From Dave McMenamin, ESPN LA: The Los Angeles Lakers ended their six-game losing streak by beating a 9-29Cleveland Cavaliers team that played Luke Walton for 24 minutes at Staples Center on Sunday. As the late Chris Farley playing the motivational speaker Matt Foley would say, “Whoop-de-freaking-doo!” The Lakers could use a continued dose of Farley/Foley motivation because the hole they’ve dug for themselves should be seen just as daunting after beating the Cavs as it did before the teams played Sunday.The reality of their situation is that even with the victory, things aren’t so rosy. The Lakers are five games under .500, at 16-21. They’re in 11th place in the Western Conference and four games behind the No. 8-seeded Portland Trail Blazers. They’re 5-12 on the road with 10 of their next 15 games coming away from Staples Center against the likes of Memphis, Brooklyn and Miami. And despite holding Cleveland to 93 points on 41.1 percent shooting, that was against the second-worst offense in the league, so it doesn’t magically erase the fact that eight of the Lakers’ past 10 opponents coming into Sunday crossed the 100-point threshold against them.
From Eric Pincus, LA Times: Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said the Lakers are considering applying for a disabled player exception for Jordan Hill. Hill is expected to have surgery to fix a possible labral tear and remove “loose bodies” from the joint. Recovery is expected to take six months and Hill would miss the remainder of the season. The Lakers are eligible to apply for the exception, which would give the team an additional $1.78 million in spending power. “We’ll look into it,” said Kupchak. “We have until Tuesday.” A disabled player exception can be used to sign a free agent for up to one season. It can also be used to acquire a player (making up to $1.88 million) via trade, as long as that player will be a free agent this summer. The deadline for a team to apply for a disabled player exception is Jan. 15. The injured player must be considered sidelined until at least June 15.
From Mark Whicker, OC Register: At last, garbage time meant what it is supposed to mean, not all 48 Lakers minutes. And, at last, Earl Clark is becoming the partial cause of a victory, not the victory cigar. Clark is 6-foot-10, and his 25th birthday is Thursday, when the Lakers play Miami. In Pau Gasol’s absence, he has had the kind of three-game screen test that has always been the L.A. plotline. Against a lame (in both senses) Cleveland team that is stuck on a Western trip without Anderson Varejao, Clark produced 13 points, nine rebounds and four assists. The Lakers rumbled past the Cavaliers, 113-93, broke a six-game losing streak and now lead the L.A. Kings, 1-0, in 2013 victories. “This isn’t news to us,” said Metta World Peace, in a mischievous mood. “He could average 15 or more. We see this every day.
From Kelly Dwyer, Yahoo Sports: Prior to the team’s game against Cleveland, Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni suggested that the Lakers’ season started over on Sunday, even after a 15-21 start to a (pre?) season that some thought would end in the Lakers losing all of 21 contests over an 82-game turn. Sunday was the 2012-13 debut, D’Antoni declared, which was probably just fine for a Laker team setting up to take on a 9-29Cleveland Cavaliers team in Los Angeles. The Lakers romped, if not entirely predictably (the team’s 36-game preseason has been that rough), in a 113-93 victory. It was a hollow motivational ploy to most outsiders. Paired with a sterling defensive effort against a Cavaliers team that ranks amongst the five worst offensive teams in the NBA. An insignificant win amongst the 30 or so in 46 games that the Lakers will probably need just to make it back to this year’s postseason bracket. A game that answered absolutely no questions, because the same ailments that the Lakers face in mid-January were the ones we assumed of them after trading for Dwight Howard in early August. What else do you want D’Antoni to do, though?
From Ramneet Singh, Lakers Nation: The Los Angeles Lakers finally won their first game in 2013 Sunday night, snapping a disappointing six-game losing streak.The Lakers claimed the victory against the Cleveland Cavaliers, and even though the Cavs aren’t an upper echelon team, the Lakers desperately needed a win. After the game, Kobe Bryant spoke to the media and he talked about what the Lakers need to do in order to make the next step. Arash Markazi tweeted that Bryant wants the Lakers players to put their egos aside and work for the betterment of the team.
Robert says
Great win which was desperately needed. That said:
Clark: He looks good, and we are all looking for anything positive. Let’s hope we are not in the first Phases of a Jordan Hill situation, as I heard very similar about him last year.
Middle of the Roster (as rr correctly emphasized): The Lakers should pursue the exception that they can get for the Hill injury. Yes – it is not my money, but since we already spent a fortune on dinner, let’s not try to save money by not ordering coffee and desert afterwards.
Middle of The Roster Players: Yes – MK might need to do a better job here, but that is half the equation. Hill looked good last year and what did we do with that earlier this year (hard to rebound from the dog house)? Now Clark looks good, so where has he been hiding? And what are we going to do with him when Pau comes back? Also, Barnes is a pretty good “middle of the roster” guy for the Clips. So yes – the FO needs to bring people in (hence let’s get that exception), but also the coaching staff needs to use them and not pull them in and out in some sort of “experiment”.
Albert says
“Arash Markazi tweeted that Bryant wants the Lakers players to put their egos aside and work for the betterment of the team.”
Not sure how reliable that tweet is but if true, Kobe needs to lead the pack with that principle. Thankfully, he did last night on the defensive end. Perhaps he needs to defend the best offensive player that is not a center, every night to keep engaged.
