Game #14 Dallas Mavericks (7-7) @ Los Angeles Lakers (12-1)

[RocketPower23]

Kobe, Drew and Trevor were excellent tonight, they came up huge for us. Pau and LO were solid as well. Fish, even though he shot it well tonight, it's just aggravating seeing him do things that are beyond his abilities. I just don't think we can a title if Fish is still our starting point guard. Even if he starts spotting up more and not trying to take people off the dribble, is just too big of a defensive liability. He tries, but he just can't do it. Will see how this point guard situation plays out the rest of the way. The defense was disappointing; it seemed like the way we played last year, no scheme out all, why did we go away from what worked so well in the early going. Still, 13-1, I guess we'll just just have to settle for that for now.

[milesfides]

Miles, don't hold it all against Fish, man. Farmar was getting torched by Barea as well in the second quarter. They even brought Fish in to replace him and Fish couldn't get the job done. The Laker guards, as a whole, couldn't get the job done on the perimeter tonight and it hurt us defensively.

To me, the difference is that Fish's play directly correlates with our starting lineup woes (our starting chemistry sucks), on both ends of the floor. Farmar, while he'll always have defensive problems due to his lack of size and strength, has generally been a good offensive player, and along with Ariza and Odom, spearhead a bench effort that is tops in the league. Barea was on, no doubt, tonight.

But the difference is that it seems every single point guard we play against is on fire. And the main culprit is Fish, because he simply does not have the quickness to stay with any decent point guard. The small and fast ones honestly destroy him.

It was good to see Kobe regain his shooting touch in that late third and fourth quarter. His shots were just off. They finally started hitting nothing but nylon in that period. Hopefully it can keep up.

Most players are rhythm shooters. Kobe will always shoot better when he's focused on scoring. I notice that out of timeouts, at the beginning of quarters, Kobe will nail that outside jumper. He also gets hot in the fourth quarter or when the team needs a boost.

When swingmen try to get their teammates involved, try to play a complete floor game, and selectively take shots, it tends to be much more difficult to get into a rhythm. An extreme example of this is Tracy McGrady, whose field goal percentage took a nosedive after he came to Houston and had to become much more of a playmaker rather than volume scorer.

This is another reason why I truly believe Kobe's game would be much more efficient once we get a playmaking point guard who can make the game a little easier for Kobe, who could play his more natural, instinctive role, which is to put the ball in the hole.

Without a doubt though Miles.. Phil needs to have a talk with Fish. Fish is a vet and a captain, he'll most definitely listen to him. What Jeff Van Gundy was saying was totally on point. These early in the shot clock long bombs, I can't stand it. The 15 foot pull ups, I like that shot. And he has to realize, he's going to get open looks to fire away when he's wide open based off the attention Kobe, Pau, and Drew will get.

I think somebody else mentioned this as well, that Fish needs to be straightened out. I think this is totally unreasonable. The fact is Fish has always been this kind of player his entire career, and in a game like tonight, Fish actually played a good Derek Fisher game.

But he's never been a legit starter, and even less a capable point guard, and he's never been a quick defender (which is why he's always tried to draw charges) so I think it's unreasonable to expect that from him now.

I don't think Fish is playing stupidly. He's just put into a position where he's hurting the team. He should be playing as a backup shooting guard behind Kobe, a shooting specialist to spread the floor. If one were to put Kyle Korver as a point guard, it would be unreasonable to expect him to become one. It would be understandable that Korver would jack up threes because that he's game, and it's understandable that he'd get burned on defense because he's not a good defender.

The logical move, however, would be to put Korver as a 3-point specialist on the perimeter, and that's where Fish should be as well.

Because of Fish's inappropriateness in our starting lineup as point guard, Kobe is forced to take on a bigger playmaking role which decreases the efficiency in his game, Pau and Bynum get less touches, longer jumpshots generate opponent fastbreaks, etc.

We need a playmaking, ballhandling point guard who can play defense. That would maximize the potential of our starting lineup.

Putting a shoot-first 3-point specialist, completely one-dimensional, who's a liability on defense, simply is assbackwards, it's the complete opposite fit. It's illogical, and it makes absolutely no sense.

Our record is nice but misleading. Even if we can blow out 28 other teams, all it takes is one team, that can exploit our weaknesses, to end our season.

[JES12]

Nice game guys. I'm sure it meant more to us than you because we are sitting there at the 9th spot, but we still lost. We are now 5-1 without Stackhouse (I'm glad Rick deactivated him), but I sure was missing Howard tonight.

The Bynum-Gasol frontcourt is working great....urrr, I envy!

