Alright welcome in to the full recap of the NBA Season opener between the Lakers and the Houston Rockets where the Rockets beat the Lakers 108-90 and Dwight Howard has secured another win over the Lakers since leaving LA, this time at the expense of Kobe Bryant's return.
For the most part, there were some parts of the game where the Lakers kept themselves alive in this game and made it competitive, but they just couldn't get their offensive game on to counter the Rockets' high powered offense. The defense was pretty up and down this game, there were times they turned up the activity and other times, they couldn't stop the Rockets offense.
The Positives
Kobe Bryant, 19 points, 6-17 shooting. Well, early on Kobe Bryant carried the offense. The offense just didn't do much this game and Kobe had take it upon himself to generate some offense. He struggled with his shot early, but he managed to get back rhythm in his jump shot. It'll take some time for him to gain some of his explosiveness, but his jump shot, his fundamental footwork is still there and he played an "OK" game.
Carlos Boozer, 17 points, 7 rebounds, 7-13 shooting. I said in my halftime post, somebody's going to shoulder some of the scoring load off of Kobe and that role is left to either Jeremy Lin or Boozer and Boozer picked up the slack in the 2nd half and brought some nominal energy to give the Lakers some spark before it slipped away in the in the middle of the 4th quarter.
The Negatives
Offense. Perhaps the biggest opportunity the Lakers missed. They shot 35.4% from the field, they didn't shoot too much on the 3 ball, but it's still bad. You save the offense inefficiency in the preseason. Just an overall sloppy game offensively for the Lakers on opening night, though they did get it going somewhat in the 2nd half, but still they struggled mightily to buy a shot.
Foul trouble. This is the trouble the Lakers are going to have without a true big man that can enforce the rim protection. Hill, Boozer, and Davis were obviously undersized going up against Howard. Only Davis fouled out, Hill committed 3 fouls, Wes had 5 fouls, Kobe also had 5 fouls. Reason why the Rockets had so many free throws was because the Lakers were committing fouls, especially against Howard early on to put him on the free throw line.
Conclusion
Short full recap, I have a class tomorrow early in the morning that's why. Anyway, it's just the first regular season game. I said in my preview, the Lakers will have some upset wins and tonight was just not the night. Obviously area of concern, Julius Randle; it was revealed he has a broken fibula. Even if he can recover fast, likely he'll sit out for the rest of the season and it's unfortunate for the rookie to start off his career like that. Injuries aside, the Lakers go on the road tomorrow against the Phoenix Suns and have a Halloween matchup with the Clippers on Friday night. Since the Suns game is not televised nationally, I will just post a quick recap on that. However, the Clippers game is going to be on ESPN on Friday, so I'll see you guys for that game.
No comments:
Post a Comment