SB Nation - Ron Artest

Lakers Stomp Nets, and It's Still About the Greatness of Kobe

Josh Tucker — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 04:04:32 -0000

Perhaps you read this paragraph, in a recent Y! Sports article by the ever-great Woj:

Yes, the Lakers have a supporting cast for Bryant. He doesn’t have to do as much, but he rarely fails them when called upon in moments of truth. Eventually, Andrew Bynum’s leg could give out again, and Ron Artest could go haywire and the Lakers’ championship chase could still be all about the greatness of Kobe Bryant.

And that's about how it went last night. Oh, minus the injuries and Ron Ron going all Crazy Pills on us.

In the end, this game came down to the start of the third quarter, where Kobe gave his teammates another chance to get it going, waited about two minutes, then got pissed off (not to mention tired of the Josh Powell show) and ripped off 6 quick points without even seeming to try. He dominated in the third quarter, in which the Lakers followed his lead to a 12-point swing, going into the 4th up 10 after being down 2 at half.

Gasol and Fisher were the first to pick up Kobe's energy, and the Lakers' defense took it up a notch in the 4th, as well. In the end, it was a good second half and ended in an oh-so-tasty blowout, just as it should have been all along.

Not thrilled with the minutes the starters had to play (though Andrew Bynum should be nice and rested after fouling out in a mere 11 minutes of court time) — but then, this is the road, and beggars can't be choosers. We've had plenty of rest to start the season and a good couple days before this, so as far as I'm concerned, a road win is a road win, and if the starters play a few more minutes than we'd prefer ... well, I'm not crying over any spilt milk.

A dominant all-around performance from Kobe: 12-23 for 29 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal, and a monster block. Only two turnovers, which hopefully is a sign of good ball-handling adjustment to his finger injury.

Gasol had a quiet but effective night, turning in 14/14/6, and Lamar Odom had one of his better games in a while — his 14/12/4 line serving as a reminder that the Lakers can be a-okay even when missing a big man, every now and then.

Here are your numbers for the night. Note the very excellent Points Per Possession Numbers — that 0.88 defensive PPP just might be enough to drop us below Boston for the Defensive Efficiency lead, making LA the undisputed best defense in the NBA (statistically) — last I checked, we already own the defensive FG%, eFG%, and TS%.

	Poss	TO%	FTA/FGA	FT%	EFG%	TS%	Off Reb%	Def Reb%	PPP
LA	92	13	0.16	79	53	56	25	80	1.13
NJ	94	9	0.33	70	40	45	20	75	0.88

Preview Double Feature: New Jersey Nets and Detroit Pistons

C.A. Clark — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:42:29 -0000

In the Lakers' last two games (also a back-to-back set), L.A. went up against one of the worst teams in the league in Chicago, before playing a game against a team struggling to stay near .500 in the Bucks. Now, in another back-to-back set, the Lakers play the worst team in the association (the Nets) followed by a team struggling to stay close to .500 in the Pistons. I'd make a comment about road games not being so hard after all, but after the Lakers' last one, that would probably be unwise (and untrue).

The Lakers come into tonight's matchup against the Nets with the best record in the league, thanks to an extremely strange night in the NBA which saw Boston lose to Philadelphia in Boston, and also included losses by Dallas and Denver. Cleveland was also nice enough to struggle against the Bucks at home before pulling out a victory, putting the Lakers' extremely close win against that same team in slightly higher regard. Also, you can add Rasheed Wallace to the list of people who "exploded" before Ron Artest has. Considerably less surprising than Ariza throwing an elbow, Rasheed picked up two quick T's in the 2nd quarter of that game and was thrown out. I'm not sure how much can be read into the one incident, but it seems clear that Rasheed is the same guy he's always been, whereas Artest has shown so far to be the complete opposite of a distraction so far ... on the court at least. After the jump, we'll take a look at all teams coming in, and matchups

The Lakers come in with "only" a two game win streak, but their play of late has been pretty good. 4-1 in the last 5 games, but even that is misleading, because L.A. is is also 14-1 in the last 15 games. All that Laker fans have to complain about is Andrew Bynum's poor rebounding, but even that has mitigating circumstances which cause the rebounding to be something we might not even consider negative. Oh, and he's just leaving the boards to be collected by Pau Gasol, who is averaging 19.5 over the last 4 games, and would be tied for the league lead in rebounding if he had played enough games to qualify for it. Go ahead, call him Pau Ga-soft, I dare you. Oh, and he just got an extension, ensuring he will be in Purple and Gold for a long time to come.

The Nets continue to be as woeful as when we last saw them. They ended up breaking the record for most losses to start the season, after the Lakers were kind enough to help them tie the previous mark of 0-18. They fired their coach, won 2-3 with wins against Chicago and Charlotte, and then embarked on another 6 game losing streak, during which the closest they've come to winning was a 10 point loss to Cleveland. This is a truly terrible team, currently on pace to shatter the record for worst NBA season. The current record, 9-73, is held by the 72-73 Philadelphia 76ers. At their current pace, the Nets will have either 6 or 7 wins by season's end.

The Pistons followed up a nice little 5 game win streak (featuring a home win against the Denver Nuggets) with a three game losing streak we find them on now. All road losses, but all by double digits against teams that are good, but certainly not a murderer's row. They are still dealing with terrible luck on injuries, as Rip Hamilton, Ben Gordan, and Tayshaun Prince have been (and as far as I know, will be) unavailable. They are starting Chucky Atkins, for goodness sake.

Matchups

The Lakers are the best defensive team in the league. The Nets are the worst offensive team in the league. This is what you call a classic situation where absolutely nothing has to give. Unless the Lakers come out with very little energy, look for New Jersey to find scoring a very difficult task. It wouldn't surprise me if 90 points would be enough to win this game. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if 85 were enough.

