Before anyone tells me about how the Rockets are in rebuilding mode I’m gonna say it doesn’t matter. That’s an NBA team with potential All Stars, solid young pieces and a good coach. They are, in short, an NBA team. Just as the loss to OKC was an indictment against the veteran team, keeping the pressure on a young team shows the kind of poise one should expect from this version of the Lakers. In what is quickly becoming an improbable theme: Carmelo Anthony led the way.
- Settling for the team you are or becoming the team you are destined to be? In some ways this was a game that was going to define the early-season Lakers. Lose and suddenly you can’t say the loss to OKC was a fluke but rather the beginning of a trend. Win and you can start to build some early season momentum, which has certainly been lacking up to this point. I doubt anyone expected the Lakers to come into this contest at .500 and needing to prove that they can beat a team like Houston with defense and not just watching the points crank upwards and hoping we end the game with more. But in many ways this game was as must-win of an early season as there could be for a team loaded with banner aspirations and with the caliber of talent and vets. The Lakers did right by their expectations and themselves with perhaps their most complete defensive effort to date by holding Houston to a mere 85 points.
- Adjusting to the new rules and how the refs and each crew interprets them. It’s far too easy to lay the blame of a bad game or bad stretch at the feet of the referees, it’s why I really go out of my way to explicitly not do that. But this getting absurd. I’m fairly certain this is the 7th straight game where we haven’t shot anywhere near the number of free throws as the opposition and it’s not because we’re a jump-shooting team. Nor are we a team populated with drifters, leg-kickers, sideways jumpers or any of the other clues the league is trying to crack down and limit. So…what gives? LeBron gets hit across the head on a layup? Nothing. Ad gets hit on his way into the paint and across the arms on his shots? Nothing. Russ gets mugged driving the ball? Nothing. This one of those things that one would imagine would balance out over time but it’s definitely affected more than one game in this young season and it’s hard to see how it’s based on reputations.
- AD started at the 5! Likely this was due to the injury to Dwight Howard (stiff neck) but it still happened and it definitely helped set a more intense defensive tone early and made it easier to keep that vibe going through out. Adding Avery Bradley to that starting group helped as well in that it gave the team a legit ball hawk to start the game off. I really hope Frank sticks with this line up moving forward. It takes pressure off of Russ and LeBron to make every play happen, gives us plus defenders in the paint and the perimeter and AB can score when called upon. Add in Bazemore or Ariza (when he’s healthy) and that’s a solid defensive line up that can also score in a variety of ways. It just sets us up to play the brand of basketball we want to see from the jump and, unless the play of Dwight or DeAndre warrants it, I don’t see why we should go back.
- Valuing possessions. One really easy way to keep the lid on a young team is to value the ball and make the most of every possession. With only 14 turnovers the Lakers did just that which is good because it seemed like every time we coughed the rock up Houston went down and scored to the tune of 32 points off of turnovers which helped get them back into the game. The Lakers used their own defense to force 27 turnovers and stymie the run of the Rockets even if we couldn’t pull away like one would like to see.
- Carmelo Anthony 6th man of the year. Let it begin now: Melo should definitely be in the running for the 6th man of the year award if he continues to play at this level. For the season AD is leading the way with 179 points, Russ is behind him at 128 and LeBron and Melo are neck and neck with 119 and 117, respectively. This is the 2nd time Anthony has led the team in scoring off the bench and often in fewer than 30 minutes. He’s shooting a blistering 52.2% from three and 50% flat from the floor. He’s playing decent D for Melo and he’s fitting in perfectly. He also blocked 4 shots tying a career high. While it’s likely Carmelo cools off eventually and has a down game or stretch of games it is quite enjoyable watching him hoop. Love Melo as a Laker and I’m just gonna keep right on saying that.
Lakers should win on Tuesday but they have to beware of the trap-like nature of this game: we just beat the Rockets, they’re young and scrappy and we still have a lot of room for improvement. Shave off some of that room by coming out and dominating the Rockets for a full 48 and win going away. Go Lakers.
Aloha Jamie, nice 5. I agree with most of your points but there were a couple of things for me that was a little troubling. I really loved the defensive intensity. But it’s been a while since I’ve seen a team commit so many unforced turnovers. It seems like for every turnover the Lakers earned the Rockets gifted them another. One wonders what the outcome would have been without as many gifts, considering we allowed the Rockets to hang around in the 2nd half. But at least this time, it was offense not defense that provided the Rockets 2nd and 3rd chances. I can’t remember the last time a Lakers teams missed that many easy shots. Again lack of focus? Or just one of those weird things that’s happens occasionally. I had predicted that we would win ugly early on and this was ugly. Not sure if Avery starts when Nunn gets back. Nunn is also a pesky defender so we will see. I do know that our 2nd unit will be one of the best when we are healthy and Melo will lead the way.
Good points, Michael. I think Nunn and Ellington will challenge Bradley to start at the two and Ariza could challenge Bazemore to start at the three.
Nunn might have the edge because of his shooting and defense but if Ellington can shoot the three like Melo, it may be hard to keep him out of the starting lineup.
If Ariza can still hit threes and defend, his 6-8 size will be hard to keep out of the starting lineup as Kent is really only 6-4 but has those 7-0 arms.