Lakers: 6 things they need to do right in Game 3

You would think that it certainly couldn’t get worse on the injury front for the Lakers. The only bright spark for the Lakers offensively in their two play-off games so far was Steve Blake. 2-0 down and now even Blake is out indefinitely with a hamstring injury and won’t feature for the Lakers tomorrow.

The Lakers injury list now includes almost the entire roster and is headlined by the legendary Kobe Bryant, who is in hospital trying to muster up enough courage to launch a possible recovery from the recent career-threatening Achilles injury, while at the same time fiddling with Instagram, Twitter and thanking Nike for the dedication. Add insult to injury as Kobe’s calls for more post-ups for D12 and Pau Gasol were met with nothing but sheer contempt and dismissal by his coach D’Antoni, who brushed aside his tips as nothing but a mere fan giving opinions. This coming from a man who couldn’t afford keeping Kobe on the bench for a single minute down the stretch in their quest to salvage some pride and reach the play-offs.

Kobe was indispensable then to D’Antoni and the rigours of the season did have a final binding on his injury. A surgery and some minutes out of the game, and he suddenly becomes an unimportant fan. Has an Achilles injury impacted his imperious basketball acumen? The doctors would say no, but to the rigid single-minded D’Antoni, anything beyond the System isn’t exactly important.

Was Kobe right about going inside-out? Yes. Did the Lakers big-men get enough of the ball down low against the Spurs? No. I mean if Steve Blake ends up taking up most of your shots for a team boasting of Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol, you certainly don’t know your resources well enough.

If D’Antoni’s tactics didn’t kill them enough, fortune wheels did their best to crush the Lakers’ remaining hopes. Steve Nash has been moving gingerly ever since he came back from his hamstring and hip injury. Jodie Meeks is doubtful with an ankle injury. Pau Gasol and Metta World Peace haven’t looked the same since they have come back from their respective injury set-backs. Can it get any worse? Oh yes, a small bright spark is maybe the return of Jordan Hill. But considering D’Antoni’s misadventures, I guess he won’t be a feature in this series.

Magic tweeted his opinion about how the Lakers don’t have a chance and why they should start looking at the off-season. Mike D’Antoni may still keep a brave-face, relying on the youth and exuberance of a certain Darius Morris, Andre Goudelock and the experience of Chris Duhon. Yes, he may still be optimistic, but that is just him denying the truth about what a huge bust this team has been. What a huge bust he has been. Even he knows in his heart of hearts that if the Lakers avoid an embarrassing blow-out, they can still consider themselves very, very lucky.

But the Lakers aren’t 16-time champions without a reason. Hardships call upon champions, and this august franchise has seen the best of them. Optimism and dreams have always been a feature of Hollywood, and expect the Laker faithful to be rooting for another such adventure. The gallery will for sure be filled with stars tomorrow. The fans will be cheering loud, bolstering their team’s self-belief and confidence, hoping against hope, fighting against all basketball rationale and practicality. I, as a Laker fan, will be up again in the wee hours of the morning, and will still want and expect the team to come out fighting. And yes, the Lakers can still put up a fight, and contest the match. Add to that the home advantage, and anything can happen.

So, what should the Lakers do to make a match out of the seemingly lop-sided contest?

Get the ball inside

The System needs to be left in the changing room tomorrow. If the Lakers have any chance of contending this series, it has to come from their bigs’. It has to be about pick-and-rolls, low-block post-ups, high-post-ups and isolation plays. Ball movement and spacing has to go out of the window, and it should be just about D12 exerting his strength and explosiveness on Tim Duncan and Pau Gasol showcasing his guile over Splitter. Even MWP should look to use his strength and grit to post-up and overpower the sophomoric Leonard. The trio need to differ from passing the ball out to perimeter guys and look to create their own offense. They need to connect on their jump-hooks, their high-low pick-and-roll and, most importantly, their offensive rebounding. No need to look for perimeter shots as 3 out of the probable starting five would include Goudelock, Morris and MWP. There is no point rotating it out to these three players, because despite what they may add as an energy bunch, they aren’t going to knock down big perimeter shots. It has to be post; on being double-teamed kick-out and then again re-post.

Transition defense

If the Lakers do plan to go on the block and play the high-low game, transition defense automatically becomes simpler. Goudelock, Morris and Duhon for certain have better engines than Blake and Nash, so getting back will be easier for them. Plus with the ball going down low, the game shall slow down to an easier pace for the Lakers. The Spurs will have to defend deep into the paint and can’t use the run-and-gun effectively against the Lakers. If the Lakers bigs’ do the fundamentals correctly, avoid conceding turnovers and steals, the Spurs will have to depend on their half-court offense and the Lakers can set into their half-court defense. The Spurs with the likes of Parker, Ginobili, Duncan and Green are still a very dangerous offensive team, but at least now the Lakers will have somebody anchoring the paint, and make it tougher for the Spurs.

Defense on Pick-And-Rolls:

The Lakers biggest threat on the defensive end of the floor will be Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, who with their ability to penetrate into the paint and score, as well as use the screen and the pick-and-roll effectively can tear through any defense in the league. The Lakers need to be aggressive on defense, jump out on screens and try to trap the wing player rather than anchoring and going under the screen to prevent the drive to the hoop. If the Lakers manage to keep Parker off the ball, it will force the likes of Leonard, Green and Splitter to take more shots. Parker v/s the trio? I would take the trio any-day.

Get the Spurs into foul trouble:

If the Spurs have any weakness it is in terms of depth inside. I know that they boast of the best Power Forward in the history of the game in Tim Duncan, but beyond him the roster is certainly pretty thin in terms of size. Matt Boner may be a threat beyond the arc, but he certainly is a mismatch on the defensive end of the floor. Splitter is no beast either, and Diaw is also a no-presence down low. So, if the Lakers bigs’ choose to attack Duncan and force him into foul-trouble you have the perfect foil to the inside-out game. Gasol was guarded by Bonner for large stretches in game-1 and two, but choose to stay at the elbow, and shoot mid-range jumpers. D’Antoni playing the System again. But this time, Gasol needs to shut out whatever D’Antoni says, play like a beast, take Bonner to task and get down low and be aggressive. The way Kobe preached and preached, but D’Antoni wouldn’t deploy. Considering that it may be the last two home games of the season, he should just go out and be the player that he is rather than be the player D’Antoni wants him to be. It might very well be the last two home-games for him in a Lakers uniform, so he may just as well play basketball like the way every Laker fan knows he can.

Out-Rebound

The Spurs did a great job of rebounding and overall team defense on the Lakers. They almost played perfect ball-denial, fronting the Lakers post players and forcing them to give up the low-post position. As a result, the Lakers had to be content with perimeter shots, and with their bigs forced out, they weren’t any major force on the offensive glass. The Pat Riley cardinal rule needs to be remembered: Rebounds=Wins. And the Lakers need to rebound better to win. They need to post and re-post till they get their low-block positioning set, hound the offensive glass and win as many second-chance opportunities as possible. For a team shooting worse than 40% from the field, second-chance opportunities is maybe the only escape route.

Keep D’Antoni out of their heads:

I guess that is what the whole Lakers fraternity wants the players to do. Actually gag him, ignore his time-outs, steal his drawing-board, send him to the stands to sell tacos, get him to fill water bottles, dry towels,; just don’t let him deploy the System.

But beyond anything, the Lakers need to play with a heart and a mentality to compete, to fight, to believe and to overcome. It is the minimum they owe to their fans, to their august franchise and to their wounded leader. #MambaMentality.