<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">EL SEGUNDO ? The Lakers were still reeling Thursday morning from their loss at Portland the previous evening when they regrouped at their practice facility. The Lakers, plagued by an 18-turnover performance and the inability to overtake an inconsistent Portland team in the second half, picked up their second loss of the season against four victories. Coach Phil Jackson "laid the blame" on team leaders Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom for the inability to hang onto the ball. "They're the two guys that have the responsibility and they've got a high turnover ratio and they've got to start cutting down on trying to do too much and not (being) ready to do it," Jackson said. "The defense is identifying them, and they're not responding to the fact that they've got to make the plays earlier or quicker or pick the ball up sooner." Bryant and Odom each had six turnovers Wednesday. Bryant is averaging a team-high five turnovers per game while Odom is averaging four. Both players accepted the blame. Odom had a mental checklist of things that the Lakers need to improve on, though playing 13 of their next 14 games at Staples Center will help. Odom said that in some cases players were trying to force passes. Other times there was too much passing or simply, "trying to hit the home run instead of trying to make the easy pass." The Lakers need more offense from Odom, something they were getting at the beginning of the season when Bryant was out because of his knee injury. Odom averaged 28 points through the first three games but 12.3 points in the past three. "I was hitting shots," he said. "When you hit shots, you score. When you're not, you don't. It's just the focus. Try to catch the ball close to the basket, don't rely on the three and try to get back to the free-throw line."</div> Source I'm glad PJax is laying into his two best players early on in the season. There's no excuse for some of the turnovers Odom and Kobe are giving up. You can't fault too, much for the turnovers caused from overpassing, but a lot of the turnovers have been careless mistakes and misreading the defense.
Good, and I blame Phil Jackson for tanking our games with his horrible line-ups in the 4th when we are down by 14, misuse of timeouts, and allowing the opposition to go on 15-0 runs.
I don't see why you people are making such a big freaking deal out of lineup changes. It's early in the season, and this is when you want to figure it all out. You don't want to be struggling with it all season and trying to work things out when you're in the middle of a playoff race. Now is the time to figure this out, not 60 games from now.
Kobe's been turning the ball over quite a bit the last couple games. Odom hasn't been as productive. Hopefully PJAX comments will be a wake up call.
Not to make an excuse for Odom, but having to defend KG and ZBo on back to back nights is a lot to handle.