The Nets don't do anything unusual, so a breakdown of match-ups isn't particularly necessary. Aside from being an extremely good free throw shooting team, the Nets do the same thing as most NBA teams, just a lot, lot worse. But, if worst case scenarios are to be addressed, they do a good job of forcing turnovers, a decent job of getting to the line, and a great job of making those free throws once they are there. If the Lakers come out un-focused, give up a lot of turnovers, and take a bunch of fouls, it's possible for them to lose. Philly showed that anybody in the league can win or lose on any given night. But man, it's really hard to see a world where the Lakers could lose this game, and with any luck they'll just put the whooping stick to New Jersey early and allow the starters to rest up for the more difficult game the next night.

Detroit provides a much sterner test. Their record isn't much, but they are 8-4 at home, and the previously mentioned win against Denver shows they are capable of bringing it against good teams. The Pistons love, love, love, love, love to crash the offensive boards, ranked 2nd in the league at pulling them down. Considering the Lakers' rather poor performance on the defensive glass, coupled with Bynum's inability to rebound as of late, and this is a recipe for a tough game. That said, the Pistons are also one of the slowest teams in the league, which will help L.A. in the second night of a back-to-back. Fatigue shouldn't be a factor because Detroit won't ever run and take advantage of any possible fatigue.

As far as I can tell, the Pistons like to bring their best players off the bench. Will Bynum is Detroit's most potent scorer (with all the injuries they've had) and he's part of the 2nd unit. So too is mutli-million dollar signing Charlie Villanueva. Detroit is paying Villanueva far too much money to have him coming off the bench for Jason Maxiell and Jonas Jerebko, but hey, I'm not the coach. In any case, it would seem that the starters will need to do the work in this game, because asking the 2nd unit to make a difference, on the road, against a lineup containing the other team's best players, might be asking too much. But, since the Lakers starters don't suck, asking them to blow the game open early isn't asking too much at all.

If the Lakers take the two games seriously enough, there's no reason to think they won't be able to pull it out in both games, and a 4-1 road trip would go a long way towards shutting people up about the Lakers easy early schedule. It's more about who you play than where you play, people. Also, one interesting thing to keep an eye on. Tomorrow's game is a full two hours before tonight's game, which is rough on the Lakers. But what could make matters worse is that New Jersey (and the entire Eastern Seaboard) is getting destroyed by a huge blizzard. I haven't seen anything regarding whether the weather will be an issue or not, but if the Lakers have difficulty getting out of New Jersey and into Detroit, it could put them at a significant rest disadvantage. We'll see how it plays out, but all the more reason to take care of business real early against the Nets.

Check out Motown String Music for Pistons info. The Nets are so bad they've been removed from SB Nation's roster.

	Lakers	Nets	Pistons
*RECORD*	20-4	2-25	11-15
*OFFENSIVE RATING*	108.1 (13th)	96.5 (30th)	106.2(18th)
*DEFENSIVE RATING*	99.5 (1st)	108.8 (22nd)	108.4 (20th)
*PACE*	94.7 (8th)	92.8 (14th)	87.9 (29th)
Turnover Rate (Off.)	13.0% (7th)	14.8 (28th)	13.6 (12th)
FTA/FGA (Off.)	0.209 (25th)	0.233 (17th)	0.238 (11th)
Free-Throw %	76.4 (14th)	78.2(4th)	73.1 (24th)
Effective FG% (Off.)	50.0 (13th)	43.9(30th)	47.6 (25th)
True Shooting% (Off.)	54.0(16th)	49.1 (29th)	52.0 (25th)
Off Rebounding Rate	27.3% (11th)	25.6% (21st)	31.8% (2nd)
Turnover Rate (Def.)	14.3% (11th)	14.8% (8th)	13.9% (15th)
FTA/FGA (Def.)	.195 (2nd)	.242 (18th)	.277 (29th)
Effective FG% (Def.)	45.8 (1st)	52.0 (24th)	50.2 (21st)
True Shooting% (Def.)	50.0 (1st)	55.9 (26th)	55.2 (21st)
Def Rebounding Rate	72.2 (22nd)	71.2 (27th)	73.2 (12th)

Houston Rockets Still Ballin'

aramnath — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:56:45 -0000

More photos » by Rick Bowmer - AP

Head coach Rick Adelman's kept his team competitive even with his two best players out with injuries so far this season. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

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It's time to show some love to this year's Houston Rockets. They have been playing without their two superstars, Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, all season and have managed to start out with a 14-10 record. That's good enough for second in the Southwest Division and for fifth in the conference. To put things in perspective, the Rockets have had to replace a combined 35.3 points, 14.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game without both Yao and McGrady.

Most predicted the team would be lucky to be competing for the 8th seed in the conference with a roster full of role players. This team of role players however has thrived utilizing a long lost art previously used in the NBA to great success called sharing the ball. They have been led by point guard Aaron Brooks with valuable contributions from Carl Landry, Luis Scola and a bench that has shown surprising depth particularly rookie Chase Budinger.

Their major free-agent signing Trevor Ariza, has been a disappointment offensively so far, averaging 17.0 points per game while shooting an abysmal 38.3% from the field. To his credit however, Ariza and the No Stats All-Star, Shane Battier, have teamed up to harass opposing teams' wing players to help lead a Rockets defense that has been able to remain effective without their 7'6 Chinaman shot-blocker in the middle.

