Box Score: Lakers 95, Clippers 105
Well, that was, um, ugly.
I feel like we’re saying the same things we’ve been saying the last few days.
But it just NEVER felt like the Lakers were in this game. And they were basically without their prized acquisitions in the summer. Steve Nash was out because of his injury. Dwight Howard was in foul trouble the entire time. And at this point, I know Kobe Bryant doesn’t want to carry much of the burden on the offense but he had to because his weapons that were with him were just not… as effective.
Pau Gasol did have a double-double (10 points and 14 boards) but he only got to double digits in points because of garbage time. Dwight Howard did have 13 points in the game but, again, he was pretty limited because of foul trouble. You’d normally want Howard to play 35+ minutes but he only played 29 out there. He would’ve fouled out had they called a foul on Dwight when he got tangled up with Blake Griffin.
As for Kobe Bryant? He scored 40 points and, again, it was because he had to take over. He continues to be efficient and has been doing well under… well, is this even the Princeton offense anymore? They look like such a mess (20 turnovers) that I have no idea what they’re running anymore. Maybe they should make it simpler. Have a kindergarten offense or something because having a Princeton offense might be too difficult for these guys.
I’m not sure if Mike Brown’s going to continue to preach patience because, quite frankly, his seat is really smoking right now. Brown’s calling card is defense and, well, they haven’t shown they can even guard lampposts. Chris Paul was so good tonight that no fourth quarter takeover was needed. CP3 had 18 points and 15 assists. Caron Butler helped them get off to a good start in the first half (14 points total). And Jamal Crawford (their new sixth man) dropped 21 points on them. Blake Griffin didn’t even have a good game. That’s how bad the Lakers played today.
The Lakers… just look depressing on both sides of the ball. I don’t know how else to put it. Yeah, they shot well (50 percent) but if they keep losing possessions by being careless with the basketball, what good is it?
Go ahead. Fire away on the comments. I wanna be left alone with some Linkin Park and some… beverages.
Jamea says
Mike Brown has completely lost control. The Lakers need to move on. Paging Phil Jackson.
Shaun says
Rey thank you for being on the side of the those of us that are concerned – we have been hearing a lot about patience but come one there still needs to be something we can look forward to and it has been hard the whole start of the season
Kevin_ says
Kobe still has no help in the backcourt. I said long ago before the season started we can’t rely on Kobe to score 25+ a night and be successful long term. It was countless times he passed to Blake for an open shot and he wants to be Nash try and create when his role is supposed to be a spot up shooter and spread the floor. Way too much pressure is on the starters specifically Kobe to do everything everynight when it was supposed to be different thies year.
Kevin_ says
Lakers 48 bench pts in 3 games Clippers 46 bench points tonight
Mwp 8 FGM 11 TO’s this season
Bench, Mwp and turnovers are hurting the team.
Lakers look a lot like the Celtics old and slow with more offensive firepower.
Edwin Gueco says
Mbrown knows what he’s doing because he could always provide the answer after the game why they lost? He is playing a Vegas roulette, the more he lost. the closer he is to a win. You will see, if Lakers win on Sunday, there will be balloons, mini celebrations at Nokia Live, Brown becomes the hero in making this offense work after only four games. Normally, Brown when he was in Cleveland can afford to give away five games in 82 game season with Lebron, now that he has 4 superstars, he can afford to give away 30 and no sweat.
Cdog says
That was brutal, uncompetitive, and somewhat embarassing. The Lakers havent even been in a game this year. Which is scary because offensively Kobe has played well (aside from the turnovers).
I think the Problem with the Princeton offense is the spacing its creates. The Lakers are taking shots with players off balance for defense, and teams are running on them off made baskets because of it.
jonas says
thanks for telling it like it is. for some reason, a bunch of the beat writers, keep blowing sunshine up everyone’s asses. the fans have already figured out brown. at 0 and 7, i think the press would turn on brown. i still think brown can get us to 50 wins, but there’s no way brown gets us over the hump. we need phil and we need him now.
min k says
Is it possible for Mike Brown to stick to some sort of a thing that resembles a standard rotation with the bench? It is as if he has never coached in the NBA before. What is happening? Can we get an explanation please?
alan says
i think we should trade howard to the nets for draft choices and nash to whoever will take him. then we draft anyone who played basketball at princeton. then we’ll be sure to win!
