GO LAKERS!

Continue the streak.

DEFENSE!

Mayor of Kobe Town,

BK and I ALWAYS double check everything we post for grammatical errors and typos. However, it's difficult to catch everything, particularly without a fresh set of eyes at our disposal. We don't always have copy editors, thus, mistakes happen.

Put it this way, typos pop up in the actual paper and website, and those pieces NEVER hit the pages/wire without going through a copy desk.

AK

Jordan Farmar should start and be the primary point guard.
Its obvious Farmar has all star potential that is being constrained to the Lakers detriment.

DFish plays great politics, but his inability to finish around the basket vs. Farmar's close in skill has knowledgeable basketball folks saying its time for change.

BK/AK is there any dissension about this?

Let's leave the whining about errors, grammatical or otherwise, to teams like the Suns and the Knicks. AK and BK, you guys are doing a fantastic job. I work as a professional copy writer/editor, and little things slip by me from time to time. It's just the nature of working with language.

I love the Sunday whites (sorry, Jon K.!).

Defense is the name of the game. Let's see a defensive clinic by the Lake Show tonight.

Go Lake Show!

Todd, I disagree 1000% on Farmar. He can not guard his own shadow and and is no where near having all star potential. I personally think it needs to be an off season priority to up grade the PG position and to possibly try to find a defensive point guard now to add to the roster. We are going to need it for the playoffs.

Sunday whites...Toronto....I can't help but think back to the night that Kobe dropped 81 on the Raptors. Never saw anything like that before!! An unbelieveable night from an unbelieveable player!

I was glad to see Kobe unleash the Mamba the other night against Dallas. Good to see him find his offensive rhythm. I'd like to see less of Kobe in the pinch post and more of his facing his man and taking them off the bounce. In the post, defenders can lean on him and beat him to death. When he faces his man up, very few can stay with him singlehandedly. When the double comes, Kobe is a more than willing passer and has numerous options. Kobe and Baby is a pretty good combo on the pick and roll to boot.

While he's very effective in the post, I think that facing up affords him just a split second more of recognition of the defense and thus a better chance to make a play.

JOLFO....
Just One Laker Fan's Opinion!!

GO LAKERS!!

Just out of curiosity, I decided to check the numbers on how the Lakers are doing efficiency-wise on both ends of the floor and how they stack up against Boston and Cleveland. Excuse me for getting all Hollinger on y'all.

Defense: The Lakers are currently 8th in points allowed at 93.7 and 6th in opponents FG% at 42.89. Boston is 1st in both categories. Yet, both the Lakers and Boston are tied in allowing 98 points per 100 possessions - the truest measure of defensive efficiency. No matter the pace of play, how often do you let teams score each time down the floor?

The discrepency in points allowed is b/c Boston averages 92 possessions per game while the Lakers average 95. So, what about the discrepancy in FG%? Well, the Lakers make up for that by being 2nd in the league in creating turnovers, averaging 1.4 more than Boston. What that means is it may be easier to shoot against the Lakers but it's harder to get a shot off in the first place. Allowing 98 points per 100 possessions is tops in the league. The next closest team is Houston who allows 100 points per 100 possessions.

So, to really beat the Lakers, opponents need to focus on taking care of the ball. Unfortunately for Boston, they are 24th in the league in committing turnovers. If you were going to identify a weak point in Boston's armor, that would be where to attack them. Disrupting their offense is the key which is a Lakers strength.

Cleveland is a different animal. The Cavs are 3rd in the league in committing turnovers and FG%. They are 1st in offensive efficency at 115 points per 100 possessions (Portland is 2nd at 113, Lakers are 3rd at 112). But, they aren't as disciplined on D allowing 103 points per 100 possessions. So, if you were going to identify a weak point in their armor, it would be to attack their D, i.e. execute better on offense which is also a Lakers strength.

Of course, these are just stats and don't take personnel match-ups into account. But it does give something to analyze while we wait for the teams to meet actually up on the court. The bottom line is the Lakers are well equipped to handle both teams.

