by Forward Three on Tue Jan 01, 2013 11:01 pm
That was kind of a bizarre game. The Lakers played so many possessions where it felt like a good possession, they moved well, rotated, kept with their man...etc. only to have it be a simple score by the end of it. It just seemed like they *were* doing a lot of the 'right' things, just not doing them quickly enough, not doing them in the right way.
And even after all of that porous and ineffective defense, they still were within striking distance most of the night and ultimately could have just as easily won if they had simply shot their normal %s.
Kobe played too much hero-ball, I am starting to think he is playing for his PPG more than for the team at times.
But Kobe wasn't the problem really, the problem was not converting on easy shots and not getting back-to-back stops... at all? I watched the whole game and I'm not sure I can remember it happening once really, most of the times the Lakers got the ball back because of a simple missed shot.
The big thing that hurts about this loss though is that if the Lakers can't beat teams like the Sixers at home, and if in the process of losing slip below .500 again, what does that say about their chances of even making the playoffs? We keep wanting to say it is like a given, that certain teams will start playing worse and we'll start playing better, but this team just can't seem to get above .500 and they continue to lose games against teams that realistically, a playoffs-bound team 'should' be able to put away.
The upcoming schedule is probably the toughest stretch of the year against many of the top teams, if the Lakers come out winning more than they lose out of that stretch, then I'll feel confident they make the playoffs, if they come out losing more than they win or worse, It's going to make it a lot harder. Which, I guess is appropriate since that's how the Lakers tend to lose most of their games this year, but being Right. There only to make some mistakes and have to crawl out of a deficit.