WMC 12/13: Mercy kill. (0-4)

This team is bad. End of discussion. They slipped from Elite, to flashes of elite, to 'probably still good', to 'flashes of good', but they have landed on 'bad'.

Definition of wasted talent. The talent isn't the issue, they can't play as a team, they can't make smart decisions on consecutive trips, they periodically stop playing defense for consecutive trips, they let scrubs take over, they can't grind out wins, they *give up* (as in, uncontested) 30+ in the fourth quarter, they can't make free throws. This is not a good basketball team. Their 8 wins are more of an aberration than their 10 losses.

Tough times to be a Lakers fan when the most expensive team in the league with some of the best on-paper talent is literally performing at a level closer to the bottom of the entire league than anywhere near the top. Embarrassing and pathetic. I need a break from this [Swearing is not permitted at Clublakers. You must edit this post prior to submitting.].

This game was won. D'Antoni lost it

When you lead for that much of the game and then you see it start to slip away and the reason is staring you straight in the face and you do NOTHING to stop it...

He sacrificed this win in order to "prove" something as if Dwight will somehow start hitting FTs in later games. Good job

21 O rebound...???
kobe not passing the ball...howard bricking fts...

f*ck this. i'm done with this team

they flat out suck and got killed by a future hall of famer in greg smith

if they don't pick it up in the next month, it's all on that POS moron jim buss for hiring dan tony. f*cking moron

I don't understand how people say Kobe cost us the game. This game was more about coaching than anything else. Not saying Kobe didn't have his share of bad stretches, but c'mon now.
This loss is on D'Antoni. Even before hack-a-dwight he was costing us the game. He left one of the most horrible units out there for too much time in the 4th and let the Rockets cut into the lead, gain momentum & rythm. Then he put the starters back, and failed to sub Howard out when they started fouling. It was evident to all of us he was going to kill our chances and yet he stuck with that weak choker (who btw has no business being the prima donna that he is).
The hack-a-dwight hurt us BAD. It takes rythm away from our guys, kills our offense and takes away every bit of momentum we had.
Then Kobe forced a shot, that was pretty awful, but I liked the drive to the basket, and I thought he was fouled (no call). He hit a clutch 3 also, then missed another one.

To me it was clearly & mainly D'Antoni's fault. I ****ing hate Howard for missing FTs, but it's on D'Antoni for not taking him out. Kobe wasn't good, but he was NOT the main culprit.

So, to sum up:

D'Antoni's 4th quarter decisions

Howard's FTs, AGAIN.

Our defense. Yeah Dwight's missing FTs left and right, but you still stop the other guys and you win.

Turnovers, AGAIN.

JoelMyersScrotalSack wrote:This game was won. D'Antoni lost it

When you lead for that much of the game and then you see it start to slip away and the reason is staring you straight in the face and you do NOTHING to stop it...

He sacrificed this win in order to "prove" something as if Dwight will somehow start hitting FTs in later games. Good job

This.

Also, among other things, this:

Kamenetzky Brothers ‏@ESPNLandOLakers
Right now, the Lakers aren't good enough to support the points Dwight leaves on the table every night. BK

icencream27 wrote:31 shots by Kobe? For real? Is this 2007?

Sorry but as far as I see everyone else has proven themselves pretty worthless so far this season in terms of consistency so unless they are open for 3 no one needs to touch the ball other than the PG Kobe or Howard. If anyone wants to try and put this loss on Kobe all you did was read a box score because this loss is 100,000%%% on D Antoni and Howard. What kind of moron continues to play the mentally weakest player in all of pro basketball at the free throw line when its all opposing teams do in close games is send him there. He needs to be on at the start but the moment he misses a free throw in the 4th the guy should be out until the 2 minute mark no questions asked. Mike managed this game about as horribly as one could in the 4th quarter and I expect nothing less from an absolute joke like him. Dude is worse than Brown what a horrible coach we are so screwed this year its not even funny.

No real problem with Kobe's shot total. D'Antoni put him out there with a garbage lineup at some points, and we held the lead until the Hack-a-Dwight. Don't forget it. I posted this last game. I'll do it again:

3:18 left in the 4th, Kobe hit a shot to make it 97-91. Smith hits two FTs to make it 97-93.
EVERY Lakers possession to the 2:00 mark:
Howard fouled. Hits 0/2.
Howard fouled. Hits 1/2.
Howard fouled. Hits 1/2.
Howard fouled. Hits 1/2.
Howard fouled. Hits 2/2.
At the 2:00 mark, Lakers are up only 2. Howard hit only 5-10 FTs. That's bad.

EDIT: and btw...the Rockets tied it in their very next possession. So Hack-a-Dwight was a 4 point swing in about 90 seconds.

icencream27 wrote:31 shots by Kobe? For real? Is this 2007?

Sorry but as far as I see everyone else has proven themselves pretty worthless so far this season in terms of consistency so unless they are open for 3 no one needs to touch the ball other than the PG Kobe or Howard. If anyone wants to try and put this loss on Kobe all you did was read a box score because this loss is 100,000%%% on D Antoni and Howard. What kind of moron continues to play the mentally weakest player in all of pro basketball at the free throw line when its all opposing teams do in close games is send him there. He needs to be on at the start but the moment he misses a free throw in the 4th the guy should be out until the 2 minute mark no questions asked. Mike managed this game about as horribly as one could in the 4th quarter and I expect nothing less from an absolute joke like him. Dude is worse than Brown what a horrible coach we are so screwed this year its not even funny.

bumrusherer wrote:This team isnt worth getting angry about. They cant execute on either end and are slow as hell in getting up and down the court.

