Season Opener: Lakers vs Blazers 10/28/08

[milesfides]

Kinda disappointed that we still needed Kobe to be amazing.

I don't even think Kobe was exerting nearly as much energy as many thought. It seeded as though he felt we had punched to the body long enough and he saw a opening to the head and started throwing KO punches.

Phil didn't have to bring him back in but he did it to restore some balance, if it's one negative our 2nd unit has it's that they're going to over push on the tempo which will cause break downs and let teams back into games. They have to learn how to effectively close games without Phil inserting a starter or two back in.

Oh, no, I wasn't talking about Kobe exerting a lot of energy - although he was active, even during times when it seemed like he wasn't looking for his shot; he still pushed the ball and led the break, played active defense, rebounded - Kobe wasn't really cruising.

Anyways, I know KObe can do his thing, sometimes with little effort. But what I'm talking about is that our team wasn't tough enough to turn the tide on their own - sans Kobe. Portland was a little discombobulated, while our team has a ton of depth and confidence, I just expected our team to be able to hold the fort a little better.

[history2b]

Bynum's conditioning is going to have to improve for us to truly challenge 70 wins for the season. There is no way to predict what will happen but I do know that if we play defense like we did last night for the entire season we should beat any team on any given day.

The difficult part comes during the long east coast swing and the Texas back to backs. This is where conditioning really plays a role too; Players legs are tired, energy isn't really there and defensive effort typically suffers. I'm particularly worried about Andrew in this scenario.

[milesfides]

Also, the Blazers' poor shooting was hardly happenstance. They took 24 threes to our 10. That's a huge difference. The Blazers weren't getting anything in the inside, nor were they able to push the ball to get transition baskets.

First of all, we doubled in the post all night, and it's no surprise why Oden, Aldridge and Frye struggled. We contested everything.

Second, we pressured Roy all game with Kobe, and sometimes Ariza and Odom, and switched fast and hard, collapsed on him when he drove. We played a soft zone on him.

Third, the Blazers' hit some tough shots. Outlaw was simply pulling up and nailing shots, and this is a guy teams play off of. Rudy was hitting some tough shots as well. Blake hit some quick threes.

The only success the Blazers had was some outside shooting by a couple hot players and a veteran like Blake. That means we've successfully pressured them to the perimeter. They actually hit a good percentage of their threes (41.7%), but it's a reflection of how our defense dictated their offense.

No, I don't think about the Blazers having an "off night." I'm wondering what the score would be if Rudy and Outlaw didn't get hot.

[DEEP3CL]

Kinda disappointed that we still needed Kobe to be amazing.

I don't even think Kobe was exerting nearly as much energy as many thought. It seemed as though he felt we had punched to the body long enough and he saw a opening to the head and started throwing KO punches.

Phil didn't have to bring him back in but he did it to restore some balance, if it's one negative our 2nd unit has it's that they're going to over push on the tempo which will cause break downs and let teams back into games. They have to learn how to effectively close games without Phil inserting a starter or two back in.

Oh, no, I wasn't talking about Kobe exerting a lot of energy - although he was active, even during times when it seemed like he wasn't looking for his shot; he still pushed the ball and led the break, played active defense, rebounded - Kobe wasn't really cruising.

Anyways, I know KObe can do his thing, sometimes with little effort. But what I'm talking about is that our team wasn't tough enough to turn the tide on their own - sans Kobe. Portland was a little discombobulated, while our team has a ton of depth and confidence, I just expected our team to be able to hold the fort a little better.

OK miles I got ya that's exactly what I was getting at as you see in my second paragraph.