Lakers need to play big against Nuggets, ignore the refs

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From Bleacher Report, one fan’s perspective:

When NBA officials announced Tuesday that Dahntay Jones would receive a retroactive flagrant [foul] for his trip on Kobe Bryant midway through the third quarter Monday night but would not be suspended, it seemed that message board posters and sports talk show callers were happy because it meant, ‘Kobe would take it to that fool.’

Immediately following the intentional trip, these folks had a good point.

After the blown call, Bryant played angrily and proceeded to pass off for a brick, nearly turn the ball over twice and shoot a brick himself.

But that was in the heat of the moment and is not the typical post-MVP Bryant. The post-MVP Bryant is a much less selfish player, but mostly because he doesn’t have to be.

For one, he is not playing with guys like Smush Parker, Kwame Brown and Brian Cook.

And secondly, his All-Star counterpart, Pau Gasol, has arguably been the third-best player on the court.

He’s calling for more touches, and who’s to blame him with much of the team’s failure coming from outside the key?

The post-MVP Kobe recognizes that the post is where the success will come and I expect Gasol and hopefully Bynum to have the opportunity for great nights.

But will the Lakers be able to play big with the officiating situation?

Aside from the phantom call and non-call that sent last night’s Magic-Cavs game into overtime, Game 4 was officiated much more evenly. I expect to see the same thing in Los Angeles.

The cry for an evenly called game is why Phil Jackson was so willing to be assessed a $25,000 league fine for criticizing the officiating to the media.

Expect to see a few pushes in the back called early against Nene and Kenyon Martin. I would like to see Bynum and Gasol act out the pushes a bit more the way Nuggets do just to be sure that the refs see the foul.

And expect some contact on Carmelo Anthony to be allowed.

Then there’s the Kobe-Jones situation. Jackson called Jones’ play ‘unsportsmanlike’ and the league agreed. I guarantee that Jones will not be allowed to manhandle Bryant as much as he did in Game Four.

One of the universal cries after the Game Four loss was that the Lakers did not have the toughness of the Nuggets.

ESPN’s Tim Legler said all Lakers’ opponents need to do is throw an elbow into the back of Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom and the team will fold.

Fact is, the Lakers are what they are. They are not a physical team that will intimidate opponents with hard fouls or violent play. Rather they intimidate opponents by their skill. Gasol and Odom are two of the best multitalented big men in the game, and they, along with Bynum are excellent passers. And, of course, there’s Kobe.

When they Lakers get hit without a foul, they need to stop worrying about the refs and go down and execute the triangle. The Lakers players need to remember that skill plus execution plus fundamental basketball are what make them such a good team and the lack thereof for Denver make them such a combustible one.

--Michael Del Muro