The X’s and O’s Anatomy of L.A. Lakers’ Life Without Kobe Bryant



The Los Angeles Lakers won the first game of the post-Kobe Bryant era on Sunday against the San Antonio Spurs, and the improbable victory may have provided coach Mike D'Antoni with some signs of how the Lakers should be playing without their fallen star.

Obviously, it'd be foolish to rely on Steve Blake as the team's primary backcourt scorer in the future. His 23 points (including 20 on 8-of-9 shooting in the first half) were the exception for the steady-but-unspectacular veteran, not the rule.

But there is something worth taking away from Blake's performance: Everyone is going to have to step up.

It's hard to find a bigger cliche than that, but Bryant ranked third in the NBA in usage rate, so it's going to be impossible for any one player to take up all of the slack individually. Blake's big night stands as an example of the kinds of outsize performances L.A. will need from its role players in its final regular season game—and in the playoffs.

For what it's worth, Antawn Jamison's hot fourth-quarter shooting and Jodie Meeks' clutch threes were also positive signs that the Lakers' underachieving reserves might be ready to take on more responsibility with Bryant out.



The notion of "stepping up" is a fuzzy thing, though. D'Antoni is going to have to employ some actual strategic changes in order to compensate for the loss of a player that dictated almost everything that took place on the court.

Chief among those tweaks must be an emphasis on pick-and-roll basketball.

It'd be nice if there was a way to be certain that Steve Nash was going to be healthy upon his return, but there's far too much evidence that he's broken down for good to believe that he'll ever be the expert pick-and-roll operator he once was.



Without the threat of the point guard doing damage himself, there's little reason to divert defensive attention from the rolling bi...

About the Author