Throughout the off-season and the regular season, the story has been the same for the Lakers. Too many turnovers, not enough effort on defense, and a massive work in progress, Princeton offense.
The Lakers have had a total of 93 turnovers in five games to start the regular season, 19 of which came from their loss to the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night. Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol had just nine and seven rebounds a piece, respectively. Howard has also failed to record double digit boards in the past three straight games, and his frustration showed at practice today.
“I think everybody came in here today a little frustrated…once the noise gets settled we can all have a clear mind.”
Despite Kobe Bryant averaging 27.2 points and shooting 56.0 percent since the start of the season, the Lakers just can’t seem to convert the stats into wins. Bryant seemed to mock at reporters asking about his frustration level after practice today.
“You would be frustrated to lose a game…It has nothing to do with one particular person.”
For Lakers fans, a lot of their frustration has been (and continues to be) directed at a particular person, Mike Brown. Coach admits that of course he’s feeling the frustrations himself.
“We all are frustrated so don’t get me wrong there, because we want to win…but as a head coach of this team, for me to walk around real pissed or mopey or whatever you want to call it, is not the right thing to do.”
It looks like the Lakers will most likely be without their star point guard Steve Nash for their fourth straight game of the regular season. Although Nash was practicing free throws after practice today, Brown did not seem confident that Nash would be ready to go Friday night.
“From what they tell me, there’s no timetable, its kind of day to day based on how they feel and how he feels.”
The purple and gold will take on the Golden State Warriors at home Friday night. The Lakers have had eight consecutive wins against the Warriors at home, but Golden State has already won at Staples Center this season. Last Saturday, the Warriors went on the road to beat the Clippers (114-110) in an exciting battle till the end.
Lakers will be looking for a 17th victory in their last 18 meetings with the Warriors, who have started the season 3-2.
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Video: Check out Dwight Howard talking about his frustrations at practice today.
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[jwplayer config=”lakersnation_player” file=”http://youtu.be/vsVazMQWQXw” autostart=”false”]Reporter: Follow@SerenaWinters
Video Editor: Michael Hain