Arenas Exposes Lakers Defensive Weakness

Gilbert Arenas is one of many opposing guards who are having their way against the Lakers this year. Just look at what's happened this season (player averages in parenthesis):

• Ray Allen (25.3 ppg) scored 30 and 32 in a home-and-home split

• Michael Redd (28.1 ppg) shot his way to 45 points in a win

• Chris Paul (18.7 ppg) sliced his way to 26 in a win

• Joe Johnson (28.4 ppg) scored 30 in a loss a Kobe-less squad

• Jason Terry (15.3 ppg) dropped 26 in a win in Dallas

• Gilbert Arenas (28.0 ppg) gets a career-high and franchise-record 60 points

Granted, except for Terry, all of these players are All-Stars, so I expect a good game from them. I just didn't expect season bests against a Phil Jackson coached team.

So who or what's to blame for this? Did Chucky Atkins sneak his way back on the Lakers? Did Rudy Tomjanovich ask in on all defensive meetings? Did Kobe go back to wearing the heavy Adidas Kobe Two's?

Nope, but there are several factors for the Lakers defensive troubles. First, Kobe is still nursing his knee back to health. As much as his offensive game has returned to last-year's form, he still tends to rest up on defense. I'd say that he's a few weeks from returning to full health.

Secondly, there's the poor play of Smush Parker on both ends of the floor. Whether it's fall-out from last year's disappearing act in the playoffs or the pressure of Jordan Farmar's play, Smush is not the same player as last year. He's not coming with the same fire on defense. Many teams are running screen-and-rolls and he's not putting the effort to get through them. This causes match-up problems as the Lakers are forced to switch defenders. Plus, on offense Parker is missing a lot of outside jumpers (A LOT OF THEM!), which lead to long rebounds and fast break points by the opposition.

Finally, the Lakers bigs are very slow in their defensive rotations. By the time Kobe and Smush are beat on drives, the bigs should rotate over, close the lane and stop the penetration. Instead, both Andrew Bynum and Kwame Brown are a step slow and end up fouling the guy. Arenas scorched the Lakers with his penetration, shooting an obscene 27 freethrows.

So is there a solution? Besides awareness and time (until Kobe's healed), the Lakers are forced to play with the hand their dealt. They still need 20 minutes a game from Parker and having him switch roles with Farmar, though desirable is not the way to go. Parker will just pout his way out the action and forces the Lakers to use Sasha Vujacic... and we don't need that. I guess it all comes down to practice and defensive effort.