They did well to secure the ball and didn't get caught trying to make overly ambitious cross-court passes like they did upon occassion in the series' first two games. Where's The Fire? Ever since though, the Lakers have been on cruise control and have relied on being able to flip the switch either for a big game or for a late game push. Conventional thinking was that come playoff time, the Lakers would turn it up and look like a team possessed, but that hasn't been the case.
Twice the Lakers came out firing in the first half, only to come out flat in the second half. Tonight the energy was there, but the fire wasn't. Playoff basketball requires an intensity and urgency that is a step above that of the regular season, but the Lakers have yet to bring that mentality for 48 minutes.
At what point do you stop saying, "when they need it, they'll flip the switch" and start saying, "maybe this team doesn't have the fire to bring home a title? Missed Opportunities- The Lakers lost by only two so let's count where those two points could have come from. Fish took only two, Ariza had only one, Brown only one, Walton only one and Sahsa none. Meanwhile, the Lakers went through a couple stretches where Pau didn't get touches and Lamar did some of his work on the offensive glass.
In the halfcourt offense, the Lakers were more than content to shoot from the outside, which is fine if you're hitting, but not so good if you're missing like tonight. The set offense just didn't do nearly a good enough job getting high percentage shots in the paint. Yes, the Lakers' poor perimeter shooting contributed to the team's offensive struggles, but more of a factor was the shot selection and inability to get shots in the paint unless it came off of an offensive board.
Paul Millsap, 14 rebounds. So many NBA players can haul in rebound after rebound because of their length, size and jumping ability. As a result, they get lazy and forget the fundamentals of defense, namely boxing out. That was the case tonight and the Utah big men were roaming free and crashing the glass. Part of the Lakers' inability to secure rebounds was because they allowed penetration and were forced to rotate constantly, making it difficult to find a man and box out, but that only accounts for some of the rebounds.
Not only do our big men need to do a better job of putting a body on the Jazz' big men, but we need help from our 3's. Kobe came back and snatched seven boards and Sasha picked up four in nine minutes. The Lakers' three though, managed only a single rebound. Ariza picked up that single rebound in his 38 minutes, while Luke Walton didn't have a single board in his eight minutes. Skip to main content. Posted: Apr 19, Facebook Twitter. Despite hot shooting from 3, Lakers trail wire-to-wire against the Jazz and lose Lakers , Game Recap , Game.
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