If you look up in press row during a Lakers game and see me intermittently pounding my keyboard and glancing up at the play, you might call me a ball watcher … And you’d be right.
The eyes of play-by-play guys Spero Dedes and Joel Meyers or of a reporter doing a live running diary are generally following the ball, so as to immediately report the details of the play itself: Who scored; from where did the pass come; from where on the court did the player shoot; and what are a player’s stats.
The analysts, however, such as Mychal Thompson and Stu Lantz, are taking in the game from a wider perspective: How are the Lakers running their offense; who’s cutting where off the ball; how did a player get open in the first place; who missed their defensive rotation assignment; and so on.
Accordingly, when we stepped onto the plane headed for Orlando last night after L.A.’s 89-87 loss to the Miami Heat, I stopped by Lantz’s row to pick his brain. Here’s what I learned:
MT: Can you talk about L.A.’s trapping defense, and how teams have adjusted to it since the first few weeks of the season?
Stu: I think initially the defense the Lakers started playing was a surprise attack – it kind of blitzed people; opponents didn’t have anything like that in mind coming from the Lakers. Like most things, the first time you see it, it can be a problem, but after you see it for a while, it’s something that you adjust to, and to a large degree teams have adjusted to the Lakers defense.
MT: To be clear, what specifically are the Lakers trying to do with their defense?
Stu: The trapping is where they’re doubling up the ball especially on the sidelines, where they try to blindside the dribbler with a second defender coming over. But that always puts two defensive players on one offensive player, so if you do the math, it means one offensive player is going to be free somewhere. Teams have been able to find that free guy and spread the Lakers’ defense out a little bit and cause them to chase. When you’re chasing, you’re giving up some offensive rebounding and some things that can hurt your defense.
MT: That’s a defense that has certainly been effective at times throughout most games, but hasn’t really been consistently solid. Fair statement?
Stu: Well yes, that’s been some of the problem, the consistency on both ends of the floor but especially on defense. We’ll have stretches of a couple of minutes or so where we play really aggressive trapping defense, and then a couple of minutes where we break down and everybody isn’t on the same page. When that happens, obviously you’re going to suffer.
MT: How might things improve defensively?
Stu: Trapping could be used as a surprise element (alongside a) traditional man-to-man where I’ve got mine and you’ve got yours, where I’ll help you when I get beat and vice versa. Just to not use that same trapping defense for 48 minutes, because at this level, once a team sees a steady diet of something, they make the adjustments and usually come away with some success.
MT: What do the Lakers need to do to improve offensively upon Friday’s 87-point performance?
Stu: I just think this team needs to run their offense, because when they execute it they get much better looks from the perimeter and more touches for their bigs inside, which makes them a more formidable team. When they get taken out of the offense and start breaking it off sooner than necessary, they can run into some difficulties, especially when Kobe Bryant’s not on the floor. Kobe is the one guy that can create for himself, but most of the other guys need to run the system in order to be effective.
MT: With all that said, Orlando isn’t the best matchup in the NBA right now for the Lakers. They shoot a ton of threes and have an anchor on the block with Dwight Howard, who’s averaging 20.8 points, and leading the league with 14.1 boards and 3.79 swats.
Stu: Oh absolutely – they basically put four shooters on the floor with Howard to try and space the floor. They use Jameer Nelson at the point to try and get dribble penetration, but what they want you to do is double-team Howard so that he can start to make his picks as to whom to give the first pass to, and once they get you on the run they have four good three-point shooters. They have a number of guys that can hurt you from the perimeter, whether it’s Hedu Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, Keith Bogans or Nelson or someone off the bench.
MT: How do you best deal with Howard individually?
Stu: The one thing you have to do is just limit his dunks, and make him score from the field. I’m not saying that Howard can’t score from the field, but try push him off the box as much as possible. Limit the lobs, don’t over play him and don’t front because he’s such a tremendous athlete that he out-jumps everybody. That gets their team and their crowd all amped up and they go from there. He’s the kind of player where if he scores 10 field goals, nine have to be from the field.
MT: Does Andrew Bynum get up more for a challenge like this?
Stu: I like to see all players take their individual matchups as a challenge – To take it personally defensively and offensively so they’re going to commit themselves to stopping the guy on one end and making sure he works on the other end. As far as Drew’s concerned, his major problem right now is just staying out of foul trouble. He’s been in foul trouble recently and that’s really hurt his production. He has to stay out of trouble tonight, or the Lakers could be using some players off their bench at the center position that they haven’t used in a while.
MT: How do you best try to limit Rashard Lewis, who’s been very effective with 19.2 points, 71 three-pointers made (39 percent) to lead the league and 6.2 rebounds?
Stu: That’s going to be an interesting matchup, because on the surface it looks like Pau Gasol will be defending him. Lewis is a guy who likes to stand outside the three-point line, and about 45 percent of the shots he takes are threes, so that’ll be a challenge for Pau to get away from the basket but yet still be able to contest the dribble, because Rashard is capable of putting the ball on the floor as well. That’s where your teammates need to be in a help position so that if you get beat off the dribble, someone is there to contest with you.
MT: Finally, let’s move on to Orlando’s point guard, Jameer Nelson, who’s been quite effective in averaging 16.3 points and 5.3 dimes. What will Derek Fisher need to do?
Stu: With Nelson, the close out may be a bit different than with Lewis because he already has the ball in his hand, and they’ll run the high screen and roll with him and either Turkoglu or Howard. A guy as quick as Nelson doesn’t really need much, and if he gets just a little bit of a brush screen, he’s able to turn the corner and that gets him in the paint where he causes a lot of havoc. He’s been playing extremely well of late, so that’s going to be a good challenge for Fisher.
