Oh No! Who Do We Blame Now?!?

[shep33]

We actually played better for the most part of this game. But the 4th quarter killed us again.

[The1ronHorse]

were some of you watching the same game we were? the lakers defense was actually quite good for the majority of the game-- harden went 3/19, lin only held to 8 points, parsons went 5/16. you can't ask for much more on that side of the floor on a night to night basis. the problem this time around was defending the glass and the team re-gaining momentum after hack-a-dwight late.

I watched the entire game and I can tell you that the defense was hustling, but they were giving up too many easy buckets because of their lack of ability to recover. The bad rotation took big men to the perimeter and left an opening for offensive rebounds. They did a great job on Harden though, no doubt, but they might have focused to heavily on the back court.

[Hammer32]

The blame goes to Jim Buss

What did he do wrong? He was a hero in the offseason, then fired the coach everyone hated. Should he be helping Dwight with his free throws?

[jbeezy]

Its not the defense. Rockets shot 37% from the field. We lost because we turned the ball over 19 times, we missed 12 free throws and we allowed the Rockets to grab 21 offensive rebounds. We need to block out. I don't know why we are not doing it.

[lakerfan3118]

I watched the entire game and I can tell you that the defense was hustling, but they were giving up too many easy buckets because of their lack of ability to recover. The bad rotation took big men to the perimeter and left an opening for offensive rebounds. They did a great job on Harden though, no doubt, but they might have focused to heavily on the back court.

The rebounding troubles really resulted from D'Antoni shuffling his rotations and going small for long stretches of the game. I mean, the guy started Jamison over Hill; that alone should have signaled an advantage for Houston on that side of the ball. The margin was pretty ridiculous, don't get me wrong, but it was to be expected.

[Lakersfan2483]

Too many problems to just blame one guy. Poor coaching on the defensive end, lack of chemistry, Kobe taking too many shots over the past 5 or so games and taking the team out of its offense, lack of consistency, too many turnovers, etc.....

[duane v]

We actually played better for the most part of this game. But the 4th quarter killed us again.

The lakers played bad in the 2nd and 4th quarters......

[QUICKTRADE]

#AmnestyKobe

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[The1ronHorse]

The rebounding troubles really resulted from D'Antoni shuffling his rotations and going small for long stretches of the game against Houston. I mean, the guy started Jamison over Hill; that along should have signaled an advantage for Houston on that side of the ball. The margin was pretty ridiculous, don't get me wrong, but it was to be expected.

I will give you that point, but watching the game it seemed like there was very misdirected help defense leading to openings in the paint. It didn't look lock down at all. Better shooting teams will tear that type of D up.

[Big Moves03]

Shocking that sitting Pau didn't solve the turnover problem, or Dwight's FT shooting problem, or the poor defense problem. Putting a better-long-range-shooting, weaker-defending Jamison (yes, weaker than Pau) in the lineup didn't fix it, either.

Now what?

We played pretty awesome defense for about 40 minutes.

[duane v]

What did he do wrong? ?

Paid $29 mil for a 39 year old PG

Traded for a 7 ft center that probably wont resign this summer

Hiring D'antoni

[marferrer]

Kobe badly wanted to reach 30K this game... that is what killed the offense in the 2nd half

[deadman8586]

Paid $29 mil for a 39 year old PG

Traded for a 7 ft center that probably wont resign this summer

Hiring D'antoni

When then it's your fault then because you wanted Bynum gone, an upgarde at PG, and wanted Mike Brown gone. Oh and by the way Dr. Buss, and Mitch didn't want Phil back either So it was all three of them. So don't you dare singling out Jim because Mitch and Dr. Buss we're at fault too for the coaching along with you for wishing Mike Brown gone. So do us a favor a stop wishing for stuff.

[Pluvious]

ummmm dont see any improvement here

You don't look for improvements. You look for negatives.

Here you go:

Houston shot the ball poorly and in general was not getting wide open looks because there was "some" better rotations and hustle. Howard was working hard to contest shots. The pick and roll with Duhon/Hill and Duhon/Howard worked a few times to get easy rolls to the hoop...when we never saw that in the past.

The shooting was not actually great by the Lakers tonight but they still built a large lead.

[shep33]

The lakers played bad in the 2nd and 4th quarters......

Most of the game we played well. How did we play bad in the 2nd? We were a +5 on them.