As we roll on through the Western Conference, Sacramento Bee beat writer Sam Amick joined us to offer insight into the still-developing team that most pundits predict will struggle to find wins out West.
The Kings feature the play of an exciting prospect in Tyreke Evans, the No. 4 overall pick out of Memphis, and are hoping for expedited development out of young bigs Jason Thompson and Spencer Hawes, plus a healthy ankle for the squad’s current best player, Kevin Martin.
In his season preview for the Bee, Amick quoted GM Geoff Petrie’s plan to “continue developing the youth while keeping a watchful eye out for trades that could accelerate the process,” which he explained in our (below) podcast. Amick also offered some insight into Ron Artest (”I think he’s a great fit”), whom he covered from 2005-07 in Sacramento.
Sacramento Kings Preview [17:01m]:
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Next up in the West is the team that shares a building with the Lakers, but wears red and blue instead of purple and gold.
With a roster that’s certainly talented enough to contend for a playoff spot in the West, the Clippers are an intriguing bunch that the Lakers will see immediately, on Ring Night.
To catch the temperature of the Clippers, we enlisted radio play-by-play voice Brian Sieman, who told us what we can expect from Blake Griffin, Baron Davis, Eric Gordon and the rest of L.A.’s other team.
L.A. Clippers Preview [17:54m]:
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To get the best idea of what the Lakers will be dealing with in the Western Conference heading into the 2009-10 season, we enlisted team broadcasters and beat writers from all 14 opposing Western Conference squads to preview their respective teams.
With our audio device recording, we began the process with L.A.’s Western Conference Finals opponent, the Denver Nuggets.
To do so we sat down with Benjamin Hochman, the Nuggets beat writer for the Denver Post, to talk about Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups and Co.
Denver Nuggets Preview [9:50m]:
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Pre-Season Game #8
10/23/09
At the risk of sounding like a broken record (a reference for those of you still enjoying vinyl), we know that the first major threat from the Nuggets is their transition game. They do such a great job of looking up-court once they get possession of the ball. This thrust creates mismatches and puts defensive communication to the test. In the game last night there was a clear example of how they hurt us in this fashion last night. In the play, the Nuggets get the rebound and immediately get the ball to their quarterback, Chauncey Billups. Whether the first pass is up the floor or in this case after Billups takes one dribble, they always look to pass the ball up the floor to create an early scoring opportunity. In this case they got the ball to Carmelo in a scoring position and on the weakside of our defense we had a breakdown in communication. This leads to an easy dunk for Denver. We must do a better job of limiting these types of baskets.
We also saw in the game a good example of a basic sequence within our triangle offense. One of Lamar Odom’s special skills is that he can rebound the ball on the defensive end and initiate the transition. In this example he gets us into our offense with a dribble entry. One of the principles of our offense is to simply pass the ball to the first open man you see. As Lamar pulls the ball to the wing to set up the strong side triangle he sees Derek Fisher open at the top as his man has decided to play off him in order to help clog the paint. Fish gets the ball and immediately passes to Artest at the position we call “pinch post”. The fact that Fish makes a hard cut also helps keep our offense flowing effectively. On the weakside, the defender guarding Kobe gets caught “playing the play”. What that means is that he knows that Kobe is supposed to pop up off the screens and the defender anticipates this and changes his positioning. Kobe correctly reads and reacts to this mistake and cuts hard to the basket opening the passing lane for the unselfish Ron Artest to make the assist on Kobe’s reverse lay-up. This play is a good example of how some simple basketball fundamentals executed within our offense can create an easy scoring opportunity.
Here’s a brief breakdown of tonight’s matchup against the Denver Nuggets:
We will see a familiar foe tonight in Anaheim and tomorrow night in San Diego. The Denver Nuggets have championship aspirations after taking us to six games in the western conference finals last spring. Their nucleus is back and they have a few new faces to replace Linas Kleiza and Dahntay Jones. This team bought into Coach George Karl’s challenge of playing team defense. We know we need to protect the ball or it will turn into a Nugget Dunk-fest. Chauncey Billups drives the squad and he usually starts games trying to get others involved but if he feels the team struggling to score he can and will kick his offensive game into a more scoring minded approach.
