| 22 April 2010
April 22nd here in Japan, and that date finds the LA Lakers up 2-0 against the OKC Thunder. There's a helluva lot of pressure taken off the Lakers with that last win. I've never been a fan of the current configuration, as I figure that it favours the lower seed too much. They steal one of 2, and it's a huge lift. Yeah, I get it - it's all the same really: if you're the higher seed you play 4 at home 3 away... but it does make a difference.
Anyway enough of the tangenting... back to the game: game 1, the story was Ron Artest - his defence on scoring champion Kevin Durant was enormous.
Game 2? Well... Kobe's the one in the limelight - and duly so - but there was still room for improvement from #24. The 39 points was awesome, but 43% to get there? Ok... a huge improvement from Bryant on the charity stripe - hitting 13 of 15. And granted: Kobe was money in the 4th, exactly when LA needed him to be.
But 1 assist and 2 steals to go with 4 TOs? Well... to be fair I'm fine with the TOs, Thabo Sefolosha's pretty stingy with his D... but the 1 dime's a tad alarming.
But Kobe wasn't the sole villain in that piece. I don't know how many times Derek Fisher pulled up early in an offensive set and just heaved up an ill-advised shot (Fish was 1-5 from 3pt land) - suffice to say that it was enough to be extremely frustrating. LD2K of TLN and I were twittering back and forth about how frustrated we were with all the outside shooting.
Seriously now, the size advantage that LA possesses cannot be understated. Ibaka/Krstic/Collison/Green don't come anywhere near matching up to Bynum/Gasol/Odom. LA need to utilize this more, especially in the early stages of the game.
Inside/out.
It's a simple premise that a team constituted as LA are should really be employing as gospel... but too often they settle for outside jumpers early in the offensive set. Main culprit here was Fish, closely followed by Ron Artest. Ron kinda gets a mulligan on that because it was balanced by his play on Durant. And I don't care that Durant got 32 in the game, as I think anyone else defending him Durant probably goes off for 40+.
Other notes...
- Great to see Kobe's dad Joe watching... nice game to see.
- Andrew Bynum took a training off, but should be fine to go for game 3.
- I like what Ron's doing on Durant (did I mention that already?), I think he's in KD's head...
- Get the ball to Pau. More.
- I'm praying for someone not named Derek Fisher to play more minutes when Westbrook's on the floor. Fish's getting killed.
Now... we go back to OKC, and come what may... I think LA take one of these next 2.
