimpse of him when we needed him the most. I’d like to think I know Kobe, but I’m really not sure who is in that 24 jersey anymore.

                Pau Gasol. The supposed MVP of the Lakers. The supposed savior. The supposed reason for the Laker success. I absolutely detested it when people said he was more valuable to the team than Kobe. This season and playoffs proved how soft Pau is. How little he utilizes his talent. How much better he could be. Dirk had similar problems when he came up in the league, but as he said, he learned to be more aggressive and physical. He got accustomed to it. Pau Gasol the best power forward/big man in the league? Definitely not. He’s a ways away from Dirk as this series proved. Kobe fed him pass after pass and he failed to convert. We all remember that perfect pass Kobe threw him at the end of the game in the Hornets game which was perfectly passed and bounced off his chest out of bounds. Pau didn’t show up at all and struggled all series. People are finally seeing Pau for the soft non factor offensively and defensively that he is. Don’t get me wrong, when he’s on, he can beat you a number of ways and is a great scorer. But he’ll never be a great defender, or a great rebounder. He’ll never be strong with the ball and will always get bodied by the opposing team’s bigs.  Call me a Pau hater, I don’t care, it is what it is.

                As for the future, we need a full shake up. We’ll be keeping Kobe and Bynum for sure, but everyone else is up for grabs. We need a point guard badly and knock down three point shooters. We absolutely cannot have Ron Artest shooting perimeter shots anymore. That ends now. I’m hoping for Dwight Howard, as he is frustrated with his situation in Orlando but that may nullify Andrew Bynum’s role on the team. No one knows what Kupchak has in store for us this off season, but I’m sure it will be big.