Game Rewind: No Effort – Rockets 101, Lakers 91

What is it the official weekend of revenge for teams that the Lakers beat in the post-season?  Of course not, that would be ridiculous.  It is quite obviously the weekend where the Lakers decided to stop playing like they give a crap.

??

I tried to write off the loss in Denver to just a bad night for the Lakers, but this game was much different.  This wasn’t an issue of the Rockets wanting to prove a point like the Nuggets, this was the Lakers just not wanting to do much of anything.  If they had wanted to win, then perhaps they would have considered actually moving around a little bit on offense rather than just revert to the old “five guys standing around” offense.  If they had wanted to win, they might have realized that Andrew Bynum was pretty much scoring at will against the undersized Houston interior instead of having Sasha Vujacic and Derek Fisher launch hopeless jumpshots.  If they had wanted to win they wouldn’t have gotten outrebounded by 22 by a team that has just one player 6′9″.  If they had wanted to win they would have done some actual game prep and come up with a scheme to stop Aaron Brooks who they knew full well would give them fits after last season’s playoff series.  To make a long story short, this game was pretty much a failure on every level.

The coaches and every single player need to take a long look in the mirror after this game and figure out for themselves what they can do so that this doesn’t happen again.  It isn’t like the Lakers aren’t allowed to lose, but they should not be losing because of a lack of effort and focus.  The adjustments that needed to be made in this game seemed simple, but they never got made.  Phil Jackson just sat on the bench like a statue and even Kobe Bryant wasn’t getting in anyone’s face like he normally does when the Lakers are floundering.  You know there is a real problem when even the Mamba looks to have lost his competitive fire.  Be it complacency or the absence of Pau Gasol, the Lakers have just one day to get it straightened out before their next game.

• At least Trevor Ariza didn’t play much of a hand in this victory giving the Lakers at least some small sense of satisfaction that they made the right choice in picking Artest over him.

Lake Show Outtakes:

• Adding injury to insult, Kobe’s worst game of the season involved him straining his groin, so now he’s hurt.  Just wonderful.
• What the hell is going on with Lamar Odom?  When did he decide to just remove himself from the offense.  He only took 4 shots tonight and has taken 6 or fewer field goal attempts in four of the last five games.  It is bad enough that the bench isn’t producing, but for LO to basically turn into the invisible man as well is just too much for the Lakers to handle.
• If there is one area where the Lakers miss Trevor Ariza it is in transition.  The Rockets ran up and down on the Lakers tonight and having a deer like Ariza would have been at least helped the Lakers keep up.

Tags: Aaron Brooks, Andrew Bynum, Derek Fisher, Game Rewind, Houston Rockets, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Ron Artest, Trevor Ariza