In the first quarter of L.A.’s Sunday night contest against New Orleans, the Lakers almost literally could not buy a bucket, managing to hit only seven of 28 shots to set a poor tone in a 104-87 loss.
The Lakers entered the game with a new starting lineup, as coach Byron Scott opted to go defensive with Ronnie Price replacing Jeremy Lin at point guard and Ed Davis swapping in for Carlos Boozer at power forward. And defensively, L.A. was indeed improved early on, holding the Pelicans to 40.9 percent shooting in that first quarter.
Price’s aggressive on-ball defense on the perimeter complemented Davis’ athleticism to get over and protect the rim just as Scott had hoped … but, well … the Lakers couldn’t hit a shot.
“I thought we started off pretty good, to be honest with you,” Scott said. “I thought, as the game went on, my biggest concern was what ended up happening. We started missing shots. The more we missed, the more we got deterred from what we were thinking about doing. We start thinking about missing shots, and all of a sudden we stop playing the defense that we started off playing. … Our will just kind of was gone because we weren’t making enough shots.”
The lack of offensive rhythm for the starters carried right over to the subs, including Nick Young, who had his second-worst shooting game of the season (3-for-13), and Lin (1-for-5). The reserves did little to pick up Kobe Bryant (6-for-18) or Jordan Hill (4-for-11).
The Lakers were better offensively in the final three quarters, including a fourth quarter in which they made 10 of 17 field goals (58.8 percent) to make the shooting numbers for the game look better (40.0 percent). But they were already chasing the Pelicans, who opened up a 10-point lead at halftime, and led by as many as 24 late in the game.
“Players see shots not falling — that plays a role,” said Young. “That plays a major role in your confidence out there, too. We tried to pick it up on the defensive end. It wasn’t all one-sided. I think we had (fewer) turnovers than them. You know, we just couldn’t capitalize tonight.”
At least somewhat of an offensive drop-off in the absence of Boozer and Lin is to be expected. Continuity aside, Boozer is shooting 49.8 percent on the season and is a consistent jump shooter in pick-and-pop situations. And Lin, despite his struggles of late (28.6 percent shooting in December), can create offense for himself better than Price.
The new starting group puts additional pressure on Bryant to generate the offense, but Scott believes the drop in individual firepower is worth what the team gains on defense. He plans to give the new lineup around 10 or 15 games to gel.
Even if the starters don’t get into a good rhythm immediately, a bench unit of Lin, Wayne Ellington (4-for-7 on Sunday with two triples), Young, Boozer and Robert Sacre should be able to score.
And depending on who’s playing well, Scott continues to be open to granting additional minutes to the hot hand. In fact, any of the 10 players in the rotation could – and have – finish games. To finish a game, of course, L.A. must maintain its defensive identity even on the nights when the ball won’t go in the hoop.
“We just have to try to stay focused for 48 minutes,” Scott concluded.