Special praise is in order for head coach Rick Adelman who has done a phenomenal job calling the shots from the sidelines. I don't think it's much of a debate for who should be Coach of the Year. It would have been easy for this team to simply play out the year listlessly without their two stars, but Adelman has kept them on the winning path and has extracted more from his players than anybody could have expected.

Here's to the Houston Rockets for playing team ball with a bunch of role players and still getting the job done when nobody gave them much of a chance.

Artest Is Fitting in Quite Well, and Other Good News

DexterFishmore — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:30:15 -0000

Last October, as part of our preview series, I published a piece here titled Stat Trends to Watch in the New Season. In it I broke down five statistical issues I thought would be especially telling as the Lakers' title defense got underway. The season has reached and passed the quarter pole, and with a short break in the action - the Lakers are off until tomorrow night - now's a good time to revisit those five issues to see how things are shaping up.

Not surprisingly given the Lake Show's 18-4 start, the news is mostly good. It's still early and we're dealing with smallish sample sizes, but the way the numbers are breaking bodes well for this year's team. Let's dive right into another Laker Stats Orgy.

1. Ron Artest's Usage Rate and True Shooting Percentage.

As I discussed in the original piece, Ron Artest's signing with the Lakers raised an interesting question of fit. Throughout his career, Ron has generally been a high-volume shooter of middling efficiency. His offensive skill set was useful on a Houston Rockets team staffed with role players who couldn't really create shots for themselves, but on a Lakers team bristling with scorers, something had to give. The best-case scenario would be that he segues gracefully into the Trevor Ariza role, that of an efficient but secondary offensive option. The worst-case scenario would be him draining possessions from Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and others, burning those possessions inefficiently and thus dragging down the Laker attack.

So far, the Artest Experiment is going just fine. Ron has gone out of his way to defer to the Lakers' other shooting options - his usage rate (the percentage of the team's possessions he uses while he's on the floor) is down to 18% from 23% last year - and his True Shooting Percentage is up a few ticks. I expect his TS% to increase further, in fact, as Ron's shooting only 62% from the free-throw line. That's well below his career average of 72% and is likely just a fluke. As his free-throw accuracy regresses to the mean, he'll become an even more efficient scorer.

Another good indicator of Artest's fit in the Laker offense is his assist rate. This measures the percentage of a player's possessions that ends in an assist. Ron's assist rate so far this season is over 21%, which is far and away his career high. The stats here confirm what our eyes have been telling us - that Ron is an exceptionally skilled passer who's made feeding his teammates a priority.

There are two areas of improvement I'd like to see in Ron's numbers. First, turnovers. I want fewer of them. Right now he's turning the ball over on about 12% of his possessions, which isn't good for a small forward. That's higher than his career norms, so he should be able to bring that down.

Second, Ron doesn't seem to be all that good at finishing at the rim. He gets to the rum perfectly fine, nearly five times per 40 minutes, but he converts only about 50% of those looks. Just to pick a couple comps not quite at random, Kobe's conversion rate at the rim is generally 60% or above, as is Ariza's. Ron doesn't have the ups those guys do, and he also appears to hurry his shot when he gets a close look. Take it from Dr. Dre, Ron: slower is better.

2. Opponents' Three-Point Attempts and Accuracy.

Last year the Lakers pulled off an unusual trick: they had a very good defense despite allowing opponents to hoist a bunch of threes. Those two things don't typically go together. You defend the perimeter, stathead orthodoxy will tell you, by chasing shooters off the three-point line. There's a lot of evidence that teams don't have much control over opponents' three-point accuracy, so the key is to limit their three-point attempts. Make them take long twos instead. That's not what the Lakers did last season, but they got away with it because their opponents made only 34% of their threes, the third-lowest rate in the league.

Was this just good fortune, or are the Lakers really onto something? The numbers so far suggest the latter. The Laker defense has really tightened up the number of three-point attempts it allows: only 21% of total FGAs, eighth-best in the league. And of the threes that go up, less than 30% go in, easily the best in the league. It looks like the Lakers actually do know how to shut down the long-distance game.

The Lakers are blessed with long and athletic perimeter defenders, which obviously helps, but the strong-side trap they installed at the beginning of last season is proving to be a robust system. We should also note that they've maintained and even improved on last year's stingy D despite the loss of Kurt Rambis, the team's de facto "defensive coordinator." Hats off to Phil and his assistants for not missing a beat.

3. Opponents' Free-Throw Accuracy.

Speaking of good fortune.

Opponents of the 2008-09 Lakers made 75.3% of their free-throw attempts. Only opponents of the Rockets shot worse, meaning the Lakers got fairly lucky. It's not the hugest deal ever - their good luck was worth something like 35 points over the course of the season - but it's enough to swing a game here and there. So how's the free-throw "defense" holding up so far in the new campaign?

In absolute terms, it's been almost exactly identical: opponents are hitting 75.4% of their freebies. The league average is down a couple percentage points this season, however, so you can't really say the Lakers are still coasting on luck. What they've "allowed" is right at the league mean.

It still becomes relevant on a micro level from time to time. Kobe's epic buzzer-beater against Miami, you might recall, was made possible only because the Heat, a 75% free-throw shooting team on average, shot 64% from the line that night. Had they made free throws at their normal rate, they would've scored five additional points, swinging the outcome in their favor.

4. Kobe's Free Throw Attempts.

In October I observed, to everyone's delight, that Kobe's tendency to draw fouls and get to the free-throw line had declined sharply from the previous season. His ratio of free-throws attempted to field-goals attempted, a basic measure of a player's ability to get to the line that I'll refer to as "Free Throw Rate" for brevity's sake, had dropped 25% from 2007-08. Here, to remind us all what we're talking about, are his recent Free Throw Rates by season and age.

