Is this team like the Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant teams?
Readers’ questions for our Lakers beat reporter Broderick Turner. Questions will be answered every week.
Question: As frustrating as the lazy play has been, is there any similarity between this Lakers team and the second year of the Shaq (O’Neal) & Kobe (Bryant) repeat teams? I don’t remember all the details, but I don’t think they had a great regular season either, but won about 10 straight at the end of the year and almost swept through the playoffs.
Just curious if you remember whether that team was working hard but losing, or had the same tendency to coast. I have to imagine that Kobe & (Pau) Gasol will actually jump for loose balls come playoff time.
Mike C.
San Diego
Answer: Can’t say there is much comparison between the 2000-01 Lakers team that repeated and this 2009-10 Lakers team that’s trying to repeat.
That Shaq-Kobe team was 56-20 in the regular season and it was an older, veteran team. Bryant played in 68 regular-season games because of injuries. Derek Fisher played in just 20 regular-season games because of a stress fracture in his right foot.
That team went into the playoffs with an eight-game winning streak and won nine of 10.
The 2009-10 Lakers team is young, with players such as Andrew Bynum, Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown still developing and learning the game.
This team is finding out how hard it is to repeat and how teams get so hyped up to play the Lakers every night. This team has a dominant player in Bryant and a very skilled player in Gasol.
Shaq was just a monster player, a force that no team could deal with.
And remember, that Shaq-Kobe team went 15-1 in the playoffs, losing Game 1 of the NBA Finals to the Philadelphia 76ers.
I can’t see this current team doing that because the Western Conference is so tough.
Q: Why can’t the Lakers defend the pick-and-roll? Teams run that play very often, and the Lakers are constantly getting beat by it. Will they ever learn?
Hien Dang
Santa Barbara
A: To be honest, just about every team has problems defending the pick-and-roll. But I understand, like most Lakers’ fans, you care only about your team.
It takes all five players on defense to successfully defend the pick-and-roll. It obviously starts with Derek Fisher out front. But Lakers center Andrew Bynum plays a big role because teams like to put him in the pick-and-roll the most.
Lately, the Lakers have made some improvements defending it. But it’s a play that is difficult to stop. If it was easy to stop, teams would stop running it, but teams don’t.
Q: Can we beat the Cavaliers in the Finals if the Cavs have home-court advantage and have a strong roster and maybe Shaq (O’Neal) coming back for the playoffs?
Charles Clark
Pasadena
A: Hmmmm!
Good question.
I wonder the same thing myself. The Cavaliers did beat the Lakers twice during the regular season. But so did the Orlando Magic last season and the Lakers beat them in five games in the NBA Finals.
I’m still old-school in that I’m of the belief that the NBA champs have to be defeated first in a seven-game series.
Right now, I still think the Lakers can repeat. But, hey, that’s why they play the games.
Should be fun watching the playoffs this year.
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