Can the Los Angeles Lakers win without their superstar
shooting guard Kobe Bryant in the lineup? Well Bryant has only been out five
games while resting his bruised shin but the Lakers are 4-1 in his absence.
Everybody has pitched in to help keep the Lakers in the win
column but if there is one lesson that L.A.’s big men will learn from Bryant’s
absence is that things are so much easier when the Black Mamba is in the
lineup.
Look no further than Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum’s shooting
percentages for proof of that. In the five games that Bryant has been out, both
big men have had only one game apiece where they shot for over 50%.
Gasol has gone four straight games shooting under 50% and
Bynum has had his first three-game stretch of the season where he didn’t top
50% in field goal shooting percentage.
Even more telling is that Bynum has already topped 20 field
goal attempts four times in the month of April. He only had one game with over
20 shot attempts before this month.
As you can see the Lakers are definitely looking to get
Bynum the ball more in Bryant’s absence so if he can figure out how to be more
efficient when Bryant isn’t on the floor it will help them out tremendously
going forward.
His poor shooting percentage also shows how dangerous teams
feel Bynum can be. With both Gasol and Bynum on the floor Sunday, the Dallas
Mavericks looked to crowd and double Bynum every time he got his hands on the
ball.
It doesn’t hurt that Gasol chooses to settle for jump shots
as opposed to working for shots in the paint. Gasol has taken five three-point
attempts over the past three games.
He took multiple attempts from three in two of those three
games. Before that he only had two games all season where he took more than one
attempt from behind the arc.
Ramon Sessions has played well for the Lakers during this
stretch but the two guys who have had the biggest impact in Bryant’s absence
have been small forwards Metta World Peace and Matt Barnes.
World Peace has had his best scoring output of the season
with double-digit scoring in five of the last six games. If he continues to put
up the solid scoring and shooting numbers he is putting up now then April will
be the first month this season where he will actually average double-digits in
scoring.
While World Peace has given the Lakers a boost from the
starting lineup, Barnes has given them a boost off the bench.
In the Lakers’ last four games, Barnes has shot over 57%
from the field and is 10 of 16 from behind the arc. He was only two assists shy
of a triple double against the Mavericks on Sunday with 11 points, 11 rebounds
and eight assists.
So it seems that Bryant’s absence has caused his teammates
to step up their game which may bode well for the Lakers in the playoffs. The
Lakers played horrible in last year’s playoffs especially in the second round
where they were swept by the Mavericks.
And with the Lakers currently in third place in the West and
the Mavs in sixth place, it’s looking like these two are headed for a first
round matchup. The Lakers have five more regular season games left to play with
two of those coming against the San Antonio Spurs and a home game versus the
Oklahoma City Thunder.
Bryant may be back in the lineup when the Lakers play the
Spurs at home on Tuesday but if not they should be okay. They just beat the
Spurs by 14 in San Antonio just this past Wednesday.
At the same time Los Angeles can’t get complacent either.
Last season they went into the playoffs thinking they would easily grab another
title and ended up getting swept by the Mavs in the second round.
But after their embarrassing exit in last year’s playoffs
the Lakers want to be the one’s doing the sweeping this year.
Roosevelt Hall is an NFL Blogger for The Sport Mentalist and an NBA Blogger for The Sport Mentalist 2. He is also a Sports Reporter for Pro Sports Lives. He can be contacted at RHall_TPFB@Yahoo.com and be sure to follow him on Twitter @sportmentalist.
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