Hopefully Mitch can make some magic happen.

I think Mitch has expended his magic for a while, after the strenuous deals it took to get Dwight and Nash here in the first place, plus filling up the bench with vets and aged journeymen, the Lakers don't really have any pieces to move other than maybe Pau who is currently low value for how bad he's been playing and his knee issue.

But the real discouraging thing is that this is the type of poison that just isn't going to be cured by bringing in some exterior salves. Lakers only chance at this point is to rebuild from inside out and get on the same page, and start actually playing basketball at the high level they are paid millions of dollars to perform at.

The types of errors they are making, consistently, game after game, are D-league caliber, they're worse than D-league caliber. They can't even make a loss entertaining, their wins feel like losses half of the time. That stuff isn't going to be fixed by recalibrating the personnel, it's going to be fixed by practicing, taking the games seriously again, and actually committing to what they are doing on a personal and collective level.

yes of course kobe has to take 31 shots or whatever

because he's the only one who can consistently score? why are you people complaining? if he didn't take that many shots they would have lost by at least 10. kobe is the only reason they lost by only 2

MDA has basically conceded that he is willing to lose as many games as it takes in the 4th quarter until Dwight starts hitting FTs. EVERY team is going to do this now and Dwight is too mentally weak to break through it. We're screwed. Flat out screwed

432J wrote:if he didn't take that many shots they would have lost by at least 10. kobe is the only reason they lost by only 2

i don't think you can state that like it's a fact.

So right now we look like a team that can't even make the playoffs. Well least we will hit the 5th seed when we are finally clicking, but we won't come close to a championship with this team currently.

My complaint is bigger than one or two games, it's about the season. From what I've seen, despite some teams having very good records, there are no dominant teams out there destroying the competition that look like they can't be beat. I don't believe in Memphis or New York or any of these early big winning record teams, they all look beatable, even Miami. So pretty much we're squandering a LEGIT chance to win a title even with an old Kobe by digging a hole early this season. I'm still pissed about the 'Antoni hire, I still can't stand this guy, and to me the front office looks really stupid for passing on Phil right now, a coach who would have known how to use Howard a lot better and subbed him for offense/defense when he's getting hacked.

JoelMyersScrotalSack wrote:MDA has basically conceded that he is willing to lose as many games as it takes in the 4th quarter until Dwight starts hitting FTs. EVERY team is going to do this now and Dwight is too mentally weak to break through it. We're screwed. Flat out screwed

and it starts from the top, jim buss is the reason for our pathetic season so far

phil's probably laughing at this whole thing and the fact that they hired that clown dan tony

Last Two Games: Hack-a-Dwight

Attempt #/ Howard's FTs / Point Swing / Duration
1 / 1-4 / -3 / 43 seconds
2 / 3-10 / -15 / 240 seconds
3 / 5-10 / -4 / 90 seconds

That's three uses of Hack-a-Dwight, lasting 373 seconds. During those situations, Dwight hit 9 of 24 FTs and the Lakers were outscored by 22 points.

"Dwight has to learn how to make freethrows in these situations." ARE YOU [Swearing is not permitted at Clublakers. You must edit this post prior to submitting.] KIDDING ME???!!! Nevermind they are a below five hundred team...wait, wait, let me rephrase that, they are a ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLAR TEAM AND THEY ARE TWO GAMES BELOW FIVE HUNDRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And you want to teach Dwight a lesson?

Saying Kobe lost this game is as clueless as saying Harden won it. Kobe shot a lot, and if he had shot a little better they would have won, but he didn't cost them the lead, he didn't miss critical free throws down the stretch, he committed some turnovers and played poor D at times, but nothing worse or more egregious than the likes of the rest of the team.

The team lost this game because the team can't play professional caliber team basketball with any consistency. They can hardly play professional caliber basketball at all, is the sad part. They are still running around clueless while the opposing team is strolling to the basket with impunity.

Kobe's decision making...is terrible. I have watched every game this season and I really can't find more than 10 highlights where he is being a willing passer to open guys. It's no mistake when he scores under 30, we're a much better team. When will this guy get it? I have seen Antawn open so many times during the course of this game and Kobe just will NOT pass up the rock. I even saw Antawn doing a shrug like "what are you doing? I'm open!!!" As long as Kobe is avg'ing these ridiculous number of shots we will never win a championship. Of course we're gonna ride Kobe when he's hot, but dude just does NOT want to pass to other guys and get other guys involved. And on top of that, dude he's been assigned to guard? The other night it was Aron Affalo, tonight it was Douglas..TONY DOUGLAS. so MAIN REASON we lost tonight? It's Kobe man...Steve Nash can't come back sooner, Jesus Christ.

Besides the questionable MDA leaving Dwight in (which I support in a way because on TWC they said MDA wants to leave him in because it's something Dwight has to get over, and he doesn't wanna kill his confidence)

We played SO well as a team in whole, are you serious? Only dude to find a way to lose, KB.

and I have never put Kobe on blast like this but I'm so sick of it because I thought this season he would get it and let others take the load off him.

At this point, any team in the NBA knows how to beat the Lakers in the 4th. Take advantage of Kobe's lazy defense (run around a few screens and Kobe's lost) and Dwight's inability to hit free throws.

^ I don't think you can fault Kobe's decision-making and support D'Antoni's leaving Dwight in the game. One of those moves has objectively kept us in both of the last two games; one has objectively taken us out of both.

this was bad...and i dont know how much nash can help it...
and what if gets injured again...shall we tank then...???

fkmikebrown wrote:

exactly what i was thinking

isn't it just mindblowing guys? they PASSED PHIL OVER FOR DAN TONY

oh my god