Ginobili, San Antonio Close in on LA
May 26, 2008
So this is the ebb and flow of the playoffs. And boy did the LA Lakers ebb in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals against San Antonio. The Lakers could not have played much softer than they did. They closed out slowly on jump shooters, fouled interior players softly allowing three point plays. They allowed Tony Parker (20 points, 5 assists) to drive the lane which got the Lakers defense off balance and created openings for his teammates.
On the offensive end LA tried to get Pau Gasol off early but he went soft to the basket and missed short shots. The triangle collapsed in the second quarter - Los Angeles had only three assists in the first half - and the Lakers settled for jump shots. Kobe Bryant attempted only one free throw - and he missed that.
Lamar Odom went 2-11 from the field, converted only 3 of 8 free throws, and committed five turnovers. Derek Fisher shot only 1-4 from the field.
Phil Jackson said it succinctly:
It wasn’t much fun on that [offensive] end tonight. Momentum was lost early when Ginobili came in and hit two threes.
Tim Duncan looked phenomenal scoring 21 points and grabbing 22 rebounds. But while Duncan is being praised for coming up big when he needed it most, his statistical output was due more to not being challenged by Gasol when the Lakers had the ball. Pau’s moves to the rim, when he made them, were tentative. Other times he passed up opportunities to attack Duncan and allowed himself to be doubled or allowed Duncan to move him out off the block farther than he wanted to be. When Duncan is steadily challenged on the defensive end of the floor and when he is doubled quickly when he has the ball in the post his game suffers mightily. Game 2 served as ample proof of that premise.
As for Odom, Game 2 was by far his worst of the playoffs and he took the blame for the loss:
I take the blame totally for this game. I didn’t close out on those threes [in the first quarter by Ginobili]. I missed free throws had too many turnovers. I didn’t do enough. When it got to 12, 14, 16, 18 we tried to go one-on-one too much and I take the blame for that. Kobe was trying to be aggressive and I didn’t do enough.
Bryant, in his press conference immediately after the game felt the Lakers were a step slow on defense and played soft on the defensive end of the floor. And though he had 30 points on 13-23 shooting from the floor (4-9 from 3), Bryant settled for too many jumpers. And though he did involve his teammates they missed too many shots for him to be truly effective.
Game 4 should be interesting on many levels. San Antonio must be able to play the Tuesday night game with as much energy as they did Game 3. However, should Los Angeles come out with their customary effort Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich will have to depend on his reserves to outdo the Lakers backups as they did Sunday.
For Los Angeles Gasol, Odom, and Fisher must have far better games for LA to entertain any chance of returning to Los Angeles with a 3-1 lead and a chance to close out the series. If Gasol can be more aggressive offensively he will put much more pressure on Duncan. Odom must also be effective driving to the hoop and be aggressive when he doubles on Duncan. Fisher needs to attempt more than four shots and must make 3-pointers to loosen the Spurs clutches on Bryant. And Kobe must also be even more aggressive and get to the foul line at least 10 times. Finally, the Lakers backups must show up.
Other than Jordan Farmar’s 10 points no one else on LA’s bench contributed on the offensive end of the floor. They also cannot allow the Spurs reserves to stretch leads as they did in the 4th quarter of Sunday’s game when, with Kobe on the bench, the Spurs pushed a 12 point lead to 17.
The stage is now set. If San Antonio wins Game 4 they will have reclaimed momentum from the LA and put he pressure squarely on the Lakers to win Game 5 or face elimination Game 6 in San Antonio. If the Spurs do not play with even more verve than they did Sunday they could well be facing elimination from the playoffs in Game 5 at the Staples Center.
Tuesday’s game should be a heck of a contest.
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I do hope KevDog’s all right:)
I’m sure he’s taking it as “just one game” ;=)….
[…] Spurs are never quite dead. Last night, instead of their marquee player leading them to victory, it was Manu Ginobili leading the charge. Publicly critical of his own play thus far in the series, Manu answered the call by pouring in 30 […]
Yeah Dwil Manu went off. I felt that feel made a bad decision in not calling Ariza off the bench to guard him once he hit those 3 three pointers in a row. Either put Ariza or Kobe on manu.
Because I don’t care what vujacic (sp?) does or did he cannot guard Manu.
Not KevDog, but I was ready to jump out of my window. Luckily, I live in a single story house.
Origin- I also thought yesterday was a pretty good time to see if Ariza is really ready to go. We obviously needed some defensive help out there. AT the very least Phil could have given Newbie some PT.
A single story house - I like that one! Meanwhile, we’ll see if my Celts can put back to back games on the road tonight…….but I’m not counting on it:)
Mark
I’ve survived, ego bruised bit not completely broken. The Spurs showed more in those tired old legs than I thought they had. Still. I GUARANTEE a laker win tonight.