Los Angeles Lakers: Fatigue Finally Sets In vs. Pacers

Whether you respect the Los Angeles Lakers or not, it’s impossible to deny the massive following the franchise brings to NBA arenas across the country. In New York, there’s tons of fans. In Minnesota, there’s fans. In Cleveland, there will be fans.

Monday night in Indianapolis, fans shielded with purple and gold armor filled Bankers Life Fieldhouse. For the first time this season, it forced the Pacers to play a road game, in some sense. The spectators in purple would cheer mightily for a Lakers score, while the everyday Pacers maniac would try to outdo them by screaming.

But, nobody is blind to the reason for it. Nobody was scratching their head to why the crowd split in fandom was 50-50.

The reason was only two words, but one player.  Kobe Bryant.

It’s only once a year an Eastern Conference crowd gets to see a player from the West. It’s also just once in a lifetime someone gets to witness history on an NBA court. These fans in Indianapolis desperately wanted to see Bryant pass Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list Monday, but his scoring tactics allowed him to break it the day before. The turnout in attendance for just one jersey, No. 24, was more than I’ve ever seen covering the league.

To a large degree, the name they were sporting on the back failed to give them a treat.

Bryant stood near halfcourt during the third quarter, moments after prancing up to the referee and chewing him out worse than a Charmin-soft practice. Exasperated by the non-calls he was getting on his jumpers, he forced the official to give him a technical foul.

Or, perhaps it was the 64-37 deficit his Lakers were facing. Perhaps it was the team’s lamentable 7-of-43 shooting (16.3 perecent) in the first half. Either way, he represented an entire package of anger in just one moment. Upset with his team’s lack of halfcourt execution, he walked around Bankers Life Fieldhouse seething at the refs, and taking contested mid-range shots.

“Sometimes you just have to pat yourself on the back for an atrocious job,” Bryant said. “We didn’t have our legs at the start of the ball game. We just could not get ourselves activated.”

Atrocious would be one way of putting it. “Historical” may be the better term for their first half performance, however. Getting battered from the start, Indiana’s biggest lead swelled to 39, but they ultimately took a 33-point advantage into halftime.  Since the Lakers moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles (1960), it’s now their worst halftime deficit.

Most of it had to do with the guy containing Bryant, as tough as that seems to be still at his older age (36). Pacers’ coach Frank Vogel had no other choice but to send sophomore guard, Solomon Hill, out to guard the predator.

Luckily for Indiana, though, Hill didn’t turn out to be the prey on Monday. If anything, he was doing the damage and raising his defensive reputation. Hill, for the most part guarding Bryant, held him to zero free throws in the first half, with just 3-of-13 shooting.

“I think [Hill] competed hard, and played well,” Bryant said. “I think he moved his feet well, he was physical in stretches. He did a good job.”

On the season, Hill’s Defensive Real Plus-Minus (created by Jeremias Engelmann) has been a mediocre -0.30. It ranks him 33rd of all small forwards, and 15th of all small forwards that play at least 30 minutes per game. To put it in perspective, Kawhi Leonard leads everyone at the position with a +3.98 rating.

But, that’s all Vogel had to throw at Bryant. Rodney Stuckey, who’s been playing a mixture of point and shooting guard this season, has registered a DRPM of -1.03, 45th amongst all point guards. It’s been sub-par wing coverage for majority of the Pacers’ season, and it had to be revealing to Vogel that his guys could get fired up for such a dangerous superstar. Even if Bryant is in his 19th season, and much slower than his old days of burying Indiana.

It was during the third quarter when the Lakers decided to make an offensive run. To say it wasn’t propelled by Bryant and his fiery gunning would be a lie.

Bryant took 13 of his 26 shots in the third, and got to the charity stripe three times. While he only nailed five of his shots, his 14 points were looking to be enough to bring the deficit within 20. They just couldn’t stop the Pacers on the other end.

“He tried everything he could on both ends of the floor to try and help us come back,” Scott said of Bryant. “I thought the guys responded and joined in. I thought [Ronnie Price] started off the third quarter really getting up the pressure and [Ed Davis] did a heck of a job at pressuring.”

Regardless how much the Lakers installed their full court press to get back into the game, Rodney Stuckey wasn’t allowing it. His double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds (along with seven assists) completely owned Hollywood’s bottom-feeder.  Stuckey’s plus-minus for the night finished at +31, which is likely the highest he’s ever reached considering his history of losing.

If you’ve paid close attention for the past 19 years, you’d realize it’s rare for Bryant to acknowledge fatigue as a factor for struggling. On the end of a back-to-back, coming off a game in which he displayed loads of energy passing Michael Jordan and downing an athletic Timberwolves team on the road, fatigue clearly struck the court in Indianapolis.

“Everything was short,” Bryant said. “We were late on rotations, and just couldn’t get ourselves acclimated.”

Byron Scott added that he didn’t believe Bryant was well rested after the emotional night on Sunday, which still added up to the heart-racing overtime win in San Antonio on Sunday. While Scott noted that Kobe was the most energetic on the entire floor during the third quarter spurt, he concluded by saying Bryant would get a couple days of good rest. Sure, it could mean “no practice.”  Bryant was recently ridiculed for not always being on the practice floor, but sometimes you have to adjust to someone’s age.

55,093 is the number to remember for Bryant.

It’s the amount of total minutes he’s played on an NBA court to date, combining both regular season and playoff minutes. His total of 8,641 minutes in the playoffs likely won’t increase before he retires, but the regular season grind continues to take its toll on legendary stars. Bryant will pass John Havlicek for 12th on the all-time minutes list during his next game, hosting Oklahoma City on Friday.

“I just had to try and get my body ready as much as I possibly can for tonight,” Bryant said. “I haven’t had much time [to rest].”

One thing Byron Scott contemplated with before the season was to limit his shooting guard’s minutes, especially during his 19th season as a pro. Mike D’Antoni had Bryant playing 38.6 minutes per game during the 2012-13 season (before the Achilles tear) and it placed him second in the league in minutes. At age 34, he shouldn’t have even been there.

Now, this season, Bryant is down to 15th in minutes per night. At 35.4, it’s probably still a touch higher than his body seems to tolerate. While he hasn’t gotten injured, the fatigue sure looks to set in during final stretches of games.

During the second half of the last three games, Bryant has combined to shoot 13-of-36 (36.1 percent) from the floor. A part of the game that he used to be the absolute best at — willing his team in the final 24 minutes — has been a struggle lately.

Granted, he did close out the Sunday win in Minnesota with a vintage face-up 3-pointer over Andrew Wiggins. But, America is built around a majority vote. Majority of his performances this season have been sub-par in the second half. That needs to change for this team to put together any type of winning streak.

That is, if the franchise even wants to.

With every win, the Phoenix Suns are calling Jim and Jeanie Buss, laughing out of their chairs. Suns owner Robert Sarver smiles every time he glares at League Pass, or checks the Lakers’ scoreboard during wins.

Each victory for the Lakers, puts their 2015 draft pick in danger. It’s top-five protected, meaning they have to land in the top five during the draft lottery, or it goes to Phoenix.

For fatigue purposes and the knowledge of their draft situation, Bryant may need to rest more often.

You know he’s not going to, however.

Bryant’s already pulling back Father Time’s arms as he walks him to the bathroom.  He doesn’t want the journey to end any time soon, because the competitive nature is still igneous. It’s still flaming.

Fans obviously aren’t ready to accept the belief of it ending.  It’s apparent in any NBA arena you walk into, including Indianapolis.

Vino, vintage, or villain, this guy still means something to avid basketball minds.