The (9-35) Los Angeles Lakers host the white-hot (37-6) San Antonio Spurs tonight at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. Today in the 10 year anniversary of Kobe Bryant giving the NBA; his magnum opus, his masterstroke, his piece de resistance one of his crowning achievements, his exemplar performance scoring 81-point game against the Toronto Raptors.
We can all reminisce about Kobe Bryant dropping the second highest scoring game in NBA history, but a few things somehow end up being lost in translation; the fact that the Lakers were being manhandled by the Raptors down 63-49 at halftime, ‘the black mamba” had 26 at halftime.
In their game against Sacramento the Lakers were competitive in the first half down 57-52 at halftime, outscored …show more content…
allowed Sacramento to score 58 points in the paint, secure 59 rebounds, dish-out 28 assists, reject 12 attempted shots and record six steals.
The loss provided some positives; the Lakers had five players score in double-digits (Brandon Bass 18, Kobe Bryant 15, Lou Williams 15, D’Angelo Russell 14 and Jordan Clarkson 14), Brandon Bass led the L.A. in scoring with a season-high 18 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots.
Despite a competitive first quarter, L.A. led by eight points (27-19), the purple and gold later gave up a 12 consecutive points to end the quarter down by four points. The Spurs held the L.A. to a season-low 16 point fourth quarter leading to the Lakers losing the Spurs 109-87, 42 days ago, on 12/12/15 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.
Fast forward to today, the Spurs have gone from 18-5 to 37-6, from 19th in the NBA in scoring (99.9 points per game) to 6th (104.2 points per game), in addition to 6th in the league in rebounding (45.4 rebounds per game), 3rd in assists (25.2 assists per game) coupled with remaining the league’s top defensive team holding team’s to 89.6 points per …show more content…
This is a back-to-back game for the Spurs after beating the Suns 117-89 on Thursday, riding a 12-game winning streak, are the league’s only team that’s 7-0 in the second of back to back games and outscoring their opponents by 15.7 points.
The Lakers loss to the Kings, their eighth in nine games, outscored by an average of 20.3 points. Additionally in their four game losing skid, the purple and gold have been outshot on average 49-percent to 39.8-percent.
The Lakers need to do a solid job of moving, passing and cutting to find the open man. Los Angeles must trust their offense and execute, keep the ball and the defense moving, improving their spacing on the floor, constantly screening their opponents and playing faster.
Despite San Antonio Head Coach Gregg Popovich’s disdain for the three-point shot, which is well-documented, although the Spurs rank second in the league at 38.1-percent trailing only the Golden State Warriors. The Lakers need to get back in transition, stop the dribble penetration of Tony Parker, attempt to slow the impact of Kawai Leonard, communicate on defense, do a solid job defending the pick-and-roll play, challenge every shot, quickly rotate out to open shooters, box their men out and
We can all reminisce about Kobe Bryant dropping the second highest scoring game in NBA history, but a few things somehow end up being lost in translation; the fact that the Lakers were being manhandled by the Raptors down 63-49 at halftime, ‘the black mamba” had 26 at halftime.
In their game against Sacramento the Lakers were competitive in the first half down 57-52 at halftime, outscored …show more content…
allowed Sacramento to score 58 points in the paint, secure 59 rebounds, dish-out 28 assists, reject 12 attempted shots and record six steals.
The loss provided some positives; the Lakers had five players score in double-digits (Brandon Bass 18, Kobe Bryant 15, Lou Williams 15, D’Angelo Russell 14 and Jordan Clarkson 14), Brandon Bass led the L.A. in scoring with a season-high 18 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots.
Despite a competitive first quarter, L.A. led by eight points (27-19), the purple and gold later gave up a 12 consecutive points to end the quarter down by four points. The Spurs held the L.A. to a season-low 16 point fourth quarter leading to the Lakers losing the Spurs 109-87, 42 days ago, on 12/12/15 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.
Fast forward to today, the Spurs have gone from 18-5 to 37-6, from 19th in the NBA in scoring (99.9 points per game) to 6th (104.2 points per game), in addition to 6th in the league in rebounding (45.4 rebounds per game), 3rd in assists (25.2 assists per game) coupled with remaining the league’s top defensive team holding team’s to 89.6 points per …show more content…
This is a back-to-back game for the Spurs after beating the Suns 117-89 on Thursday, riding a 12-game winning streak, are the league’s only team that’s 7-0 in the second of back to back games and outscoring their opponents by 15.7 points.
The Lakers loss to the Kings, their eighth in nine games, outscored by an average of 20.3 points. Additionally in their four game losing skid, the purple and gold have been outshot on average 49-percent to 39.8-percent.
The Lakers need to do a solid job of moving, passing and cutting to find the open man. Los Angeles must trust their offense and execute, keep the ball and the defense moving, improving their spacing on the floor, constantly screening their opponents and playing faster.
Despite San Antonio Head Coach Gregg Popovich’s disdain for the three-point shot, which is well-documented, although the Spurs rank second in the league at 38.1-percent trailing only the Golden State Warriors. The Lakers need to get back in transition, stop the dribble penetration of Tony Parker, attempt to slow the impact of Kawai Leonard, communicate on defense, do a solid job defending the pick-and-roll play, challenge every shot, quickly rotate out to open shooters, box their men out and