#67. LA Lakers @ Dallas Mavericks. 5:30pm. KCAL Live

[FukaX]

after kobe went down with 4th personal foul , the team just lose its focus on rotations and traps.

kobe must have realized that a great team defense beats high octane offense any time of the week from seeing how well teh rockets were playing.

[milesfides]

I think Kobe and Phil and Fish all know about the importance of defense. With the exception of our point guards' defense of Rafer Alston, our defense was generally on par with Houston's. And let's not understate the fact that it wasn't just slow defense on Alston, Alston got stupid hot.

That's the thing, without Bynum, we have to adjust defensively. So far, for the past few months, we haven't. Even with Gasol, we weren't good defensively, because Gasol isn't Bynum, yet our team plays as if Bynum is protecting the basket.

Houston is a team, as we found, doesn't rely on Yao for its team defense. Mutumbo can step in that role, and Battier does his thing. The other role players are excellent at switching, rotating, and stepping in to clog the lane.

That's not our team. We just dont' have very good defensive players. Fisher is not quick, and that hurts him defensively. Same with Walton. Farmar's small and light. Screens make short order of him, and he cannot challenge drives because he doesn't have the length or size. Odom is a good one-on-one defender when he puts his mind to it, but he provides little help defense, and often gets caught in no-man's land because of indecision. Radmanovic is just a terrible defender.

The two defensive anchors on our team are Turiaf and Kobe. Turiaf can protect the basket if he isn't overpowered. Kobe can lock down the perimeter. The pitfalls to this approach is that the other role players aren't that good at switching and playing around them on defense. And Turiaf funs out of gas eventually and Kobe's offensive duties make it hard for him to play lockdown defense at the same time. Too much on the plate, which is why Kobe sometimes tries to take shortcuts by stealing the ball when a team gets into their fastbreak. Either he's too tired to chase, or he doesn't like their chances to defend in transition.

Essentially, I don't think it's going to happen until we get Bynum back - as well as Pau. Because when Kobe has help offensively, it gives him legs to play tough defense throughout the game. And when Bynum is in the middle, it covers up the defensive weaknesses of our role players.

Until we get Bynum back, it ain't happening, at least not consistently.

The Rockets have the luxury of having Battier, who faceguards opponents while Tracy McGrady rests. We can't have defense like the Rockets because we're placing both responsibilities exclusively on Kobe.

But if we want to maximize our defensive potential, i say let's rotate Kobe for the primary defense assignment. I'd have Sasha and Coby Karl rough it up a bit and give some hard fouls if they get in trouble.

Sasha
Coby
Kobe
Odom
Turiaf

That would be our best hustling defensive lineup, imo.

[LAKESHOW]

tonights victory was great. probably the best win this season so far. weve just lost 2. we are on the road against one of the conference' best teams. the #1 seed is hanging in the balance, and will continue to do so.

but with this victory, weve got all of that and more accomplished.

[magic#32]

You cant blow a 25point lead that way, Phil should have asked for a time out in the end of the 3rd quarter, this in playoffs would have been a lose.

[Big Bird]

Yeah, you can blow it. Bigger leads have been blown (in fact if I recall correctly the Lakers erased a 28 point deficit against the Mavs some years ago). And you can especially blow it against one of the best home teams in the league (they had 4 losses prior to this game). Not to mention we were missing a large chunk of our rotation. Furthermore, you honestly didn't believe that the Mavs would play as crappy as they did in the 1st for the entire game and that the Lakers would just sustain a 20 point lead did you? They do have a great team you know . The important thing is that they held on and won this game. Games like this also build team character; they'll learn that no lead is safe if you start slacking off, especially on someone else's court. I have no doubt in my mind that they'll learn that.

Don't get me wrong, I thought that they looked pathetic at times when things started to fall apart and they could've saved all of us some nerves, but a win is a win. And this was a big one, whichever way you want to look at it.

p.s.: Odom had a great game, but he needs to be smacked in the head for some of the boneheaded plays he makes. up by 15 with 20 seconds left in the third and he doesn't run off the clock which allows the Mavs to hit a desperation three that puts all of the momentum on their side... that was one of the stupidest plays in the entire game. You just don't let that happen.

[snaquille oatmeal]

You cant blow a 25point lead that way, Phil should have asked for a time out in the end of the 3rd quarter, this in playoffs would have been a lose.

what are you new?

phil does this all the time during the regular season to mentally train the players to get themselves out of those situations. he gets our blood boiling whenever he does this, but we know he does it. he is a different coach in the playoffs.

[kobe#8]

This is a big win without our bigs..

[PT_Lakers_fan]

Huge win for us.

I saw a small resume from the game....our first 2 periods guided us to the win....the 2nd half was bad.

[daddyfivestar]

darn...no bonus point for winning the fourth quarter.

[semi-sentient]

Gnardy.

[daddyfivestar]

oop still living in cba rules

[Tommy Trojan]

Hope we can build some momentum until Gasol gets back