Ko says
This team acts like they hate what they are doing. Why? Listen to Mike Brown babbling in post game. No wonder they come out so bad in tbe 3rd quarter. Babbling Mike will make anyone not want to play.
Please get him out.
Anonymous says
Management has overrated this team again, they are fooling themselves just like last year. This team will remain SLOW and INDECISIVE as along as Pau Gasol and Ron Artest are the starting
Forwards for this team, both are huge liabilities at this point in their careers. Management should have seen this clearly instead of hoping for some kind of “bounce back” from these 2 players.
They have both been struggling ever since they won the ring in 2010. That’s 2 years of sorry play from both of them and I’ve seen enough! I wish people would stop calling the Lakers the “BIG FOUR”…
because Gasol is not an all-star calibar player anymore. I think he would serve as an effective post player for some other team, maybe starting as a center… But the Lakers have the same redundancy
with Gasol and Howard that they had with Gasol and Bynum. When will they realize that the “TWIN-TOWERS” approach will never work! It didn’t work before and it’s not going to work now!
Today’s NBA game is about speed, quickness and skill, something the Lakers still are severly lacking. They are missing the Lamar Odom type of player that added this dimension to the frontcourt
of the Lakers championship teams. Howard, although being a good player, is only a slight upgrade over Andrew Bynum. They also are missing an athletic wing, like a Trevor Ariza, instead now we
have to suffer watching such a uninspiring player like Ron Metta world peace. They didn’t add any ATHLETIC 2’s or 3’s, That was a huge weakness last year and it remains so.
LBc says
Its a young mans league now, We dont have the speed or quickness to stay in front of anybody and its KILLING us. We cant run with these 20 year olds anymore, just not happening.
Mike says
Brown is awful. His substitution patterns make no sense, the offense is terrible and turnover prone, and his defense has been laughable. Well, the defense did show flashes in the fourth, but everything else is terrible. Is Pau just being told to stay out of the post so we can try Met ta out there, or is he doing it himself? And if he is, why hasn’t Brown told him to get his butt there? Why is Kobe playing huge minutes while recovering from a foot injury? Why is Pau getting 40 a game when we were supposed to have two competent back ups in Hill and jamison? Why do people play and then not play the next game seemingly at random?
Ko says
The answer to each if your questions Mike is your namesake.
Mike Brown
TheNCDon says
1/2 and 1/2
I think it is better to laugh. Hey Kobe had 40.
Edwin Gueco says
1/2 d & r,
It is a waste of time. Dish and DTV stopped negotiating with TWC because they could now see that Lakers would gradually lose their fans. Once we hit 0-5, we become the laughing stock of the league. We become the former Clippers. As you can see Blake lost his cool and arguing with the court side fans at the last few minutes, very soon they would blame one another as they get used to losing. This is the Lakers Pride that I saw that was lacking just in the first preseason game. I saw bragging a lot off court and doing little on the court. Shame, shame Magic and Kareem never had that kind of attitude during their prime.
As a Laker fan, I hate to be branded as a loser but that is what is it? $ 130 million is so far a waste at this miserable start.
dindo says
yeah Metta is done.. why is he playing heavy minutes?.. everytime he dribbles in the middle its a turn over.. why no JOdy Meeks and Jamison more
Rey Moralde says
If they were 0-3 and they lost them all through battling and in close games, I get that.
The problem is that they haven’t looked very competitive in all three games. They’re not brutal in the offensive end; they do shoot pretty well and Kobe seems to have thrived. But the problem is that they don’t take care of the ball. Something like 62 turnovers in the first three games. That won’t get it done.
Also, the reason why people are in a flux (not that we shouldn’t, we should have reason to)? When was the last time the Lakers won a game? It seems so foreign, doesn’t it?
This team does look very good on paper. But games aren’t won in paper.
Sure, we can try to be a bit more patient. But they can’t fall off too far in the standings. What if they still don’t look good and are 0-7? 2-12? 5-23? They can’t keep playing catch up.
They didn’t look worse than that game against Portland. But I sure as hell didn’t see any sparkling improvements.
Shaun says
From TrueHoop before the game –
• The Lakers have run pick-and-roll on just six percent of their offensive plays this season, by far the lowest percentage in the league, and a number that would have ranked last by a big margin last season.
