LA Lakers vs. Atlanta Hawks: Postgame Grades and Analysis for LA

Kobe Bryant suffered through his second poor shooting night in a row as the Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Atlanta Hawks by a final score of 96-92 on Wednesday night.

But that might be the least of his worries. 

Bryant sprained his ankle late in the fourth quarter and was seen limping around the Lakers locker room after the game, according to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times.

"

Kobe X-rays negative, Lakers calling it a severely sprained left ankle. He's out indefinitely.

— Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) March 14, 2013"

Offensively out of sorts and a step slow on defense, the Lakers looked very much like the aging, disjointed club that fell as far as eight games below .500 earlier this year. L.A. muddled through a first half in which it shot just a hair over 40 percent from the field while allowing the Hawks—playing without Josh Smith—to knock down 52 percent of their shots.

The second half brought some real hope, but ultimately, the Lakers couldn't add another incredible comeback to their 2012-13 resume.

Bryant mirrored his team's early malaise on the second night of a back-to-back set, scoring just three points on 1-of-8 shooting in the first half before finding some energy in the third quarter. Bryant led the Lakers with 31 points, but he didn't have enough to get his team over the top.

L.A. dropped to 34-32 on the season, but it kept a grip on the final playoff spot out West.

Losing mental focus and fighting fatigue on the second night of a back-to-back set is understandable given the Lakers' recently exhausting run, but that excuse won't save some members of the Purple and Gold from some rough grades.

Point Guard

Steve Nash: B-

I get it; Steve Nash isn't the orchestrator of the Lakers offense anymore. Still, it shouldn't be so easy to forget he's even on the floor for minutes at a time.

After feeling the game out for the first few minutes, Nash turned in a selectively aggressive stretch in the second quarter, probably recognizing that he needed to help address the Lakers' scoring troubles.

After the break, Nash established some nice pick-and-roll chemistry with Dwight Howard, leading to back-to-back dunks that cut Atlanta's lead to single digits in the opening minutes of the third quarter. But that would be just about it for L.A.'s point guard.

Overall, Nash didn't have much of a shooting night, missing a couple of attempts at the rim and a wide-open three in the fourth quarter en route to a 4-of-14 night.

Nonetheless, he registered seven assists without a turnover and gave the Lakers a nice boost when Bryant was ice cold in the second quarter. It's just too bad that an 11-point, seven-assist night is viewed as a pretty decent one for Nash nowadays.

Shooting Guard

Kobe Bryant: C+

Considering his incredible scoring run in the third quarter and his heroic three-point shot with less than 30 seconds left, it's really hard to be critical of Kobe Bryant's effort. But the facts are what they are: No. 24 missed two-thirds of his shots, turned the ball over five times and probably went into "Mamba mode" a little too early in this one.

Averaging more than 40 minutes per game over his last five contests, Bryant was clearly worn out. Bryant missed his first seven shots and didn't have anything close to the spring in his step that marked the Lakers' furious run in the first week of March.

As part of an especially ugly sequence, Bryant turned the ball over in the second quarter and totally lost track of Anthony Tolliver for a backdoor layup underneath.

With his team struggling and his shot failing to find the bottom of the net in the first half, it's safe to say Bryant was frustrated.

"

"

That three from Korver was all Kobe's fault. Stayed back to yell at the officials for about 15 seconds instead of getting back on defense.

— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) March 14, 2013"

"

But then he took out his anger on Hawks in the third quarter. Bryant didn't get things going right away after the break, but a late third-period run nearly swung the game. Bryant started with a terrific drive to his left with 3:49 remaining in the quarter, cutting the lead to five. Then, he pulled up for a jumper on the next possession, cutting the lead to three.

A third straight hoop trimmed Atlanta's advantage to a single point.

"

"

Kobe has acknowledged that he has some tired legs, but here he is yet again, with 15 points in the last 8 minutes, LAL within 5.

— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) March 14, 2013"

"

More important than all of that, though, was the sprained left ankle he suffered on his final shot.

Lakers fans should cross their fingers that he doesn't miss a considerable amount of time.

Small Forward

Metta World Peace: C+

World Peace continued to enjoy more wide-open looks than any other Laker, but despite the lack of defensive attention, he still didn't manage to make even half of his shots.

MWP's final line of 20 points and eight rebounds on 9-of-19 shooting looks fine, but his misses were generally on easy looks at the rim or open shots from the corner. He's got to find a way to convert on the easy opportunities he gets.

