The Lakers won today over the Minnesota Timberwolves, 102-97. Once again, Kobe has a Jordan-esque game going 7-25 from the field to score 32 points. Kobe, Kobe, Kobe. When will you quit taking so many difficult shots. If you take away the 7 or 8 shots you took with a taller player right in your face, you would only be shooting poorly. As it is you are showing poor judgement in your shot selection. Shaq also didn’t shoot well, going 13-26. Doesn’t sound bad until you realize that ALL of his shots are within 8 feet. Of course, Robert Horry (3-8) and Derek Fisher (2-8) have little to be happy about with their shooting percentages. For the most part they are open shots.
What saved the Lakers today was offensive rebounding. They had 18 offensive rebounds (to the ‘Wolves 8). Of course if they were shooting a better percentage (.398 from the field for the game) they wouldn’t need to or be able to get the offensive rebounds. Also, Troy Hudson having 6 turnovers helped a lot (Lakers won that battle 10-16). They just aren’t playing well and need to get it going.
I only have one question of the Lakers: when is somebody going to guard Troy Hudson? He still gets off shots pretty much when he wants to. He was 5-11 from three point range. You expect big numbers from Kevin Garnett (28 points, 18 rebounds, 5 assists) but Troy Hudson has not scored more than 20 in consecutive games in his career; that is until now. Lets see if we can’t defend the pick and roll better, huh guys?