Season	Age	FTA/FGA
2003-04	25	0.45
2004-05	26	0.50
2005-06	27	0.38
2006-07	28	0.44
2007-08	29	0.44
2008-09	30	0.33

The fall-off is problematic for a couple reasons. One, the free-throw line is among the most efficient ways to score points. Two, a declining Free Throw Rate can be an early warning sign of aging. It can indicate that a player is losing a step and can't beat opposing defenders like he used to. I didn't argue that Kobe had, in fact, lost a step - just that this is something to keep an eye on as his odometer keeps spinning upward.

His Free Throw Rate looking so far this year? Steady as she goes - 0.32, almost the same as last season. That's good news, as are the other readings we often look to as a way of measuring athleticism. Kobe's steals and offensive rebounds are both up significantly, and the advanced metrics that try to capture individual D say that he's defending as well as ever. To the naked eye, he looks even stronger than he did last year (his recent injury and illness aside).

Everything checks out fine, in other words. Admittedly, though, I don't know why Kobe's Free Throw Rate is hovering below his career levels. I recently examined Free Throw Rates of 20 or so elite scoring wings from the last three decades and found that most of them didn't suffer declines in this metric in their early 30's. At this stage of their careers, most held steady or even got better at getting to the stripe.

My working hypothesis with Kobe is that his Free Throw Rate has been affected by the emergence of Andrew Bynum as an offensive force and the arrival of Pau Gasol. These two events happened during the 2008-09 season, which is when the falloff in Kobe's FT attempts kicked in. With a pair of potent offensive options in the lane, Kobe may well have decided that the Laker offense no longer required him to hurl himself into the paint (and subject himself to possible injury) quite so much. To test this I need to take a closer look at game-by-game shot charts from this season and last, but it all seems plausible on its face.

5. DJ Mbenga's Block Rate.

Still very good!

This one I tossed into the October piece as a little pat on DJ's back, since he didn't get much love from our previews otherwise. As it happens, the man has played more this season than we guessed he would, owing to the Bynum and Gasol injuries. And he's held his own! His defensive numbers are strong across the board, and while his block rate (the percentage of the opponent's two-point shots he blocks while he's on the floor) is down from the insane 10.2% of last season, it's nonetheless at a very-respectable 7.2%.

So much respect to DJ, seriously. There are many worse backup centers in the league. For the cut-rate salary of less than a mill, he's quite the good value.

All numbers courtesy of Basketball Reference and HoopData.

Win Streak Hits 11, Kobe's Finger Banged

DexterFishmore — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:04:07 -0000

Lakerdom's lingua franca added a new medical term tonight: "avulsion fracture." That's what befell the precious right index finger of Kobe Bryant in the second quarter of a 104-92 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. It happened while he was defending Ryan Gomes near the sideline, and it sent him to the halftime locker room early. He returned, with a splint courtesy of trainer Gary Vitti, to play about 18 minutes in the second half, looking more or less OK, but he admitted after the game that it felt "pretty painful." Please commence your candlelight vigils.

The Lakers' effort level was up and down tonight. After opening up an 11-point lead early in the quarter, they let point guard Ramon Sessions engineer a comeback that made it a two-point game at half. L.A. allowed Minnesota to score 1.10 points per possession over the first two quarters, which is just absurd. The Wolves average 0.97 PPP on the season. On the road against a team with the Lakers' length, they shouldn't even sniff the 1.00 mark.

In the third quarter, the Lake Show locked everything down. They forced the Timberwolves to do what they do best - turn the rock over to the other team - and built up an 18-point margin. A key contribution was made by ~~Laker double agent~~ Minnesota head coach Kurt Rambis, who sat Sessions for the first 10 minutes of the third. Sessions was 6-for-6 in the first half, so it was nice of Rambis to cool him off.

There wasn't a lot of flow in the Laker offense tonight. It was one of their worst shooting performances in a while. Pau Gasol, though, put in an evening of solid work: 17 points, seven assists and a career-high 20 boards. Ron Artest was quietly productive (16 points, five assists and three steals), and backcourt reserves Jordan Farmar, Shannon Brown and Sasha Vujacic chipped in 22. Onward to Utah.

Before we go, however, a heartfelt plea to Stu Lantz, wherever he may be: come back soon. I AM BEGGING. Hot Rod Hundley filled in tonight, and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say his performance was the most tragic event in American history. About 80% of the game he spent mumbling impenetrably. Dude, seriously... you need to speak up and enunciate. You sound like an 80-year-old Boomhauer up past his bedtime. The remaining 20% of the game, we realized how nice things were when we couldn't understand what Hot Rod was saying.

I need my Stu back. I swear, I'm never writing a bad word about him again.

	Poss.	TO%	FTA/ FGA	FT%	EFG%	TS%	Off Reb%	Def Reb%	PPP
Minny	96	18	0.18	75	45	48	32	71	0.96
L.A.	96	15	0.14	77	49	52	29	68	1.08

HIGHLIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Lakers Bring Back Showtime

Josh Tucker — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:00:26 -0000

In a defensive showcase, the Lakers clamped down in the fourth quarter and held the Utah Jazz to 6 points in the period. This included a 19-0 stretch, and from the start of the quarter to the 4:35 mark, a 23-2 run. We'll have LOTS more to say about that soon enough, but for now, here's your highlight of the night.

It's Showtime again in Los Angeles. Enjoy.

Ron Artest Bored by On-Court Fighting

Josh Tucker — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:27:55 -0000

Those of you who watched the Suns-Lakers game on NBA League Pass Sunday night will recognize this as something the Suns' commentators pointed out during the game. The truth is, I've been planning on posting this since the moment it happened on the court — it's just been a bit busy around here, what with Kobe throwing rocks at telephone poles, and all.