With Clark taking an extended break during the second half, Mike D'Antoni opted to insert Jodie Meeks into the lineup instead of Antawn Jamison. The result of that decision was an awful lot of MWP at the 4, which Al Horford very much appreciated.

The Hawks power forward shifted from posterizing the entire Lakers roster in the first half to quietly dominating on the block in the second. World Peace had no answer for Horford's jump hooks in the lane.

Because World Peace missed so many critical open shots—including a couple of easy looks down the stretch that could potentially have given the Lakers the lead—his poor defense hurt even more. Perhaps it's no coincidence that he logged the worst plus-minus figure on the team at minus-13.

It may seem harsh to dole out a "C-plus" to a guy who scored 20 points, but if you watched the game, it was clear that MWP cost the Lakers in a big way.

Power Forward

Earl Clark: Incomplete

Earl Clark appeared to tweak his right ankle early, but he stayed in for another 10 first-half minutes. Credit him for gutting it out, but after posting just four points and a rebound in the first half, it was no surprise to see him exit the game after about a minute had elapsed in the third quarter.

"

"

Earl Clark - who rolled his ankle/foot a bit in the 1st minute of the game - is heading to the locker room with Gary Vitti.

— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) March 14, 2013"

"

He wouldn't return.

Clark's youth and athleticism would have helped the Lakers in the second half, especially considering the Hawks made it a point to get up and down the floor in the fourth quarter.

With a final line of just four points and three rebounds, it might seem like Clark is deserving of a low grade, but because he didn't leave the game on his own terms, he's getting by with an "incomplete."

After the game, Earl Clark told Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times that he will play against the Indiana Pacers on Friday. 

Center

Dwight Howard: B+

In the early going, Howard showed once again that his athleticism was slowly returning. D12 hustled after an Earl Clark miss, corralling the ball before it bounced out of bounds. He then gathered, dropped a shoulder into Johan Petro and elevated from a standstill for an impressive two-handed dunk.

Unfortunately, Howard picked up a couple of early fouls, limiting him in the first half.

After the break, L.A.'s big man committed his third and fourth fouls in relatively quick succession, but Mike D'Antoni left him in the game. That turned out to be a good decision, as Howard held down the glass and defended the rim during a furious Lakers run that cut into the Hawks' 12-point halftime advantage.

Howard had a nice game, but much of the conversation regarding his play against the Hawks will focus on the officials' apparent decision that he was incapable of committing a foul as the contest tightened up. D12 clearly knocked Ivan Johnson to the floor on one play without a whistle and was permitted to bang around for the rest of the fourth period with impunity.

On the night, Howard finished with 10 points, 16 rebounds and five fouls. Defensively, he did suffer a couple of lapses and rotated late more than once, but Howard certainly wasn't the only Laker guilty in those areas.

Even though the Lakers lost this game, they've got to be encouraged by how lively Howard looked on the second night of a back-to-back sequence. Going forward, his activity is a terrific sign.

But against the Hawks, he didn't quite do enough to earn an "A".

Sixth Man

Antawn Jamison: C

Jamison finished with seven points and four rebounds on 3-of-6 shooting. Despite being the most effective Laker reserve on offense, D'Antoni couldn't leave him on the floor for more than 15:50 because of the way the Hawks kept attacking him.

Still, he did hit a big shot in his limited time on the court. Jamison's three gave the Lakers a 72-71 lead with just over a minute left in the third quarter.

So, uh...good for him, right?

His final grade is a fair reflection of the way his offensive qualities were almost perfectly negated by his defensive ineptitude.

Bench

Bench Grade: D

D'Antoni didn't go with much of a bench rotation in this one, which makes grading the contributions of the Lakers reserves pretty easy.

Steve Blake played a ridiculous 33 minutes, managing just six points and four rebounds on 2-of-5 shooting. Everyone knows he's not out there to score, but that raises the question: What, exactly, is he out there to do?

Jodie Meeks was the only other Laker to get into the game off of the bench and his contributions were even less significant than Blake's. Meeks finished 1-of-4 with three points in just over 21 minutes.

In one particularly odd sequence, Meeks had the ball in the middle of the floor on a transition opportunity, but he inexplicably dribbled over to World Peace to hand the ball off. When your transition offense strategy is to find a stationary World Peace 30 feet from the basket for no apparent reason, you're not getting out of this with a very good grade.