So i took a look at the Cavaliers\Lakers
by Dybdal on Dec 10, 2008 1:25 AM EST
8 comments
I used my night to take a look at both Toronto at Cleveland and Lakers at Kings and i've got to say i was shocked in both a positive and negative way.
The Buzz about Cleveland' as i see it is more than diserving. One of the complaints last year about Delonte was that the offense didnt seem to flow when he had the ball in his hand creating the offense but that isnt the case this year. Both Delonte and Mo Williams was deadly effective in each their own way, Mo Williams was hitting Jay's in the most redicules places and West was out there creating oportunitys for his team mates and hustling on the defensive end.
Another Key to their current winning streak is their commitment to each other to never play the score, tonight the team never played as a team up by 10+ even though they were for much of the game, they played harder than the Raptors all night and never let them back into the game.
Another thing that i noted on the defensive end was that Cleveland seems to have made leaps and bounds in defending the pick and roll, Big Z was out on the pick and roll and back into the paint suprisingly fast, thats good news for Cleveland, bad news for us.
Now on to the story of the night, the LA Lakers loosing to the Kings and get this by 113 to 101.
Let that sink in for a second, thats the same Kings that were on a 8 game loosing streak prior to the game, thats the same Kings that average 97 a game... now if your thinking what the fudge?!? i wellcome you to LA. Laker defensive minded basketball
I was sitting all game long with eighter my jaw on the ground or such a big smile on my face that even the Joker would tell me to relax before i retain muscle damage by overstretching.
The Lakers started out playing OK defense by their standart, they were closing out to the 3'p shooters and they were in contention for the rebounds but that didnt last more than 3-4 minutes.
The Lakers were behind for allmost the entire game but that isnt what made me fall on the floor laughing, it was the way the Kings absolutly dominated them tonight.
They did by:
- High Screen & Rolls
- Pick & Pops
- Point Guard Penetration / Kicking to Corner 3's
- Penetration from John Salmons(who the lakers were daring to shoot, and he missed over and over but that didnt stop him from going to the basket with success)
- Fighting for rebounds
and
- Running Fast Break / Early Offense when ever they had the oportunity
Now stop me for a second here, does that sound familure? it should because that's what the Celtics are doing and not only that but what the Kings can do, i'll allmost bet my house that the Celtics could do better.
The Lakers transition defense were about as horrible as anything ive ever seen out of a Laker team, and their defense in the half court set fell apart when ever the Kings were running anything involving a screen going towards the basket and as the game progressed the reality of Lakers brand defense showed its ugly head, closing out to the 3 point line vanished, Soft&Softer (Bynum&Gasol) were not effective in stopping penetration and were not giving it their all when it came to getting their share of the rebounds and Kobe/Fisher were not staying with their man.
If this is a sign of what we will face come april, i would not be surprised to see someone else but the Lakers in the Finals, they were a disgrace tonight defensively and have been for allmost 12 games in a row now.
If it wasnt for Gasol & Ariza tonight, they would have lost by 20 points or more.
Shoot me up and tell me what you thought of the two games if you saw them, i had a blast watching them (especialy the Laker game)
Be respectful and keep it clean. Thanks.
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And dont get my started on Vlad. He made so many youtube worthy mistake this game that he should have been benched for Ariza way sooner than the 4th.
The guy had a clean dunk’ or a 2p’ shooting foul and decided to double drible to get to the other side of the rim’ and he turned over the ball on alot of other sitiuations aswell, Phil should play vlad off the bench and play Ariza as a starter instead, they dont need his 3point shooting to spread the floor, they need that tough nosed defensive guy who will lead the way with diving for loose balls on the floor and more importently not affraid of batteling though screens on the defensive end.
I did actually catch Cleveland
And I was also duly impressed. Mo Williams was all over the place and there was plenty of hustle on both ends of the floor. I wanted to catch the Lakers but fell asleep. After watching the Cavs, I decided that I have more concern about them than I have about the Lakers (not that I had much concern about the Lakers in the first place), but we’ll have to see.
