Final Score: LAL 111 WAS 116 [L]
Alright so welcome in to the full recap and the first for an NBA Tuesday fan night game. The Lakers and Wizards traded blows in the 2nd half, but in the end it was the Wizards who edged out the Lakers in Washington lead by the trio of John Wall, Nene, and Martell Webster.
Yes this loss hurts, but not the most hurtful loss of the season. The Lakers had a chance to go beyond .500 and extend their win streak, but they just couldn't hold their own and props to the Wizards, they played better, they wanted it more and John Wall has been an absolute beast so far this season.
Let's start with the positives, Jordan Farmar, quite arguably his best game as a Laker and it's quite surprising. Farmar was the Lakers' top performer with 22 points on 9-11 shooting, 2 rebounds, and 8 assists off the bench. The only knock I have about Farmar is that he fails to follow up the next game after a brilliant performance like this. If you guys remember his first tenure as a Laker when he had games like this, one game he erupts both as a scorer and facilitator and then the next game he just falls out flat. Other than that, I thought Jordy played an incredible game, not taking anything away from that. Another positive, another bench guy and the homecoming, Nick Young. I know he made that errant shot to tie the game, but I'll explain later on why that was a stupid play drawn up by Mike D. I thought Young played efficiently scoring 16 points off the bench and shooting 50% on the field while he was getting booed in front of the Wizards crowd.
The rest of the players that were in double figures: Pau Gasol, 17 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, I thought Gasol played well, aside from that blown layup to pretty much wrap up the game and the 5 turnovers he committed. I'll explain his defensive struggles later in the negative section. Other double figure players: Steve Blake 15 points, Jodie Meeks 10 points, Wesley Johnson 11 points, and Jordan Hill with 10 points and 8 rebounds. Jordan Hill had an off game tonight he wasn't hustling and grabbing too many rebounds and he's another part of the negative that I will explain after this section.
So the negatives of this game: the interior defense and the turnovers. Since Dwight's departure, the interior defense has a big void within this Laker team, which the lack of a true rim protector. I mean Nene and Marcin Gortat played both Gasol and Hill tough in the paint. Both Nene and Gortat combined for 45 points and 10 rebounds. I mean you can credit some of those to John Wall because he was slashing in the paint and setting both those big men up for good looks. I know I haven't seen all of the game, but NBA TV did quick highlights of the game just recently and most of those points came from Wall's penetration off pick n roll. The turnovers another negative. The Lakers committed 16 turnovers in contrast to the Wizard's 10. Turnovers hurt because the Laker transition D is never good (understatement) and that has been the knack for the Lakers for a long time. One miscellaneous negative: Shawne Williams. It's obvious Williams was brought in to be that stretch 4 under D'Antoni's system, but 2 points on 1-7 shooting, 0-4 from 3 pt land. So far this season, he's been averaging 4.2 ppg, 3.0 rpg, and 0.8 apg and he's under the bust category in the free agency signings for the Lakers.
Okay now to talk about that one play that Mike D'Antoni set up for a potential tie. Out of all plays, he set up a play to kick it out to Nick Young for the go-ahead game tying 3. Are you kidding me? Let's go back to this sequence. John Wall misses the first free throw, makes the second one, Lakers call a timeout, there's still like 24 seconds left in the 4th quarter, literally plenty of time to go for a quick two and play the foul game. I mean you can share some of the blame towards Nick Young for taking that low percentage 3, but there was still plenty of time to either get Gasol open in the paint for a quick give and dunk or either have Farmar or Young slash in the lane for a quick score. Overall, bad shot by Young, bad play design by D'Antoni.
Like I said, this game hurts, but it's a game the Lakers just gotta forget about. They're playing on back to back nights and so they got Brooklyn tomorrow and the Nets just won a close one tonight also against the Raptors. Both teams like to get going to push for a playoff spot later in the season. And also let's see if guys like Farmar and Young can play follow up especially on a back to back night. Anyway, there won't be an impromptu full recap because the Nets game is not televised, so there will be a quick recap with highlights instead. So stay tuned. It's gonna be a busy week for me because I have to quick recap the Lakers' games against Brooklyn and Detroit and the Raiders' Thanksgiving matchup with the Dallas Cowboys. It's a November to remember because adding this post, the two recaps, and the Q-by-Q, halftime and full recap post, I will be reaching 30 posts in one month and that is a blog high. So congrats to me. I'll see you guys tomorrow.
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