Cru’s Corner: Ka-Pau! Lakers Go 12 - 1

Ka-Pau! Lakers Go 12 - 1

The Nets were on a roll and the Lakers are hot – so it promised to be a better game than the Kings one.

But, the same defensive troubles that popped up against the Kings did here too, except this time they were corrected.

The biggest of them all had to be the play inside. It was a first half of way too much Lopez for the Lakers to handle. If it weren’t for Pau being the only efficient offensive player, the Lakers might have gotten buried pretty early.

The bigs (in the first half) were asleep on help inside again. Neither Pau nor Bynum was rotating over to seal off (this time) some baseline cuts that got the inside way too confused for how talented this team is.

The quick guard ploy had its way with the Lakers perimeter defense as well, as both Carter and Harris had plenty of free open run to about the middle of the paint before they saw any resistance.

But that was the 1st half.

Better yet that was before Trevor and Lamar came into the game. For now the 7th game in a row Odom gave the Lakers some tenacity they were sorely lacking on the inside. Upon him and Trevor coming into the game suddenly it was more than just Pau going for defensive boards; it was finally a team effort. Whereas Pau had to basically carry the Laker offensively, thus losing some energy on the defensive end, Lamar and Trevor picked it up and allowed Pau some more time to keep attacking the Nets underbelly.

Back to The Minutemen - from Ariza’s first boards in the 1st quarter (one sweeping in on a Nets’ miss and the other after Pau getting blocked) to the monster put-back in the 2nd to the diving for loose balls to the constant motion all over the place, he was seriously in the game.

It’s readily apparent that Odom is in a big time groove right now being the guy off the bench. He is running from end to end with the energy he had in his Miami days. As in the Kings game, there were at least 2 instances where Lamar made a stop on the defensive end, then got down quick enough to not only be involved in an inside play , but nab the board and get points out of it as well.

There were other bright spots too amongst the questionable first half play.

Namely Andrew is showing signs of that aggression he promised he’d come with this year. He had quicker moves into the paint and did better holding position once there. The forced shots were at a big time minimum. If he did have 2 guys on him he got back to the power throw down that he showed last year. He drew fouls off of just being the aggressor alone. Once he got into his motion, there was nothing any Net could do.

That was gratifying.

Otherwise, Radmanovic played very aware tonight with the turnover / steal to start the game, then the wherewithal to see the shot clock and get a shot up before the clock expired in the 1st. Little things like that though they seem insignificant are steps forward for the Lakers’ favorite space cadet (who still has his moments).

What he did well again tonight is getting to his spots quickly and crisply. He got himself more opportunities than were created for him by using the offense.

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