We learned the Biblical story from David’s perspective but this season, the Lakers get to walk a mile in the big guy’s sandals, heading into another hot time in the old town tonight against the resurgent Warriors in Oakland.
Ho, ho, ho, what’s that in your hand, a slingshot?
How cute!
Thud.
By now, it should be clear that the Lakers have had more problems injuries, personality clashes and the transition to Mike D’Antoni.
Their injuries have largely healed.
Their starting lineup is once more whole.
D’Antoni has been here four months, time enough to install his offense, then re-jigger when his personnel proved incapable of playing it.
The 27-year-old post-adolescent Dwight Howard has at least made contact with the deadly-serious Kobe Bryant across the chasm that separated them.
Howard is playing better, if still not Dwight of old.
As for the metaphysical claptrap they trot out after losses to explain taking nights off or blowing 18-point leads over the Wizards, no, that’s not it, either.
To borrow Kris Kristofferson’s line, the Lakers are a walking contradiction – part fact, part fiction.
The fiction is that they’re contending for a title.
In fact, they’re still an aging, hulking team, as they have been for three seasons.
If they now have a healthy center (compared to Andrew Bynum, anyway) and a real point guard (even if a 39-year-old one), it hasn’t made them any younger or quicker to the ball.
The contradictions are all over the place.
Numero uno was the combination of the determinedly post-adolescent Howard with the demanding Bryant.
The second was turning their big hulks over to an offensive-minded, floor-spreading coach.
If Jim Buss has been ritually blamed, choosing D’Antoni over Phil Jackson was his father’s call, according to people close to D’Antoni and Jackson.
Various reasons are given. One is that Jerry Buss was leery of Phil and Jeannie Buss overwhelming Jim after he was gone.
For sure, Jerry wanted to go back to Showtime, which was Mike, not Phil.
This one goes back years, to 2004, the first time Phil left, or, actually, was shown the door.
They had yet to hire a successor when I ran into Larry Drew, then an assistant coach, who told me everything they were doing at the facility in El Segundo was about going back to running.
Oh my heavens, I thought. Don’t they know that the game has changed, as teams took more threes, spacing the floor on offense and taking away Showtime-style three-on-two or two-on-one runouts?
No, they didn’t.
Next Page: Lakers Don’t Pick Phil, Things Begin Falling Apart
Phil was a virtual son-in-law and a problem for for the paterfamilias of the Buss family, making visible the Jim-Jeannie rivalry… as when Phil and Jim traded jibes on radio.
—- Run this town with the Lakers with this awesome wallpaper! —-
Five games into this season, with the firing of Mike Brown, the Lakers—including Jim Buss—were getting ready to rehire Jackson once more.
This time, Jerry Buss said no, at the last moment, with Phil’s Chicago-based agent, Todd Murburger, hours from boarding a plane to Los Angeles to do the deal.
Not that there was any question who their best bet was.
Jackson would have brought calm and reassurance in his inimitable what-me-worry style, no matter what went wrong.
Phil’s Triangle offense worked with multiple bigs.
He was the fans’ choice. If it didn’t work, they would, at least, have felt the Lakes had taken their best shot.
Even knowing all this, D’Antoni didn’t look like a bad choice to me.
I thought they should downsize, starting three guards with Kobe as the small forward, with Dwight and Metta World Peace–which D’Antoni was likeliest to do.
Mike’s early reviews of Gasol were skeptical, to say the least, but he continues to start him… possibly at the suggestion of management, to see what they have before thinking about trading Pau.
Unfortunately, as presently configured, the Lakers don’t control the tempo like a Jackson team.
Nor do they put up 110 a night and let opponents see if they can beat that, like a D’Antoni team.
As far as protecting the lane, shrinking the floor or making teams beat them from outside.
Actually, they’re terrible at all three. A terrible problem for a team that rarely plays anyone who isn’t are younger, faster and more athletic.
Showing the toll this is taking on all concerned, D’Antoni let it all hang out after Friday’s loss to the Wizards, giving us a rant worthy of this messed-up season.
Allen Iverson had “PRACTICE?”
Jim Mora had “PLAYOFFS?”
Now Mike has “CHAMPIONSHIPS?”
“We put our hands in–and you guys have probably seen it–we say ‘championship!’” said D’Antoni.
“God, that’s laughable. Championship? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
On the bright(?) side for the Lakers, nothing means anything until the playoffs—assuming they’re in them.
There’s still time to make it work and go on a roll. At the top of their game, they could upset the Spurs, Thunder, et al.
On the other hand, with the dysfunction built in–trying to play fast with a slow team–it’s not the way to bet.
If there’s a silver lining for the Lakes, things could be much worse—and were, until the All-Star break.
Their Nightmare Scenario involved more than a first-round exit, like Howard leaving… or staying and running off Kobe… or staying but never getting back to Dwight of old.
Howard now looks like he will stay, has progressed physically and spiritually and no longer makes Kobe totally crazy.
As Wavy Gravy said at Woodstock, “There’s always a little heaven in a disaster area.”