Lakers offer solutions on fixing up transition defense against Oklahoma City
After spending most of my Monday morning rewatching the Lakers' 87-79 Game 1 victory over Oklahoma City, I had already known going into that day's practice what the Lakers could've done to prevent the Thunder from scoring 14 points in transition, mostly led by speedy guard Russell Westbrook (23 points). After detailing each sequence that led to a transition basket, I concluded in an earlier post that most of those baskets could've been prevented had the Lakers made a better effort on the glass and had better shot selection.
What's most interesting in the following videos is that everyone on the Lakers provided a similar take, stressing more on taking a preventative approach rather than thinking the team can suddenly match the Thunder's speed. Don't misinterpret this as the Lakers caving in and giving up. They're speaking more to the fact that it's better to play to their own strengths.
And what are the Lakers' strengths exactly? Well, let's start with the obvious. It's certainly not a coincidence the team has a 39-12 record when Lakers center Andrew Bynum and forward Pau Gasol play together on the floor. That hasn't been as frequent as the Lakers would have liked, with Gasol missing 17 games because of hamstring injuries and Bynum missing the last 13 games of the regular season because of a strained left Achilles' tendon. But Bynum appeared not to miss a beat upon his reutnr. Their presence inside produced a combined 32 points in Game 1 against the Thunder, including Bynum having a playoff career-high in total rebounds (12) defensive rebounds (nine) and blocks (four). Even if Oklahoma City makes adjustments to counter their front line in Game 2, history has shown the Lakers will still hold the edge inside.
So how do you improve something that has already been effective? Well, the Lakers need to alter their approach a tad on how their front court gets points. As indicated by Derek Fisher, Ron Artest and Kobe Bryant combining for a a 15 of 40 clip (37.5%), it's clear that the Lakers have accepted taking open outside shots, a strategy defenses will yield because of the Lakers' poor outside shooting and the fact they know how dangerous Gasol and Bynum are in the post.
If the Lakers work more from the inside-out, Gasol and Bynum will enjoy the same production, while also pressuring Oklahoma City's defense to keep them honest. That may also improve the Lakers' chances in hitting outside shots once the bigs start drawing double teams.
The Thunder's transition baskets in Game 1 isn't the only area that left the Lakers concerned. The team also brought up Oklahoma City's 42 points in the paint, its 19 of 24 clip from the free-throw line and the fact the Thunder stayed even with the Lakers for the final three quarters. Lakers forward Lamar Odom partly chalked that up Oklahoma City finally overcoming its early-game jitters because of playoff inexperience. He also argued that postseason basketball typically features peaks and valleys. But Lakers Coach Phil Jackson also saw the inconsistency as a sign of the team's season-wide trend in not securing a full-game effort.
Surely, the Lakers won Game 1 with relative ease despite these problems. But Lakers guard Derek Fisher, who often had trouble guarding Westbrook, strongly shot down the suggestion that the Lakers can afford to absorb transition baskets. After all, it's unpredictable whether the Lakers will hold Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant to another poor shooting performance. It's also unpredictable the Thunder will start off as flat as it did in Game 1. In a playoff series that often entails adjustments through each game, the Lakers have a clear checklist on what to do to stop these transition baskets. The next challenge involves being able to mark each item off as an accomplishment.
--Mark Medina
Follow the L.A. Times Lakers blog on Twitter. E-mail the Lakers blog at mgmedin@gmail.com
Artest on Durant reminds me of Steve Smith on a young skinny Kobe. Drove KB nuts when Smith would grab and hold and simply outmuscle him. Lifted weights the summer to gain 16lbs.
Posted by: p ang | April 20, 2010 at 03:57 PM
Chicken Little = chicken dinner tonight
Posted by: mti312 | April 20, 2010 at 04:09 PM
I have a plan to limit the Thunder's fast break game, it might blow your mind but here is my wacky crazy idea, STOP taking 20+ foot jump shots with 14 seconds left on the 24 before dumping the ball into the post to let ONE of your TWO seven footers try to go to work!!!!
Pretty crazy wouldn't you say??? But then again it is pretty much inline with what MM said in his post.
Posted by: The Infamous El Guapo | April 20, 2010 at 04:10 PM
Oh man KD's going to be scary good when he gets buffed up like Kobe in 2004.
Meanwhile, FYI there will be an unveiling of Chickie baby's statue outside of Staples today. Complete with ceremony. I'm sure there won't be a dry eye in the house. I know I'll be nostalgically in tears.
