"An Encouraging Loss" ????

[Tymathee]

Well, for a wildly inconsistant team play ing with a brand new coach without two of its starts going against the hottest team in the NBA, pretty damn good game

[Avenged24]

Sit pau down so he and Nash can converse? The lakers forum has reached an all time
Low.

Pau was taken out due to his injury and the fact that he couldnt elevate or get up and down the court.

leave #teamsachs alone

[KillaInstinct24]

We need the next pat riley. I think we should let Howard bolt Kobe retire and just rebuild, bring in new coaching blood and personnel

[GREATNESS ONE]

Sit pau down so he and Nash can converse? The lakers forum has reached an all time
Low.

Pau was taken out due to his injury and the fact that he couldnt elevate or get up and down the court.

Pretty much but we need to build this team up and build it into a winner. Watching Kobe and D12 operate today was almost a blessing.

I can see Nash returning in a 1-2 weeks and it should be ok for Pau to rest his tendinitis injury. Let it play out; Kobe & D12 need to figure this out these 2 have to be our leaders, the one holding the torch and the other one who will take the torch as the face of the Lakers.

Pau isn't helping us starting at PF at the moment, Twan is still playing solid and we really need (shoot me for saying this) Pau off the bench at C or sitting him earlier in the 1st to bring him up sooner for D12.

Pau is our best asset at getting any kind of talent "trade-wise" if this thing doesn't pan out but it's obvious the FO isn't going to nake a move until seeig Nash&Pau; We need to relax and play chess not checkers.


The sky isn't falling.

[Chavacano]

I don't know about you guys but what's encouraging for me is seeing Dwight showcase his post moves in this game.

[clifborder4fm]

bring back Bernie..

[Lakersfan2483]

Given the fact that the Lakers didn't have Nash, Gasol or S. Blake, I expected a loss against OKC in OKlahoma. The Lakers are struggling to build chemistry and the Thunder are the best team in the West and are rolling right now.

[Big Moves03]

yeah, we "almost" defeated the thunder in almost every game in the series last year.

Big news.

"almost" wont get it done.

That's true, but we weren't missing 2 all star caliber players and our backup pg when we almost defeated them last year.

[Big Moves03]

Outside of about a 5-minute stretch in the 2nd, we outplayed okc. It took some great shooting in that 2nd and not something they can do consistently, along with some horrible calls from the refs. The refs really facilitated a lot of that run in the 2nd cause we were getting butchered under our basket, no calls, fast break 3 by okc and then when that wouldnt happen, we would get whistled for touch fouls, and okc would get free throws. On the road without 2 of our best players, this wasn't bad.

[Chavacano]

LAL had two losses in OKC in the last three years that changed their franchise. Will Friday be the third? ... http://t.co/i8C8Fesa…

The Lakers lost to the Thunder in Game 4 of the first round in 2010 in blowout fashion to tie the series 2-2 (read my column about it here: http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angele...ory?id=5134327....) and went on to go 14-5 the rest of the playoffs and win the championship.

The Lakers lost to the Thunder in Game 5 of the second round in 2012 (read my column about it here: http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/s...ke-big-changes...), ending their season and serving as the first domino to fall that eventually led to the acquisitions of Steve Nash and Dwight Howard.

The Lakers' loss Friday is just a regular season game, but it was a hard-fought game by a team that's looked too lackadaisical all season long. Could this loss be looked back at as the one that was the start of L.A. finally turning its 2012-13 season in the right direction?

Dwight Howard was bullish on the Lakers' improvement through the 1/4 season mark despite a 9-11 record ... http://t.co/iqdAs8zq…

"It’s 82 games," Howard said after the Lakers' 114-108 loss to the Oklahoma City on Friday. "This team has just gotten together. It’s not like we’re going to go out and get together and start winning right away. The only team that I’ve seen do that was Boston a couple years ago.

"We’re learning how to play together. We’re getting better. This is not on anybody’s timetable but ours. We have to be patient and understand it’s a process. Like I said, we grew tonight despite the loss.

"We did a lot of great things in the second half I wish we had been doing the past couple of games. So, it’s going to take time. We’re going to stay together. We have a close-knit team and we’re not going to let anything from the outside break us."

Thunder coach Scott Brooks, of all people, strongly echoed Howard's confidence in L.A.'s chances.

"We all know that the Lakers are one of the best teams," Brooks said. "They don't have the record right now but they will. They're going to get some guys healthy and they're going to get some rhythm but they have the best center in basketball and they have one of the best players ever. Steve Nash will come back and Coach D'Antoni will continue to get that team better."

-Dave McMenamin

Dun dun dun!

[The goods]

You learn more from loses than wins, so let's improve

[mOrphosis]

The Lakers played, despite the loss, a full game tonight. Being that it was against one of legit contenders for a title, you have to be optimistic that things are improving.

I am not a D'Antoni guy, but I hope he and the team succeeds. I can handle hard fought losses like tonight with HIS system, but I cannot handle the absurdity that was on display against the Magic and the Pacers.

[lpdunks8]

I hope we can agree that the planned D'Antoni 9 man rotation is Nash, Bryant, Peace, Gasol, Howard, Meeks, Jamison, and Blake.

2 of the top 8 have been gone since before he got there. The other has been playing with pain (might as well call that semi-out) and the sitting out the last few.

They were playing a team that has been blowing out teams during this streak. The Lakers won 2 quarters, tied another, and only lost the 2nd when a guy who is not a true 3 point sharpshooter caught fire.

Take 3 of the top 8 rotation players off of any team and see how they do for a stretch of weeks.

[kantiiii23]

If Westbrook goes Reggie Miller on us or any other team for that matter like he did in the 2nd quarter, nobody would ever beat OKC. That however would very rarely happen again and outside of that stretch, we played fine and competed really well. We technically did win or tie in all the quarters besides the 2nd[/U]

[eso]

Well, for a wildly inconsistant team play ing with a brand new coach without two of its starts going against the hottest team in the NBA, pretty damn good game

indeed we will be ok, Nash and Gasol in tonight and we win by 15 plus take away the shyt house calls in the 4th tonight and we win anyway..