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Legendary hoops scribe Sam Smith, who covered Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan’s reign in Chicago while working for the Chicago Tribune, now writes exclusively for Bulls.com.
He joined us before the Bulls took on the Lakers on Thursday evening to talk about the trade scenarios he’s fond of igniting, his reflections on covering Phil Jackson and what about Kobe Bryant makes him think of Michael Jordan.
When the 2003-04 Pistons defeated the Lakers 4-1 in the NBA Finals, this was Detroit’s starting lineup: PG - Chauncey Billups; SG - Richard Hamilton; SF - Tayshaun Prince; PF - Rasheed Wallace; C - Ben Wallace
When the 2009-10 Pistons come to L.A., the lineup looks quite a bit different: PG - Rodney Stuckey; SG - Ben Gordon; SF - Jonas Jerebko; PF - Charlie Villanueva; C - Ben Wallace
Not only with the starters, but because General Manager Joe Dumars has retained only six players from the previous season, and Ben Wallace isn’t one of them. He was acquired in the offseason after spending the previous four seasons alternating between Cleveland and Chicago, and played his way into head coach John Kuester’s starting lineup. The other ‘04 holdovers - Hamilton and Prince - have been battling respective injuries and played in only four combined games (three for Prince) as Detroit has opened 5-5 (2-3 on the road).
To get an idea of what this crew of Pistons’ is about, we enlisted assistant coach Frank Hamblen.
Cleamons explained how Houston runs its offense in the absence of Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady and Ron Artest, explained why L.A. was able to keep point guards Aaron Brooks and Kyle Lowry out of the paint in Texas and detailed what the Lakers expect from Andrew Bynum, who is averaging nearly 21 points and 12 rebounds per game.
PHIL PREGAME
In his pregame press conference, Phil Jackson said that the Lakers will again look to hold down Aaron Brooks, keep the Rockets off the offensive glass and find ways to get the ball inside to Andrew Bynum, Kobe Bryant and Ron Artest. He added that the Rockets are a very good “hustle” team that can win games by outworking teams.
Finally, Jackson repeated some of the same Trevor Ariza answers he offered in Houston (essentially, that Ariza demonstrated scoring ability last season but the explanation for his 19.4 points per game was more about opportunity to take more shots) and that he expected the STAPLES Center crowd to react “very favorably” when Ariza was presented with his championship ring.
Other than Kobe Bryant, no one’s gotten off to a better - or easier - scoring start to the season than Denver’s Carmelo Anthony, who is not only averaging 30.2 points per game this season but opened the Western Conference Finals last year by scoring 39 and 34 points in Los Angeles
Oddly, he cooled off at home, managing just 21 and 15 points in Games 3 and 4 before closing out with 31 and 25 point games.
While L.A. used Trevor Ariza’s quickness, Kobe Bryant’s tenacity and Luke Walton’s size to give ‘Melo different looks, assistant coach Frank Hamblen said that ultimately it was a team approach they took with the former Syracuse National Champ.
“He’s really developed offensively,” said Hamblen. “He’s more disciplined, he tries to get to the free throw line - I think he’s getting there 11 times a game* right now - so everybody has to be aware. ‘I have my man and part of yours,’ that’s the way you have to do it against him.”
*Anthony has been to the line an average of 11.6 times per game, hitting 89-of-105 free throws (84.8 percent).
L.A. does get a prospective boost in dealing with Anthony with the presence of Ron Artest, as Phil Jackson explained.
“We don’t have to commit as many defenders to plugging the lane and doing that stuff,” said Jackson. “Hopefully Ron can kind of hold him in check. I don’t think anyone is going to hold him out (completely), but he’s going to be physical with him and he can take the physical punishment that Carmelo dishes out and he’ll give some back on his own. That’s a big part of it, Carmelo has outweighed our guy in that position by 30 or 40 pounds.”
Hamblen said that Anthony still has a height advantage over Artest, but like Jackson expects Artest to be able to physically stand up to Anthony.
“We’ll see if Ron’s our guy,” he concluded.
Beating Phoenix by 19 points at home was impressive.
The Suns had come into the game leading the league in field goal percentage and points, yet managed just 36.5 percent against an L.A. team that dominated the paint despite not having its second-best player, Pau Gasol, for the eighth straight game.
“They are great, they are the world champs and there is a reason why they are the world champs,” said Suns Head Coach Alvin Gentry. “Like I said I don’t know where their weakness is really. They are going to be a handful for whoever plays them.”
That, of course, shouldn’t be a surprise. The Lakers did win the title last season. But on Friday night in Denver, things shouldn’t come quite as easily as they did at STAPLES Center on Thursday. The Nuggets, after all, have a few things going for ‘em:
1) Revenge, especially since L.A. won Game 6 in their house to end Denver’s season while the Lakers went on to the title.
2) Size, in the form of Nene, Kenyon Martin and Chris Andersen that shouldn’t allow the 78 points in the paint conceded by Phoenix.
3) Carmelo Anthony, second only to Kobe Bryant in scoring thus far (30.2 ppg to Bryant’s 33.0), playing at an extremely high level.
