Odom with Kobe’s Scowl
The only reason the Lakers defeated the Clippers was Andrew Bynum altering shot after shot when the Clipper smalls drove it in for a layup. His 4 blocks don’t come close to measuring his defensive impact in the game. The Clippers simply running out of gas in the 4th and hoisting 3-pointers didn’t hurt either. Let us not forget that this was a competitive game until the Lakers went on a 22-0 run in the 4th quarter, to win it 106-88. There are chinks in the Lakers’ armor: here are some observations.
- It was a sight very rarely seen from Lamar Odom. When he cleanly stripped the ball from Chris Kaman, he ate a Kaman elbow, who clearly commited a loose ball foul. The referree called a foul on Odom. Odom errupted in anger, quickly earning a tech for screaming and gesturing at the ref. What happened on the next offensive possesion was unbelieveable. Odom directed the triangle to swing the ball over to the right side of the paint, where he was backing his man in and sealing him without the ball.
Only Kobe thus far has yelled at the triangle to swing the ball from one end to the other so he could get the ball. The Lakers listened to Odom’s commands, and he made an aggresive move to the body of the helping Kaman to get the foul. The waters parted for Odom again. He lost his scowl, he felt the world had been balanced. If only he could convince himself he had been wronged every possession. If only he kept that scowl the whole game like Kobe Bryant.
- Speaking of Kobe, the decrease in the accuracy of his outside shot is alarming. Phil Jackson half joked about Kobe’s dead legs, but there could be a lot of truth to this. He has regulary missed open or lightly guarded shots from the outside that would feel like mere layups a year ago.
In the game against the Clippers, he was an embarrassing 38% (8-21) from the field, despite not taking any wild three-pointers he had in previous years. Even his driving layup that crawled in looked like it was going to come out. He simply comes down to the ground faster than he expects, and must adjust for this quickly and find his shot again.
This is the most important ongoing development we should all be tracking for the Lakers. A championship depends on Kobe being the elite outside shooter he has been known to be all these years.
