Game 3 Rewind: Defenseless – Tragic 108, Lakers 104

Well, I’m officially confused.  How do you hold a team to 30% shooting and then less than a week later allow that same team to shoot 62.5%?

The Lakers defense wasn’t just bad, it was Finals record bad.

I thought the Lakers had gotten over this whole lapse of focus problem, but instead it came back to haunt them in spades as they allowed a NBA Finals record shooting percentage in the Game 3 loss.  Now the Lakers have to be deeply concerned about whether or not they can fix their defense because this wasn’t just a flukishly good shooting night for the Magic, it was a methodical decimation of the Lakers defensive scheme.

The Magic normally do their damage from long-distance, but they only attempted 14 three-pointers in Game 3, instead opting to attack the rim (imagine that) and push the tempo.  With the Lakers so worried about getting killed on kick-out threes, they just plain forgot to stop the Magic players from driving to the hoop and not just one Magic, but pretty much all of them as five different Orlando players score 18 or more points on the night.  That is just a fundamental breakdown on all levels.

Phil Jackson and his assistants need to go buy some coffee and make themselves comfortable in the video room because what happened tonight was alarming.  It is one thing to make a small tweak to the defensive scheme because one opposing player caught fire and took over, but it is going to take ground-up rebuild of the defense to fix a scheme that allows everyone on the other team to score whenever they want from where ever they want.  Defensive match-ups need to be switched, starting with taking Trevor Ariza off Hedo Turkoglu who finally realized he is three inches taller and can just shoot over Ariza.  After that, Phil Jackson needs to dust off Shannon Brown to stop Rafer Alston now that he has found his confidence and shooting stroke.  Finally, I say instead of throwing a mix of double-teams at Dwight Howard, just let him be.  The Lakers are too focused on tugging on Superman’s cape now and have let their guard down on the rest of the team.  They should make Howard prove that he has the offensive skills to beat them on his own and focus instead on locking down his supporting cast.  Dwight can only chuck so many flat hook shots at the rim and I don’t think it is enough to topple the Lakers.

If there is a silver lining to the loss it is that the Lakers only lost by four points on a night where they played as bad as humanly possible on D.  That doesn’t make this bitter pill much sweeter to swallow, but it does provide hope for Game 4 and beyond.

Just don’t tell that to Kobe.

• Mickael Pietrus is still unaware of what a pump fake is and for that reason Kobe Bryant is going to have his way with him all series long.  Even after Pietrus got faked into a four-point play for Kobe, he still kept leaving his feet on defense.  Kobe is simply too crafty a player to not take advantage of that.
• The Lakers’ offense still isn’t having any problems at least.  Five different Lakers scored in double-digits and they shot over 50% from the field as a team.  If they can just go back to doing what they were doing on defense back in LA, they should still be able to secure the title.
• I am convinced the Magic have done irreparable harm to their basketball karma by having Nick “The Brick” Anderson come out to make the pre-game introductions for the Magic.  Whatever PR guru thought it was a good idea to have the man responsible for the most infamous moment in the franchise’s only other Finals appearance might want to consider updating their resume.

Bad News:

• Make your free throws!!!!  Even Kobe couldn’t cash in from the charity stripe as the Lakers bricked 10 of their 26 free throws.  When you consider that they lost by just four points, that really has to burn, especially for a team that had shot their freebies so well most of the post-season.
• Oh crap, somebody woke up Rafer Alston.  I had thought Jameer Nelson would be the Orlando point guard that would cause the Lakers trouble, but Skip to My Lou took the job instead.  Don’t think for one second that the Magic finally getting quality point guard play didn’t have anything to do with their offensive breakthrough tonight.
• The Lakers are still up 2-1, but the pressure is now officially on them.  They missed their chance to take an insurmountable series lead and the Magic now have their confidence back.  As the favorite in the series, the Lakers now are the ones who have to prove themselves.  Suddenly that missed alley-oop in Game 2 is looming much larger than before.

Tags: bad defense, Dwight Howard, Game 3, Game Rewind, Hedo Turkoglu, Kobe Bryant, Mickael Pietrus, NBA Finals, Orlando Magic, Phil Jackson, Rafer Alston, Shannon Brown, Trevor Ariza