Lakers Slaughtered in the Desert

but from what i saw in the boxscore, the bench got killed again. they were outscored by the suns bench 52 to 31, with phoenix making huge runs when our bench was on the court. Mitch is gonna have to make some kind of trade. this mediocre play will not fly against the elite teams. i dont want our team to become the new 2008-09 cavaliers where we get killed vs the big dogs. i suggest using sasha, morrison and if necessary farmar as leverage in a trade.
on the contrary, bynum had a decent game, but still he could do better.
looks like we have 4 or 5 home games ahead of us vs good teams (ex: dallas, houston) before things get really nasty.

A couple positives and a whole lot of negatives.

I really liked how Drew played tonight. It was about time he showed some life with points, boards, and blocks. Hopefully he can keep some momentum and play at a high level tomorrow night. Getting Drew back at “full strength” could be a big boost to this squad. It also seems like Kobe is just flat out unstoppable. Tonight he went on a tear (I’m thinking third quarter) were he made ridiculous shot after ridiculous shot. We’re kinda taking it for granted since we get to watch him every night but when we look back on Kobe we’re all going to be shaking our heads in disbelief.

The bad stuff was obviously getting blown out and our bench playing like crap. I mainly blame defense and flaming hot suns shooting as the culprit for this loss. This game kinda reminded me when the Lakers used to make the Nuggets Leinas Kleiza look like an all-star. Well tonight it was Dudley. When he was hitting everything in sight he was still getting open looks. Gotta hand the Suns credit, they were hitting their shots.

At the end of the day, we’re still up two blowouts to one on this early season. This was a tough game that I wouldn’t have liked us to win but don’t mind us losing. There is still a lot of basketball to be played and we definitely haven’t come anywhere close to peaking this year.

Monta Ellis played all game, and had 36 points. He’ll be tired for the Lakers tomorrow I hope.

Again, Boston is losing to crappy teams, and we’re losing to good teams. I don’t know where to go with this. We need a good home stand coming up and we need Artest back. I look forward to seeing what happens the next few games.

I think others should shoulder more responsibility than to expect kobe to save them in every game.
Phil should get on top of his squad as it seems they are getting out of hand. They seem to think their length is enough on defense and show no intensity.

Sasha’s dumb ass contract is killing us!

The Lakers have got to start being a threat from deep, or their inside game will not open up

Laker’s new years resolutions:
Stop loosing, to any teams.
Make 3’s.
Every player focus on doing what makes them a good player.

_ I"m looking for January cause it seems like a clean start to the rest of the season.
Also, I think Phil Jackson needs to bring some powerful sage into the locker room.

I think the whole lakers team are depending too much on kobe

see ya’ll for Golden State’s thread, another game that should be interesting if Artest isn’t in the lineup.

Except for Fish these other 1st round draft picks aren’t looking so great, is it the motivation of coaching staff. It sure as heck can’t be the money all these guys are making it big, I always hate long term contracts.

RELAX. Everyone, our defense is fine and our offense is fine. When we were on our winning streak everyone was citing our defense as the reason we were playing so well. When we want, we can score at will.

What these losses come down to is lack of motivation. Lakers have had this problem since the beginning of time. We had the problem last year, we had the problem earlier this year. We let teams beat us because we don’t come out strong out of the gate and we let teams back in the game because we lose concentration.

I’m not losing any sleep over this game. Until the #1 seed in the West comes in to question (don’t see that happening) or we lose 5 in a row, there is no panic. We are the most talented team in the league on both ends of the floor and we will be fine come playoff time.

I miss a lot. Hopefully we has a good game against us tonight (we still win). He isn’t hurt anymore right?

to lose but im still not that worried. from what ive seen we cant get any penetration into the paint which baffles me because we have 3 big men that should be able to get into the post and score at will.

heres a laker possession: 24 seconds
fisher passes the ball to kobe
kobe drives to about the free throw line (kobe either shoots or defers) 18 seconds
kobe passes to gasol whos about a ft from being in the right position (pau looks like a confused monkey and passes it to bynum)
having never gone to college bynum decides to pass the ball to kobe
kobe frustrated passes the ball to odom who cant get deep enough into the paint
odom passes to fisher for a long 3 and he misses :(

PENETRATE AND get easy baskets

is talking about Andrew’s big fall off. I think it is warranted but I don’t like to see it after one of his better games this month. How about a little positivity around Lakerland?

