5 Things: Lakers defense reverts to early-season form but Lakers squeak by Houston

Well that felt like it was closer than it needed to be. A lot of extraordinary things happened in last night’s game but perhaps the most was the fact that the refs decided to just lose 2 points the Lakers had as a result of their terrible officiating. In the end it didn’t mater (barely) and the Lakers came away with the W. More important to me is that after holding a Houston team to 85 points that exact same team blew up for 116. Defense is still a work in progress.

1. The Legend of the Missing Points. So the refs made a mistake. Cool, it happens. The way they “fixed” that mistake was absurd. To simply remove those points from the board doesn’t fix a damned thing it only penalizes the Lakers in the form of a lost possession for something they didn’t do. This needs to be addressed by the NBA on down the line but at the end of the day it is not a team’s fault, nor should they be essentially punished for, an officiating error. Players don’t get do-overs. Coaches don’t get do-overs. Officials shouldn’t either. A cooler, in-house way of dealing with that would have been to tell coach Silas about the error and let him know there would be some gift free throws coming his way. but to take away the points, and thus the possession which nobody can say how it would have worked out, is just plain wrong. NBA refs have a tough job, agreed, but they still need to do it well and they are not handling much of anything very well at this stage in the season.
2. In reality, those two points shouldn’t have mattered, The Laker defense was by far the uglier issue fromm last night’s win than the blown officiating. We almost let the young Rockets run us off the floor, with some transition buckets off our own made baskets and with some terrible three point close outs. Credit the Rockets for a bevvy of adjustments but also you have to worry about a defense that is still giving up a ton of points. The issue is the bench and centers not named Anthony Davis. However, since the roster is essentially minimum contracts, the onus is on Frank to make it work. The man has his work cut out for him. Getting some guys back in the next couple weeks should help as well as more film sessions but at the end of the day defense is a heart and hustle stat and the Lakers as a team need to show a little more and rely on talent and past accolades a little less.
3. Best game by the trio to date. This game did give us one particularly awesome highlight: solid games by Russ, LBJ and AD. They all scored 27 or more points, as a trio they only turned the ball over 11 times (considering what it’s been in some games this is a vast improvement and one that I hope continues) and chipped in 22 rebounds, 20 assists, 5 steals and 3 blocks (AD handled the blocking all on his own). That is gonna work more often than not to bring home a W. The rest of the team only scored 35 points so the balance between the Trio and The Others is still a work in progress but give me solid games from those 3 every night and we’ll have a chance to win. Nice to see them gelling.
4. The Lakers three point shooting. I’m sure it’s no secret that I don’t have a strong belief in the power of the almighty three in the modern game. It’s an unreliable scoring mechanism unless you have the following: elite shooters at multiple positions, a well-integrated offensive system that enables and maximizes those specific shooters, and the will to let it fly in the face of absurdity. We have had decent three point shooters on this roster for years. Be it Danny Green, Wes Matthews, Wayne Ellington, or whome-ever the Lakers have brought in they, to a man, seem to regress here in LA. That is, in my opinion, because of points 2 and 3. Much was made of the new offense Frank installed but on the court, in reality, I’m not really seeing much of a difference. We come down, guys screen, the ball moves from strong to weak (often with an ill-advised cross court pass) sometimes we dump it into AD at the post, sometimes Russ asks for a screen, sometimes LeBron does LeBron things. Really, to me, it looks very much like the same offense we run which is to say a pedestrian one at best. 5 out sets could be the answer, I suppose, but the team has to commit to running them and they don’t seem to be. But the real issue is point three: let it fly in the face of absurdity. This isn’t just from the coach but it definitely starts there. Mike D’Antoni, I’m sure, talks about defense when he’s coaching. I’m sure he spends just as much, if not more, time talking about how if you see daylight you shoot. That you will never be taken out of the game for missing a three, that there are no bad shots, and he drills that into your head. I don’t think Frank is that kind of coach, at least not on offense. I’m sure he drills defensive terms and conspets in a similar fashion and then, of course, talks about how it would be great to shoot the open shot. But not in the face of absurdity, he wants the quality shots, the good looks and not the “I’M FEELING IT MAN!!!!” shots. In truth there is but one, maybe 2, Lakers who are possessed of the correct shooters mentality and that is Carmello Anthony and maybe (we’ll see) Wayne Ellington. Hence the 6-25 from three because that wasn’t great Rockets defense, just bad shooting on our part and a lot of that comes from within.
5. The Kent Bazemore effect. While I’m not sure that Avery Bradley as a starter is set in stone I feel like Kent Bazemore has etched his name into the Stone of Lakers Starters for the season or until something displaces him. The dude has been beyond solid on D, takes and makes the shots that are created for him and flat out plays the game the way you want to see when sharing the court with multiple HOFers. I don’t think Kent has had a single “Wow, look at Bazemroe go off!” but rather has been the model of stability and even-keeled contributions. That low level of variance in his play is a huge factor in my wanting him to stay a starter. Melo has all the tools and all the credentials but a lot of his impact relies solely on his shot falling. That can’t be counted on every night. Bradley has a lot of the tools but is on the small side and we have a PG in Westbrook and a need for a better-defending playmaker off the bench to keep Rondo on ice until the playoffs. Monk is just too inconsistent on both ends. I’ll be surprised if Frank sticks with AD at the 5 but we’ll see soon enough, still i think it likely that both the matchup provided by Houston and the injury to Dwight are what’s pressed Vogel to this point, I suppose the only thing we can collectively hope for is that he likes what he sees so much that he lets it roll for a few games. Bottom line for me is, even when Nunn and THT and Ellington come back (and eventually Ariza but I’m thinking we want to keep him on little bit of ice until the playoffs, as well), I think we need Kent on the floor to start games. Maybe someone comes on like gangbusters and changes this equation but nothing I saw in camp, which was admittedly limited because of injuries, makes me think his fit isn’t nigh perfect for the style of basketball we want to play.

2 wins against a team we ought to beat. Good enough to keep me pleased if not ecstatic or willing to declare this team anything but one that is slowly improving. if we can improve while we win, so much the better . Seeing the Trio thrive the way they did last night was awesome, more of that please but with better contributions from the bench. Go Lakers.