Just got back from the game, some thoughts...
1. Using Chandler on Odom and Sweetney on Mihm to start the game was an excellent decision. Tyson played tremendous defense on Odom and totally took him out of his game. I'm convinced at this point that Chandler is a 4 who can play the 5, not the other way around.
2. The size issue is going to be a problem. The Lakers aren't a particularly big team and Mihm isn't a viable offensive threat most of the time, but it wasn't a coincidence he was the only guy in purple and gold not named Bryant to score in double figures tonight. IMO we need Sweets to play the 5 for Chandler to be the defensive game changer he's capable of being, but that's a move that doesn't come consequence free. Sweets had some nice defensive plays tonight but he's never going to be very good at guarding centers. Playing a team w/ Chris Mihm this will hurt a little, playing teams with guys like Ilgauskus and Magloire it's going to hurt a lot. If we want to be a playoff team this year we must make some kind of move to address this, there's no way around it.
3. The offensive sets looked pretty crisp for the most part. Good ball movement and screening.
4. Pushing the tempo served us well, especially with Deng in the game. I was very encouraged with Deng's overall game tonight. He did a pretty good job on Kobe (the 43 points were mostly on contested shots and it did take him 34 shots to get them) and finished nicely around the rim.
5. Michael Sweetney is a good basketball player. I wish he was a little more athletic but he's tremendously productive out there. Great nose for the ball, very soft touch around the hoop, and seems to make little plays all the time. He's always a factor when he's in the game. I think the conditioning concerns are legit, he wasn't as effective in the second half as he was the first, and that may be because he's not used to 30 plus minutes.
6. Kobe Bryant was just totally unstoppable for the first three quarters. We weren't playing bad defense on him but he just hit everything. Really impressive. Outside of Bryant, the Lakers are a complete trainwreck. They're no better than average defensively. On offense they're abysmal. I would have more concrete criticisms if I had any idea of what they're even trying to achieve in their half court sets. When you get past Bryant and Odom it's startling how bad a collection of talent they've accumulated. Bryant obviously doesn't trust any of them to do the right thing with the ball and I'm not sure I blame him.
7. The Lakers pregame intros are preceeded by a fairly lengthy montage of various plays from Lakers teams over the past 50 years or so. It covers most of the bases from the Mikan Lakers to the present day team. One interesting omission - Shaq
Outside of the first half of the fourth quarter I thought we played very well. Tyson had the kind of game we know he's capable of. If Gordon can just get untracked and we can add some kind of interior presence we might be alright...
1. Using Chandler on Odom and Sweetney on Mihm to start the game was an excellent decision. Tyson played tremendous defense on Odom and totally took him out of his game. I'm convinced at this point that Chandler is a 4 who can play the 5, not the other way around.
2. The size issue is going to be a problem. The Lakers aren't a particularly big team and Mihm isn't a viable offensive threat most of the time, but it wasn't a coincidence he was the only guy in purple and gold not named Bryant to score in double figures tonight. IMO we need Sweets to play the 5 for Chandler to be the defensive game changer he's capable of being, but that's a move that doesn't come consequence free. Sweets had some nice defensive plays tonight but he's never going to be very good at guarding centers. Playing a team w/ Chris Mihm this will hurt a little, playing teams with guys like Ilgauskus and Magloire it's going to hurt a lot. If we want to be a playoff team this year we must make some kind of move to address this, there's no way around it.
3. The offensive sets looked pretty crisp for the most part. Good ball movement and screening.
4. Pushing the tempo served us well, especially with Deng in the game. I was very encouraged with Deng's overall game tonight. He did a pretty good job on Kobe (the 43 points were mostly on contested shots and it did take him 34 shots to get them) and finished nicely around the rim.
5. Michael Sweetney is a good basketball player. I wish he was a little more athletic but he's tremendously productive out there. Great nose for the ball, very soft touch around the hoop, and seems to make little plays all the time. He's always a factor when he's in the game. I think the conditioning concerns are legit, he wasn't as effective in the second half as he was the first, and that may be because he's not used to 30 plus minutes.
6. Kobe Bryant was just totally unstoppable for the first three quarters. We weren't playing bad defense on him but he just hit everything. Really impressive. Outside of Bryant, the Lakers are a complete trainwreck. They're no better than average defensively. On offense they're abysmal. I would have more concrete criticisms if I had any idea of what they're even trying to achieve in their half court sets. When you get past Bryant and Odom it's startling how bad a collection of talent they've accumulated. Bryant obviously doesn't trust any of them to do the right thing with the ball and I'm not sure I blame him.
7. The Lakers pregame intros are preceeded by a fairly lengthy montage of various plays from Lakers teams over the past 50 years or so. It covers most of the bases from the Mikan Lakers to the present day team. One interesting omission - Shaq
Outside of the first half of the fourth quarter I thought we played very well. Tyson had the kind of game we know he's capable of. If Gordon can just get untracked and we can add some kind of interior presence we might be alright...