• The Lakers have one field goal in transition this season and fewer than eight percent of their plays have been transition plays, both the lowest marks in the league.
• They’re averaging 16 bench points per game this season, second-fewest in the league, after averaging an NBA-worst 21.3 bench points last season. They don’t match up well with tonight’s opponent in that department.
arliepro says
Don’t think we can win any games until (1) we improve our D substantially (especially transition and perimeter) and (2) we stick to offensive schemes that we can execute without turnovers. The time for in-game experimentation needs to end NOW.
Ko says
Rey
Charlotte has more wins then the Lakers. Charlotte! This is the worst playing Laker team in memory. How did all this once good players get to Bad? How for the 2nd year did all the bench players become so bad?
The players don’t respect or want to play for Brown. Just like they didn’t in Cleveland. He is a unbearable fast talking used car salesman.
who is turning a $120 million dollar super car into a lemon.
Jesse says
Mike Brown…sucks.
Jodie Meeks zero minutes. Jordan Hill ten minutes. What the hell? Kobe Bryant, 17 years in, 43 minutes on an injured foot.
MB doesn’t seem to understand even the most rudimentary substitution patterns. People say the bench sucks, well how do we know, they’ve never been given an opportunity to succeed. Put Meeks and Hill in with Kobe, Steve (either), and Howard and see how they do. Put Jamison in with a similar line up. Let Pau play center and kick it out to a cutting Kobe, Meeks, and Steve (either) with Hill banging the boards. It’s not rocket science.
Simonoid says
Loving the new mobile site. Keep it up Darius.
Kenny T says
Shaun…
Those statistics are mind-boggling. I can see that incorporating a new offense is going to take time, but developing the chemistry between Nash and his new teammates with the pick and roll is going to take time as well. That has to be an important piece of this puzzle, too. Not using the P&R is like fighting with one hand tied behind your back.
nimble says
68 total shots again??With all due respect Darius there is nothing left for you to defend anymore.This is unacceptable outing.Why no one wants to shoot?It is on MB I guess.
Tej says
How to give up 8-10 points less per game:
1. When anyone sees a shot taken by the opposition yell, “SHOT !!”
2. When the yell is heard everyone should respond, “BOX OUT !”
3. Players should quickly find/locate an opponent
4. Then use their rear-ends to fend off opponents and secure the defensive rebound
We would probably have 2 wins if these fundamentals were followed.
dice8up says
Let Nash be NAsh.. that’s instant offense for you…
pablote says
it’s a curse due to the time warner deal…..
Craig W. says
Come on — the Lakers, the last few years, have not been a good box-out team. This predates MB. Pau, MWP, and Lamar have always had people jumping over and around them to get rebounds.
Last night I never felt the Lakers could come back if they fell behind. The game was not really in doubt in the 2nd half. That is what is so disappointing. I thought Dwight had a decent game – when he was playing.
Again, I don’t have a problem with our offense, I have a problem with our coach’s inability to do much in-game adjustment. Perhaps he is following our advice and just rolling the ball out there and telling them to go play. If he doesn’t like what players are doing out there, why not give some younger players a chance to improve during a game. At least we will be developing some younger talent and not simply overworking our vets, thus creating a greater chance for injury because they are tired.
BigCitySid says
Well the good news is the Lakers play the Pistons next, a lottery bound team this season. Gasol only nine field goal attempts? Since I can’t see the Lakers going 6-1 or even 5-2 in their next 7 games, the Lakers will be sub-.500 at the 10 game mark. This is becoming serious.
don ford says
Maybe canning MBrown isn’t the answer, I don’t know. But it just seems like the right thing to do now.
Not because of the offense.
Because this year _and last year_ the same things happen:
— player play without joy
— they seem to be playing in mud: no crispness, no efficiency, nothing is easy
— no sense that things are improving (again, a carry over from last year), but just a messy sort of disheveled perseverence, prideless, no sense of any developing coherence to their play
— of course the excessive minutes, weird rotations, etc, which also doesn’t seem to progress or develop to anything but more of the inexplicable same, toward no identifiable end (no wins of course, worn out starters, undeveloped youth).
I was disconcerted to hear Kobe (implicitly) stand by Brown with his “shut up” comments before clips game. Normally with the above symptoms I’d expect quotes of coach-dislike, from “unnamed” players, to be leaking out to the media, followed by firing and a relieved, freed up team that then goes on a happy rampage throught the league.