Aaaaaaanyways... watch this video, in which Lamar Odom gets his second technical and is ejected from Friday's game against the Heat, and tell me what you see.

What do you notice, here? After the jump, I'll tell you the first thing I saw...

Okay, so the title of this post probably gave it away, already. But without my very obvious title, I'm guessing most of you would have seen one of the following:

Jermaine O'Neal was a jackass on that play. He deliberately hung on Odom, and he also threw the first shove.
Odom has reason to be upset. Jermaine clearly started this.
Still, Odom needs to know better. He needs to keep his cool when he's already got one technical — especially in a close game.

But what I saw was Ron Artest, infamous for basketball-related fighting, bored out of his mind by the entire situation.

Check it out: When the shoving begins, pretty much every player on the court immediately gravitates toward the fracas. Heat players run in to break it up. Lakers players run in to break it up. Even Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher, who are fairly far away from the action when it breaks out, eventually walk over to make sure everything is taken care of. Or maybe just to see what the deal is, hear what guys are saying, etc.

But not Ron Ron. He's looking the other way, standing there bored with his hands on his hips. Then, he finally notices what's going on — and still doesn't move an inch. He just stands there. It's like he can't be bothered. Maybe the thoughts going through his head, completely unrelated to the event, were just that much more interesting?

Also, I'd just like to point this out: so far, the fighter on the team appears to be Lamar Odom. While he seemed justified here, though still foolish for not controlling his anger (justified or not), it seems that of all the Lakers, he gets into "tense situations" with guys from the other team more than anyone else in purple and gold. And a whole lot more than Ron Artest.

Also, Ron Ron is tied four only third-most technicals on the Lakers, with only two thus far. Kobe has five, Bynum has three, and Ron and Lamar both have two.

Maybe that sports psychologist is really working? If this mentality remains constant for Artest throughout the entire season, I think the jock shrink should raise his fees.

Lakers Dominate Suns, Look Better Than Ever

Josh Tucker — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:38:35 -0000

More photos » by Gus Ruelas - AP

NCIS is my favorite show. Gibbs is my role model.

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In 2008-09, the Lakers won the NBA Championship (you know ... in case you hadn't heard). Along the way, they won 65 games. Throughout all this, their longest winning streak was 7 games. They had more than one such streak.

During the regular season, they often struggled to maintain focus and intensity. Their ceiling was very high, and they had the fortunate ability to play at nearly full potential when needed — but not consistently, and not when the competition was less than top notch. They often gave too much ground to bad teams, and though they were solid against Denver in the Conference Finals, and handled Orlando quite quickly en route to a 4-1 Finals victory, they weren't nearly as good as they should have been in the first two rounds, against lesser competition.

Many of these things appear to be changing, and last night's game is just the latest piece in a nine-game string of of games that punctuate that statement. With Pau Gasol still getting into shape, Ron Artest still learning the offense, and the schedule tougher than the pundits would have you believe, the Lakers' win over Phoenix last night has them riding a winning streak of nine games — already two better than anything they did last year.

With the stage now set, let's take a closer look at last night's blowout of the Suns at Staples Center...

Okay, I just can't help myself. Two more fun facts about this streak that I just have to point to:

On this nine-game winning streak, the Lakers have broken 100 points nine times. They have held their opponents below 100 points eight times.
Their average margin of victory over these nine games is 15.3 points per game. Basically, they're on a dominant nine-game winning streak, averaging a blowout.

Okay, on to last night's game. We'll do this with bullets.

Defense

The Suns have the NBA's best offense. Even after last night, they still rank nearly a full point per 100 possessions better than second-ranked Denver in that category. The Lakers, meanwhile, have one of the NBA's best defenses — 3rd by Offensive Efficiency rating, but first in defensive FG%, eFG%, and TS%. When the two clashed, the Lakers' defense easily won out.
The Lakers held the Suns under 100 points; only two other teams have managed that all year. They also held the Suns under 90 points; no other team has managed that all year.
They also held the Suns to under 100 points per 100 possessions (or, as we like to say around these parts, under 1.00 point per possession). By Hollinger's measure, they managed an efficiency rating of only 95.8 points per 100 possessions (0.96 PPP); by Dex's more accurate count (Hollinger uses a formula; Dex actually tallies it all up, possession by possession, superhero that he is), they were up to 0.98 PPP (98.0 points per 100 possessions). Either way, considering these two facts: (a) the Suns average 112.1 points per 100 possessions (1.12 PPP), and (b) a defensive efficiency rating of 95.8 points per 100, by Hollinger's rating, would be good enough for best defense in the League.
The Suns are 3-point shooting maniacs. They average 22.7 three-point attempts per game, and they convert at a mind-numbing rate of 43.4% from that range. Last night, the Lakers defended the arc very well, holding the Suns to a mere 13 attempts, of which they made only four. For the mathematically challenged, that's 30.8% shooting from distance. For some perspective, note that if they shot that poorly from three all season, it would rank them 23rd in the NBA in 3-point accuracy, instead of where they currently rank — first.
They also rank 3rd overall in total field goal percentage, at 49.3%. The Lakers held them to 44.6% on the night. Solid.
Phoenix didn't break 30 points in any quarter. They were held to 22 or less in three out of four.
Some subjective observations: Ron Artest was awesome as ever on D. Five steals, very disruptive overall, and never gave up on a single play. I was also very pleased with our bigs' defense. Taking a page from Toronto's playbook (I can't believe I just typed that; Toronto is ranked dead last in defense), LA switched on screen-rolls with Nash, sending Gasol or Bynum out to challenge the floppy-haired Canadian. I was impressed with both big men, who were very active defensively, moving their feet and generally preventing Nash from getting by them and into the paint. Great effort there, and great result overall. They didn't shut him down, but they kept him pretty quiet, at 12 points and 10 assists.
Final thought on last night's defense, back to offensive/defensive ratings: Tallying a defensive rating that, if maintained over the course of the season, would rank the Lakers first in the league, against the best offense in the league? Yeah, I'd say that's pretty damn good defense.

