Sacramento’s Space Odyssey Leads to a Laker Collapse

Forget fast ball, small ball or even three ball. The Lakers were beaten by team ball. What Sacramento showed Friday night was the essence of that.

The vaunted Laker defense was collapsed, exposing draw-and-kick opportunities for the Kings, from every angle imaginable. Sacramento ran its offense high and wide. Offense is spacing and spacing is offense.

It was a demolition of sorts. The Lakers were driven on by the smalls (shorter, faster players). They were posted up by Chris Webber, and this time, Webber’s post-ups put him at the foul line, or in position to make opportunistic passes to teammates.

Vlade Divac added insult to injury by driving, drawing and kicking.

When it was over, even with the Lakers making a late run, it was the Kings living large and the Lakers hanging to the lifeboat.

The collapse of the Laker defense looked a lot like the implosion of the old Aladdin in Vegas. The genie out of the bottle this time was a well-spaced, second-sided attack in the half court. Sacramento’s offense incorporated ball and player movement for this magic carpet ride.

This one, sadly for the Lakers, was over about the same time as the first quarter.

Webber is so important to all this.

The Lakers cannot allow Webber to catch and shoot, uncontested or late-contested, in the elbow area. Webber should be made to put the ball on the floor. He must be made to finish at the rim. Historically, he is not a good finisher inside. He doesn’t like the contact, doesn’t like to play through the contact.

If you had to summarize, two things really won this game for Sacramento and lost it for the Lakers.

First, Divac played well in the first half in every way. He played defense and flew around, but didn’t flop. He scored well, penetrated well and made Shaq play him. He hit perimeter shots and also made penetration shots.

Second, the Lakers looked emotionally like the collapse of Enron.

If you took a look at the Laker bench, it had all the emotion of the nine Supreme Court justices. Even the Lakers’ designated cheerleader, Mark Madsen, was asleep at the switch. You got a role to play, Mark. Play it.

Conversely, Sacramento’s bench was animated, energized and enthusiastic. It reminded me of the old North Carolina bench under Dean Smith. Remember that, Mitch Kupchak?

The big Laker comeback? Of course, it was too little, too late. Like I said, this one was done when the first quarter was done. But I had no problem with all the three-pointers the Lakers kept launching, even when they cut the lead to 13 and then 11. Those shots were in rhythm.

Ironically, the Lakers got their main chance with the late run off the press, and ironically, Sacramento violated in the full court the most important thing it had adhered to in the half court--spacing. Their press offense lacked deployment. They sped up and played right into the Lakers’ hands by doing so. You don’t beat a press by fastbreaking it.

The Lakers need to do a lot of things, or Cow Town may quickly become Titletown.

The Lakers need to return to La-La Land ball and meticulously run the routes of the triangle offense, which is their bread and butter.

And they need to remember to do what all great teams must do: go home with the girl you brought to the dance.

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Rick Majerus, Utah basketball coach, will be The Times’ guest analyst for the rest of the playoffs. Majerus, the fourth-winningest active coach in major college basketball, will begin his 14th season at Utah this fall.