But maybe that won’t, or even shouldn’t, happen here – what do I know. If kobe’s with Brown, maybe he’ll stick.
Maybe the team … Just sucks ? 🙁 I hope that’s not it. (And Dwight sures hell won’t re-up for that.)
Miranda Writes says
Team is old, has no athleticism and little bench strength, and Mike Brown is a terrible coach for this team. Nuff said,
LakerKev says
A plea to Jeanie Buss: Cut off Phil until he agrees to come back…and add crushed up Viagra pills to his beverages.
Craig W. says
Trade Gasol, World Peace and any picks the other team wants, get a small foward that can move and has an outside jumper, and get some bench depth. Kobe’s time for a Sixth is about up.
tviper says
Nothing new here. MB is in way over his head. He continues to play Blake, who is not anywhere near an NBA level guard. Has no idea how to establish rotations. And the FO, instead of adding young players, adds has-been Jamison and signs D-leaguer Morris to a guaranteed deal. Ultimately, this is on the FO for hiring Brown in the first place. This team is going nowhere until they hire a legit coaching staff. It is quite apparent. The only thing that can save the season and Dwight re-signing instead of going elsewhere is Phil. The entire coaching staff needs to be summarily dismissed. This will never happen, so a first or second round exit is coming, assuming this team even make the playoffs.
DJ says
Next week, Lakers will face Detroit, Golden St, Sac, Lakers have to win all of these 3 games or people should not call MB an NBA coach, remember Dr. Buss fired Del Harris because Lakers lost to Vancouver, one of the worst team in the NBA.
SAVE THE SEASON, HOW ? trade Gasol to get small forward or a fast point guard, don’t wait untill Feb it will be too late for teams to get Gasol, Lakers should trade Gasol last year. The problem with MB, he can’t define role players, he can’t cut down TO, he lets players playing with emotion, Lakers need one more player, Howard and Kobe not enough, if Lakers won’t do anything, then don’t expect anything this season.
Robert says
To oversimplify the views being expressed here, I think there are 3 camps:
1) MB must go.
2) The team is too old and slow and the roster is over-rated.
3) Give it time.
I think all views have some merit. I was/still am optimistic this year, and I am now firmly placing myself in camp #1. Here is my logic:
I have been optimistic, and I think we have a great roster. This could be wrong and if it is (#2), we are not winning a title. This is not a building process. We need to win now. If we do not have a roster capable of that – we will be paying the price severely. There is no point in making that conclusion at this time however, as there is no benefit to it (I admit now – it could be true – but we will find out). So – #2 could be correct – but there is no way to correct it in the short run. Adding a backup PG and moves like that would help, but as we saw last year, those type of peripheral moves do not change the basic make up of the team (example – getting D West will not be the savior of our season).
Many of the self declared “rational” people on this board : ) would of course go with #3. Seems very calm and rational correct? Here are the problems with #3: If we do not change early in the season, we will not give the new regime enough time to salvage things this year. This type of “rational/calm” view also said that MB did not have enough time last year. So by definition, the new coach will not have enough time either – correct? So – if we do not change quickly (aka ditch Westhead and bring in Riley), then we are gambling the whole season on MB completely turning things around. Do we think he can? We turn the ball over with incredible frequency, we play no defense, we are slow, Nash looks old, DH looks 70%, Pau/Metta look old/slow, Jamison – don’t even know what to say, and of course our only bright spot is #24. Now this could all mean that #2 is correct, but I am hoping it is because we lack a good leader. A poor leader can manifest itself across the board on many issues, and my hope is that is the case, because it is fixable. If it is not MB’s fault and we really are old/slow etc, then it is irrelevant, because we are not winning. So, I am not saying that those of you out there who are in camps #2 and #3 are definitely wrong, I am just saying that if you are correct – there will be no banner this year and there is nothing we can do about it. I am still hoping for a banner so the only way to get that is:
#1 – Get rid of MB quickly. A new coach could instill a new attitude, re-invigorate the team, and start with a clean slate. We need to at least start the process of deciding who this is going to be and how/when the change will be made. PJ would be the dream, but there are a few other veteran options available. Figure out which one blends best with our roster and go with it. The sooner the better. Give the new regime as much time as possible to salvage this thing. This is not without risk, as changing horses in the middle of a race is always difficult to do successfully. However this change – I feel – is our only hope at a title his year.
snowmassdave says
Several insightful comments on this post, not just rants. First, I totally agree that the Lakers are a slow, aging team. It is obvious. More obvious is that Artest and Gasol are on the downside of their careers. Way down in the case of Artest. They are being beaten by more athletic, quicker opponents. A Big Four? I think not.