Some teams will slice and dice you with the execution of a number of playsets. While Denver has some plays that we will need to be aware of, they really want to get steals and get out and run. Billups and Anthony will look to probe the defense. There will be a lot of random screen and rolls set in order to free them and create an advantage. It is the secondary offensive thrust that we must be ready to defend. Getting back on defense in order to take away easy dunks is step one and that requires a physical effort. In order to take away their secondary or early offense we will need to communicate because there will be situations where we are not in our normal match-ups.
With two games left in the exhibition season it is time to gear up our intensity and this is a good opponent in order to do that.
Check Lakers Courtside Connection during the regular season for more extensive previews including video breakdowns.
A few hours after the Lakers returned from practice on Wednesday evening, they were instructed to meet in their hotel lobby to climb back onto the team bus. Attendance was mandatory. Here’s how Luke Walton described the event - which ended up being a trip to see Denzel Washington’s “The Taking of Pelham 123” - in his NBA.com blog:
Destination Unknown: At the end of practice today, Phil called us to the middle circle. He said everybody meet in the hotel lobby at 7:30 for a mandatory team bus tonight. Where are we going? Good question. I have no idea. Maybe we’ll see Mickey at Disney World or visit Epcot, go see a movie. Who knows?
The surprise trips are not uncommon. One time this season, we were in D.C. and we all got on the bus for a shootaround and next thing we know we were touring the city for two hours. Or another time in training camp in Hawaii, everyone thought we were going to practice and instead, Phil took us to a military field and we did paint ball for about four or five hours. I can’t imagine we’re doing paint ball tonight but you never know with Phil. Most of the time when Phil schedules these excursions, they end up pretty cool.
As it turned out, seeing what Josh Powell called “the Denzel joint” ended up being an ideal way for the Lakers to calm their collective mind prior to Thursday evening’s Game 4. As a point of fact, L.A. is 6-0 in the 2009 playoffs after a loss, and at the same time, is pretty confident that they know what to expect from the Magic.
We’ll see how Phil Jackson’s plan worked out at 6 p.m. Pacific.
While the Magic were the team that made more adjustments heading into Game 2 (they had to after getting blown out of the building by 25 in Game 1) the Lakers feel like they’re the team that can change a few critical things before Game 3 in Orlando tips off at 6 p.m.
Most prominently, according to assistant coach Brian Shaw, will be L.A.’s focus on keeping the ball out of the middle of the floor defensively, which hurt the Lakers in Game 2 and led to more open jump shots than were afforded in the first meeting.
Shaw said L.A.’s mindset it not to just steal a road game, but to win Game 3 and close it out in Game 4. Simply put, the Lakers aren’t planning on giving anything away.
Shaw also talked about L.A.’s success on the road throughout the season, featuring wins in Boston, Cleveland, and all three Western Conference Playoff cities, addressed what to expect from Kobe Bryant after a “sub par” Game 2 and explained how the Lakers’ scheme is designed to throw multiple different looks at Dwight Howard to confuse his offensive movement.
You can watch the full video on our Gameday Page by CLICKING HERE and scrolling down.
Assistant coach Brian Shaw joined us at the arena to preview Game 1, emphasizing L.A.’s need to play its game as opposed to reacting to Orlando’s, detailing how the Lakers plan on using their length to disrupt the Magic in the paint and around the perimeter and explaining why he’s going to turn his shirt inside-out in the pregame locker room.
To watch, head to our Gameday Page by CLICKING HERE.
If you want to focus on one thing in particular that could determine who wins Wednesday’s Game 5 between L.A. and Denver, check the boards.
Assistant coach Frank Hamblen joined us to talk about the importance of cleaning the glass (Denver won that battle 58-40 in Game 2), getting the ball into the post, containing the Nuggets’ bench and more.
CLICK HERE to get to the Lakers.com Gameday Page and scroll down for the video.
