Lakers Split With Celtics and Knicks

Lakers 88, Celtics 87 (OT)

The Lakers’ Big Three needs help. Just a little. Like a fourth guy to hit double figures. Last night they got just enough from Matt Barnes (11 points, including a crucial 5-6 from the foul line) to steal this one, but aside from the big fat W (and a road win at that) I see nothing to be happy about. The team shot 39% from the floor and hit one of fifteen 3-pointers. Ridiculous. They had a mere 13 assists on their 36 field goals.

World Peace, starting again at small forward (bad idea, Mike Brown), was 1-6 from the field, missed both foul shots he attempted and finished with two points in 34 minutes. I should mention that he also had one assist and two rebounds. Ridiculous. Derek Fisher, starting point guard, played 24 minutes, went 0-7 from the field, and had two assists. The other point guard, Steve Blake, played 31 minutes and had a grand total of zero assists.

The Big Three (who combined for 68 points) are generally hitting about half their shots, as they did last night, but check out their teammates’ field goal shooting last night—World Peace 1-6,  Fisher 0-7, Murphy 1-5, Blake 2-7, Goudelock 0-2. But because Matt Barnes, modestly enough, scored 11 points in his 17 minutes, the Lakers won. That’s how good the Lakers’ Big Three are!

Much has been said lately regarding the Lakers’ relatively unproductive bench. The problem, dear Brutus, is not in the bench, but in the holes at small forward and point guard in the starting lineup. It’s hard to have a good bench if you have a lousy starting lineup, and the Lakers do have a lousy starting lineup, even though it’s three-fifths all-star caliber! If there are gigantic holes at point guard and small forward, the Big Three will only be effective about half the time, or maybe better, but not enough to win a championship. If World Peace and Derek Fisher ever joined Matt Barnes, Josh McRoberts et al, the Laker bench would be terrific.

And speaking of McRoberts, why isn’t he playing more? He hasn ‘t played more than four minutes a game in the last six games and he isn’t hurt. In fact, things being the way they are, why isn’t Brown starting McRoberts on the front line with Pau and Bynum? Nothing else has worked.

The Lakers paid a big price to win this one. Kobe played 43 minutes and Pau and Bynum played 40 each. They could be dragging their ass tomorrow against the Knicks.

Knicks 92, Lakers 85

Kobe, who usually takes as many shots as Pau and Bynum combined, tonight took as many shots as Pau, Bynum and Steve Blake combined. Kobe took 29 shots. The guy with the most shots after Kobe was Blake with 11. Gasol took 10 shots and Bynum took eight shots. Steve Blake took more shots than Gasol or Bynum. Talk about ridiculous

Bynum was 1-8 from the field, which is shocking. He missed a couple of shots around the rim that he should have dunked but didn’t. He scored three points in 35 minutes. Against the weak front line of the Celtics last night, Bynum had his way. Not tonight against Tyson Chandler. But beyond that, Kobe wasn’t looking for him.

As for the Knicks, they’ve only got two stars—Carmelo and Amare Stoudemire—and they were both out of the lineup.  Didn’t matter.

The story, of course, is Jeremy Lin. It’s very cool to be there when “a star is born.” No one has ever entered the NBA quite like Jeremy Lin. Tonight Lin was a one-man wrecking crew—38 points, seven assists and an uncanny ability to bring out the best in one of the weakest supporting casts I’ve seen this year. The Knicks’ 8-man rotation included the likes of Jared Jeffries, Bill Walker, Steve Novak, Mike Bibby, Landry Fields and Ivan Shumpert.

This game showed Kobe at his most desperate, and Mike Brown (who played Kobe 42 minutes after he played 43 minutes against the Celtics last night!) isn’t strong enough to show Kobe the way. Or at least make Kobe understand that taking 29 shots while your Twin Towers co-stars hardly see the ball, will never bring about that sixth NBA title he craves.

Kobe had that look throughout the game, the look of a noir hero who seems even more desperate because he needs a shave. He took a lot of shots in the first half and missed almost all of them, but he really lit it up in the fourth quarter, nailing one improbable shot after another. It wasn’t enough.

And it never will be enough.

I’ll say it again. Each of the Big Three has to score more than 20 points a night. Every night. And only Kobe can make that happen. If Kobe wants to be as great as Jordan (and c’mon that’s why he’s so obsessed about getting a sixth ring) he’ll understand what needs to be done and change his game to try to make it happen. Even if he fails, he’ll have earned his place next to the great Jordan.

Most of the Lakers’ problems were created by the front office—the blown deal for Chris Paul and the hasty banishment of Lamar Odom being the most egregious moves. But they also have failed to address the point guard problem. They drafted Darius Morris, a pure point guard, but when Steve Blake was out for awhile, they used Andrew Goudelock as Derek Fisher’s backup, not Morris, even though Goudelock (who they drafted to replace Shannon Brown as Kobe’s backup) had never played point guard in his life at any level. That’s how much of a mistake they made drafting Morris.

Either something will be done, probably at the trading deadline, to rectify (or improve) the situation or the GM needs to be fired.

Consider that Jeremy Lin couldn’t get arrested last week and now he’s the answer to the Knicks prayers. He drops 38 on the Lakers, driving relentlessly to the hoop, hitting perimeter shots and creating easy shots for himself and his teammates. He has started four games in the NBA and has had four spectacular performances in a row, leading the once-plummeting Knicks to four straight wins.

And the Lakers keep trotting out Derek Fisher.