The Lakers are in Charlotte to face the Bobcats at the Time Warner Cable Arena. Los Angeles will be looking to redeem themselves from playing by far, their worse game of the season. The Lakers offensively, settled for way too many jump shots and as a team couldn’t knock down said shots with any consistency.
Perhaps it could’ve been the effect of a subpar Kobe Bryant, due to injury, or something caused by being in the midst of a long road trip. The team is grinding on the road but the Lakers couldn’t match the energy level of the Hawks in the third quarter.
The game was close until the Hawks broke the game open with a scoring run led by Maurice Evans burning his former team going 3-for-5 from behind the arc. Los Angeles was out-shot from behind the arc going 4-for-20; consequently Atlanta made 10-of-19 which was the difference in the game.
Reminiscent of a never-ending bad reality TV show, the reserves couldn’t provide any energy and were ripped again. In a low scoring game the reserves were outscored 29-14.
The Lakers are favored to win tonight and need to approach this game as a must-win game although Charlotte always seems to play the Lakers tough. According to Stats Inc., The Lakers have a losing record in their nine all-time meetings and have lost five of their last six including the past three at Staples Center.
This will be the second game of the season against Charlotte. Despite Kobe’s 38 points the Lakers suffered a frustrating 117-110 double-overtime loss to them on 1/27. In that game the Lakers were out-rebounded 53-42 and gave up 25 points off of turnovers but were in position to win the game despite Kobe being in foul trouble due to some questionable calls.
The Bobcats are a solid defensive team allowing an average of 94.5 points per game. This is interesting due to the fact that the Lakers are coming off of a game where they were held to a season-low point total and 35% shooting.
The Lakers can play defense as evidenced by the number of points allowed being lowered slightly. Tonight they’ll need to control the boards, get back in transition and it is a must that the team rotates out to three point shooters.
Kobe is averaging 35.3 points per against the Bobcats and is due for a good shooting high scoring game, if healthy tonight could be that night. The Lakers will see a zone defense tonight and need to attack it and get to the basket as oppose to settling for jump shots.
The Lakers need to attack the basket tonight.
Tipoff: 4:00 PM PST
Television -
- Los Angeles: KCAL Channel 9 (Joel Myers & Stu Lanz)
- Charlotte: Fox Sports Carolinas HD (Steve Martin & Henry Williams)
Radio -
- Los Angeles: AM570 KLAC (Spero Dedes & Mychal Thompson)
- Charlotte: WOLS 106.1 FM (Scott Lauer)
Injuries -
Lakers:
- Andrew Bynum (Knee)
Bobcats:
- None to report.
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