In a span of two games in two days, we saw two different Lakers teams in the fourth quarter.  Two nights ago against Memphis, the Lakers executed brilliantly late, coming back and ending up with the win.  Last night against the Mavericks, the Lakers, failed to execute late.  The Lakers lost.  Maybe most surprising last night was Kobe Bryant failing to execute.  Kobe made a key mistake late, and it may have cost the Lakers the game.

First we are going at the Lakers’ game Tuesday night:

After a Rudy Gay block on a Kobe Bryant lay-up attempt, the Lakers now have the ball on the side.  Ron Artest is inbounding it and as soon as he gets it, Pau Gasol steps towards the ball and makes himself available.

After Artest makes the pass, he goes off of a Kobe Bryant backscreen.  As this is happening, Derrick Fisher is going off of a screen of his own, running off of a Lamar Odom screen.

Gasol gives (in my opinion) a token look to Fisher.  I think Fisher is just a decoy here and that Kobe was where this play was designed to.  Back on the other side, as Artest comes off of the screen, Rudy Gay, the man defending Kobe hesitates for one second.  He kind of stands there as if he wants to help on Artest’s cut, and then realizes that he is covering Kobe Bryant.

That one split-second hesitation is what sets up Rudy Gay for Pau Gasol’s screen.  Pau sets an affective screen and now Kobe gets the ball with no defender within 10 feet of him.

Kobe makes the catch, squares up, and rises.  All before Gay can get a hand up to bother the shot.

Pair that play from Tuesday night up with the following from last night, and it is kind of surprising.  You don’t really expect to see Kobe (or the Lakers make a mistake like this late).  Now this certainly isn’t a knock on the Lakers, I think they played very well last night (the supporting cast while Kobe struggled early, and Kobe late in the comeback), but they just made a silly mistake that cost them the game.

After doing a fantastic job of cutting a 7 point lead down to 3, the Lakers forced the Mavs into a miss and Kobe Bryant got the rebound.  He jogs it up, as Dallas’ defense gets back.

Now there must of been some miss-communication here between Kobe and the coaching staff.  To me, it seems that Kobe is looking back to Phil Jackson to see if he should call a timeout or not.  It also looks like Kobe was thinking that there was going to be a timeout, but there wasn’t.

Once Kobe realizes there won’t be a timeout, he rushes up a three pointer.  Why did he does this?  Kobe was trying to preserve the two-for-one situation.  Going for the two for one is great late because if you make it, the game is tied and you will definitely get the ball back.  If you miss it, you don’t have to foul, and if you can get a stop, you have a chance at tying the game.  The problem with Kobe’s decision is that there simply wasn’t enough time for the two-for-one here.  A guy with Kobe’s experience and basketball IQ should have realized this.

What the Lakers should have done was get into a set (once they realized the 2-for-1 wasn’t possible) and get themselves an open look.  The play from Tuesday night is proof that they can get themselves a wide-open three if they want to.  Instead Kobe shot the rushed three, missed it, and the ball went to the Mavericks with under 24 seconds left.  The Lakers had to foul, and the Mavericks iced the game from the line.