Offense

The Lakemen are slowly climbing their way up the ranks in Offensive Efficiency. They're still ranked only 13th overall, but the offense has actually been quite good of late, and their rating is slowly increasing. Last night, they scored 121.0 points per 100 by Hollinger's formulaic rating — a number matched identically, in this case, by Dex's more accurate exact count, which yielded 1.21 PPP. For perspective: Phoenix boasts the best offensive rating in the League, a point better than 2nd-ranked Denver, at 112.1 points per 100 (1.12 PPP); last night, the Lakers were 9 points per 100 better than that.
21 three-point attempts, 10 makes, which is a conversion rate of 47.6% from distance. Yeah, they stole the Suns playbook on that one. Ron Artest, Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher, Shannon Brown, and Jordan Farmar — all hit at least 50% of their three-point attempts.
26 free throws earned, a very solid rate of 0.32 FTA/FGA, and converted at a very high rate of 84.6%. Ron Artest didn't miss a single freebie.
The Suns doubled heavily in the paint, since the Lakers destroyed them down there last time. The Lake Show simply responded by hitting jumpers, knocking down threes, and passing out of the double team down low. On a couple occasions, I was very pleased to see Bynum take a page from Gasol's playbook, drawing the double with his back to the basket and then dumping the ball off to his low post-mate.
Good ball control. A temporary lapse in the second quarter, where they committed six turnovers, but only 11 overall — and only one in each of the first and third quarters.
Six guys in double figures, including two off the bench. (I'm telling you, the more I see the Farmar/Brown lineup, the more I love it.)

Bench Play

I've decided to refer to the reserve lineup that Phil Jackson plays when it still matters — typically, in the 2nd and early 4th quarters, and sometimes in the 3rd — as the Bench Unit. This is the lineup that features Jordan Farmar, Shannon Brown, and Lamar Odom (or at least two of those three), but NOT Sasha Vujabric, Adam Morrison, Josh Powell, or DJ Mbenga. The lineup featuring Vujabric/Morrison/Powell/Mbenga, usually accompanied by either Farmar or Brown, is what I will refer to as the GarbageTime Unit. It's nothing revolutionary, just calling a spade a spade, since the GTU guys simply do not play when it still matters.
The Bench Unit was very good last night. They were part of a 2nd-quarter 8-0 run, and a 3rd-quarter 15-1 run (that's where the game was decided, going from a still-in-question 9-point game at 72-63 to an insurmountable 23-point lead at 87-64). They also managed to play even in the first half of the fourth quarter, responding to a mini-run by Phoenix which cut the lead to 13 thanks mainly to a pair of threes by Shannon Brown, which pushed the lead back to the 20-point margin the Lakers ended the game with.
The Lakers won every quarter but the fourth, and they only lost the fourth by 1 point.
The GarbageTime Unit didn't lose a single inch. The Bench Unit lost only 1 point to Phoenix in the first part of the fourth quarter, but held a 20-point lead when the GTU replaced them. The GTU held its own and ended the game with that same 20-point lead.

Individual Play

Kobe Bryant. Awesome as usual. 26 points on only 16 FGAs. 9-16 from the field, 50% on threes, 7 rebounds, only one turnover, 8 trips to the line, in a pretty average 36 minutes.
Ron Artest. As I already mentioned, 5 steals, very disruptive overall, never gave up on defense. Lights out from three (3-5), hit all his free throws. 15 points on 11 FGAs, along with 5 assists. Solid.
Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol. 5-9 shooting for Bynum, 6-10 for Gasol. 13 points for Bynum, 14 for Gasol. Between them, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, and only one free throw miss and one turnover. Played very well together offensively, and both were excellent on defense. Bynum even attempted a 3-point attempt (didn't have much choice), which almost bounced in (factoring out that desperation attempt, he was 5-8 from the field).
Lamar Odom with the little things. 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, 1 steal.
The Point Guards. All three of them. Good three point shooting, good defense, good energy.

Final Thoughts

It's worth noting that Phoenix was once again playing on the second half of a back to back, in Los Angeles. Not ideal circumstances. On the other hand, the Suns are a good team, and good teams pose a serious threat even on the second half of a back to back, on the road. Yes, it was a bit of an advantage for the Lakers, but don't undervalue the effort they gave or the credit they deserve for this win. They controlled this game in every way, and it wasn't because Phoenix didn't come to play.

Speaking of controlling the game: The Suns play at a pace of 98 possessions per game. The Lakers play at a similar pace of 97.8 possessions per game. Nonetheless, because of the Suns' ability to run with Nash and to take high percentage threes in transition, as well as the Lakers ability to dominate in the post, and in the half-court set in general, I think it's safe to say that in this particular matchup, a slower game is a good idea for the Lakers. With that in mind, the pace of the game was yet another thing the Lakemen controlled very well, as the game went 89.5 possessions (89 for LA, 90 for for Phoenix).

Bottom line: Another game, another blowout.