I have been lamenting MB as coach for months now. Can anyone really say they have improved from week to week? Month to month? There is no consistency in really any aspect of this team. MB is clearly in over his head. His substitution patterns are ridiculous. As one commenter said, ‘how would we know our bench is weak?’ — they are never in long enough to really evaluate their abilities, or lack thereof. Steve Blake is not an answer – whenever he is played. How about really playing Meeks more and seeing if he can help our offense. This start of the season reminds me of when Pat Riley ended up taking over way back when. We need a new coach, plan and simple. Even then, the Lakers age and lack of speed may end up killing our championship aspirations.
Nice new format Darius!
Ko says
Not sure if this is Pau’s fault. Brown’s idiot offense has him standing at the free through line like a scare crow. He is one of the smartest players in the MBA yet look completely confused. That’s on Brown-out.
Metta on the other hand is terrible. Another 3 for 10 night, dribbling around like a lunatic. He has 11 TO’s in 3 games. Metta may be Tge least intelligent player in tbe NBA. Listen to him talk. View his past. Guy can barily play horse due to spelling question so zero chance for a offense based on high IQ.
Fire Brown now. Release Jamison now. Bench or dump Mensa Metta now. Start all over Mitch before Time Warner wants it’s money back and Laker fans turn to the NEW winning team the Clippers!
Does Jim Buss realize that Clips have 5 starters and 5 guys on the
bench better then 5 through 12 on the Lakers!
This current team and clueless coach will be fighting for the 7th or 8th spot with Houston, Dallas, Utah and Portland all younger new lineup teams. Wonder who will play center next year when Howard leaves?
Kevin_ says
Defense, Turnovers, Offensive Gameplan/Chemistry, Defensive Gameplan/Chemistry, Sub Patterns, Minutes Limit, Horrible Bench, Older Team, 1 Two Way Player are all the Lakers problems.
Dwight is the Lakers only 2 way player. The defense will continue to be putrid until he becomes all world on that end again. I’ve lost all faith in Brown’s ability to gameplan. We haven’t seen one adjustment in 91 games.
Blake, Metta, Jamison (who we all were expecting to score big this year) are vet minimum players who the Lakers need to contribute every game. Those guys wouldn’t get role players minutes on any team but a lottery bound one. Ebanks is still learning the game he’ll have his ups and downs. Lakers are essentially a 4 man team. Brown probably sees that and acts accordingly by playing the starters 40 minutes a game.
Lakers are in trouble folks. Kobe’s not going to shoot 60% forever.
Tom Daniels says
This team is old. This team has talent. To beat the younger, quicker teams the Lakers simply have to execute better and take advantage of their size and skill. But if you are going to be slow AND sloppy (at both ends) there is no hope.
The Lakers poor offense is contributing to their poor defense. Turnovers, bad shots and poor floor balance, along with old legs, make for very bad transition defense. Of course, the poor defense is also contibuting to the poor defense. Team defense is confused, and they can play for 10-12 seconds, but not longer. Rotations just aren’t keeping up. And they are again poorly balanced and not rebounding well on defense.
It may just take time. Or maybe it takes some changes. As long as they are losing, maybe it is time to get some younger legs into the rotation. I am close to suggesting that Ebanks starts at SF. Peace is slow afoot and slow to learn new systems and looks just plain lost out there. Maybe with heavy minutes Devin can improve. Metta may be done.
And as bad as he looked at times on offense, I liked the defensive effort of Miles. The young guys can’t improve by sitting.
Tsig says
Sunday is a must win game. They just need a one to build off of.
Dave M. says
There’s a lot of validity in the above comments but I especially agree with what @arliepro said – we have to improve our D, especially transition and perimeter.
The team’s age is showing. Defense is a foundational issue. It requires a level of commitment and it’s not the easiest thing on old knees and sore backs. The guys are going to have to suck it up and get in lockstep and that means communicating and it means fundamentals. Stop the bleeding and you’re back in the game.