We’ve already beaten the Cavs a few times both in the preseason and in the regular season but it looks like they’ve defintely improved. I still don’t think they can take us in a 7 game series but they look good enough to give us a respectable battle. My one argument about this team though is the schedule that they’ve been playing. I want to see them play some tougher teams before I make any real concessions on their status.
For now I’ll say that they’ve at least earned a little more of my concern.
Matching up: Cavs are scary...Lakers, eh, not so much
Cleveland is playing out of their minds right now. There is a good article in today’s (12/11) Daily Dime on Espn.com regaurding the Cavs. It makes similiar points that you do about Mo William’s ability to create a more efficient offense for the Cavs, but also points out that Lebron is getting the most rest of his career with their blowout victories, so he will be fresh and ready in the playoffs (like he needs it anyway).
Delonte plays his best at the two, and he’s a scrappy defender even if he is undersized at the position, and actually will matchup well against Ray or Rondo, however they choose to gaurd the PG/SG position with Delonte and Mo.
With Wally and Gibson coming off the bech, it gives them depth in the backcourt, even though I think Wally is washed up and can be a liability at times if he is used for more than he is: a perimeter shooter (i.e., using him in the post is always a bad idea).
Big Z and Wallace offer a solid frontcourt, with Z playing the best ball of his career. However, I do think Z is a bit of a liability on the defensive end, even though you mentioned he seems to be better at defending the pick and roll this year (where he was exposed in last year’s series with the C’s). Wallace is Wallace, and he’ll get his blocks and rebounds, something every team values.
With that said, the Lakers have always been weak defensively, regaurdless of statistical evidence that they might be playing decent D. By weak, I mean if they are forced to become a lockdown team to come back in a game, they most likely will not succeed because they aren’t mentally or physically tough enough., and this will be their downfall in the playoffs/Finals.
They both could beat us. When I saw that the Lakers game you “caught” was the Kings, I stopped reading. Can you really base your judgment of a team on their worst game of the season? That would be like someone catching us playing in the first Indiana game and saying, “No way does that team repeat.”
I “Caught” the Bucks at Lakers & Lakers at Kings and its the same in both games, the Laker defense & effort was actualy worse against the Bucks and im positive that if it wasnt for the Bucks missing wide open Jay’s all over the floor (im talking 25-30% shooting in a first qtr with allmost pure open Jay’s) the Lakers could very well have lost that game aswell.
And ask any Laker fan on any blog and they will tell you this about the Laker defense:
They are horrible at Pick & Roll & Transition defense and they have been for a very long time now, the universal excuse for the Lakers has been what Derek Fisher told in an interview that their defense had been scouted.
Its a half truth/half bullshit. At the start of the year they played gimick Pick & Roll’ defense with alot of traping and you just can’t do that for 82 games, the NBA level is just too good for that and your seeing the results of it now.
Without successfully trap’ing on the Pick & Roll they are getting teared apart and nothing Phil Jackson does tacticly will make any change in that sitiaution’ its about effort and ability’ and your seeing why Gasol/Bynum cannot be the backbone of a great defense, they can be streaky good but not great.
And there’ is absolutly no excuse for playing so poor’ defense when you continuesly go out into the media and tell everyone “its not about offense, its about defense” the effort isnt there’
I’ll actualy venture out and outright say the Lakers will loose to the Mavs & Spurs if they continue the way they have played defense for the past 5 games.
Oh and if your not going to read what i write, dont poste your own opinon! thats just outright disrespectfull
I didn’t post my own opinion. I just said I had to stop reading when I read that you were basing your judgment on their worst game of the season.
The only opinion I shared is that the Cavs and Lakers both can beat us. That’s more fact than opinion. Both teams are very good if not better than the Celtics.
Who have the Cavs played so far?
Basically nobody, and when they have, they have lost. Yes, you can only play your schedule, and they are doing it impressively, but let’s let the schedule play out a bit more before we start making title plans for them. Seriously, look up the records of the teams they have beat vs. the record of the teams they have lost to. They are beating who they should, but they have barely faced any stiff competition yet, and when they have, they have lost.
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