After Ron Artest inbounds it to Pau Gasol, he cuts backdoor while Kobe comes to the basketball.  The Lakers have run a play like this in the past, except instead of a backdoor cut, it was a backscreen set.  Phil Jackson chose not to go with the backscreen, and I think that is smart.  It prevents the Raptors from switching the cut and denying Kobe outright.  On the other side, Lamar Odom sets a back screen for Derek Fisher.

Pau looks over to the other side to keep the defense honest as Kobe makes his cut to the basketball.

Kobe makes the catch, and actually has the baseline drive if he wants it.  Instead, he hangs onto the basketball and allows for Antoine Wright to get back into defensive position.

The double team now comes at Kobe.  However, Bargnani has to run a long way to get to Kobe.  This is because of the great floor spacing by the Lakers.

Before Bargnani can get to Kobe in time, he simply dribbles away from the double team towards the baseline and calmly hits a jumper for his 7th game winner of the season.

Now the Lakers did a good job of spacing the floor and executing the play Phil drew up, but it wouldn’t be right to ignore what the Raptors did wrong on this play to allow Kobe to hit the jumper.  So, let’s take a look at this from the perspective of the Raptors.

The first error made by the Raptors is when Pau Gasol has the basketball.  Remember that token fake that he offers up?  Well, Bargnani bit on it and that freed up a passing lane for Gasol to get the ball to Kobe.  Look at what is going on over on the left hand side.  Nobody is even ready to make the catch, which makes Bargnani going for the ball fake even worse.  Bargnani should have had the recognition to know where Kobe was on the court, and he should have been on Pau’s right side, not even letting him look over to the side where Kobe is.  Make him dribble, make him shoot, or make him pass to the left.  All of those options are better than letting him Pass to Kobe.

Alright, so after Kobe makes the catch, you know the Raptors want to send a double team.  Like I said before, the Lakers spaced the floor out real well, so there weren’t too many chances to send another man at Kobe, but here was one.  As Ron Artest retreats to the corner with his back to the basketball, Hedo Turkoglu had a chance to run at Kobe.  If he comes at him from the baseline, he probably would have prevented the baseline jumper.

However, Turkoglu doesn’t come.  Bargnani comes from the other side.  Now, this isn’t the worst thing, but since Bargnani had a lot of ground to make up, Antoine Wright needs to do a good job of keeping Kobe there until the double comes.  However, this doesn’t happen, and Kobe gets to the baseline.  Let’s look at this from another angle.

You see where Wright is?  He is giving up the sideline by doing this.  Now, I am sure the Raptors talked about where the double was coming from in the timeout, and if Wright knew the double was coming from Bargnani over the top.  If he knew that, he should cheated towards the sideline, letting Bargnani come for the trap.  Instead, he insisted in being in Kobe’s shorts, which makes sense if he is playing him straight up, but that isn’t what was happening here.