Archives For Los Angeles Lakers

RECAP: Hawks 96, Lakers 92

Raj Prashad —  March 13, 2013 — Leave a comment

FINAL

LAL(34-32) 92 – 96 (35-29) ATL

Key Performers:

K. Bryant (LAL): 31 pts, 7 reb, 5 ast, 2 stl
A. Horford (ATL): 14 pts, 14 reb, 4 ast, 3 stl
[FULL BOX SCORE]

Missing Josh Smith, Jeff Teague and Zaza Pachulia, was there any other way you could have seen this going? Atlanta played inspired basketball, led by Al Horford, and controlled the pace of the game. They got into their sets quickly, spread the ball effectively and in crunch time against one of the game’s all-time closers, walked away with a win, breaking a three-game losing stretch and possibly turning around Atlanta’s season.

Reaction Grades: [assessed 0-10]

Johan Petro: It wasn’t quite the “Petro game”, but maybe the “Petro three quarters”. The 7-footer controlled Dwight Howard on defense for much of the night, and added 10 points and 11 rebounds in just 26 minutes. 7/10

Al Horford: Al was handed the keys to the team, for just a night, and played remarkably on both ends of the court. The Lakers chose to defend Horford with Metta World Peace for much of the night, which the forward responded to by simply backing him down and taking him to the hoop. Horford finished the night with 14 points and 14 boards, driving Atlanta to the huge win. 8/10

Dahntay Jones: It won’t show up on the stat sheet, as he missed all five shots he took, but Jones smothered Kobe Bryant for much of the night, only allowing three of Bryant’s 11 makes.  6/10

Devin Harris: Harris really stepped up to the challenge for the shorthanded Hawks Wednesday night against the Lakers. Thin at point guard, Harris played the second most minutes (34) and was the driving force in the fourth quarter to give and maintain Atlanta’s lead. His nine-straight points in the fourth quarter propelled the Hawks to the streak-snapping win. 8.5/10

Anthony Tolliver: Everyone produced for the Hawks Wednesday, even Tolliver, who popped off nine points and six boards in 24 minutes. He did, however, play porous defense on World Peace, who scored 20 points and snagged eight rebounds. To be fair, Tolliver played a good bit of help defense on Bryant, which generally left MWP open in the corner or near the rim. 6/10 Continue Reading…

In 2012-13 Season, Atlanta Hawks, Game Recap ,
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Hawks look to finish road trip on high note

Chris Barnewall —  March 4, 2013 — Leave a comment

Long road trips are never easy for any team in the NBA team, and the Hawks are no different. On this latest road trip, the Hawks have gone 3-2, which is not bad at all. However, they have lost two straight to the Suns and the Lakers. Tonight they face a very tough Denver team on a road back-to-back, which is the hardest regular season game to win for any team.

If the Hawks are going to win tonight they’re going to need to fix some problems that they had in last night’s game against the Lakers. For instance the Lakers went 10/21 (47%) from three-point range last night. That is inefficient defensively and you are going to lose a lot of games allowing this to happen. When you get 34 assists on offense in one game, you need to win that game.

You need to execute down the stretch; the Hawks, for as well as they played last night, just didn’t defend the three-pointer and they didn’t execute when they needed to the most. The game was relatively close down the stretch and it was a very winnable game. If the Hawks had just executed correctly (particularly on that final play), I’d be spending more time on the good things they did, like the assists, the way the offense ran, and the amazing shooting. Instead, I’m talking about the bad things; thus is the ways of the NBA.

The Nuggets are going to be a tough team for Hawks as they are not coming off a back to back and are one of the best home teams in the NBA (25-3). The reason I was driving home the 3 point shooting issue: the Nuggets shoot 14 three point attempts per-36 minutes. This isn’t a huge number, but it’s enough that if they get warm from there, it could be dangerous. The Hawks defense will need to be on top of their game defensively, because the Nuggets share the ball; they are third in the league in assists per game (24.3), and that passing can really give a lot of teams a headache.

The Hawks want to finish this road trip strong and they have a chance to do that tonight. As long as they defend a little better and play offense the same way they did last night, it’s not insane to say they have a good chance at winning tonight.

