What were people talking about at Staples Center Sunday night?
Phil Jackson.
Is he coming to the Lakers in the next 24 hours? Does he really want the job? How does he implement the triangle with Steve Nash and no training camp? You know the fans want him because midway through the second quarter they started a “we want Phil” chant. If not Jackson, is it Mike D’Antoni (who had a phone interview on Saturday) or Nate McMillan or who?
It was waiting for Phil Jackson night in Los Angeles.
Oh… and there was a basketball game at Staples Center, too. The Lakers beat the Kings 103-90 in this sideshow. The Lakers are now 2-0 in the Bernie Bickerstaff era. Top that, Jackson.
If you wonder how much people cared about the game itself, know that Kobe Bryant spent a bunch of timeouts talking to Baron Davis, who was sitting courtside near the Lakers bench.
The game itself was pretty much what you’d expect. The Lakers are the far more talented team and now that they are not overthinking everything — Bickerstaff’s one big change over Mike Brown — that talent wins. The offenses they are running are a lot more basic — there is standard NBA sets like “floppy” and some freelancing early in the clock. He’s letting them go out and just play.
“We’re just going out there and really playing pickup style basketball,” Kobe said after the game. “We’re running a couple things and just getting out there and doing it.”
The Lakers big men were doing it. The Kings were without their starting front line of DeMarcus Cousins and Thomas Robinson — both suspended by the league for separate incidents — and that led to a combined 41 points (on 53.6 percent shooting) and 23 rebounds from Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard. The Lakers grabbed the offensive rebound on 40 percent of their missed shots against the Kings.
Kobe Bryant added 20 points and Metta World Peace was 4-of-8 from three, doing a great job spacing the floor on the weak side, and had 18.
Bickerstaff also has the Lakers a little more focused defensively — his pregame white board had breakdowns of how they were going to defend the pick-and-roll, not much offense at all. It worked, the Kings shot 40 percent as a team.
“We’re just playing simple basketball,” Pau Gasol said. “Offensively going to our guys in positions that they could score and defensively we’re just communicating and being active and trying to limit them to one shot.”
It’s two wins in a row for L.A. — it’s their Weekend at Bernies.
That simple freelanced offense has gotten them two wins in a row. Good luck getting the same result against the disciplined Spurs on Tuesday.
The only bad news for the Lakers was Steve Blake left with an abdominal injury and is not expected to practice with the team on Monday. (Not sure what they are practicing, but they plan to.) Blake will have an ultrasound on Tuesday and be re-evaluated then.
As for the Kings, they got 18 points off the bench from Jimmer Fredette and to the Kings credit they played hard. But minus a couple of their best players — and with Marcus Thorton taking a hard fall and not being the same after, he was 1-10 shooting on the night — they were overmatched. Keith Smart had guys out of position all night, but the effort was good and they kept it close for most of the first half.
Which is great, good to see Jimmer playing well. But how about that Phil Jackson.
