LQOTD: What hurt us the most?

Which hurt Lakers the most: Dwight's injury, Pau's absence, or Metta's play?

Metta almost every single night, avg. D at best HORRIBLE offense on a consistent basis.

Lack of focus

Dwight howard

Metta's play is to be expected, that's on our decision makers for having a team that requires him to be out there.

Paus injury and Dwights injury are the same amount for me. Pau because we lose any flexibility to improve this team drastically. And Dwight because a guy who has spent his entire career playing elite level defense, cant play elite level defense for us.

Metta has been an absolute negative every single game
With that said a lot falls on Pau being out, even though we rag on him a lot, he always plays well and through our 3 game streak he had started to find his stride again

I'm 100% sure this game would have been a lot more competitive if Pau was out there and Dwight+Ron weren't. Those two provide nothing on offense and didn't help the defense either.

Was Dwight's terrible performance due to injury? Dude looked like he flat out didn't care / want to be there..

Pau's absence hurt us the most IMO. He makes the ball move and coming off the bench he was another threat to score. He would've reduced Jamison's minutes who got completely torched by Green, and would've avoided the MWP-Garnett matchup that resulted in bucket after bucket for KG.

Howard having a solid outing on both ends would've completely changed the game tho. Too bad.

I'm actually going to say Pau being gone, his scoring has been needed big time when we were winning, and his passing kept the ball moving, he found cutters, he hit guys who swung to other guys (hockey assists), he was looking as close to his old self as he has in a long time IMO. Basically even an old, slow Pau is a scoring threat in the post, AND all the way out to the 3 point line, his man has to stay with him, it opens the lane, guys can cut. Dwight? He draws guys TO the basket by always standing right under it with his hands out wanting a pass, and he is zero threat to score outside 5 feet.

Weezy wrote:I'm actually going to say Pau being gone, his scoring has been needed big time when we were winning, and his passing kept the ball moving, he found cutters, he hit guys who swung to other guys (hockey assists), he was looking as close to his old self as he has in a long time IMO. Basically even an old, slow Pau is a scoring threat in the post, AND all the way out to the 3 point line, his man has to stay with him, it opens the lane, guys can cut. Dwight? He draws guys TO the basket by always standing right under it with his hands out wanting a pass, and he is zero threat to score outside 5 feet.

If you think Gasol would have made a difference in this game is just absurd, because for one.... the Celtics were driving through the lane at will so I'm not sure Gasol would have solved that problem and also.... Gasol was not gonna make Jeff Green play worse..... everything from this game and season has been dysfuctional and I won't be surprised if a lot of fighting happens in the locker-room once the Lakers basically get mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.

Ice-Fire wrote:

Weezy wrote:I'm actually going to say Pau being gone, his scoring has been needed big time when we were winning, and his passing kept the ball moving, he found cutters, he hit guys who swung to other guys (hockey assists), he was looking as close to his old self as he has in a long time IMO. Basically even an old, slow Pau is a scoring threat in the post, AND all the way out to the 3 point line, his man has to stay with him, it opens the lane, guys can cut. Dwight? He draws guys TO the basket by always standing right under it with his hands out wanting a pass, and he is zero threat to score outside 5 feet.

If you think Gasol would have made a difference in this game is just absurd, because for one.... the Celtics were driving through the lane at will so I'm not sure Gasol would have solved that problem and also.... Gasol was not gonna make Jeff Green play worse..... everything from this game and season has been dysfuctional and I won't be surprised if a lot of fighting happens in the locker-room once the Lakers basically get mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.

Whoa, dude, calm down, the question is what hurt us the MOST. My answer was Pau being gone. I didn't say we would have won, I just said it hurt us the most.

My bad

Pau vs. Dwight

Dwight's not giving a rats patoot.

Dwight's attitude and MWP's chucking.

And MDA sitting passively on the bench.

MDA as coach
he can't handle personalities
and the players don't respect him
and he keeps throwing players/the team under the bus

now the team is dysfunctional

This thought that Howard is actually our best big out there and the thought that Bynum was our best big last year is this team's downfall............. Pau Gasol, who gets bashed on a regular basis, is STILL the best big we have on this team and it's not even close. He's the only guy with all the tool sets to run an offense threw, the other 2 are overblown stats with serious flaws when thinking about running an offense threw. This is why the Lakers can't mask their issues, they can't control pace by running an offense threw the big they decided to feature the last 2 years..... both Bynum and Howard are NOT good post players.... can't pass out the post to save their own lives which is ESSENTIAL for a big if you want to run an offense threw them. The worse thing this team ever did was try and force Pau out and now they are reaping their reward for the tomfoolery.

This new injury to Gasol has sunk this team's small minute chance they might actually figure it out so IMO the injury is the biggest thing. Howard and Artest are just about irrelevant in this, offensively Howard's injury was a blessing in disguise until Gasol went down too.

Howard was pressed into action too soon. I believe he was worried about hurting his shoulder. Did he feel pressure from Kobe to come back? Is he trying to man up and play through it like Kobe would have?

Pau being out hurt bad. However, what hurt the team the most was Dwight playing the role of the worlds second biggest baby. We would have played a much better game if he had not played at all. I can't even imagine how terrible it will be going from having Kobe as your franchise cornerstone with his toughness and drive to baby huey. I understand injuries but not that terrible attitude. I hope he is not here beyond this year.

Injuries... It resulted in a lack of cohesion. Nash was out for a considerate spell. Howard not 100%. Gasol worn down, unable to mentally cope with his physical problems and demotion to the bench. This squad has had a snakebit season.

snackdaddy wrote:Howard was pressed into action too soon. I believe he was worried about hurting his shoulder. Did he feel pressure from Kobe to come back? Is he trying to man up and play through it like Kobe would have?

Obviously yes.

It's amazing to see fans saying the absence of Gasol is hurting the most when for most of the last 2 years, fans have been dying to get rid of him. Gasol has looked great of late though. He just seems to work great with Kobe. They don't get in each other's way and the offense seems to flow much better. Gasol seemed really motivated with the absence of Dwight because he knew he could be "the man" down low.