No Surprises Here, Suns Drubbed by Lakers 108-88

Wil Cantrell — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:30:33 -0000

More photos » by Gus Ruelas - AP

Mr. Gentry was not in the holiday spirit Sunday night.(AP Photo/Gus Ruelas)

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Tonight was deemed "Mission Impossible Part 2" by a respected Suns journalist. The local commentators were hoping for a rain out (hur, hur). While there was no rain or Tom Cruise sightings at the game, winning was to be a monumental task. The "tired" Suns on the second night of a back to back didn't play a perfect game, and even if they did, they probably still would have lost to the defending champions.

There was certainly some good that came out of this game, and there of course, was some bad.

The Suns at least competed tonight. The first quarter witnessed an active Suns team, combatting a nearly flawless Lakers attack. Amare Stoudemire showed up, feeling his outside game and battling inside for rebounds. But five turnovers leading to a 9-2 Lakers run in the first 7 minutes left the Suns in an early hole.

The Lakers D held, as it did for the rest of the game, limiting any Suns inside penetration. Pau Gasol switched off on Steve Nash, thus alleviating any pick 'n roll success.

Still the Suns were making shots, ad held close. A Jared Dudley three brought the Suns back to a 2 point deficit, the Lakers still held a 29-26 first quarter lead.

The Suns battled in the second quarter as well, going on a nice little 6-0 run. Yet the Suns struggled on D, allowing Laker penetration and two wide open threes. Robin Lopez left his man too early, allowing the first, while Steve Nash went underneath a screen allowing the second. The Suns were still playing respectable and even managed a free throw, their first with 3.49 to play in the second. But this was as good as it was to get for Phoenix on this night as they ended the first half down 54-44.

The Suns were outscored by 11 in the third quarter and all was, well, finished at that point. The lakers continued to attack and get what they wanted on the offensive end while the Suns went cold from outside, and continued to have trouble getting in the lane.

The Suns second unit closed the lead to 13 midway through the 4th quarter, but back to back three pointers by Shannon Brown ended the Suns small run.

The Rest of the Good (which wasn't a whole lot)

The Suns shot 57% 1st quarter, Nash had 7 Assists (who cares, I know)
Goran Dragic had a nice little pick off of Shannon Brown, took the ball the length of the court for a layup. (It was nearly dropped. You gotta DUNK, Goran).
Robin Lopez didn't look dreadful and confused, in fact he looked serviceable. Heis aggressive at the rim and has a nice little 5-6 foot jumper. I'm hoping he can get in shape and put in 10-15 minutes eventually this season. he could be valuable against the more sizeable teams.
The Suns second unit played pretty well. Lopez, Dragic, and Dudley all played solid. Earl Clark had a nice 15 footer off the dribble.

The Rest: A Very Small Ode to the Lakers:

OK the Suns are tired and this was a back to back game on the road. We didn't expect much. But this Laker team flat plays defense. The cut off the lanes and the Suns simply couldn't penetrate to the hoop. The Lakers also rebounded and played good perimeter defense. The Suns couldn't shoot from the field, they couldn't make a three. Further, the Lakers executed their offense flawlessly. Ron Artest made threes, Kobe Bryant simply toyed with Suns defenders. Bynum was all over the glass, and Gasol confounded Amare Stoudemire. So...what in God's name were the Suns supposed to do tonight? They played the reigning champion and got trounced. I don't like it, you don't like, but that's the way the mop flops.

End of story.

Pertinent Numbers:

Suns shot 4-13 from three point land. The Lakers were 10-21.
The Suns shot 11 free throws, making 10. The Lakers shot 22-26.
The Suns had 14 turnovers, the Lakers 11.
The Suns had 37 rebounds, the Lakers 42.
The Suns had 36 points in the paint, the Lakers had 40 (maybe I missed them, but I do not recall the Suns scoring that much in the paint).
OH, AND THE LAKERS HAVE PLAYED 16 OF THEIR FIRST 19 GAMES AT HOME. (yep, I'm just a smidge bitter).

FINAL - 12.6.2009	1	2	3	4	TOTAL
Phoenix Suns	26	18	22	22	88
Los Angeles Lakers	29	25	33	21	108

Next up, @Dallas, 6.30 PM on Tuesday, 12/8

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DexterFishmore — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:00:16 -0000

All right, rockers, it's time to get serious. We've been in high spirits the past two days toasting the Great Bank Bailout of 2009, but tonight we've got new guests arriving. They're not as fun and easygoing as the Miami Heat, and if the Lakers don't tighten their act up from what we saw on Friday night, the game won't end quite so festively.

On Friday, the Heat high-pick-and-rolled the Lakers nearly to death. It's been lost amid the Kobe glee, but the Laker defense was inept for most of the game. Repeatedly Dwyane Wade broke free off a high screen, drove the lane unharassed and either finished at the rim, went to the line or found one of his big men for an open look. The Lakers appeared baffled by this 100-year-old tactic, and if the Heat hadn't missed 15 free throws or Kobe's heave had been two inches off to either side, the D-grade D would have been the story of the game.

Now arrive the Phoenix Suns, deadly masters of the pick-and-pop, drive-and-dish and numerous variations thereon. Last time they darkened the Lakers' door, on November 12th, they got hammered for their troubles, losing by a cool 19 points. They were playing part deux of a back-to-back, as they will be tonight. Then again, Miami had the same difficulty on Friday, and that and three bucks bought us a cup of coffee.

The Suns don't have the same buzz around them these days as they did in November, when they were the hot team du jour, but their resumé is still very solid. They're only a game behind the Lakers in the standings, and they held the league's best record until an out-of-nowhere loss to the Knicks last week. Following that up by getting rocked in Cleveland didn't help their Q rating, but they handled a game Sacramento team last night to get back in whack. Their Offensive Rating of 112.5 is first in the league, and their death-dealing three point attack gives them a puncher's chance against anyone.