Snoopy2006 says
Kobe on his foot: It “feels like it’s about to fall off right now.” No context, so I don’t know if he was being sarcastic or not.
We looked immensely confused on offense last night. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a team look so lost. I understand it’s a new and complex offensive system, but we also have some of the highest IQ basketball players in the league. I just want to see steps in the right direction. If we look as confused in game 13 as in game 3, that’s when I start to doubt how salvageable this is.
Dave M – I completely agree. The confusion on offense is at least understandable. The D, not as much. At some point you have to wonder if familiarity and communication can overcome a legitimate lack of foot speed. Pau has looked phenomenal greasing the wheels of the offense with his superb passing, but he’s having trouble recovering and covering ground on D. I still lean to the side of believing a top 10 defense is (remotely) possible, but I’m not as confident as I was a month ago. We look slow and not sharp at all.
The Dude Abides says
Well, so far the Lakers are perfectly executing the first step in my plan/wish for a championship in 2013: get off to an abysmally slow start. Step two is for the front office to fire Brown. Step three would be to bring in a competent head coach and coaching staff. Chuck Person should be the only one retained from the current staff. Step four: Profit!!! Championship!!!
I’ve actually been saying this to all my friends even before the preseason started. This is a championship-caliber team, but only if the front office gets rid of the coach and all of his assistants (Kuester, Bickerstaff, Jordan) who are known for losing.
T. Rogers says
At the most basic level the Lakers lack confidence. They second guess everything they do offensively. That leads to steals and easy buckets on the other side. It become demoralizing and just feeds on itself.
Brown has to inject some confidence into this team. Ditch the PO. It is making the players think too much. Start Hill (if he can play) and Ebanks along with Kobe, Howard, and Nash. Run pick and rolls as much as possible. Run the floor off every Howard rebound. Score the easy points. The easy points will cut down on steal and the resulting run outs. Most of all it may breathe life back into these players.
Right now they are walking zombies.
mt says
Wing players are the easiest commodity to acquire. The D League is full of athletic tweeners. All the Lakers need there is an Alonzo Gee type – low salary guys who are a tough , make plays and don’t waste possessions.
A bigger problem is back up point, we have two of the worst in the league, check the metrics and are committed to their salaries…..meanwhile athletic young vets like Uzoh and Gaines can’t find a team.
It’s great to take on salaries to make a deal, but if you’re paying money for nothing why not just cut a guy like Duhon and get someone who can play?
david h says
rey: how do we put this without sounding condescending? the nut behind the wheel is lost and we’re in the middle of nowhere going into the vast space we call the intersection of deep thought.
one could cut the tension on this blog with imagination alone and still leave room for cake. speaking of which the cake i had for dessert last night tasted as bland as the product the lakers are putting out there right now. which is to say a recipe for disaster, fortunately the season is still young.
because patience is a virtue, we’re not feeling it here. why? because we only have a lifetime to wait and a lifetime does not appear to be enough to right the direction this bus is currently heading. too many yellow and red signals ahead pretty much puts the passengers on this bus on a collision course of mediocrity strapped in with seatbelts over our eyes. train wreck anyone?
which brings me back to when we younger, row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily merily life is but a dream, ya all.
all the while, we can still hope. are you listening laker front office? we’re certain your vision is 20/20. now is the time to take over the driving duties.
Go Lakers
Rubenowski says
I’m not hitting the panic button yet. This team needs to figure out their offense. I don’t think they just need to work on the defense (although they need to do this too). In my opinion, when teams run “complicated” offensive systems like the triangle and the princeton offense, the offense and the defense feed off each other. So the better offense will lead to better defense. In this case, since we have been very sloppy with the ball, our turnovers are leading to a lot of fastbreak points. It is true that we have been shooting the ball extremely well, but this doesn’t mean the offense does not need to be improved. We should be shooting more, and this can only happen by taking care of the ball and learning the offense. It’s not just high field goal percentage that’s a sign of a good offense. Good ball movement is also part of a good offense. For that we need Nash to play and the bench to also step up. Whether our bench has what it takes remains to be seen. I actually think we have a decent bench, except maybe for the PG spot. But I still believe it can done. I still believe in this team.
jodial says
Dude, I agree with your entire comment.
