Lakers need to use size...

Friday's loss to the Pistons surely isn't the end of the world for the Lake-show, but the loss certainly identified some vulnerabilities, particularly the team's lack of discipline. After Bynum was deemed healthy this summer, the headlines in Los Angeles blasted the greatness of a Lakers front court that features "3 SEVEN FOOTERS". To the Lakers fans' delight, we saw the benefit of this newer, bigger Laker lineup with Gasol showing toughness and shutting down power forwards defensively, Bynum blocking shots, and the Lakers rebounding the ball with playoff intensity.

However, what we have been seeing in the past few games is a reversion to the Lakers the past couple of seasons. Farmar and Vujacic, in particular, have been making some poor decisions on offense, taking long shots early in the shot clock and forcing the issue. It is one thing for a guy like Vlad to be throwing up the ball on a whim, like Phil said, he's not in there for his defense. Both Jordan and Sasha often assume point guard roles for long stretches of the game and need to accept the responsibility of balancing when to play fast-paced and when to initiate the offense. You need to involve the bigs on offense if you want to make them stay active on defense. Also, if Bynum or Gasol is in, they can probably get better quality jump shots after dumping the ball into the post.

I love the energy by which the Lakers have been playing with, and I know the loss to Detroit is only one game, I just hope the young guys can take something away from it and begin taking advantage of the very talented roster of their team.