| 20 January 2012
Faulty offense and lackadaisic perimeter defense turned another road trip, this time against the Miami Heat (10-4), into a disaster for the Lakers (10-6), who are now 1-6 away from Staples Center this season. The purple and gold had a rare 2-day off after defeating the defending champs Dallas Mavericks at home. The Heat were still without Dwyane Wade for the 5th time but had yet to lose thanks to the more intense play of Lebron James.
Lebron is second in the NBA in scoring averaging 29.8 coming in and looked eager to have some one-on-one time with the league's leading scorer Kobe Bryant (30.8 PPG). James showed off some of his new moves this season but not as often and successful as two floaters over Andrew Bynum.
Kobe didn't start off well offensively, but the Lakers went to their bigs early and often. Both Pau Gasol and Bynum came out aggressive, especially Pau, and were slowly wearing down Miami's frountcourt until Andrew sat down with 2 personal fouls in the 1st quarter.
Bynum was key to Miami going 2-for-7 in the paint in that same quarter. Without him, Chris Bosh got going now that Josh McRoberts is guarding him. That also allowed the Heat to get some offensive boards that was catapulted by the Laker bench's inability to box out and help out Bynum after his return in the 2nd quarter.
In fact, the Laker bench didn't score at all in that period going 0-of-6. Credit Miami's defense who not only doubled Bynum effectively forcing him to take awkward shots but also prevented the Laker reserves get a good look at the basket. Gasol did continue his efficiency on offense, but it didn't do much damage to the Heat's 15-point lead at halftime.
The 2nd half finally saw the Lakers making their shots and actually made the game a bit interesting by cutting down a 23-point lead to 9 at one point. Troy Murphy was hot converting all 4 shots he took, and Bryant contributed 14 of his 24 points in the final quarter along with Gasol's team-high 26 points and Bynum's 15 points.
But as evident, the late offensive surge was too little too late.
Final Thoughts
Steve Blake's absence is hurting the Lakers more and more. Although rookie Darius Morris hasn't been letting his mistakes bog him down, it is those poor judgements in his passing and shot selections that often hinder the team from catching up or establishing rhythm or continuity on offense. But, I do like his willingness to play defense.
It's clear that the Lakers need a better bench. It's also obvious that their offense is still far from being the ideal offense that can tangle with the elite defenses in the league.
A poor shooting performance will almost always result in a loss and isn't something that Xs and Os can resolve, also. Having the usual aggressive Kobe might've changed things a lot for the Lakers, but the constant inability to cover shooters behind the 3-point line helped seal the fate for them even more.
Until they can find help at the point and give consistent good effort as a team game-to-game, the Lakers will continue to struggle.
Player of the Game
Pau Gasol: He did his best impersonation of Kobe by plugging away on offense from start to finish. Gasol finished with 26 points on 11-for-19 shooting and grabbed 8 rebounds.
Box Score
Next Game
@ Orlando Magic
When: Fri., Jan. 20th at 5:00 p.m. (PST)
Where: Amway Arena
TV: KCAL, ESPN
Radio: 7101/1330 AM ESPN
Game Highlights