My biggest problem with the way the team has looked is that they haven’t really been competitive since the 0-35 run in preseason game #1. It’s not like a couple of bounces could have made a difference in any of these games; they’ve been pretty much wire to wire schoolings (2 of them at the hands of marginal playoff teams). I mean, that’s really alarming.
jodial says
PS. and another round of props for the new format Darius, works great on the iPhone!
Kevin_ says
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2007/columns/story?id=2900286
“A conservative man by nature, Brown is very slow to institute change and that may be what’s needed to reverse the course of the Finals.” – in this case “to” the Finals.
Was said 5 years ago and still the truth today. I wish someone in Lakerland did an interview with Windhorst. On his assessment of the team and Brown. Lots of his old articles from years ago about Brown’s team are the same things that are happening today.
Kevin_ says
http://www.fearthesword.com/2010/5/12/1468925/brian-windhorst-has-strong-words
“Also, Brown seems to be searching during games without any real plan of what to do. The players can sense this and it undermines him to a certain degree. Very rarely during the playoffs have the Cavs made in-game adjustments that have provided fruit. In between games with practices and film sessions, yes. But not within the game. When the Cavs look like they are going to lose in the first quarter, usually they have lost.”
I can go on and on with this. The problem is Mike Brown.
rr says
I agree with most of what Robert says, and with several other people. My detailed take—(apologies for the length, but want to get this off my chest)
COACHING:
I was at the game last night, and me and my buddies listened to Brown’s presser in the car on the way out of Staples. Asked about the bench, he said that everyone has to stay ready, and he is going to keep searching. Asked about Duhon and Morris, he said that he gave Duhon a chance in Portalnd and wanted to give Morris a chance tonight.
So, Brown essentially said that
a) He is not going to stabilize the rotation.
b) That he doesn’t understand that guys like Chris Duhon and Darius Morris aren’t very good, but your best chance to get something out of them is to give them small, stable roles. Phil sometimes took criticism for his rotation being set in stone, but that is far better than what Brown does. Unless Meeks was injured, his getting a DNPCD last night in the third game of the year while Kobe went 43 on the bad foot was inexcusable. If Brown does that again this week, I would fire him.
As to the offense, it suits no one on the roster except for Kobe. He gets a lot of touches in motion, and it reduces his ball-stopping tendencies. That is great, but no one else on the roster fits the scheme, and that will continue to be the case even when they get the timing down better.
PERSONNEL:
MWP, weight loss or no, is done as a 35 MPG player. Either Ebanks needs to play about half the time, or as noted they need to pick up an athletic wing off the free talent heap that Brown will trust enough to play 20-25 MPG.
As to PG, that is trickier, but there are guys in the free talent heap every year who are as good as Blake, Duhon, and Morris. If they are willing to spend the money, they should probably get a better backup for Blake, but leave Blake as the backup to Nash for now. But since it is certain that Nash will miss time and need rest, they could use a new 3rd-stringer.
Howard is about 60-70%; at this point, Aaron appears to have been right. Howard does not have the explosion off the floor or the lateral quickness in space that he once did. For this team to work, he needs to be DWIGHT HOWARD and Nash needs to be STEVE NASH.
As to the bench, Kupchak focused on shooting, which made sense, but they now have six rotation guys (Kobe, Pau, Metta, Nash, Blake and Jamison) who are slow and well over 30. That, combined with Brown’s defensive philosophy, means very few forced TOs and very few easy baskets. There were 4-5 times last night when the Clippers threw passes that probably should have picked off but weren’t. Having bench guys with the same weaknesses as your core guys is a structural issue.
CONCLUSION:
The problems are real. They will be ameliorated if Brown and Jordan allow Nash to be Nash more and Howard gets phyiscally back to being Howard. I am still on the 15-game clock, but after seeing the team in person last night, I think Brown is probably over his head and is a practice/camp/assistant coach–not a head coach for a veteran team.
Darius Soriano says
A new post is up.
http://www.forumblueandgold.com/2012/11/03/for-mike-brown-lakers-its-a-matter-of-degrees/
sT says
Yes, I do agree that the new website is much better on my iPhone, thanks Darius.
@Robert November 3, 2012 at 8:56 am: Those three options are about it, and you are right on with the comment.
@rr November 3, 2012 at 1:41 pm: It is good to have someone comment who was at the game, it gives live insight as to what is happening, even if it is just yours.
Kadhir says
What happened to Jodie Meeks? I thought he was supposed to be Kobe’s back up?