Now It’s Time for the Lakers to Adjust

Look for the Lakers to take a page from the Portland Trail Blazers’ adjustment book for Game 3 of their Western Conference finals on Friday.

After settling for jump shots and getting blown out in Game 1, Portland turned aggressive and reversed their fortunes with a lopsided victory in Game 2.

Now it is the Lakers’ move. They enjoyed major success shooting from the perimeter in their Game 1 win but crashed back to earth in Tuesday’s Game 2 loss as they misfired from the outside time after time.

One player who did not attack was Kobe Bryant, who took only nine shots. Asked Wednesday if he planned to be more offense-minded Friday, Bryant smiled.

“Are you actually asking me to shoot the ball?” Bryant laughed.

“I just haven’t been that aggressive, as far as going to the hoop. I have kind of been settling. It’s easy to keep passing the ball out to the perimeter [against the Trail Blazers] because they have open shots.”

When asked if he would be like Portland’s Scottie Pippen, who dictated Game 2 by attacking the basket, Bryant made sure to point out the difference between the players’ roles.

“[We’re] kind of sort of [the same] but I have to go through two or three guys,” Bryant said.

“I plan to be more aggressive but you have to stay within the system. Sometimes, you have to break down the system to keep the system going.”

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When A.C. Green first entered the NBA, he found himself in numerous best-of-seven playoff battles over his early years with the Lakers. He looks at the next two games of the series, which will be played at Portland, as the crux of basketball.

“This is what playoff basketball is all about,” Green said. “It should be a chess game. That’s what you expect. You do something, they counteract. They do something, you counteract. A team may sneak one and surprise you and then you have to respond. And then it comes down to the final move. That’s sort of how it has always drawn out. We’ll see how this series plays out.”

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Bryant said the Lakers do have some extra motivation to defeat the Trail Blazers on their home court after Portland rubbed in their Game 2 victory with excessive celebrating on the sideline during the second half.

“Yeah, you notice, they are a young emotional team,” Bryant said. “Absolutely, it bothered me, it’s kind of young. We used to do the same thing when we had that type of squad. When we had Eddie [Jones] and those type of guys. But whatever. It was just a basketball game. They won one game, whoop-dee whoop. We have to go up there and do the same thing. The only difference now is it’s a much tougher challenge to win in Portland.”

“Be honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way. You have to have some type of adversity.”