4) The altitude, as Phil Jackson explained: “Well, the first run I think is the one that takes it out of players. They get exhausted right away with that high altitude, light-headed lung burn. After that you can kind of settle in the second time out. You really move in better shape. The game has to be at level of tempo like we want to play at.”
5) The Lakers got to the team hotel at 3:34 a.m. local time.
Since the Nuggets rank fifth and L.A. eighth in points per game, it should be an entertaining game to watch, played at a high tempo (but not too high, says Jackson). One area to watch … the offensive glass, where L.A. ranks 5th and Denver ranks just 25th on the defensive boards.
You can tune in on ESPN at 7:30 p.m., or 710 ESPN radio to catch all the action yourself. Meanwhile, follow us on Twitter for live in-game updates: @LakersReporter and @Lakers.
“They seem to have their swag back,” said assistant coach Brian Shaw. “They’re getting the ball up court, getting into early offense and shooting the heck out of the ball, especially from the three-point line.”
Playing the lead role in Phoenix’s show is Steve Nash, whom Shaw said is back “playing at an MVP level” in topping the NBA’s assist chart with 12.6 per night, not to mention 17.6 points. With newcomer Channing Frye playing “center” on the perimeter, Amare Stoudemire on the block and wings Grant Hill and Jason Richardson operating at Nash’s will, the Suns are leading the NBA in scoring, field goal percentage, three-point percentage and are second in assists.
Of course, it’s not like the Lakers can’t score. On the contrary, they’ve managed to average the eighth most points in the league despite the absence of offensive wizard Pau Gasol, and can do a bit of running and gunning themselves. Yet Shaw stressed that L.A. can’t get too wrapped up in how Phoenix wants to play, instead focusing on using its respective advantages (Andrew Bynum or Kobe Bryant in the post, for example).
For more on that, courtesy of Shaw, just click on the above video.
We also learned from Phil Jackson that Pau Gasol (hamstring) would be inactive for the sixth straight game, while Andrew Bynum (elbow) would be active but would very likely miss his second-straight contest.
Jackson went on to discuss the contributions of D.J. Mbenga and Josh Powell, the two reserves charged with picking up the collective slack left by L.A.’s two regular starters. He seemed impressed with Mbenga’s play, which has come despite a nagging injury around his hip/groin area, and credited another hard working offseason for Powell’s continued improvement.
Tipoff is at 6:30 p.m. at STAPLES Center.
A summary of Phil Jackson’s pregame presser:
On Andrew Bynum’s availability: “I’m still hoping that Andrew is going to walk in and say, ‘I’m OK I can play tonight,’ but we’re assuming that isn’t going to happen.”
On Pau Gasol’s potential of returning: “Pau indicated to us that he wasn’t going to be ready for us tonight.” Jackson added that he thinks Sunday is a possibility for Gasol’s return.
On combating Memphis’s low post players: “It’s about foul situations, basically. We have to stay out of fouls and try to limit them so we don’t get into trouble. Lamar (Odom) has a big job because Zach Randolph is a prolific scorer. We may have to double team down in the post and try to create situations where they (have to) shoot from the outside.”
On who will start in the absence of Bynum and Gasol: “I talked to D.J. (Mbenga) about the starting role. He had a couple of starts in the preseason and I thought he did OK. I think he feels that it can be a good opportunity.”
To Phil Jackson, the key to Wednesday night’s game in Houston is anything but complicated.
“Energy,” he explained in a word. “Just simply being able to recover and come out there and lay it down in a 48-minutes game.”
It’s not about recognizing Houston’s scheme - the Lakers got an extended look in the Western Conference Semis - or X’s and O’s at either end of the floor. Just effort.
The Lakers know that won’t be easy after a tough overtime game in Oklahoma City, particularly against a Houston team that is both playing very well would like nothing more than to “Beat L.A.” (as the Toyota Center crowd will frequently remind them).
Key for the Lakers will be the play of their bench, which produced just six points in limited action against the Thunder. Meanwhile, Ron Artest played 47 minutes, Lamar Odom 43, Andrew Bynum nearly 49, Kobe Bryant 46 and Derek Fisher 35.
Heavy, to quite heavy.
Of course, the absence of Pau Gasol - who is not expected to miss much more time - has a major affect on the bench with Odom stepping into his starting slot. As such, Jackson isn’t worried about the pine.
“They’ll get it back,” he said after the OKC win. “We have to dedicate some real minutes to them. Right now they are just patching it up and filling the gaps, and without Pau it’s real difficult because we don’t have someone to anchor that group out there that has the ability to be a go-to person in a situation where they need some settling down.”
Moments later, Bryant agreed with his head coach.
“It’s not a concern,” Kobe offered. “We’ll pick them up. There have been times that (the starter’s) rhythm was off and they came in and made big contributions … We just try to pick each other up so that when the playoffs come around the bench and the starters are clicking.”
On the other hand, boding well for L.A.’s bench is that two players - Jordan Farmar and Josh Powell - had their respective best games against the Rockets last year; Jackson and his staff are hoping that one or both are able to channel that towards Wednesday’s game, which could change the game’s story entirely.
FROM LAKERS.com
