Lakers Getting Picked Apart

Let’s go right to Sacramento’s last play, Mike Bibby’s winning shot, because it shows how the Kings are handling the Lakers, beating them, maybe even toying with them a little.

Bibby takes the ball out of bounds, passes to Chris Webber, follows the ball to Webber, who hands it back to him. In the handoff process, Webber turns to a screening position and levels the pursuing Derek Fisher. Bibby has time to set, get a good look at the basket, square up and swish the game-winning shot.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Why and how should a player get that open in a do-or-die situation?

It has happened throughout the series and says as much about the Kings’ offensive firepower and versatility as it does about the Lakers, who have been unable or unwilling to adjust defensively.

In this situation, and throughout the series, the Lakers are violating what I consider to be the No. 1 rule of defending the pick. Make the big man beat you. Don’t get beat by the ball or the small man. The fear of mismatch, the hesitancy to switch, is beating the Lakers. The hesitation of the big man--usually Robert Horry playing against Webber--to jump out and defend the smaller player--in this case Bibby--is an example of the Kings’ ability to exploit the Lakers’ defense. Sacramento has had a field day with handoffs and picks that start all sorts of plays that end with medium-distance jump shots.

Who is hurting the Lakers more, Webber or Bibby? Just like that last shot, Bibby is doing most of the damage. Ideally, you don’t want Horry defending Bibby, leaving Fisher to deal with Webber, but we are five games into this series and Bibby is still shooting the most deadly daggers.

On the Kings’ final play, did you see any Laker flying out at Bibby? All you saw was Fisher being obliterated by the pick and Bibby having time to set and deliver yet another bull’s-eye into the Lakers’ three-peat hopes.

I’ve said that Phil Jackson is a tremendous coach. I also don’t know what his defensive mind-set is or his overall philosophy, but it does seem like it’s time to try something different on that pick play. It’s time that Horry becomes willing to get beat by the big man, because--let’s face it--the Lakers are now getting beat by the little man, shooting over them and dribbling around them.

The Kings and Rick Adelman threw another wrinkle at the Lakers too. They had Webber and Divac set picks high and ran Bibby past both of them, usually Webber first and then Divac. Poor Fisher. By that time, he is so banged around and out of rhythm against Bibby that he’s got to feel like a lotto ball in the air bucket.

I’ve said this before, but it still applies. Speed kills, and it is killing the Lakers.

Los Angeles isn’t playing Laker ball because it is playing Sacramento’s tempo. Sacramento is the best in the game at advancing the ball after a score. Just about every other team in the NBA walks it up after a score. These guys get it out of the net and are off to the races. When the Lakers get caught in that, they shoot too early in the clock and they don’t swing the ball from one side to the other on offense. The triangle goes flat and the Laker offense is one-sided (played on the first side of the court they start on).

If the Kings win the series, it will be unlike Jackson’s championship teams that dominated on defense. This will be a rarity, an NBA conference title won with offense. That’s the Laker challenge now, to not let this become an offensive championship.