re: Lakers - Hornets - Game 1

The Hornets brought their A game defensively. But the thing is, they usually do.

They made Gasol a jump shooter. frick, even Bynum took two 15-foot jumpers. The only guy who was getting to the goal/the foul line was Kobe. And that was because Ariza was picking him up way too far away from the goal, allowing himself to get picked off by screens and give Kobe wide open court to drive. I expect the Hornets to make an adjustment there. The only thing the Hornets kind of struggled with was defending the ball screen. And in this situation, I don't think it's that hard of a fix.

I suspect Gasol will try to be a lot more aggressive in game 2 and that will probably get the Hornets bigs in foul trouble. But with Okafor, Landry, Gray, Bdenga (whatever his name is), and Andersen, we have more bigs than people think. It also helps that Okafor was so effective guarding Bynum when both were in the game.

The Lakers shot a lot of jump shots, but I don't think they were necessarily settling. The Hornets weren't going to let Shannon Brown, Lamar Odom, Ron Artest, etc. drive by them. Those guys were going to have to beat them from the mid-range. shite, look at Gasol's attempts. 1-2 at the rim, 1-2 from 9 feet and in, and then 0-5 from outside of 10 feet. New Orleans made him a jump shooter. The Hornets were keeping their man in front and doing a great job of contesting shots. Only Kobe was getting to the rim, and that was due to the ball screen defense, which should be an easy fix, like I said.

Box score with shot locations