With more than a middleman’s share of things to be said regarding the Lakers’ egg laying performance in Game 4 against the Suns, there’s one thing that we can quite honestly cease discussion of.
It was not the Phoenix zone that bamboozled Phil Jackson’s offensive game plan. I was listening to 710 ESPN following the game and a listener echoed the sentiments of Phil and Kobe in saying that the Lakers scored 109 and 106 points, respectively, in the last two games – more than sufficient to win a playoff game under more conventional circumstances. That circumstance of course being, if the Lakers were to actually play some solid defense.
Following the game, Kobe kept it short and sweet in saying, “We lost the game because our defense sucked.”
Our defense let this one get away in a hurry. The Suns jumped all over us in the fourth because for whatever reason, we continuously allowed ample airspace space to Channing Frye, Leandro Barbosa and Jared Dudley, each of whom drilled dagger threes to tie the series up at 2-2.
Our infamous bench played hookie on us as well last night, getting mercilessly pummeled and outscored 54-20. The Lakers will go nowhere and fast at that, if the second unit does not find their rhythm and execute consistently, both offensively and defensively.
Time and time again, our players were out-hustled and out-muscled (big surprise), especially on the boards, giving up 18 offensive rebounds to the spirited Suns. Overall we were crushed on the glass, 51-36, and just when we all thought that perhaps Pau Gasol had finally quelled all of the talk of him being soft, Robin Lopez and Amare Stoudemire made him look about as rigid as a peanut shell.
I don’t know if anyone else caught it, but during the fourth quarter, the camera flashed to a shot of Gasol following Jared Dudley’s monster three that put the Suns up nine, and he looked uncomfortably discouraged. It’s as if he knew that he had been pushed around and could already feel the wave of criticism that had already begun during the game.
Individually, Pau definitely did not play up to his postseason standard of 11.8 rebounds per game, but Andrew Bynum did not do his part either. With each passing game and lackluster outing, Bynum is fueling the fire amongst detractors who believe that his decision to play on a torn meniscus, while admirable, is ultimately detrimental not only to his long-term health, but the Lakers’ chances at repeating this year.
Like I said a couple of days ago, put the Boston talk to rest because if we continue to play this hapless defense and fail to crush the Suns on the boards as we did in games 1 and 2 of this series, not only will we not defeat the Celtics, we will not even be fortunate enough to have the chance of playing against them.
NEXT: The Kobe Effect
For the series, Kobe is averaging 33.8 ppg on 55% shooting, while collecting 6.5 rebounds and dishing out 9.8 assists per game (13, 11, 10 in last three). Not only is he carrying the scoring load, going off in the third quarters of Game 3 and 4 to bring the game back within close reach while logging heavy second-half minutes, he’s giving everyone else easy scoring chances. However, the fact that we have dropped the last two games only goes to reiterate the Lakers’ lack of defensive execution and focus.
If we’re going to lose a game in which Kobe shoots 65% from the field to score 38 points, that spells nothing but trouble.
The Mamba’s individual dominance has essentially been all for not as the series sits right where it began, tied, and is now a best of three. He is expending way too much energy out of a body that is 85-90% healthy at best. The rest of the team cannot allow his explosive scoring binges to amount to no avail.
Before the alarm is raised to Defcon 5 ahead of Game 5 however, I want to do what I can to calm the tide, albeit for just a day, by walking the proverbial plank and saying, I’m actually enjoying this.
This is what makes postseason sports, the NBA Playoffs to be exact, such a wonderful luxury that we all have to privilege of losing our minds over. Defending a crown is not supposed to be easy by any stretch of the imagination. Sure, there are absolutely dominant runs to a major sports championship as we even saw the 2001 Lakers championship team go 15-1 on the way to a second straight ring. But that was then, this is now.
The current Lakers have completely different personnel and a team’s second unit has never meant as much to a title run as it does now in the NBA. I have faith that our bench’s championship experience and moxie will ultimately prevail in this series. They took tons of heat even through all of last year, but when it mattered the most, they stepped up to the challenge of embracing greatness and asserted their will against the competition. Kobe and Derek will not allow them to get decimated to the tune of 54-20 again for the rest of this series. No way.
There are really no secrets as to what the Lakers must do to win Game 5 and ultimately, the series. We are the better team, the more experienced team and the defending champions. While I do extend credit to the Suns for handling their business, all they did was win their home games. They cannot play any better, but our room for improvement is still wide open.
Adversity is as much apart of the journey as is success. The Lakers have two of the three remaining games at home and I have the utmost confidence that we will ultimately advance to the NBA Finals. Consider the fact that the last two games were simply lost in the fourth quarter. The issues on defense and in rebounding are ones that we are more than capable of correcting as well.
Let me rephrase – they better be corrected.