1. Selling my tickets at a 345% markup was one of my all-time best decisions.
2. Blake Griffin had no answer for Pau’s length (monster jams notwithstanding). How many times did he get his shot blocked? He desperately needs a midrange game. Or some post moves.
3. Everyone except CP3 was mortified in the last five minutes. This does not bode well for the playoffs.
4. Smart move by Mike Brown to put Ron Artest on CP3 in the fourth quarter. The Lakers were able to get away with it because Randy Foye isn’t big enough to exploit Sessions.
5. Vinny should have played Nick Young instead of Foye in the last few minutes, for three reasons: (1) see point #3 above. Everyone was terrified at the end of the game. Nick Young is too selfish and oblivious to get nervous, especially when he’s having a good game; (2) see point #4 above. Young has the size to take advantage of the mismatch created by the Artest-Paul matchup; (3) Young’s length would have bothered Kobe on his critical late-game jumpers.
6. Andrew Bynum was unstoppable. I don’t assign much blame to DJ. Nobody can stop Bynum one-on-one when he’s got it going. And it’s so tough to double him with Kobe lurking on the perimeter and Pau waiting to dive to the basket. Frankly, the Lakers are unstoppable when they run their offense through Bynum in the post.
7. I realized that Eric Bledsoe is our nuclear option. He comes in and causes complete chaos for both teams. He’ll relentlessly harass the opposing PG into a turnover, then sprint down the floor and throw up a wild shot on a 1 on 4 fastbreak. He’ll hit a big shot, then run past his man trying to gamble on defense, leading to an easy bucket for the other team. For a while this scorched earth strategy worked pretty well, because the Clippers were down big and the Lakers offense was clicking on all cylinders. At that point, introducing a bunch of chaotic frenzy into the game could only help us. Unfortunately, this also means we’ll have to take the good with the bad. If he can ever harness his energy on offense, he’ll be a major asset.
8. I only counted one Kobe jutted-jaw scowl today. Andrew Bynum is threatening to surpass Kobe as the most obnoxious Laker.
9. Goodness, I hate the Lakers.
