Soobum Im – USA Today Sports Images
The San Antonio Spurs earned a 91-79 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in game one of their first round series in the NBA Playoffs. As a whole, the game was an ugly one with both teams converting on less than 42 percent of their field goal attempts. It was also an odd game as Manu Ginobili was the only star player for the Spurs that played particularly well.
Tony Parker’s performance in the game was especially surprising. He finished the contest with a relatively solid stat-line, putting up 18 points, eight assists, three rebounds and three steals on 8-21 shooting. However, considering the competition that he was up against, those numbers somehow feel like Parker had a disappointing game.
It’s no secret that the Lakers’ defense is the core of their problems and is the reason they had to win their last game of the regular season to make the postseason. Specifically, their perimeter defense has been awful for most of the season as their guards simply aren’t good defenders. Given that, it seems like Parker would exploit that more than he did in game one.
12 of Parker’s 21 shot attempts came from outside the painted area. With guys like Steve Nash and Steve Blake covering him for the majority of the game, Parker has to be more aggressive with his dribble penetration and getting into the lane. The presence of Dwight Howard and Paul Gasol in the paint obviously makes shots harder to come by from that area. However, if Parker attacks the lane and Howard and Gasol come over to help, that’s going to leave Tim Duncan and other frontcourt players open for easy lay-ups and dunks.
Parker played pretty well in game one, but with the matchups that he has versus the Lakers, he has the opportunity to have superstar-type games. As the series moves on, Parker needs to be more aggressive attacking the lane against L.A. There’s no doubt that he has an advantage against guys like Nash and Blake off the dribble. If he’s able to get by them and get into the paint, it should help him get easier shots or get easy assists. Either way, the Spurs will greatly benefit if Parker takes advantages of the matchups he has in this series.
Cody Williams is a Senior NBA Writer with Rant Sports. Follow Cody on Twitter @TheSizzle20 and like his Facebook page.
