Beast or Burden: Searching for Positives

Losing against Miami on the road? Alright. The next day in Orlando on a back-to-back? Explainable. At home after a day of rest and starting off with a 27-14 first quarter lead against the Pacers? Yikes. The loss was disturbing not only for the continued lack of offensive flow outside of certain stretches, but the rather alarming lack of defensive intensity, given that it is supposed to be a hallmark of a Mike Brown-led team. The Pacers shot 55.6% from behind the arc with nary a defender near them in most cases, and to compound these problems, Roy Hibbert outplayed Andrew Bynum in the paint and scored on nice hook after hook on the block. Fatigue, obviously, is a culprit in some of these problems -- the team finally had its first full contact practice since training camp today, a testament to how unforgiving the schedule has been for the Lakers thus far -- and we still have a long while for the ship to be turned around, but the Lakers have certainly been digging quite a hole for themselves. For that reason, picking positive contributors was remarkably difficult this time around -- in an atmosphere growing more and more ripe with disappointment, even modest improvement looks appealing.

Beast

• Metta World Peace -- He finally broke out of his funk, shooting better than 50% for the first time in nearly a month against the team whose championship aspirations he brutally crushed in 2004. How did he do it? He finally decided that his painfully futile attempt to shoot jumpers from the perimeter wasn't working and went back down into the post to bully smaller players, just as he did to start the season. It still boggles the mind that a career 34.2% three-point shooter could decline so dramatically from behind the arc, and one would think that he would improve at some juncture, but at least for this game, MWP embraced his limitations and worked to his strengths, his one attempt and make from behind the line notwithstanding. The more punishing the Laker attack is against the interior is, the better, and he adds a well-needed post presence to an otherwise painfully moribund bench unit. Like Derek Fisher, this could be his one good game for the next few weeks, but at least for today, we extend our kudos to MWP.

• Kobe Bryant -- I am beginning to sense that his inclusion in these columns will be about as regular as him being stuck into wondah's Player of the Week ones, as the only player with any remote sense of continuing excellence this season has been Kobe. With the offense humming through Gasol against Indiana, Kobe maximized this advantage by going off the ball on cuts through the lane, as he did against Orlando, and needless to say, Kobe Bryant in motion demands attention from opposing defenses and open opportunities for the rest of the players on the floor. That the rest of the perimeter players on the team couldn't hit the side of a barn is another story entirely, but between his greater use of the pick-and-roll as a means to create for himself and others and his work off curls, he is adapting, as the Kobe System dictates, to the circumstances around him.
• Darius Morris -- This might be faint praise, given that the improvement went from "hard on the eyes" to "somewhat tolerable," but Morris put in a better performance against Indy, choosing his spots better and knowing where and how to attack the defense. He still needs to be far less hesitant about going up for a shot in the lane or off a kickout to the perimeter, as it will eventually open up space for him in the passing lanes to other players or for himself to get to the rim, but that will come eventually. His ability to get through screens remains pretty poor, especially insofar as it stands out against his otherwise fairly decent man-to-man defense. For a guy who really should be getting D-League reps right now and have the freedom to make mistakes, he's getting there.
• Honorable mention goes to Pau Gasol's superb passing, including the insane no-look touch pass to Bynum, who criminally didn't convert it. That he was so effective at distributing from the high post makes it interesting that he wants more touches on the low block -- especially given that his array of hook shots have been absent from his arsenal for about a year now -- but he could see it as a way to get him into a better rhythm creating for himself. Moreover, one of the founding principles of the Duncan/Robinson San Antonio offense was that both of the bigs were interchangeable: either Duncan or Robinson could score on the block, step out to 15 feet to nail a jumper, and put pressure on the defense in both places. Bynum doesn't have the same range as Pau, the number of reports in training camp concerning Bynum's new midrange jumper aside, but if he can get comfortable there as he is in the low block, it would definitely aid the overall offensive flow.