Lakers-Nuggets Game 2

» May 22, 2009 4:59 PM | By Brandon Hoffman

Derek Fisher continues to struggle. Fisher shot just 1-for-9 from the field, including 1-for-5 from beyond the arc. He’s not orchestrating the offense or making a concerted effort to get the ball in the post. Fisher missed three straight layups at the end of the third quarter that killed the Lakers’ momentum heading into the fourth, while his backup Jordan Farmar scored 2 points, handed out 3 assists, and had no turnovers in only six minutes of play. Fish is shooting just 36.9 percent from the field, and 24.3 percent from the three-point line in the playoffs. Phil Jackson has a ton of faith in Fisher, but it’s time to go to with Farmar and Shannon Brown at the point.

Carmelo Anthony had another monster game. He started out 1-for-6 in the first quarter as Trevor Ariza did a good job funneling him into the Lakers’ bigs (two of his first quarter misses were layups) and/or forcing him baseline. But with Ariza on the bench to begin second quarter, ‘Melo erupted for 14-straight points against Luke Walton. He hit three straight jumpers on the right side of the floor in the middle of the second quarter, and yet Walton continued to shade him to his sweet spot along the baseline. The Lakers can’t afford to defend Anthony with anyone other than Ariza or Bryant in Game 3. Anthony’s eyes light up when he sees Walton check into the game.

‘Melo’s outburst helped the Nuggets cut a 14-point Lakers lead to one at halftime.

Kleiza came in and gave the Nuggets a big boost off the bench. He scored 8 points and grabbed 8 rebounds in the second quarter, giving the Nuggets a much needed jolt of energy down low. The Lakers dominated the paint early and held a 14-9 advantage on the glass (four offensive boards) after the first quarter, but thanks to Kleiza, the Nuggets cut the rebounding deficit to one at the half (24-23) and held an 8-6 advantage on the offensive boards. LK finished with 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Four of his five makes came from beyond the arc.

The Lakers did a poor job locating their defensive assignments in transition. J.R. Smith (1st, 2:00), Linas Kleiza (2nd, 1:47), and Chauncey Billups (2nd, 1:11) hit open triples in transition.

Anthony and Billups found gaps in LA’s strong side defense throughout the game, and put the Lakers in the bonus late. They shot a combined 23-of-30 from the free throw line.

Kobe Bryant was incredible. Bryant scored 32 points on 10-of-20 from the field, 2-of-4 from the three-point line, and 10-of-10 from the stripe. He scored 14 points in the first quarter (4-7, 6-6) to help the Lakers get out to a 31-23 lead and added 8 points in the fourth to keep things close.

‘Melo’s defense on Kobe through two games thus far has been excellent. His ball denial has been particularly impressive, especially late in games. That said, Kobe has do a better job of coming to the ball … by any means necessary.

George Karl’s decision to go small at the end of third quarter was genius. The Nuggets spread the floor with Kleiza at the four, which opened up gaps in LA’s defense and led to high percentage shots.

Trevor Ariza played great. Twenty points on 6-of-7 from the field, and 6-of-8 from the free-throw line.

Andrew Bynum played well in the first quarter, but registered only 18 minutes and never left the bench during the pivotal 4th quarter. Bynum made a couple of baseline rotation miscues that resulted in layups/dunks by Kenyon Martin and Nene, but his length forced several misses at the basket, and he finished with 9 points on 4-of-8 from the field. Bynum’s absence down the stretch was one of many questionable decisons by Phil Jackson.

The most egregious was he decision to take Bryant out of the game after he picked up his fourth foul with 11:29 remaining in the fourth quarter. Jackson later explained that he thought Bryant “needed a mental break to get himself back.” A mental break from what? (More on that later.) Jackson entrusted Farmar, Walton, Brown, Ariza, and Gasol to keep the Lakers afloat. With Kobe on the bench, the Nuggets went on a 9-2 run and took a 5-point lead before Bryant checked back in with 9:44 left in the game.

Jackson’s out of bounds play with 4.7 second left wasn’t a brightspot either. I could rant on and on about Jackson’s decision to go to Fish — who was 1-for-8 from the field — instead of Bryant, but I think John Hollinger sums it up well: “His entire logic was faulty: Jackson said the Nuggets would have fouled Bryant right away had the Lakers inbounded the ball to him, and that was the reason he drew up a play for Fisher instead. Waaahhhhhhh?!?!?!?!? Good. Let them foul Bryant. That’s what you want. As long as he goes up right off the catch — you know, like on the play the Lakers ran instead — he gets to the line for three shots on a Denver foul. Kobe is an 85.6 percent foul shooter. Shooting three freebies gives the Lakers a 62.7 percent chance of going to overtime, which is vastly better odds than any other outcome they could possibly produce. Anyone else on the team shooting the kind of wild, contested 3 this situation normally produces gives them what — maybe a 15 percent chance? Twenty percent, tops?”

The Lakers outscored Denver in the paint, 36-18, in the first half, but were outscored 20-16 through the final two quarters. Denver held a 14-10 advantage on the offensive glass, and scored 17 second-chance points, many of them coming in the deciding moments.\

The Nuggets have won 16 consecutive home games dating back to a March 9th loss to the Rockets. The Lakers have to split Game’s 3 and 4 in Denver. They don’t want to face the Nuggets in a potential elimination game at the Pepsi Center, which has become one of the toughest arenas in the NBA.

I’ve noticed a different type of fire in Bryant over the last two games. And its manifested itself in different ways. He’s attacking the basket more than he has all season, but he’s also been a little short tempered with his teammates. He was visibly agitated when Sasha Vujacic missed a shot to end the first quarter, and appeared to rip into Lamar Odom when Odom failed to pick up Billups in transition in the third period. Maybe Phil was referring to Bryant’s behavior when he said that Kobe needed a “mental break” after picking up his fourth foul. I haven’t seen Bryant this demonstrative with his teammates since the 2006-07 season. It will be interesting to see how Kobe handles adversity in the Mile High City.

Sponsors