Go Chick! Go Lakers!
Posted by: Faith | April 20, 2010 at 04:10 PM
Fish doesn´t have the hair to stop Westbrook. He didn't learned anything from Artest color based defense.
GO LAKERS!!!
Posted by: MrNano | April 20, 2010 at 04:14 PM
MM, not to be an arse, but I think you shorted Drew 3 offensive rebounds. His total was 12 boards instead of 9.
Otherwise, you continue to to a great job. ( I was a little disappointed to see no bodies under the bus. )
Posted by: Mark G | April 20, 2010 at 04:36 PM
CYBERCOSMIX… You are absolutely correct that the NBA COY award is a joke. But then it seems to me that all of the regular season awards are jokes. Mitch has never won EOY. Phil has won 1 COY. Kobe 1 MVP. You wonder what the geographic mix of the media fools who vote for these awards are. Bet you anything there is a heavy weighting of East Coast writers and journalists, who can never keep their lazy asses up long enough to watch what is happening on the West Coast. I spent a year going to school in New York as a young man in the pre-Internet era and back then you had a hard time even finding the scores from the West Coast. Even today, the New York Times is published before last night’s games are done and tomorrow’s paper doesn’t even recap the previous night’s action on the West Coast. It’s like nothing exists unless it abuts the Atlantic Ocean.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOM
Posted by: LakerTom | April 20, 2010 at 04:42 PM
Okay, so I've been out most of the day today and I'm still catching up on all the comments. This post will cover a few items.
Mamba24, please put me on the Bynum bandwagon. Since I'm pretty new here most of you don't know my stance on the Bynum debate. I have been pretty much on on the same level as LakerTom from the beginning.
Mamba24, also put me on the Lakers FO-FO-FO-FO bandwagon. I really think this is the year that the Lakers show their depth. Kobe is hurting and can't "dominate" like he should, but he will still find a way to kill his opponent. One of the things I've always said about Kobe is that while he may be very stubborn, he is also one of the smartest players alive. He realized that he couldn't dominate with his athleticism forever, so he worked on his midrange, post, etc. Assuming this playoffs is Bynum's "coming out party" a lot of it will be credited to Kobe. I really think that because he is limited in what he can do this year, Kobe will try to maximize his teamates contributions and abilities. If he does that, we're gonna see Pau and Bynum dominate this year. I remember one play in particular from the three peat teams where Kobe broke down the defense and fed Shaq for an easy dunk. If Kobe decides to pick his spots and play more like that, no one can stop the combination of Pau and Bynum. I've always said that Kobe made things a lot easier for Shaq, well the same is true for Bynum and Pau. Kobe can still make a huge difference just being out there even if his shot is off.
HisAirness23,
I haven't seen anyone respond to you so allow me. You said "never will MJ slide to #2". First of all, you never know what the future holds, maybe someone will come in 10 years that will just blow MJ away. That being said, I know that most people say MJ is #1 all time, but I just don't buy it. Yes the man was great, one of the greatest ever, but you really can't compare players from different era's. MJ never had another player like what Bird was to Magic. The 80's were loaded with stars, the 90's were defficient. That is why defense was so prevalent in the 90's. You can't shut down players like Magic, Bird, MJ, Kareem, etc. "defense" like in the 90's would have never worked against the 80's teams just like it didn't work against MJ. I have a lot more to say on this topic, but this post is just getting way too long already.
You also said that Bynum does't have the potential to be great because he hasn't shown it to this point. Maybe you are just misinformed, but in case you didn't know, Bynum didn't start playing bball until late in his teens. The centers you listed as showing greatness early all had been playing for a long time before coming to the NBA. They had all learned the little lessons, like footwork and such, that Bynum has been learning the last few years. Also, Bynums injuries the last couple years really slowed his development down a lot. In terms of learning the game of bball, experience, etc. Bynum has not come close yet to what those guys had in their rookie years. In fact you can probably take what he does next year and compare to those guys rookie years. To say he hasn't shown greatness yet is really misleading.
Posted by: Troy B | April 20, 2010 at 05:37 PM
Mark G - No that was my mistake. Thanks for the catch. I made the correction
MM
Posted by: Mark Medina | April 20, 2010 at 05:45 PM
TROY B… Outstanding take. As with Drew, I agree 100% that Kobe will outsmart the haters and doubters and make a concerted effort to play inside-out basketball and take advantage of our big men. When your shot’s off, all great scorers know the smart solution is to attack the rim and get to the line. That is what I believe we will see Kobe do. He is going to be looking to penetrate the paint.
