Offensive end: Fisher is old; Artest lacks effective empty cutting; Kobe's skills are getting more and more perfect, but his athletic ability has not reached its peak; Gasol and Bynum can't open the space together; Substitute except Odom generally lacks impact and doesn't like to throw the ball inside; The whole team has no stable long-range firepower to open the front line.
Defensive end: Fisher is old; Artest's defense can't cover the periphery, so Kobe has to come; Kobe's pressure on the ball is not as good as that at its peak; Gasol+Odom can't protect the restricted area as a partner; Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum couldn't guard against China Investment.
So against the Mavericks, there was a tricky counterpoint, and these problems were exposed.
The purpose of the Lakers has always been to put a jumper to block the inside? The Mavericks have enough shooters to change shifts. In the first game, Terry, Peja and barea, in the second game, Stevenson and barea, and in the third game, Terry and Peja were full of firepower, excellent in quantity and quality, and killed the Lakers with long-range shots.
The Lakers' offense depends on the inside? The Mavericks also have enough insiders. Last year, Luo Zhi's Chandler and Heywood played the role of the Lakers' tower group. There's not enough inside, so we have to make up for it. The Mavericks saw the Lakers' bad long shots, and the Lakers didn't curse when they contracted. In the first game, except Kobe Bryant, the Lakers hit 1 3-pointers. In the second game, the Lakers made 2 of 20 3-pointers; In the third game, the Lakers 13 made 3-pointers.
Of course, Mavericks don't just rely on shooters, they also have trump cards. Nowitzki's one-on-one challenge to Gasol is arbitrary. Nowitzki's back-to-back singles after being "black eight" in 2007 have shined brilliantly in this series. Gasol can't handle it.
Curiously, the Mavericks not only let Nowitzki play alone, but also used him to play a lot of tricks, which is the credit of Kidd. Mavericks are familiar with the Lakers' habit of preventing pick-and-roll and shrinking the restricted area, so they deliberately let Kidd and Nowitzki play pick-and-roll and the Lakers dare to shrink from other insiders, but after all, they are afraid of Nowitzki. As a result, barea took advantage of the Lakers' fear of Nowitzki in the second game and made a quick break.
The question is: since the Lakers had all these problems before, why didn't the previous teams have the advantage like the Mavericks?
One of the problems, Gasol.
Gasol has been in a slump since the playoffs this year. It's not surprising that his offensive performance is always poor when he plays with Bynum, but this year's decline is a bit large. The reason is not only that the space in the past can't be opened, but also that the Lakers have too few empty cuts now, which greatly reduces his ability to cope; Bynum became an inside man, and he was forced to help. The Lakers can't open the space, forcing him to swim outside the three-point line and lose the ball. As Gasol, who always likes to play smoothly and lightly, his mood can be imagined in the current stagnant Lakers system. Originally, Gasol was not an excited and passionate insider. He is in a bad mood and his performance is getting worse and worse.
The second problem is the periphery.
Last season, the Lakers actually had the abnormal layout of Kobe Bryant+three frontcourt, and the quality of long throw, empty cut, passing and speed-up provided by the periphery was generally low. This season, the Lakers' periphery is only one year older, and Shannon Brown, who was all-powerful at the beginning of the season, is now mediocre. When the Lakers completely become a slow-paced team with half-court attack and defense, their peripheral shortcomings are more obvious under the one-track play. Although Artest is also trying to make awkward empty cuts, Fisher is also trying to break through the layup and shoot three points, but the team's vitality is really lacking-at this time, the significance of Farmar and Vujacic appears.
The third question is mood.
In the 1980s, there was a cloud in Riley. The difficulty of defending the championship is that the teams that have already won the championship will lose their hunger and thirst, so it is extremely difficult to spur them to continue winning the championship.
Riley himself has only defended his title once, and only the cardinals and Kundera of the Lakers in the 1950s won three consecutive titles like Jackson. Take Gasol as an example. The key to the Lakers' aging is not the body, but the mind. The Lakers have never been calm: Gasol questioned Kobe Bryant's shooting choices last season. Of course, in the end, they worked together to tide over the difficulties and won the championship. However, in 20 1 1 year, Gasol and Odom have won the championship in NBA and international arena, and they are tired enough to cover up all contradictions, so the performance on the court is that the Lakers are not so hungry, and that vicious energy has disappeared.
Jackson, known as the "Zen master", is not a tactical school. He focuses on the stream of consciousness, and his strengths are controlling players and improvising. Sadly, Jackson's two magic weapons didn't work in the Western Conference semifinals, which led to the Lakers' embarrassing exit.
It is Jackson's specialty to skillfully resolve the frustration, dissatisfaction and contradictions of players. After entering the playoffs, Pau Gasol continued to languish, but Jackson could do nothing. Jackson gave Gasol a rare punch in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals. When Jackson found that he couldn't wake Gasol with kindness and grace, he couldn't help but lose his temper. The disputes in the Lakers' locker room were reported to the media many times by players, and Andrew Bynum criticized his teammates for their lack of trust, causing an uproar. In the second quarter of the fourth game, the Mavericks set off a three-point frenzy. Jackson repeatedly called for the suspension of sending troops, but failed to get a positive response from the players. The collapse is unstoppable. The Lakers, once under Jackson's control, have derailed, and Jackson is unable to grasp the direction of this team.
One of the main reasons why the Lakers can't beat the Mavericks is that they can't prevent Dirk Nowitzki. Judging from the player conditions, the Lakers are not short of Nowitzki's ideal candidate. Gasol and Odom can keep an eye on Nowitzki directly, while Artest and matt barnes can use small defense. The problem is that Jackson is a little worried. He didn't want to compromise Odom's offensive firepower for the second lineup, so he didn't let Odom beat Nowitzki. Jackson didn't trust Artest and Barnes. He tried to defend Nowitzki with Artest, but Barnes even got the cold shoulder. He only played 12 minutes per game in the Western Conference semifinals. Jackson was superstitious about the power of the three towers in the restricted area and basically gave up the weapon of preventing the big with the small. Nowitzki averaged 25 points in the Western Conference semifinals and shot 57%. How can the Lakers be unbeaten?
Jackson hasn't changed. In the third game, Artest was suspended and Jackson put Odom in the starting lineup. In doing so, Jackson deliberately stormed the Mavericks' restricted area with three towers. Although it had some effect, Odom's starting weakened the Lakers' bench fire. Jackson had to extend Odom's playing time and let Odom play for 42 minutes. Gasol and Bynum played 40 minutes and 37 minutes respectively, which led to a red light in the third quarter and the Lakers suffered a reversal. If Jackson had given Barnes a chance in the third game to keep Odom in the second team, Odom might not have made that fatal catch mistake.
Jackson's conservatism is also reflected in his arrangement of key balls for the Lakers. The tactics are outrageous, and the almost unchanging Kobe Bryant and Gasol pick and roll in the high position, which is equivalent to giving the Mavericks a targeted goal. In the first game of the Western Conference semifinals, the Mavericks saw through the Lakers' tactical intentions at the last minute, and Kidd destroyed the cooperation between Kobe Bryant and Gasol, which became the key to the victory or defeat of that game. There are many classic cases of Jackson's unexpected victory in the playoffs, but in this western conference semi-final, what we saw was the unsuccessful "duet" between Kobe Bryant and Gasol at the crucial moment.
Being in trouble, Jackson lost himself. Of course, a series of failures can't erase Jackson's great achievements, but it just proves that there are no invincible myths and immortal legends in this world. The Lakers lost, and Jackson was old.