Fancap: L.A. Sizzles as Utah Melts

Last night’s game against the Utah Jazz was one of the most excellent and complete games I’ve seen the Lakers play all season. Yes the Jazz have now lost 16 straight at Staples Center, and yes they are in the midst of their own midseason mental collapse, but it was still a quality win against a quality opponent.  The Lakers came out shooting a blistering 69% from the field, a stat which settled in the 62% range by the end of the game only because the 4^th quarter became a practice session for our rookies and role players.

The very first possession of the first quarter spoke volumes about how the game was to subsequently unfold.  Derek Fisher hit a triple, but only after all five Lakers on the floor touched the ball at some point during the possession.  Kobe was happy to start off in the role of distributor, bouncing a pass to Lamar Odom who finished with a finger roll; he was aggressive defensively as well, grabbing a steal and finishing with an emphatic dunk on the other end.

To be honest, the first 6 or 7 minutes of the game were much closer than the final score would have you believe.  It looked like it would be a game; the Jazz were hitting shots to start, and the Lakers were making a few errors trying to go inside, but not finishing.

Everything changed once L.A. went on a 15-2 surge as a direct result of the excellent defense they began to play.  Ron Artest in particular played stifling D against C.J. Miles and hit a three after the ensuing timeout to show that he could get it done on the offensive end too. Ron-Ron then tapped the ball away from Deron Williams, who was uncharacteristically careless with the ball and angry for most of the night, as evidenced by his foul on Artest to make up for his mistake.

Andrew Bynum was a beast inside, using his strength to overpower his opponents and get the bucket, just before Kobe went on his little run as previously mentioned. The bench capped off what was a great start to the game, with Downtown Shannon Brown hitting a step back shot and immediately hooking up with Steve Blake for a layup on the next trip down the court.  Blake had two stellar assists as soon as he checked in. The Lakers led a balanced attack all the way around.

Next: Attack of the Lakers

One quick admission: I had to tape the game last night when it replayed at midnight- I forgot about previous plans, and my DVR had to record too much to tape the live contest. Although I dislike missing games- especially games that I am supposed to cover- I did wake up at 7am to watch it before work this morning, so no harm no foul I suppose. The reason for this aside is mainly that Fox Sports West decided to skip the first 5 minutes of the second quarter during their rebroadcast. The score was 44-27 though, so the game was still well in hand; it doesn’t seem like I missed any drama.

Between Shannon and Lamar’s aggressive play, they had a combined 15 points off the bench before Steve Blake decided to get in on the action. He hit back to back field goals, one from downtown off an assist from LO and one with his foot on the line that was deemed a long two.  With 5 minutes left in the half, the Lakers were still shooting a scorching 68% from the field, but the more incredible stat might be the 15 assists on 19 baskets.

The ball movement and flow within the offense was stellar. At the half, and for the game, L.A. led Utah in assists, bench points and points in the paint while only committing four turnovers.  I would argue that those are the most crucial aspects of winning games against quality opponents, although a plus in the rebound category is highly important as we all know from the playoffs last year. The Lakers played an essentially perfect half.

I’m not sure how one tops a stellar first half, but I suppose opening the third quarter on a backdoor alley-oop lob from Gasol to Bynum is a good way to start. Andrew continued his dominance with a put back of his own miss a couple possessions later, and shoved everyone’s favorite enemy from years past (Raja Bell) to pick up a foul that I really didn’t mind him committing. I have been known to hold a grudge or two over the years.

Everyone just continued doing what they do best: Kobe hit his patented fallaway jumper, Ron had another takeaway on Miles, and Fish found Pau on the run along the baseline for a fantastic slam for his 18^th point. Pau finished the night close to a double double, with 20 points, 7 boards and 5 assists while Andrew did reach the plateau behind his 19 points and 11 rebounds. He was efficient in 27 minutes and his defensive play was much smarter too, picking up only two fouls.

Next: The game’s in the refrigerator

Although Utah is known as a second half team and led a furious comeback against the Lakers earlier in the season, there seemed little chance of that happening last night.  The Lakers led 93-65 at the end of the third quarter and used the fourth as a chance to rest their starters: no one played over 30 minutes which is essential considering their age and their schedule during the next week, not to mention the next month. Because of the giant lead, the deeper parts of the bench were able to get some quality minutes on the court, including rookies Devin Ebanks and Derrick Caracter as well as recent Laker acquisition Joe Smith.

Two parts of the fourth quarter definitely stood out, even though it was essentially garbage time.  Odom was in for the first few minutes and continued his all around excellence. He started the quarter hitting a three, but the standout play was his spectacular Kobe-esque circus shot! He was trying to drive around the outside towards the baseline but got hit and threw up a rainbow as he fell out of bounds. It was so high and looked like he was falling behind the basket, but it went in and was crazy beautiful.

L.O just shrugged with a disbelieving smirk because he seemed as surprised as anyone that his last ditch effort to draw a shooting foul actually worked. Although it wasn’t as controlled a sequence, it was eerily reminiscent of Black Mamba’s crazy over the backboard shot in a game against Oklahoma City last season.

Lamar finished with 17 points, 8 boards and 4 assists, continuing to showcase his immense versatility.  It is high praise indeed when more than one opposing coach has pointed to Odom as the match up nightmare on a loaded Lakers team.

While you wouldn’t normally be able to call a missed dunk a stand out moment, Shannon Brown is so explosive that his  attempts are usually better than other people’s makes.  He got a feed from Steve Blake near half court and took off in the vicinity of the free throw line, his arm cocked back at a ridiculous angle- unfortunately the ball went off the back rim. Shannon had a huge embarrassed smile on his face and loped off to the bench where they greeted him with smiles and pats on the back.

Considering it was at a meaningless point of the game, the missed dunk wasn’t too egregious an error and therefore taken in the spirit of fun. It would have been bananas if Brown had made it… but I’m sure there are more acrobatic dunks in his future.

This was a pretty glowing recap because there was honestly very little to critique.  The Lakers looked fantastic and led wire to wire for the eighth time this season.  The ball movement was excellent which led to contributions from all over; they played aggressive but smart basketball while utilizing good shot selection to help pad their blistering shooting statistics.  Add to that the continued defensive improvement and the relatively few turnovers, and the Lakers came up with an emphatic win over a perennial playoff opponent.