How can Kobe perform well in ANY game now if EVERYONE knows that he is the ONLY guy that could do anything? Take for example the Sixers game... Kobe was Double teamed WHILE HE WAS ON THE GROUND AND STILL MANAGED A DECENT PASS TO EVANS and he couldnt even catch it! Kwame is being setup against ANDRE MILLER and he couldnt even dunk the D*mn ball... Sure, everybody knows that to be able to defend a player you need to study him, but add that to the fact that he cant rely on his team mates for help then what do you get? A whole TEAM ganging up on Kobe... How can Kobe's so called 'teammates' allow the sixers to triple team him and not make them pay for it... If we do make it to the playoffs we will be swept 0-4 by any team we face... im ALREADY looking forward to next season
It's unfortunate, but you can't predict injuries, and the young players on the team have hit a wall. Having to play shorthanded all season long, takes its toll on the younger players, becaue they haven't been conditioned to play this many minutes, handle this pressure, and their production level becomes volatile from game to game or half to half. The Lakers need to put an emphasis on defense the rest of the way. Injured teams give themselves a chance to win games, when they can hold their opponents from scoring. The offense isn't a problem for the Lakers, it hasn't been the entire year, but defense has plagued this team all season long. We cannot get key stops or fight back late in games defensively. The Lakers rely heavily on their perimeter shooting to keep them in games, and when Kobe has a 3-14 2nd half the Lakers are going to get blown out everytime. The Lakers just need to win enough to make into the postseason, get healthy, and then prepare for their 1st round opponent. The Lakers have already proven to me they can beat the elite Western Conference teams at full strength. Fortunately, the teams fighting for the 7th and 8th seeds aren't exactly tearing it up, so the Lakers aren't the only team struggling late in the season.
How important is Luke Walton to this team? It seems like all the Lakers problems started when Walton got injured. When is he expected to return?
<div class="quote_poster">durvasa Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">How important is Luke Walton to this team? It seems like all the Lakers problems started when Walton got injured. When is he expected to return?</div> Walton is very important to this team, and I think it's really starting to show. Walton was the "glue" guy. He was the one that kept the team together. He is unselfish, and a terrific teammate that makes everyone around him better. I think his value is really starting to show in recent games. There is a reason why he was always a Phil Jackson favorite It's kind of funny when you think about it. Early on last season, the guy was completely worthless. He was one of the worst players on the team. Obviously hard work pays off (someone should tell that to Smush)
The main reason the Lakers miss Walton, is his role with the second unit. He's been more effective facilitating the offense than Odom has. Since Walton went down with an injury, the bench players have been terrible.
funny... when Odom got injured the first time, Luke had a couple bad shooting nights, and the lakers were losing, everyone thought Odom was the reason. Then Odom back, Kwame/Luke out, people thought it was Kwame's presense that is the most important. Now Odom/Luke out, people started to focus on Luke. The truth is with or without Luke, this lakers team aren't going to get any better until the full units are back and play with a sense of togetherness.