"2. The Lakers usually don't do long winning streaks, so they're due for a loss...especially since the Lakers have a streak against the Raptors at Staples."

You'd have a more likely chance (not saying impossible) to be betting on the Washington Generals to win over the Harlem Globetrotters than us losing tonight Troy. Krusty: I thought the Generals were due!

"5. Toronto is an East Coast team, and Bosh is a powerful East coast Bigman."

Yea? So was New Jersey and Chicago and we beat them. Plus the Nuggets beat the "mighty Celtics" at their own house and them Nuggets got served by us. That does not mean crap.

"8. We still don't know if Kobe is officially out of his slump."

Kobe has always shot around 46% for his career. It shouldn't be bothered upon.

"9. Ariza is due for a bad game, and Vlad still hasn't gotten over the benching he received last game."

Really?? How can you KNOW??

"10. We're coming into December, and the Lakers are thinking ahead to the Celtic game..."

One game at a time is the motto for the Lakers. Where in that line says they ar more focused on the Celtics now!!!??

Negativity NEVER wins over POSITIVITY!

Try being more POSITIVE like Otis is, Troy.

-blitz

Floyd,

"You may hear some screaming from the wilds of Idaho with every miss at the Free Throw line"

Do you live in Idaho?

If so, what part of the state?

Bopper,

There's no question that JF needs to improve his on-ball defense, especially against the high screen pick n roll. But one can't ignore his dramatic improvement in shooting and decision making, this season. JF is one very smart player, and that part of his game will come.

JF's turnovers are way down and his speed and aggression mitigates his defensive weaknesses against most teams.

This observer believes that Jordan is putting himself under way too much pressure, which gets him out of sorts in defensive situations where he feels at a disadvantage. His workman-like ethic and good coaching will overcome this. At age 22, he's only in his third season and it is only December. I'm predicting big improvement in his defensive game by the time it really counts.

Efficiency-wise, here's a snapshot (for those that don't want to wade through my earlier post) of how the Lakers stack up against Boston and Cleveland. This is the reason why this trio is the class of the league so far.

Lakers - 3rd in offense (112), 1st in defense (98)
Boston - 12th in offense (107), 1st in defense (98)
Cleveland - 1st in offense (115), 6th in defense (103)

Take a look at how different the stats look when you just do straight points scored vs allowed:

Lakers - 1st in offense (107.5), 8th in defense (93.7)
Boston - 14th in offense (98.2), 1st in defense (90.1)
Cleveland - 4th in offense (103.6), 4th in defense (92.6)

Part of the reason why these numbers look so different is b/c the Lakers average 95 possessions per game while Boston averages 92 and Cleveland 90, while the efficiency number are based on 100 possessions.

Troy,

I bet the opposite. The Lakers are very familiar with the Raftors whom they faced during the preseason. If ever Lakers will lose, perhaps one of the back to back game next week on the road i.e. if they continue sagging on early quarter on defense and poor shooting night. Secondly, Kobe knows the hidden secrets of Bosh while your nemesis Pau knew very well his paisano' Jose Calderon. If we are referring to the past Lakers when Luke, Cook and Smush were our role players supporting Kobe, maybe I will go with what you posted. This year, you have zero-in a bad Kobe night combined with dismal shooting of the other eight before you can beat the Lakers. Anyway, let's see who can better guess better by evaluating the horses?

I feel your pain on Pau Gasol because you expect him to be an American power player. That is not his basketball Catalan culture but he has a good IQ on the game. He knows how to use his finesse to his advantage with those mid set-up shots, pivot dunks, tall man's fast break and positioning down low. Anyway, he is not perfect, half of him is taken cared by Drew that's why we're winning against other abled centers so far. Lakers are playing team game where the weakness of one is overcome by the strenght of the other four and PJ recognizes or takes out the weakest link immediately b/c he has a lot choices on the bench, whereas before his choices were Williams and McKie to replace Luke and Cook. It is a worse to worst exchange, today there are choices of good, better, best depending on their showing throughout the game. In the last game, he remove Vlad and put Trevor, relieve FArmar and gave the baton to Fisher. Farmar learned in the 4th Q what he has to do to do with this pesky roadrunner, just one swat from Drew, the pesky little fly just sat on the bench.

lakers sth-

To expand on your point, the numbers also emphasize LA's need to take care of the ball themselves. In the halfcourt, they've been effective, but pace aside give up a few possessions each game with bad TOs, which obviously leads to better open floor scoring opps for the other team. Shot selection also plays a role.