In 2012-13 Season, Preview , ,
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RECAP: Lakers 99, Hawks 98

Bo Churney —  March 4, 2013 — Leave a comment

FINAL

LAL(30-30) 99 – 98 (33-25) ATL

Key Performers:

K. Bryant (LAL): 34 pts, 6 reb, 4 ast
A. Horford (ATL): 24 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl
[FULL BOX SCORE]

The comeback Hawks tried to be magical again, erasing a double-digit deficit to take the lead in the fourth quarter. Of course, Kobe Bryant wasn’t going to have any of that. Bryant scored the Lakers last six points, including a thunderous dunk, and a driving layup past Josh Smith to seal the game in the final seconds. The Hawks did have another chance to take the lead, but in true Hawks fashion, it was blown by player miscommunication.

Reaction Grades: [assessed 0-10]

Josh Smith: This might have been the most Josh Smith game ever. (I think I’ve said that many times before, but whatever) He was actually efficient from the field (9-16) and had seven assists, but he missed all six of his free throw attempts and turned the ball over six times. Of course, he also let Kobe punk him down the stretch (Josh probably shouldn’t have been guarding him), and then failed to control the ball on the final play. Very Smoove-like, indeed. 5/10

Al Horford: Al extended his streak of 20+ point games to 10, which is good, but it still felt like Al didn’t take full advantage of the situation he was in. The points are good, but he seemed overpowered on the boards at times when he shouldn’t have been. And, of course, since I usually kill Josh on this, I have to point out that Al missed some buckets in the fourth quarter that probably should have dropped. Not a bad night at all from Al, just a bit disappointing from what could’ve been. 8/10

Kyle Korver: The three-point streak climbs to 51, and that wasn’t all; Kyle was a huge reason the Hawks were able to get back into this game. The team was able to get him a lot of open looks, and he knocked down quite a few of them. It’s of my opinion that he could have had more, but you can’t fault him for a 6-13 shooting night that much. 6/10

Jeff Teague: Speaking of leaving something to be desired, Jeff wasn’t exactly a killer out there for the Hawks. He didn’t turn the ball over a ton like he usually does when he has a bad night, but his erratic shooting in the first half is what helped the Lakers build the double-digit lead that they had. Dwight Howard is regaining his form on defense, so you can’t exactly fault Jeff for not being able to get good looks in the paint, but he has to make up for it by making jumpers if that is what he is going to do. 3/10

Devin Harris: Hey Jeff, take note of what Devin did this game before he starts cutting heavily into your minutes again. Devin made most of his shots, got to the line more than Teague, and had six assists against zero turnovers. Considering they both excel at the same style of play (attacking), you really can’t chalk this up to Devin being a “change of pace” from what Jeff should be doing. And while I usually don’t like using single-game +/-, Devin was a plus-24 and Jeff was a minus-25. That’s something that should not be happening. 8/10 Continue Reading…

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LA Lakers Hire Mike D’Antoni

Bo Churney —  November 12, 2012 — Leave a comment

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Welp, there goes my dream hire for the Hawks after the season.

D’Antoni was selected over Phil Jackson and will sign a four-year deal with the Lakers. Unlike most people, I like this hire, as I think Phil was asking for too much, and that the triangle would essentially turn Steve Nash into Derek Fisher. D’Antoni’s system that is highly reliant on the pick-and-roll should work with Nash, Gasol, and Dwight with almost no problems. As long as Kobe still gets his shots, no one in Lakerland should be upset with this decision at all.

The biggest criticism facing D’Antoni is that he won’t fix the Lakers’ defensive struggles. I actually disagree with this notion; while his Suns teams weren’t the best at defense, his Knicks’ defense with Tyson Chandler was one of the best in the league last year. People will try to attribute that to Mike Woodson, despite the fact that Woodson’s Hawks never finished in the top ten in DRtg in his tenure in Atlanta.

D’Antoni’s teams in Phoenix were always average defensively, even though his starting bigs were Amar’e Stoudemire and Boris Diaw. I think he’ll be fine with Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol clogging the paint. Continue Reading…

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