As a diehard Los Angeles Laker fan I try not to panic but there has been a problem for me that we have not addressed since Boston dispatched us in a not so kind fashion back in 2007. Where does our energy come from? True enough the team was soft as tissue paper, but they beat most teams based on the hustle of the second squad and the excellent play of the starters. The true bench mob consisted of players like Luke Walton, Trevor Ariza, or Vlad Radmanovic (whoever was not starting), Ronny Turiaf, Farmar, Lamar, Chris Mihm, Sasha, Mbenga, and Coby Karl.

What people fail to realize is that bench had size with two seven footers (Mihm and Mbenga) and two 6’10 payers in Odom and Turiaf. It had hustle with Farmar and Ariza, and shooting with Vlad Rad, Sasha, and Coby Karl. Heck Coby Karl even got in the occasional flush. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7004f2ABFc&feature=related
What was so good about that bench is that it had pieces that fit. Unfortunately those pieces were PUNKED by the Celtics but that was only because the two very important players were hurt (Ariza and Bynum). Those injuries caused us to move our Bigs out of position (and sometimes Kobe too) resulting in mismatches that were taken full advantage of by Boston.

That team was not ready for the Finals but it made it there regardless. It was a year too early for them, but the rest of the League took notice and now look at most benches. Orlando arguably has the best and the league; Cleveland has Zeke, Moon, and two good point guards; Boston’s bench is extremely good with Rasheed and Eddie House as offensive fireplugs, and Portland is super stacked with young high flyers, even Phoenix has a couple offensive threats on their bench with Barbosa’s speed and Jarod Dudley’s lights out shooting.
 
What should they do? Strengthen the bench and get rid of Andrew. I am one of the many that has lost patience with Andrew. He just doesn’t get it. Even with Phil and the coaching staff telling him to come back as a stronger defensive and rebounding presence he comes back looking for more offense. He is a black hole in the middle and everything just stops when he gets the ball, he doesn’t hit the cutter so no one cuts. He moves look awkward and if he doesn’t score he either complains he was fouled or just mopes his way down the court. We wanted Kareem and that is what he has become; the old man Kareem. For those who can remember Joe Barry Caroll (JBC – Just Barely Cares was his nickname), Chris Washburn, Stanley Roberts, Michael Oliwikandi, and last but not least Kwame Brown understand that some big men just never get it. They show signs of brilliance, but more than not they disappointed.

What would I do? I would be more than open to the idea of trading Bynum for Chris Bosh. He is only three years older but light years ahead of the game. He plays defense, can face up and shot from the outside (3 pointers even), and he would free Pau to do his thing without having to worry about pleasing the other big man. Kobe could go down on the block more often and so could Ron Ron. Everything works financially if you include one of our misfiring sharp shooters either Sasha the Miss-Chine or the other Morrison.

Just like losing Caron Butler and Turiaf, Ariza’s loss will haunt us. But we can overcome that with some minor deals. The Lakers have to get more athletic and better on the bench. Jayred Bayless in Portland is being shopped as well as Tyrus Thomas. Either one of those guys would be a great improvement. Bayless would eventually end up as our lead guard (he is that talented) when Fish finally hangs it up. Tyrus Thomas could assume Trevor’s role on the bench as a Defensive Stopper. The other misfiring sharpshooter (either Sasha or Morrison) for Jason Kapono would make the Lakers better but not more athletic.

Though financially responsible, keeping only 13 players is financially unwise. Why spend over $100 million if you are going to cheap out about the last couple that can put us over the top? All poker players know that if you are getting good odds on the bet, you take the chance. Dr. Buss should have realized this. It made the difference between us getting a player like Dejaun Blair and having him on the bench to help bang or one of the many free agents that could help this team out down the line.

Injuries happen, teams who play as many games as we do wear down but we are not prepared for either. Use the trade exception and get back Jarvis Crittenton and add depth to the point (because Farmar is gone after next year) and find some other active bodies in the D League or abroad and then we can talk about and all-time great team.