[Slava]

Miles, good points as always but I feel compelled to add a point to the point guard woes. Fisher with the starting line up really hurts our fast court game, a theme which made us lethal last season even in the couple of wins we got against Boston. When our defense is mainly oriented towards pressuring the ball handler instead of the traditional 5 on 5 D, we need to make the most of our fast break opportunities.

While Fisher gets masked out in the half courts, his inability to do anything good on the break is absolutely crippling us and we need to work that much harder to get our points when the starters are in. This in turn translates into more pressure on Kobe to create something. LO's absence from the starting line up is another handicap for us. Even the alley oops he's been throwing to Kobe worry me a lot in the sense that Kobe has to extend ridiculously with his athletic ability to finish them. Thats a prime chance for injury.

We need to find some way to re-insert LO in the starting 5 or else find a PG that can push the ball when the opportunity is presented to grab easy baskets.

[Slava]

I'd be much more comfortable starting Sasha and LO in the backcourt and go with Kobe at SF if we are serious about playing Gasol and Bynum together.

[SashAlex]

Well ! I'm glad we won ! I didn't watch the game, but i know that the defense was horrible tonight !

What about these PG arguments, i'm gonna say that i'm pretty much pleased with Fisher, at least offensively. The 1st unit is slow because we've got Pau and Drew at the same moment on the court...well, having two 7 footers simultaneously you can't be fast, and it's not Fisher's fault...

Farmar is not there yet, put him with the starting line-up for and he'll disappear, because that's not for him.

But i won't put Sasha either...he can only shoot and defend...

[hermes]

my god where is hermes?? please put me on your ariza bandwagon!!

done and done

[hermes]

good win, and for all of you waiting for that "perfect" game, i'm sure its coming

yay Lakers win

[Asianiac_24]

my god where is hermes?? please put me on your ariza bandwagon!!

done and done

thanks

[AceFresh]

Hermes.
Me too :p

[DoctaJ]

Man, they are killing me with the 1st half every game, lol. Great run they made, though. Kobe came through (like always) and Ariza was amazing. Good to see Bynum have a great game, too.

Put me down, too, Hermes.

[crazyeights]

Man, Fish is really killing us. I don't know if I'd say he played a great D-Fish game, Miles, I mean I understand he's limited, but I have seen him not gun before (or at least not be so bad at it)...

The most effective lineup was Farmar, Kobe, Ariza, Odom and Gasol (could have been Bynum). I don't know about you guys, but I love watching Ariza and Odom play together, their length, quickness, and activity has been a sight to see. Combine that with Farmar pushing the ball and Kobe...that's the lineup that's going to get us somewhere.

I admit now I see the purpose of starting Sasha over D-Fish, Miles. Though, I don't think it's because of anything Sasha does, as much as I don't want Fish running PG for that second unit. It would completely ravish the bench if we had to go with blown layups every steal.

But switching Fish with Sasha would keep someone to spread the floor in both lineups...though I almost don't want Fish to screw up that group. I don't care if he is averaging 10ppg, I don't want to see him play. He's killing us.

I feel like a shakeup is inevitable, but it might not be as simple as Sasha/Fish swapping. I don't see how Phil could do that to Farmar. I honestly don't. It would screw up chemistry, even though I know there's none with the starting lineup.

But maybe I'm just hesitant to see how Farmar would react to not getting the call, especially playing so well.

[milesfides]

Farmar just has to look at Odom to see how to handle coming off the bench. With class. Considering Odom is what many consider close to an all-star caliber player, who started his entire career, and is in a contract year, in his prime, Farmar can drink a tall glass of stfu and do what's best for the team.

If Odom could accept that Phil Jackson would choose to start Radamn over him, Farmar better accept pretty much anything.

On the other hand, I think our bench is so successful, and quickly gaining recognition for being the best bench in the league, there's less of a stigma about it. The 2nd unit is also apparently a fairly close-knit group, so while I think Farmar would be disappointed by getting passed over, I think there's enough reasons that he would accept it - precedence, appropriateness, camaraderie, recognition, and success.

[ReaListik]

Farmar just has to look at Odom to see how to handle coming off the bench. With class. Considering Odom is what many consider close to an all-star caliber player, who started his entire career, and is in a contract year, in his prime, Farmar can drink a tall glass of stfu and do what's best for the team.

If Odom could accept that Phil Jackson would choose to start Radamn over him, Farmar better accept pretty much anything.

On the other hand, I think our bench is so successful, and quickly gaining recognition for being the best bench in the league, there's less of a stigma about it. The 2nd unit is also apparently a fairly close-knit group, so while I think Farmar would be disappointed by getting passed over, I think there's enough reasons that he would accept it - precedence, appropriateness, camaraderie, recognition, and success.

Miles, you're awesome.

[TommyTheCat]

btw, thanks for not flaming me for a completely weak game thread OP. please do not MAKE me do it again