I wrote this just when the Los Angeles Lakers grabbed a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves with a 104-96 card. They have already won five straight and only have less than twenty games remaining to finish the season, with the top spot in the West, four games ahead of the Denver Nuggets, and placing second overall in the league, three games behind the strong Cleveland Cavaliers.
Perhaps after all the struggles and the attempts to stay on top, together with the efforts to keep up the passion of each and every member of the team, it would be fitting to ask one big question that would draw out important answers from the team: "What now?"
Yeah, what now?
What we have here is a banged up combination. Kobe Bryant has been struggling not just with injuries, but also with consistent shooting and overall orchestration. It seems that we have seen the Lakers' all-time scorer struggling with his own self. Last November, he was the Mamba, shooting less and facilitating the plays more (well, save for a few down-to-the-wire games). His evening performances left most of us thinking that the Lakers could indeed get the second crown.
I believe the avulsion fracture incident changed the course of the Lakers. With Kobe unable to score and play well (add to the AF a lot of other injuries that number twenty-four bore - knees, ankle, crotch, back spasms, and occasional sicknesses), the Lakers have lost momentum. KB would want to receive the ball, but would only end up with missed shots. His defense lost its sharpness either, because he tends to fall and limp away (as with what happened to him during the second match of the season against Cleveland). I think that at this point, we could say that Kobe starts to feel not the effects of growing old, but rather, of playing too much when he can rely on his teammates.
And I think that some of the fault in terms of teamplay lies on the rest of the Laker squad. Remember the five games without Kobe? I was comparing a few of the plays in these games with those when Kobe was back. It seems that most of those plays executed very well during the 4-1 run of the Lakers without Kobe were plays where the ball really goes around, with no designated "scorer." To-and-fro, as we would say.
However, the to-and-fro movement of the ball in the Lakers offense turns into "to-Kobe," most especially in tight situations. I have observed that when the shot clock and the game clock strikes only to a few seconds, what everyone wants to do is to dish the ball to Kobe and let him have his crazy shot. In a way, this makes good sense for a Lakers offense that is centered on a prime scorer. However, I do think that the ball has been passed to Kobe too much, and those on the D have already swarmed to him. Perhaps it is time for Kobe to listen what Pau Gasol told the media a few days ago, that he, or any other Laker player who is open and could score, has to receive a dish and score an extra basket. Remember that the ideal Lakers team is the non-Kobe-centric, that is, that the offense should freely flow and provide opportunities for easy baskets (not necessarily Kobe).
With that, I think that the issue with the plays now is the fact that Kobe should shoot less and pass more. Besides the Pau Gasol complaint which could attest to that, most of Lakers sports analysts focus on the relationship of the win and the field goal efficiency rating of the Lakers as a team and the number of times that Kobe shoots the ball as well as his percentage. Lo and behold, they have discovered that, in recent games, most if not all the wins of the Lakers were games where Kobe dished more than 3 assists and shot the ball for 20 or less times. The worst shooting nights of Kobe were, guess what, the nights against Charlotte and Orlando, two of the three games where they lost straight. Now, does it say something about the Lakers offense?
Again, I think it does. It reflects, on the bright side, the desire of Kobe to uplift the spirits of the already-bored Lakers who wants to get everything over with during the playoffs. Los Angeles as a team should know better than giving up leads or becoming sloppy in the fourth quarter after a 30-point game. Everyone has to remain on Overdrive and kill the opponent. So I believe that yes, it is a good thing that Kobe has to be there to hit the shots and provide the boost for this tired team. It is good that Kobe gets a hand on the shots that matter when they are losing. It is good that Kobe is there to catch his team and cover their loopholes. It is good that Kobe has to be a real Laker for the whole Lakers team.
But on the other side, the question regarding the necessity for Kobe to take the shots remain. The fact that Kobe HAS to take these last minute shots indicates that the Lakers as a team does not perform that well. This somehow suggests that they can't seal good victories as early as the half or before the fourth period. This suggests that, as previously mentioned, that they have to add fuel to the fire and maximize their capability as a team if they really want to go into the inner brackets of the playoffs as a team to be feared by everyone. I believe that the Lakers will be at their best when Kobe and Pau Gasol rests on the fourth period and are incredibly happy with how the team is performing, with the bench and the rest of the squad stretching their lead.
Apparently, in these last few games, it has never (or has rarely, if ever) happened. Are we saying that the Purple and Gold has succumbed to being lax on the final stretch? I have to give them credit to the well-fought games, despite of being branded as bad and mediocre. They have been through a plague of injuries and a rough schedule after their comfortable December set of games, coupled with the fact that all of the teams play against them with an intensity like that of the playoff games (and believe me, they cost a terrible lot of energy). And yet they have been playing well, with a pretty good win-loss record that even Denver or Dallas, the two and three specifically, could not match. The Lakers have indeed worked hard to stay at the top and bid for another title. But then, there are traces of laxity: an inefficient bench production, less action from those not named "Kobe Bryant," and the bigs moving and posting less and becoming soft all the more. These, I think, are the loopholes that become hindrances to big wins, problems that should be given solutions before playoffs come.
On a general note, if the Lakers continue to play the way they are right now, it might as well close this discussion and declare Cleveland the champions of 2010. LeBron James and the rest of the Cavs are hungry for a championship, and with the way they are playing right now, it seems that they could wear down any team that they will face in April and grab the trophy. But then, I still believe that the Lakers can make up for their lapses. It's never too late for a wake up call. I believe that the Lakers are still the best playoff team, having both skill and experience to go back-to-back (and a hungry Ron Artest to back that up).
So what to do right now, in these last twelve games of the regular season? I believe that it is now time to practice for the playoffs. They have to keep the flame alive and refuse to let go of the opponent. They have to have more dynamic plays, less of the "square offense" (Kobe driving to the lane while everyone else watches) and more of the efficient triangle offense (see more of Kobe and Ronron playing the post and the bigs moving around to get open shots), more efficient, high-percentage shots, and less Kobe-centricity.
And of course, the defense. It counts. Work all that well, and we have a championship team who will open the decade with a back-to-back championship.
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