BK

As much as everyone on this blog hates Stephon, he would still be an UPGRADE to our PG position, check his stats from previous years, always amongst the assist leaders in the league. Neither Fish nor Jordan are conventional playmakers, thereby leading to errors and or sometimes erratic play. Jordan can finish better than Fish, Steph is better than both of them IMO finishing, shooting the 3 and making plays for others and relatively decent on the ball defender...But again, I know nobody is a STEPH fan on here so I am not expecting your piggybacking here..More importantly, I doubt the Lakers will try and get him, I just don't want the Bostons, San Anton's and or Dallases of the world to get him either!!!!

Go Lakers!

oh my god, keep Marbury away from ALL young Laker players. I can't believe Miami would let that guy anywhere near Beasley, talk about bad influences.

The only team that makes sense is Cleveland, either Marbury puts them over the top or Lebron leaves anyway, what do they have to lose?

Who's the better power forward: Pau or Bosh?

Troy,

The Knicks....

The Knicks....

The Knicks....

Sessh I know you want to be analytical but:

1) There are many other analytical bloggers here. Not just me but Lakers_sth, Edwin, Jon K and so on. Don't think you are the only one in the whole blog.

2) Your analysis while I respect are out of shape. The Knicks... if Zach Randolph was there then there would have been an outside chance but The Knicks...

As Allen Iverson said:

We talkin about the Knicks?? (Practice)

I bet the next thing you will say is that the victory over the Suns was in fact a Suns victory

-blitz

BK - I agree. The Lakers need to limit those turnovers (Dallas was pretty effective at causing them early in Friday's game) and stop with those ill-advised shots that might as well be turnovers. What's nice is that the Lakers are 2nd in turnover differential (how many you cause vs how many you give up).

I guess it just goes to give insight into how these teams are doing what they're doing. The numbers make sense when you hear teams talk about how they feel like they're getting good looks against LA but are still losing (b/c a lot of times they're not even getting shots off). A number of people have talked about Boston "struggling" (if you want to call it that) against teams they shouldn't. Their defense is what wins them games but those games are close b/c they often go through stretches where they have trouble scoring. Cleveland, on the other hand, has been simply overpowering teams with their offense - which makes sense considering all the talk about how LeBron has been playing out of his mind offensively. Their D is solid and against most teams, that's going to be too much to handle. If you're going straight off the numbers, Cleveland should be the hardest match-up for LA b/c they have a slightly better offense and slightly worse defense. If Cleveland buckles down on D and the Lakers turn it up on O then it'll be a real war.

pslakerfan - that's a great link which charts the numbers I've been touting. Let's hope Portland doesn't see it and realize they need to tighten up on D to become an elite team.

AK / BK,

Is your title a reference to the biblical moment before apocalypse goes into the finals or Blondie?

Either way . . .

GOOooooOO LAKERS!!!

Here's what worries me about tonight. The Raptors love shooting the long ball and leave Bosh to produce inside. If the Lakers "concede" Toronto open looks from beyond the arc (which seemingly has been part of their gameplan) and those shots go down for the Raptors then they're going to be feeling very good about themselves and tonight might be another one of those nights where LA finds itself in a hole early. Kobe can't be freelancing off Anthony Parker and Pau is going to have to step out of the paint to guard Bargnani.

On offense, I'd like to see LA pound it inside and try and get Toronto's bigs in foul trouble. Bosh can't get his 30 and 10 if he's not on the floor. Hopefully, the reverse isn't true where he's able to get Pau and/or Drew picking up cheap fouls early.

Johnny P,

Blondie.

AK