When you give up a 109 defensive efficiency mark, several things have gone wrong in your team’s life. You presumably made the Finals by being good at defense, and certainly, that’s how the Lakers did it. In fact, despite how brilliant their offense can be when it’s moving and clicking and working and not just watching Kobe pull up and launch from 25 feet, the Lakers’ defense has been responsible for their top seed in the West and their romp through the Western Conference Finals.  And yet in Game 5, they suffered lapse after lapse. Some of it was little things, like the spacing you give Paul Pierce to avoid him getting baseline. Others were medium size things like positioning in transition and running off shooters. And then there were the massive, catastrophic failures that occurred as the game went on, like the one we’re going to look at today.

With 7:47 left in the fourth and the Celtics leading by 8, they set up in the halfcourt.  Fisher is already in “leghump” mode. Bynum is shadowing KG as the Celtics prepare to run the pick and roll.

Not two seconds later, things start to go badly.

All season the Lakers have done a great job of always maintaining presence down low. They have the length and athleticism to extend all the way out to the perimeter, but they are very rarely caught with their pants down. But by this point in the game, the Celtics have been peeling off mid-range jumper after mid-range jumper.  This problem is exacerbated by how far out KG sets the pick, all the way out at about 30 feet.  But as Pierce makes his move, Andrew Bynum, again playing on a bum leg, stays with him. The problem is that Lamar Odom is now the sole defender of the basket, and he’s a half-step from the free throw lane by that point, and Sheed’s doing nothing to settle him back, instead drifting further and further out. The reason is not to set up for an ill timed three, but to free up Allen and take advantage of the Lakers’ biggest defensive personnel weakness: Derek Fisher.

Pierce heads for just inside the top of the key, and is going to have his pick of options. He can drive, pull-up (which is obviously what he wants), or kick it back out.  Odom smartly comes to help out Bynum so that Pierce can’t get around him to the right side of the basket, cutting off his penetration angle and forcing him to hesitate which allows Bynum to close on him. Meanwhile, Sheed screens the living daylights out of Fisher, and Allen peels off. There is no one within a zipcode of the right underside of the basket, with Kobe locked up top  guarding Robinson and Artest recovering from KG’s screen at the perimeter. As all this is happening Odom now has three responsibilities. He’s got to help Fisher who is basically like Mario in the sandpits of Super Mario World 64. He has to keep an eye on Sheed for the kick out spot-up three, and he’s got to deter Pierce from driving. Any time you create a situation where Lamar Odom has to manage three mental operations at once, you may have set yourself up for disaster.

Pierce decides to test his chances and opts to pull-up for a jumper just inside the halo. Bynum uses the go-go gadget arms to contest, which is going to force Pierce to kick it back out when he realizes he is no longer 25 and his vertical now puts him squarely in the shadow of Bynum’s arm. Meanwhile, Allen has peeled off of Fisher, who is still struggling to get around Sheed as Sheed has him locked up completely. Lamar Odom? I have no idea what he’s doing. None. No clue.  I like to think he’s guarding Space Ghost, who is taunting him.

As Pierce kicks it back out, Ray’s eyes go wide as he sees what’s happening, and moves to swoop underneath.

Robinson peels off from the corner using KG as a mild screen and gets Pierce’s bailout. Bynum is all the way above the free throw line after contesting, Kobe’s trying to cover with Ron on KG to prevent the pick and pop. Fisher has FINALLY cleared the screen and now sees what’s about to happen. Here’s where the real disaster comes into play. Either Odom should know that Allen coming low is his responsibility, or Fisher is failing to alert Odom to that fact. Either way, a “heads up, Ray’s coming” from Fisher probably would have been useful. As it is, Odom never turns his head in either direction to even acknowledge the presence of Allen. Rasheed Wallace is done for this play. Because Kobe’s having to help Artest with KG, and Odom is apparently caught between trying to decide whether he should stay low or go chase Wallace to prevent the three, a passing lane opens up right from Robinson down to the left side of the basket.

This is the moment where there is still hope. It is fleeting, and it is cruel. The clock’s winding down, Kobe has recovered on Nate, Bynum is still covering Pierce, and Artest has KG handled. The bad news? Look where Odom and Fisher are. Fisher, instead of sprinting to recover on Ray, has held up, apparently trying to prevent Sheed’s three. Which is exactly what Odom’s doing as well. Odom actually moves laterally left, away from the basket and where Ray is headed, and now the two are close enough to fist bump one another. Which means that all alone, under the basket, in a pivotal Game 5 of the NBA Finals, the 9 time NBA All-Star, NBA champion shooting guard is just hanging out. Robinson dukes the pass over Kobe’s head, and Allen gets an easy two.

And the aftermath is really the best part.

Kobe just watches in total disgust. Odom actually tries to get back in time, and nearly fouls Allen. Ron Artest looks like my dog after a dog barks on the television, alert, but confused. Fisher is about to have the “Which one of us screwed up, oh, wait, I’m the crafty veteran, it’s your fault” conversation. And my personal favorite? Andrew Bynum literally does the Jake Delhomme Horsefeathers reaction.

And that’s how a defense implodes. It was a series of unfortunate events, but it does highlight several of the things that went wrong for the Lakers’ defense in Game 5.