Will the real Lakers please stand up? It’s difficult to place too much stock in tonight’s 95-87 no show against the Warriors after a season of confounding losses amidst stellar play since the All-Star break. After losing to Denver and Utah, the forum blue and gold came out of the gates with a vengeance, holding Golden State to just 14 points in the opening frame. By the second quarter though, the Warriors had taken over the game and never ceded control for the rest of the night.
Bynum continued his torrid second half rebounding, nabbing 17 for the night to go along with 13 points on a perfect 5-5 from the field — an efficient number that his teammates should have exploited, instead of largely ignored. His front court mate Gasol statistically had a solid night with 18 points and 7 rebounds, but he wasn’t nearly as effective and rarely asserted himself against the Warrior’s undersized lineup. Instead, the Lakers fell perfectly into Golden State’s trap, allowing Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry to run amok to the tune of 46 combined points. Neither of the Warrior’s guards shot the ball well, but the pace they established early on in the game set the tone for the night for both teams. The Lakers tried to keep up, but at the end of the day, Golden State’s frenetic offense was simply faster, nullifying their poor 39% shooting from the floor .
The Warriors were bullied by the Lakers’ imposing front court in losing 12 straight to L.A. prior to tonight’s contest. Give plenty of credit to David Lee (22 points, 17 rebounds) and Lou Amundson for their tremendous activity down on the block in ensuring that history wouldn’t repeat itself. As a team, Golden State outrebounded the Lakers 50-47 and pulled down an even more impressive 18 offensive boards. Outside of Bynum’s tenacity, no other Laker seemed to show much energy around the hoop.
The sluggish play also led to 17 costly turnovers for L.A., many of which were accrued in a game-changing 29-17 third quarter for the Warriors. Kobe (25 points) did his best to rescue his team, but his attempt at any fourth quarter heroics was far too little, too late. In fact, that might be the theme of the night for the Lakers — just a step too slow. It’s a disappointing third straight loss with playoff seeding still very much on the line, but ultimately the type of letdown that shouldn’t happen when the playoffs begin in less than two weeks.
Ken says
Fisher, Artest, Brown and Blake were again 4 for 27. Pau and Andrew were 12 for 16. Is there a coach on this team? Fisher and Blake are by far the two worst point guards in the NBA. No team has 2 PG shooting under 40%. Other then Kobe, Pau, Andrew and LO the rest of this team is shooting under 40% on the year. Mitch took a two time World Champ and dumped the bench. Keeping Walton, named the worst player in the NBA and Brown a D league, low IQ player. No way this team gets out of the West and Mitch should be fired for Blake, multiple year contracts for Walton, Brown and Artest.
Snoopy2006 says
Ken makes a reappearance!
This is exciting. The playoffs must be near.
Ken says
Powell, Farmer, Sasha gone for nothing in return.
Blake, Smith, Walton, Brown $12 million.
Remind me what has Cupcake done.
Pau via Jerry West
Andrew via Jimmy Buss.
Long term contracts for Walton, Artest, Brown via Mitch Cupcake.
Mark Sigal says
The Lakers love to torture us. They are a weird team at times. No two ways about it.
Pau was zoned out. No intensity. Lamar was making bad decisions for major sections of the game, and they are, once again, losing the energy and effort game.
Rebounding (especially, the offensive boards), Protecting the Ball, and Winning the Battle of the 50-50 balls. They are not doing it at this moment.
nimble says
No way for a three peat with this bench and PG situation.Good bye Phil,lots of luck in fishing next year.
TheDane says
This is one of the big negatives with basketball.
The Playoffs are great, but they really do make the season a long, long dance about nothing. Obviously the Lakers don’t REALLY care about HCA, which makes the first 82 (that really is a lot) games semi meaningless.
In soccer every game counts, since the champion is the one that gathered most points. That does add a completely different intensity to the regular season. No way the Lakers play like this if their season depended on it…
JM says
I get that we’re pissed, but to shoot down any hopes of a championship because of this losing streak is baffling.
Hell, even I feel the regular season is pointless for the Lakers. Imaging how the players feel, having to play 82 games just so they can actually start to play games that matter. HCA is important, obviously, but I really feel that the Lakers can win anywhere when they’re rolling.
I prefer a matchup against the Hornets, anyways. After that, either OKC or Dallas, it doesn’t matter. As long as we have the HCA against every other team, we’re good. I honestly don’t see the Spurs getting to WCF, or the Bulls getting out of the East.
I WOULD like to see the Lakers pick it back up and show some dominance in the remaining games, specifically against San Antonio. Another 30-point win against them would ease all the concerns as it did the last the time we played them.
Jonathan says
I think ever since Bynum started rebounding Gasol and Odom quit doing ANYTHING defensively or with rebounding. There was a point in the 2nd half when Odom had 2 rebounds and 5 turnovers. Not to mention a ton of long 2’s out of rhythm. Gasol literally played like it was the 08 playoffs. He just got punked and played like the total bitch we know he can be. I can’t even fathom how frustrating it must be for Kobe to play with a bunch of players that aren’t really that interested in winning. Kobe feeds off it and wants to win every second of every quarter of every half of every game. I couldn’t believe we came out and established Kobe/Pau/Bynum in the post and were DOMINATING the Warriors. Then all of a sudden Fisher starts hucking long guarded shots and everyone started to turn the ball over.