P. Ami says
Robert,
If Clark manages to provide for the Lakers, relative to his skill set, what it is that Hill provided I would be ecstatic. It seems that your comment comes from the position that Hill has been something of a disappointment. I have such a hard time relating to that position that I am doubting my own reading comprehension. Do you think of Hill as a disappointing performer? If so, what did you expect from him?
rr says
Barnes was quoted as saying he left due to Mike Brown. OTOH, Barnes signed for 1.23M, and AFAIK, since he was the Lakers FA, they could have offered him more than the minimum. I think it is possible that Barnes would have put up with Brown for an extra 300-400K and the Lakers could obviously use Barnes now.
Robert’s post is good. I remember that sometimes people would complain about how Phil’s rotation was set in stone, but stability and constancy have there advantages as well.
Robert says
P Ami: That was not the intent of my statement. Some have stated that I am too hard on MD, so as hard as it has been to do, I have tempered my statements : ) Clearly I went too far above, as you thought I was picking on Hill. I was not. Last year, Hill came in and started rebounding and hustling much the same way that Clark is doing now. Then, earlier this year, there were periods where he was not played on a consistent basis (hence the doghouse comment). So my point – Hill has not been maximized. Clark is now playing well. What happens when Pau comes back? Can we figure some way for both to contribute or is one of them out in the cold (dog house or not). Just like Barnes last year, only that was with MB. Barnes and MB did not get along. And thus Barnes is gone and is thriving elsewhere. So I like/liked all of these guys, but I do not coach the team. There were some other guys (Shannon being the prime example), that we should have never let go, and that was a FO decision.
Conclusion: The middle of the roster is not all an MK problem. It is certainly not a Hill or Clark problem (well partially it is – because Hill is injured). It is somewhat of a systems and coaching problem in that we need an environment in which these type of guys can thrive.
rr says
Robert,
I think MDA actually deserves credit for Hill, in the sense that he put his dislike/history aside and started using him. One can argue that he should have been using Hill from the beginning, I suppose, but while I like Hill, I don’t think he is quite as good as some here do. Many fans tend to overrate the value of hustling/garbagemen type players. Hill is not much of an interior defender. He does deserve credit for working on his jumper.
Hill had a PER of 18.3 when he got hurt, so while that is just one number, it is a stretch to say he has “not been maximized” unless you simply wanted to bench Pau and start Hill, as some did.
marquea says
it is truly amazing how steve nash escapes media criticism…he gives up on more defensive plays then anybody in the league.
hes licking his fingers waiting for the ball before the other team even scores
Hale says
The problem was less letting Shannon go as much as it was replacing him with Jason Kapono when Gerald Green was on hand as a possibility. The team made the conscious effort to go older and non-athletic. In a faint way to counter that this season, they rolled the dice with Ebanks over Barnes without fully kicking the tires first and drafting Darius Johnson-Odom.
Formalhault says
why don’t we just get CDR and Delonte
Ko?
Kenny T says
Kobe played great defense on Irving last night. He did a great job on CP3 down the stretch In the recent Clips game. Kobe did a good job on Westbrook in the OKC game until the game got out of hand. The point is that Kobe can still play very well on the defensive side of the ball.
But, can Kobe lead the league in minutes per game and maintain a high level of production on both offense and defense for the rest of the season? Kobe’s offense is important to his team. Let’s not act like Kobe is some sort of Bruce Bowen or Shane Battier who can expend 90% of his energy on D. Kobe should only be playing 35 minutes max during the regular season at this stage of his career. The lack of a consistent backup for him places an enormous burden on Kobe. I’ll agree that he has too often turned his head on defense and needs to do a better job moving forward, but the rest of the team needs to step up an both sides of the ball to ease some of the strain on the Bean.
Kenny T says
Dave Mc, Mike Bresnahan & Eric Pincus all report on Twitter that Pau won’t play in tomorrow’s game vs. the Bucks.
Darius Soriano says
A new post is up.
http://www.forumblueandgold.com/2013/01/14/small-picture-yes-big-picture-maybe/
Robert says
rr: Did not think Hill should be starting – just consistent minutes. He averaged 16 min per game, but he had 7 games under 10 and a few over 25. Before he got hurt, a consistent 18-20 per game would have been good. It’s not just PJ who was boring with this stuff. you could set your watch by the times Riley would go to Coop or McAdoo.
OK, I will give MD the credit to which you are referring. However what you are stating is he deserves credit for going against his natural dislike of Hill or his type of player. This of course only irks me in another way, because when MD was hired we were told he was the right fit. Not for Hill; Anyone else on the bench? Not for AJ; Not for Pau; Who? : )
OK – enough with regard MD – no more posting from me until my next Kobe Alert before tomorrow’s game.
BigCitySid says
A couple of points:
– will the Lakers decide to pick up another player to fill Hill’s roster spot? Kenyon Martin is the biggest name 4 available, but would Troy Murphy fit the coach’s game plan better?
-It’s laughable hearing guys talk about useful role players the Lakers didn’t re-sign (such as Barnes, Brown, etc) because they could get more money elsewhere. Lakers have a $100,000 payroll. No other team comes close, no other team is even in the $90 millions. Lakers employ three (3) of the eight (8) highest paid players in the league, including the highest paid guy who makes $6 million more than the #2 guy. This is a salary cap league, and Lakers made their decision to pay their top guys fill out the rest of the roster basically with minimum wage guys. So in other words, expect more of the same next season will Kobe’s salary zooms up to $30 million.
rr says
-It’s laughable hearing guys talk about useful role players the Lakers didn’t re-sign (such as Barnes, Brown, etc) because they could get more money elsewhere
—
Barnes signed for the veterans’ minimum. And since Brown was their own FA, they could have kept him, too.