22nd
Lakers beat Spurs, 89-85, at home in Game 1. Even though Bruce Bowen came ready for battle with Kobe Bryant, his teammates faded down the stretch, lost their lead, and ultimately lost the game. The second-by-second +/- graph shows clearly Bowen’s strong performance, and it shows how experienced playoff-winning coaches gain a feel for winning matchups at the start of a best-of-7 series between closely matched teams.
Based on Bowen’s success, we should expect to see him and Kobe continue to square off. Tony Parker’s 2nd Half vanishing act bolsters the strategy Phil Jackson deployed, specifically letting him go nuts in the 1st Quarter then slowing him with the speedy Jordan Farmar in the 2nd and 3rd periods, then using stronger, more experienced Derek Fisher to close out the game.
Jackson also seems content with using Pau Gasol and Rony Turiaf single-covering Tim Duncan, especially as Parker’s motor winds down as the game goes on. Having the Spurs to run their offense through Duncan stagnates their offensive flow, especially when it takes him a half dozen dribbles and/or fakes to execute a move whether or not he scores or is fouled.
The man-to-man defense on Parker and Duncan allows Jackson lots of flexibility in deploying his other players defensively. The Lakers’ depth at the 3 and 4 spots (Odom, Radmanovic, Vujacic, Walton) along with their capacity to make plays in the Triangle offense, and to contain Ginobli on D, seems to force the hand of Spurs’ coach Popovich. The Lakers found they could ride Vujacic’s good game and give Odom ample minutes to find his own good game, contributing at the game’s end after not doing much previously. Popovich wound up paying a hefty price when decided it was necessary to generate offense with Finley and give him extended minutes, but then have him miss his shots. In fact, if Finley stays cold the Spurs’ ability to generate adequate offense doesn’t look very likely, especially now that Udoka is regularly being chased off of his 3-point shot.
The wild card for the Spurs seems to be Robert Horry. He would seem to possess advantages as a shooter and Triangle defender that Kurt Thomas and Oberto do not. But it’s hard to tell if he’s ready to make a sustained contribution, though he had a good Game 7 in New Orleans, and had positive minutes in the first half. It seems telling that Pop kept him on the bench for the whole second half, and may feel like the Hornets exposed a weakness he has protecting the rim, especially when the Lakers started going over the top of Duncan to Gasol.
It will be interesting to see what the Lakers vs. Spurs graph looks like when Ginobli plays well. Who for the Lakers will it expose?