Of the basic activities that take place on a basketball court - turnovers, shooting, rebounding, fouling and getting fouled - shooting is the most important. Shooting accuracy, as measured by Effective Field-Goal Percentage, predicts game outcome better than any other metric. Those other things are important too, but none as much as shooting well, and Phoenix does that one thing better than anyone else in the NBA.

About 28% of the Suns' field-goal attempts are from three-point range, which is the third highest rate in the league, and they make an insane 44% of those tries, first in the league. They boast a team Effective FG% of 56%, also first. They don't take care of the ball well, and they're below average in getting to the line and rebounding their misses, but their ridiculous shooting means their offense is great anyway. Basically, they bomb away from outside and see if you keep up.

What makes tonight's matchup so interesting, schematically, is that the Laker D excels like no other at forcing missed shots. The Lakemen have allowed opponents an Effective FG% of only 46% and a three-point accuracy of only 30%, both tops in the NBA. They were strong in these metrics last year and are even better now, thanks in no small part to Ron Artest and the (nearly) full-time service of Andrew Bynum. When the Suns have the ball, it'll be a bellwether, strength-on-strength contest of elite units.

When these two teams played in November, Phoenix had a ghastly shooting night, managing an EFG of only 40%. Amare Stoudamire, who bricked 13 of 15 field goal attempts, was especially brutal. The Suns won't shoot that badly again, but remember that last time around, Pau Gasol was out. His length on the inside will make clean looks for La Soudamire and any other Sun who visits the paint even harder to come by.

The other roster difference this time around is the absence of Leandro Barbosa, who's out with a sprained ankle. I wouldn't call this a crippling blow or anything, but it's more important than you might think. Barbosa was playing 21 minutes a night and showing superlative plus-minus numbers. Per 100 possessions, Phoenix was 4.4 points better with him on the court than without. His shelving has meant more minutes for second-year lefty Goran Dragic, about whom the numbers are conflicted. His assist rate is strong and his shot is improving, but his plus-minus stats are ugly. At least he and Sasha Vujacic can chat together about Slovenia during shootaround.

The Lakers will need to keep close track of both Jason Richardson, who's hitting 44% of his threes, and Channing Frye. I've remained highly skeptical of Frye and his newly developed three-ball range, but damned if he isn't proving me wrong. He's hit an absurd 47% of his money shots on the year.

Also, I'm not sure this "Stephen Nash" guy they've been touting is for real.

(One other trend line to note before we move on from the Phoenix O: the Suns have been awfully loose with the rock lately. Over their past five games, they've turned it over on 17% of their possessions. Not good, gentlemen.)

So Phoenix knows how to accrue pointage. Fair enough. It's not clear, though, that they're at all equipped to slow the Laker attack. The November game served mostly as a chance for Bynum to build up his All-Star credentials, as he destroyed Amare to the tune of 26 points and 15 boards. Even physical, well-regarded post defenders like Emeka Okafor and Nene have struggled to control the Laker big man this year, and as a defender Amare is - how to put this nicely - neither physical nor well regarded.

Furthermore, at the risk of repeating myself: Pau Gasol. He didn't play in November; he will tonight. Pau gives Phoenix yet another post player they probably can't really really deal with.

The Suns are just a poor defensive team, ranking 23rd in the league in points allowed per possession, and it's this shortcoming that keeps them a level below the Lakers in the NBA food pyramid. They don't force turnovers, they allow opponents to shoot pretty well, and they're the worst defensive rebounding team in the league. Over their past five games, they've allowed foes to rebound 34% of their misses, which is bad but only a few ticks higher than their full-season rate of 31%.

You know when the Lakers miss a shot, and Pau, Drew and Lamar Odom just keep volleyballing it around until it goes in? We could see a lot of that tonight.

Over this five-game stretch, the Suns have surrendered 1.13 PPP to their opponents. That group includes strong offenses like Toronto and Cleveland, but also total crap offenses like New York and Minnesota. The Lakers have adjustments to make from their recent outings, smarter and more disciplined pick-and-roll defense foremost among them, but so do the Suns.

Kobe scored 29 against Phoenix last time around, and he knows the Lakers played poorly on Friday. He's irked about it. He should be attacking from the start. The Suns don't have an answer for them either, so they'll need their threes to rain down like a desert squall.

	Lakers	Suns
*RECORD*	15-3	15-5
*NET POINTS PER GAME*	+7.7 (3rd)	+4.6 (8th)
*PACE*	98.1 (6th)	98.5 (4th)
*OFFENSIVE RATING*	105.0 (14th)	112.5 (1st)
Turnover Rate (Off.)	13.0% (6th)	14.5% (21st)
FTA/FGA (Off.)	0.26 (25th)	0.30 (18th)
Free-Throw %	74.9 (15th)	73.3 (22nd)
Effective FG% (Off.)	50.2 (14th)	56.1 (1st)
True Shooting% (Off.)	53.8 (17th)	59.2 (1st)
Off Rebounding Rate	27.6% (11th)	26.9% (14th)
*DEFENSIVE RATING*	97.6 (3rd)	106.9 (23rd)
Turnover Rate (Def.)	14.5% (12th)	11.9% (28th)
FTA/FGA (Def.)	0.28 (8th)	0.25 (1st)
Effective FG% (Def.)	46.0 (1st)	50.1 (20th)
True Shooting% (Def.)	50.5 (1st)	53.3 (13th)
Def Rebounding Rate	72.2% (20th)	69.4% (30th)

All statistical terms defined here. Parentheses indicate league rankings. Numbers are courtesy of Basketball Reference and HoopData and, except for record and net points per game, are through Friday night's action.