Los Angeles Lakers: Keys to a Repeat

For the entirety of the postseason, the Los Angeles Lakers have faced teams that were for the large part, dependent on one, two, or possibly three dominant players. In the playoff opener versus the Thunder, the game plan was simple: Shut down Durant and Westbrook and come up with the W. In the games where Westbrook had open driving lanes, the Lakers lost, in the games where he did not, they won. In the Utah Series, it was Daron Williams and Carlos Boozer. Kirilinko came back after his injury for a portion of the series, but his performance was simply lackluster. The Phoenix Suns were slightly deeper, but the heart and soul of the team began and ended with Steve Nash. In all three of these series, the Lakers did a great job at shutting down the best players on each respective team with a dominant defensive effort, and using their superior offense to win games. The Boston series however, is nothing like the Lakers have seen, and something that no other team in the NBA, healthy or not, could match.

Although the Lakers defense this series has been fairly dominant, the offense has been struggling for the most part. This is expected as Boston is a dominant defensive team, however, if the Lakers are to win Game 7 and the NBA championship, it has to come from a sustained defensive effort on all five Celtics’ on the court, not simply one, two, or three. The Lakers have done a great job on Rajon Rondo, Ron Artest has been sensational on Pierce (aside from Game 5), and Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen have both been limited to one or two sensational games. However, although the Celtics have superstars, they do not rely on individual effort to win games. Garnett can score close to nothing, Allen can go 0 for 13, and Pierce can be virtually invisible for the first three games, but the Celtics can still come out with the W. It’s not about shutting down individual players. It’s about dominating each of the five Celtics players as a team, collectively. The only starting Celtic that has been completely shut down this series is Perkins, and that is thanks to Andrew Bynum.

Kobe Bryant can score 38 points, Andrew Bynum can have a dominant Game 2 performance with 22 points, but the Lakers simply will not win if they do not play defense as a whole. Although I might get crucified for this, it was a smart move in bringing Ron Artest to the Lakers for defense. Although the Lakers miss the offense of Trevor Ariza, Ron Artest provides something invaluable: he takes the responsibility of guarding the best player on the opposing team so Kobe can save his legs for his offense. However, Ron Artest alone might have bailed the Lakers out against previous teams this postseason, but it will not be enough in a Game 7 against Boston. It seems as though Ron Ron is the only Laker playing defense consistently. Andrew Bynum has done a sensational job at containing both Perkins and Davis when healthy, but again, that is not enough. Pau Gasol needs to do a better job on Kevin Garnett. Derrick Fisher needs to play Ray Allen better, consistently, and Kobe Bryant has got to do an even better job at limiting Rajon Rondo’s driving lanes.

If the Lakers are able to shut down the Celtics defensively as a team, not individually, they can generate offense through fast break points, foul shots, and god-like outbursts by Kobe Bryant. Also, Pau needs to average the double-double he has been averaging all season, the rest of the Lakers are simply too streaky and it would be a gamble to rely on them to generate points. The Celtics are a very streaky team, they thrive on momentum swings and baskets in the paint. If they begin relying primarily on jump-shots and stray away from the paint, then the Lakers will win the game, unless of course Ray Allen has another game where he rains three-pointers. The Lakers have proven to be an inferior road team this season, aside from Utah, in non-deciding games when compared to the Celtics. Although the popular consensus might be that the Lakers had to win Game 5, it simply is not true. The Celtics had to win that game, and they did, which is expected. The same can be said about the Lakers’ win in Game 6. All the Lakers have to do is defend home court for one more game, but unless they begin playing defense as a team with the same intensity as Game 6, Phil Jackson’s 47-0 record when winning Game 1 of the playoffs will shortly come to an end.