From Ken Berger, CBS Sports: The way the Lakers are playing right now, the last thing they needed was a reminder of last season — when things were even worse. In many cases, worse than anyone knew. Yet there they were Wednesday on the Toyota Center court, Dwight Howard’s new home, trying to fix what ails them before a red-letter day on the NBA calendar. On Thursday night, Howard will face the Lakers for the first time since deciding to bolt LA for Houston as a free agent in July.
From TheGreatMambino, Silver Screen & Roll: Dwight Howard isn’t the first All-star player to leave his team via free agency. He’s not even the first this decade. LeBron James and Chris Bosh took off on Cleveland and Toronto three years ago. Two years after that, Ray Allen joined them, walking from the Boston Celtics to their chief rivals in the Miami Heat. Steve Nash’s situation wasn’t much different than Shuttlesworth’s when he happily joined up with a Kobe-Pau-Dwight Lakers team just last offseason. Guys like Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Carmelo Anthony didn’t leave their teams via free agency per se, but were dealt to teams when it became apparent that they would depart their teams in a year’s time.
From Ryan Cole, Lakers Nation: With the Los Angeles Lakers facing the Houston Rockets for the first time this season on Friday, a lot of attention has been be surrounded around Dwight Howard and the fallout between he and the Lakers in the 2012-2013 season. After Dwight publicly addressed the situation earlier this week, claiming that it’s time for everyone to move on, Lakers head coach Mike D’Antoni echoed some of those same sentiments after Lakers practice today via Mark Medina of L.A. Daily News:
From Dave McMenamin, ESPN LA: The Los Angeles Lakers practiced in “The House that Dwight Chose” on Wednesday, preparing for their upcoming game against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center, which features a giant poster of Dwight Howard on the front of it, complete with the tag line, “A new age.” A little more than four months ago, it was Staples Center that had Howard’s image plastered to the side of it, accompanied by the message, “Stay.” The former three-time defensive player of the year left, and the Lakers were again left rehashing the memories of what went wrong last season. “He made his decision and felt like that was the best choice for him and so you respect him for it and that’s it,” Lakers forward Pau Gasol said. “A lot of things went wrong last year for sure. There was a lot of adversity. Nothing really clicked. So it was a tough year for everyone. Not for one individual. Pretty much for the entire team it was a tough year to go through.”
Warren Wee Lim says
Fully expecting the team to play like we did against the Clippers. Energy and hustle!
Matt says
Warren – If the Lakers played every game with the same intensity as they did against the Clippers we would not have so many folks writing about what the team should do this off season. Agreed, a strong showing on the road would provide some needed confidence.
When we shoot well we tend to play well. Unfortunately, we don’t have a good track record on the road this season (two blowouts).
P. Ami says
I have to say, aside from Celtic players, there is no player in the NBA I hate more than Dwight. Now, this is sport hate. He didn’t harm anyone I care about. I didn’t take anything from me. I don’t mean this on the level of a Hitler, Stalin, or Donald Sterling. I mean, this is the sort of playful hate that comes from forcing yourself to be okay with a total douchebag because he was supposed to be a one of a kind, ultra-clean, super-stench killing sort of douchebag… but then the bag broke and what spilled out ruined the wooden floor. So yes, I hate that douchebag and unfortunately, I am petty enough to want to see him fail. I want to see him get into foul trouble. I want him to keep using his arms to clear out defenders, and to slap at the ball as more skilled bigs make their moves in the post. The way he plays the game is going to reinjure his back and yes, I am petty enough to want that. I’m a horrible person. I have sport hate for Dwight, and I am petty enough to want him to suffer. Still think I’m a better person than him. So… anyway, tonight is not going to be pretty. Anybody with Lin or Harden in their fantasy league is getting huge ups. Hopefully Dwight gets into foul trouble and he doesn’t do much damage. It’ll be interesting to see who gets Parsons. He might have a field day too.
BigCitySid says
Approx 1/2 this season’s Lakers were not on last season’s team, so they won’t have the personal agenda against D12 that so many of their fans wish they did. I’m looking forward to the game w/i the game, Gasol vs Dwight. A loss would drop the Lakers to 2-4 & the preseason predicted 12th place in the West. A win tonight over the favored Rockets would be a beautiful thing. If we can’t have a quantity of wins, quality of wins can be hopeful.
david h says
“A new age.” is missing the letter c. after all is said and done, better them than us. sounds like sour grapes ? naw, sweet, sweet wine. we still got the recovering vino.
note to lakers: think like a range rover powering past, over and thru a prius at toyota center tonite.
Go lakers
Jay A says
Houston’s perimeter defense is just as atrocious as ours. If we have the right combination of players and our shots are dropping, we will win.