Lakers Breakdown: Kobe Bryant and Co. Look Lost and Confused

In the end, Utah's ability to sag on penetration, neutralize half-court sets, and push LA around kept the Lakers from scoring enough to offset the utter failure of their defense.

 

Defense

The Lakers interior D was completely shredded by Utah’s offensive sets.

The Lakers defenders were unprepared both physically and mentally, as witnessed by Utah's 70 points in the paint and the number of wide-open Jazz players running amok throughout the contest.

Utah mostly put Andrei Kirilenko at the high elbow and ran a number of weak-side Paul Milsap elbow screens to allow Ronnie Brewer and Matt Harpring to curl to the basket.

All the curling and cutting completely confused Andrew Bynum, who was repeatedly dunked on.

Lamar Odom was useless—he either was befuddled by Utah's off-ball movement or he failed to put pressure on Kirilenko’s elbow passes. Whether defending on-ball, or off-ball, Odom was a complete defensive liability.

Luke Walton, Vladimir Radmanovic, and Chris Mihm were likewise dizzied by Utah’s zigging and zagging.

Kobe Bryant was repeatedly punished by well-set screens, limiting his stamina and his desire to take over on the offensive end.

Derek Fisher, Sasha Vujacic, and Jordan Farmar were all dominated by Deron Williams’ powerful drives and post ups, and by his ridiculously beautiful crossovers.

As a team, the Lakers were guilty of turning their heads way too often. Bynum, Odom, and, surprisingly, Fisher were the main culprits.

Also, the Lakers had little desire to challenge Utah at the basket, choosing to swipe at shots from the side instead of meeting the Jazz at the rim.

And that was only the tip of the iceberg:

The Lakers were deplorable in stopping dribble penetrations and post-ups.

The Lakers were slow to react on any screen/roll.

The Lakers were bullied around inside, allowing 19 offensive rebounds.

The most damning fact of all is that whenever a Utah player pushed into a Laker defender, that defender had no problems yielding his position.

The Lakers yielded the game in much the same fashion.



The Lakers will likely still be a marginal Western Conference playoff team, but it's almost inconceivable that their current roster will advance past the first round.

With Kwame Brown out, the Lakers don’t have any muscle in the frontcourt. Worse, Brown and Bynum still have the defensive awareness of teenagers.

Lamar Odom will be a reliable scorer half the time—when matched up against the lesser half of the league.

The Laker offense is too isolated for Phil Jackson’s triangle to run smoothly. And the Lakers don’t have a defensive stopper to neutralize an opponent’s best player—though it's interesting to note that not once was Kobe matched up on Deron Williams.

Maybe Jackson decided to save that pairing for a potential playoff encounter—but only if Kobe plays to his full defensive potential does he qualify as a defensive stopper.

As it stands, the Lakers have the talent to make the playoffs—but lack the defensive muscle and awareness to sniff the second round.

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