~
That strategy is a perfect fit for the Lakers huge advantage in the front court. By turning down the outside shot and attacking the rim, Kobe will either get baskets, free throws, or assists in the paint. The result will be quality rather than volume scoring from Kobe, improved inside-game and points-in-the-paint, and better transition defense without the long rebounds that come from taking jumpers.
~
I also agree with you about Magic and Bird and the ‘80s. If Magic did not have to share titles with Bird, he would have 9 rings, second only to Bill Russell. That he had to share 4 championships with Larry Bird and the Celtics is easily forgotten by the MJ lovers. Aside from the obvious fact that you can’t compare generations, or team chemistry, or competitive environments, never say never.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOM
Posted by: LakerTom | April 20, 2010 at 06:23 PM
Posted by Troy B
Troy this makes no sense. Look at the lineup of the teams the Bulls played in the finals in the 90's. You are telling me they didn't have stars. The only team that had seen its better days were the 91 Lakers team. Check out the starting lineup for the 92 Portland team with Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter and Jerome Kersey. Check out the 93 Suns team with KJ, Barkley, Dan Marjle etc, that was an amazing team. Seattle in 96 had a great team, and 97 and 98 Utah with Stockton and Karl Malone were tremendous. All of these team that MJ was able to beat were better than the opponents the Lakers have played in the finals after 2000. No comparison. And if Jordan hadn't retired for a year and half, he might of won 8 in a row. And possibly more if the Bulls weren't broken up prematurely. There was no reason at all to break up the team besides an owner and a GM that had no clue.
Posted by: DFish | April 20, 2010 at 05:57 PM
DFish, I certainly hope you are not calling KJ, Barkley, and Dan Marjle stars on the same level as Magic, Bird, Kareem, Thomas, etc. I'm sorry but that just won't fly dude. The only solid argument you made was with the Stockton and Malone Jazz, but do you really think that team would have seriously challenged the 80's Lakers, Celtics, or Pistons? I mean really? But my main point was that you can't really compare players from different era's and that applies whether or not those era's had stars. Maybe my mistake was using the word "stars" instead of "superstars"? Really, the two best players in the 90's were MJ and Pippen. People tend to forget just how great Pippen really was. The man almost (and probably should have) won a championship without MJ. He was one of the best defenders of all time. The 90's were pretty heavy on "good" centers (only a couple of them were on the level of the all time greats), but that era was still short on superstar talent.
Posted by: Troy B | April 20, 2010 at 06:34 PM
Wow - didn't realize how bad Miami is. Can't even keep it close with kg out. I was hoping for them to at least take them to 6 but might just be a sweep.
Posted by: Jay | April 20, 2010 at 06:39 PM
OMG I want a Chick bobblehead!
Posted by: Faith | April 20, 2010 at 06:49 PM
DFish "All of these team that MJ was able to beat were better than the opponents the Lakers have played in the finals after 2000. No comparison". Okay, so I could see the Stockton and Malone Jazz winning a couple titles in the 2000's. They wouldn't have beaten the Kobe and Shaq Lakers (2000-2002, or pre-fat and lazy Shaq days). I don't think they would have beaten the 08 Celtics. I'm not sure about the Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili Spurs, that would have been a great series, but my money would have been on the Spurs. They would have beaten the 06 Heat and the 04 Pistons though. Seattle in 96 "great", are you kidding me? Payton was great and Kemp did have a good year, but no way is that team "great".
Posted by: Troy B | April 20, 2010 at 06:53 PM
LakerTom,
you wrote: You are absolutely correct that the NBA COY award is a joke. But then it seems to me that all of the regular season awards are jokes. Mitch has never won EOY. Phil has won 1 COY. Kobe 1 MVP. You wonder what the geographic mix of the media fools who vote for these awards are. Bet you anything there is a heavy weighting of East Coast writers and journalists, who can never keep their lazy asses up long enough to watch what is happening on the West Coast.
my response: wow. We actually agree on something. I should go buy a lotto
ticket. FYI, you do know that these same media fools gave Nash the MVP
twice & he's in the same time zone as Kobe, right?
Posted by: hobbitmage | April 20, 2010 at 06:55 PM