Sports At Random

Coaching was supposed to be the huge edge the Lakers had over the Celtics in this Series. Bigger than anything else. Personnel was a push, bench was possibly slightly to the Lakers- But Phil “9 Rings” Jackson against Doc Rivers? That’s the definition of a mismatch.

But almost everything Doc has done in this Series has worked. Meanwhile, Phil Jackson has appeared to be the one who has never been in a Finals before.

Lamar Odom finally put together the half of his playoff life. The Lakers have a huge lead, Odom is hitting every shot he takes- so what does Phil do? He allows practically every member of the team to jack up 3’s and, even worse, allows Kobe to try to “get in the game”.

Now I know Phil Jackson is not supposed to be a great in-game coach. He does his job in-between games, through the media- not in time-outs. But when your team stops running your precious offense and you and no one else on your team tells Kobe Bryant to stop taking on Paul Pierce one-on-one because he feels “challenged”- YOU ARE NOT DOING YOUR JOB.

Kobe Bryant had 3 points at half-time and the Lakers were up 18. This kind of thing happens often- the Lakers get a lead with Kobe not putting up great stats, although definitely having an effect on the game by just being out there and defenders having to worry about him. But then Kobe often forces his shot in the 2nd Quarter, or in this case, the 2nd Half.

Kobe’s favorite play seems to be to hold the ball and then elevate over his defender and take a 21-footer. This is the worst possible shot in all of basketball- and the Lakers take dozens of these shots per game, but especially Kobe. Phil Jackson needs to not let these things go- this is the Finals. No more letting his team play it out, no more lessons- there is no more time. He needs to step up and do his job.

Phil’s need to be more proactive still won’t fix some of his personnel decisions, such as the previously mentioned ruining of Lamar Odom’s confidence. Lamar was +6 for the game. He was the spark plug for he team’s huge lead- but Kobe’s insistence to dominant the ball took Lamar out of the game. He’s had Lamar on his team for 3 years- he knows the guy loses concentration if he isn’t involved. So push the ball into Lamar- tell him to go after it. Post him up against James Posey. Stop letting Kobe try fade-aways against Paul Pierce and scream at him to feed Lamar.

Another personnel decision that had me shaking my head was the disappearance of Derek Fisher. He sat for over 12 minutes from the end of the 3rd to the last 2 minutes of the 4th- with 2nd year player Jordan Farmar running the point as the Celtics went from down 11 to up 5 (a huge 16 point swing). Again, Phil, not the time to teach the young fella a lesson. Yes, maybe it will help him out in the future, but this is the Finals. Win or go home. Put in the veteran to steady the ship before you lose the lead.

I won’t even mention the 2 time-outs used at the end of the game to get the ball to half-court because he literally was too lackadaisical to get up and the Lakers needed to in-bound the ball or get a 5-second call. And I won’t even mention he left in Sasha Vujacic for much of the 2nd Half, despite building the lead with the likes of Trevor Ariza because I understand Phil was looking to spread the floor. I won’t mention those things.

So now the Lakers are forced to win 3 games in a row, with 2 in Boston. It shouldn’t take 4 games into the Finals for the highest paid coach in the League to open his eyes. And Phil could wake up for Game 5… but I’m afraid it’s too late.