Ron Artest Is Starting To Fit In

Ron Artest was the reason the Lakers beat the Hawks Sunday, He is starting to figure out his place on the team.

By KURT HELIN

Updated 8:00 AM PST, Mon, Nov 2, 2009

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Ron Artest has won his first game for the Lakers. And suddenly it looks like the first of many.

Through the preseason and first two regular season games, the nicest thing you could say about Artest was he had the best hair on the team (a Lakers logo carved into the back). Then Sunday night, Atlanta’s All Star guard Joe Johnson lit up the Lakers for 18 first-quarter points on 7 of 8 shooting. The Lakers were trailing and Johnson looked like he wanted to make a run at Kobe’s 81-point game.

In the second quarter, Phil Jackson took Kobe Bryant off Johnson and told Artest to go stop him. And Artest shut him down. Artest hounded Johnson, denied passes to him and got up on him tight when he did get the ball. Johnson had no room, he became a passer. Johnson went 1 for 8 the rest of the game. The Hawks offense started to sputter. The Lakers pulled away and won handily (well, it would have been handily if not for a sloppy fourth quarter by the bench).

“I think we picked up our intensity. And it all started with number 37,” Bryant said after the game, referring to Artest. “He picked up the energy level defensively and I told him, the game was on him.”

Phil Jackson, Lamar Odom and every other Laker echoed that sentiment. This was Artest’s game.

Artest on the Lakers is still a work in progress — he seems to be thinking his way through the offense, not just reacting. He looks to pass (which he does surprisingly well) rather than shoot, even when he has an advantage and should take control.

But in one second quarter stretch Sunday, Artest blocked a Johnson shot at one end, then came down and nailed a three on the other end. He is starting to figure out where to fit in the offense — and learning that if he creates a turnover and runs the floor he gets rewarded. Kobe hit Artest with a highlight-reel behind the back pass on just one such fast break.

The Lakers have looked a little sluggish without Pau Gasol (who is still considered day to day but likely will not play in the two road games this week). With Artest still trying to find his way, the Lakers have not been the smooth machine that won a title.

But Artest is starting to figure it out (and Gasol will be back). And when that happens, watch out. Because when you have a guy who can just shut down an All Star player, you have a powerful weapon. And the Lakers have one more of those now.

Kurt Helin has a picture of Ron Artest carved into his hair, and he is runs the NBA/Lakers blog Forum Blue & Gold (which you can also follow in twitter).