No Phil Jackson team that has gone on to win a championship has ever lost four straight games.
Uh oh.
Am I worried? No. Still optimistic? Yes. In denial? Possibly.
While that statistic is staggering, it’s not worth taking to heart. In what appeared to be a “must-win” situation for the Lakers, they came up just a bit short, digging themselves into a hole they would’ve rather avoided. Considering it’s only the second day of December, in the greater scope of things, the Lakers 109-99 loss to the Yao Ming-less and Aaron Brooks-less Houston Rockets only gives us a license to be concerned, but not so much to panic.
So what exactly is the problem? Some would say it is offense, others defense, but at this point it’s both. According to ESPNLosAngeles.com Lakers beat writer Dave McMenamin, if you ask Jackson, he could point to 35 areas in which the Lakers need to improve. Issues that he attempted to resolve prior to the game last night; turns out the Lakers aren’t much for quick studies.
It’s still early enough for the Lakers to rectify their mistakes and luckily, there’s still 63 games left for them to do it in.
“There are good basketball teams in this league and people expect us to win a lot,” said Jackson in response to his team’s fourth straight loss. “We’re going to win a lot I hope, but sometimes teams are playing better than you are out there and you just have to suck it up and move forward and hope you improve the next time.”
The result of last night’s debacle doesn’t reflect how close the game actually was in the final minutes. In fact, most of the losses for the Lakers could’ve gone either way. They’ve all come down to the wire and it isn’t like they’ve been blown-out. The game took a turn for the worst in the final two minutes when Shane Battier sank two back-to-back three point shots, extending the Rockets lead to 105-99. A decent close-out by Kobe Bryant would’ve been nice, but the blame doesn’t all fall on him entirely. Which brings me to my first point…
Next:Lakers defensive struggles continue.
It’s easy to pin-point the Lakers’ defensive woes because they’ve essentially been there since the start of the season. Much of it was disguised because the Lakers played teams who really aren’t that good. They’ve had problems with rebounding, mostly on the defensive glass where they continue to let teams get second chance points. The pick-and-roll defense has been less than stellar, opposing teams have gotten straight paths to the basket without any type of contest from guys playing in the interior, and when your main interior guys are 7’1 and 6’10 respectively, that’s a problem. We’ve seen Pau Gasol struggle on his defensive rotations, at times having to foul players around the rim, but more about him later.
Against the Rockets, the Lakers started out well, building up a double-digit lead only to watch them come within three points to end the half. In the end, the Lakers were scrambled on defense and had trouble guarding the perimeter, Houston having shot 10-22 from beyond the arc.
Speaking of perimeter shots, or lack of making them, the Lakers had a few problems on the offensive end. The team that averaged 112.5 points at the start of the season has failed to score 100 points for five straight games, shooting an average of 33-percent from the field and 26-percent from three point land over that stretch of games.
More recently, the Lakers’ offense hasn’t looked cohesive, part of it can be attributed to poor decision making, particularly down the stretch and perhaps even an overzealous Bryant. The efficiency stats might be against Bryant, opting to take the bulk of the offense upon his shoulders rather than facilitate plays for his teammates. Per Jackson, Bryant will shoot at will when the opportunity presents itself and it’s up to everyone else to be aggressive on offense, not just be spectators. Lamar Odom, one of the only bright spots after the game, scoring a season-high 25 points, exploited the Rockets’ match-up deficiencies early on, but couldn’t capitalize as the minutes started to dwindle. While the offensive flow was better than it had previously, it wasn’t enough to put the Lakers atop the Rockets.
Next:A tired Gasol is not good for business.
Let’s not forget about our pillar of consistency, Gasol, who without a legitimate backup at center is raking up minutes, averaging over 45-plus per game over the last three. The Lakers inability or indifference, depending on how you look at it, to acquire another big body in the interim while Andrew Bynum and Theo Ratliff continue to recover from their respective injuries has left the Spaniard fatigued. It shouldn’t come as a surprise if Gasol looks gassed, his eight-point and nine rebounds should be indicative of that. His quick trip to the locker room to get his previously-plagued hamstrings worked on only added to the list of Lakers worries.
The return of Bynum was thought to be a quick fix for whatever defensive struggles the Lakers had, but even his new time-table is accurate, he probably won’t be in full effect until four to six weeks from now. In the meantime, the Lakers will have to play better all-around basketball.
“Whatever we’re going through is probably good for us,” offered Odom. “It’s good to be humbled and more down to earth and understand that we can lose games if we don’t play basketball the right way.”
Next:The Lakers will overcome this…right?
It seems like only yesterday the talk around the water cooler was who had the better perfect game, Gasol or Matt Barnes, now we’re all claming for reasons to believe the 2010-11 Lakers will be the first Jackson-coached team to overcome four straight losses and still end in a championship trophy come June.
Perhaps the Lakers had us all fooled, or at the very least spoiled. Here we are thinking how great the Lakers are, coming out to an impressive 8-0 start. Even after winning back-to-back championships they actually care about the regular season. That of coarse was followed by the team going 5-6. Not to down-play the regular season, but if the Lakers are going to have a hiccup in the road, there’s no time like the present.
As fans, it’s easy to go head-first into a sea of panic because we have absolutely no control over the situation. We’re not the ones in the locker room talking to the players, can’t assist the coaching staff in prepping scouting reports and we most certainly can’t grab Jackson’s clipboard to draw up a play.
At this point, we have to put our trust in the hands of an 11-time NBA Championship winning coach and really, that’s not a bad place to start.