The real story of this game besides the boys not showing up was the bench. It was unbelievable. Odom didn’t defend or box out or rebound or run the offense or post up. Blake couldn’t buy a bucket and didn’t attempt to run the offense. Shannon did his usual. Too much dribbling and long 2’s on offense matched by gambling on defense and never closing out on jump shots. Barnes brought great energy I thought. I’ve been a fan of Phil Jackson for so long it’s hard to believe. But this kind of shit disgusts me. Any lesson you need to teach to your bench needed to be already taught by now. We should be focusing on winning and home court, not on rubbing the bench’s short comings in their faces. His rotation tonight was atrocious. And he refused to call timeouts even when we lost our way and turned the ball over and over. It was embarrassing. We had the height advantage at seemingly every matchup and still got out rebounded. Gasol/Odom need to get their shit together. How many times do you guys think they just literally watched a 6 ft guard lay it up right next to them; without a contest. And in the event they missed, they’d just watch the rebound fall to a Warrior. It’s hard to believe Phil can watch that and have no problem with it or say anything. At some point don’t we have to call Phil someone who doesn’t know when to use a timeout? There’s no way our team would suffer long term or short term in any way if Phil called timeouts to stop big runs or to correct the team in something that’s easily correctable.
We should honestly forfeit the rest of our games. If we’re going to play like this we might as well keep everyone healthy. The saddest part is we didn’t even need to play a good game. Just an OK or passable game would have beaten the Warriors. I don’t know how the media doesn’t crush them during the questions after the game.
John Morris says
To lose to the Warriors on a night where they don’t shoot 40% from the field is truly shocking.
abusaud says
Absolutely disgusting to watch, but 17 – 4 since the ASG, though having 3 of those losses come in a row is too much to swallow honestly. The Lakers play Portland next in Portland, so they have to shrug these losses off and go on another tear, and head to the playoffs strong.
DirtySanchez says
I applaud Phil for not calling a timeout, let the players suffer for what they did too themselves. Careless passing, jacking up shots, not boxing were just a couple of things that was causing problems on both ends of the floor. These are professional two time defending champs that know what needs to be done to get the job done. If they want to give a half a@# effort leave them on the floor to get served and embarrassed by their collective effort.
In the grand scheme of things this loss means absolutely nothing.Does it make for great tv( L no), but it does add to the drama surrounding this team. Which in my opinion makes this team play better ball, when the doubters are barking the loudest. Games over, time to move on to the next one against Portland.
3ThreeIII says
Wow.
Regular season, second night of a back to back, third game in four days + travel, and with nothing to really play for.
The Lakers want the second seed in the West, they are scoreboard watching, and are not worried at all about home court.
The only complaint I had from last night was Phil allowing the starters to stay on the floor in the last quarter.
I, personally, would have let the second unit play, and take a beating. On the other hand, I haven’t won 11 championships as a head coach, including the last 2…
Relax.
And, by the way, what Mitch has done this season is nothing, and that is a great thing. He did nothing when offered Carmelo for Bynum.
If you really, honestly, believe that anyone on the bench (after Odom) is going to be the thing that loses the Lakers a playoff series then I can only gather you haven’t ever watched the NBA playoffs.
The Lakers just won 2 titles with players like Sasha, Farmar, Brown, Walton, Powell, and Adam Freaking Morrison on the bench. Really? Steve Blake will be our undoing?
Are the playoffs here yet?
T. Rogers says
Come on, guys. I know we are all upset but a little perspective is needed. The Lakers were not going to run the table after the Miami loss. That would have been 16 straight wins going into the playoffs. Would you rather they have a let down now or in a possible first round match with Memphis?
I think the Lakers pushed themselves very hard mentally coming out of the All Star break. They are simply having a let down. Yes, this is not a good time to be having a letdown. However I would much rather see it now than in the playoffs.
And are we really back on the Mitch “Cupcake” talk? I hope we realize that he got Artest for a bargain. This is the same Artest who kept Paul Pierce from winning another Finals MVP at the Lakers’ expense. You know, the crazy guy who sealed game seven last season. He also got Barnes for a bargain. He does everything Trevor Ariza did for less money. And is it Mitch’s fault Blake has underachieved this year? Is it his fault Shannon Brown overshoots? I think that has more to do with coaching than anything else. It is Phil’s responsibility to get the most out of his players. Lastly, I’m pretty sure Mitch was the GM when Pau Gasol came to LA. He is the gift that is still giving. Mitch has been the steward over the NBA’s last two championship teams. I think he knows what he is doing. It’s not like he traded away his best defensive player for Jeff Green.
Yes, I wanted to drop kick my TV while watching the Lakers chuck up shot after shot last night. But we all have to remember this is not 2001. That kind of dominant run is not on the horizon. We Lakers fans are really spoiled. We want every regular season to be like 2000 (67-15). And we want every playoff run to be like 2001. Let’s come back to reality. The Lakers are still the number two seed in the West. They are still up on Boston and Miami in the loss column (at least for now). Most importantly, they still have a great shot at winning it all. Breathe people.
Ken says
Mr Rogers how is that kid show going? Even a child knows Jerry West called Dr. Buss made the Pau trade and Jimmy Buss drafted Andrew in spite of a yelling match with Mitch against it. Also stop with the Artest thing. One good game in 100? The guy is one of the worst offensive small forward in the league and averages2 rebounds a game. He is good at tweeting and staying out all night at clubs though. Multi year deals for Walton, Artest, Brown and after 8 years still not one point guard who could for any team in the
NBA. Learn the truth there Mr. Rogers!