Game Rewind: A Special Kind of Bad – Lakers 106, Nets 87

Wow, the New Jersey Nets are a special kind of bad.  I mean, I knew they were winless coming into this game, but they are an absolute disaster.

Even the Nets don’t look like they want to bother with actually playing the games.

For a few minutes to start the game, it sure seemed like the Nets were going to rally around the fact that they were trying to avoid tying a dubious losing streak record and had just gotten their coach fired earlier in the day to at least give the Lakers a run for their money.  That run lasted about four minutes before the Lakers went on an absurd 22-4 run to end the quarter.  The rest of the game was really just a matter of procedure.  Honestly, if not for Brook Lopez, New Jersey probably wouldn’t have even score 70 in the game.

There really isn’t even a point in analyzing what happened in a game like this.  Sure, Andrew Bynum had his worst game of the season, but can you really hold it against him in a game where everyone knows the outcome before the game even tips off?  There isn’t even real cause for concern that, once again, the bench got outplayed during garbage time.  Nobody can take the Nets seriously enough to compete at full strength against them, not even scrubs.  My only real concern is that after destroying Golden State the night before that the Lakers might actually start to forget what it is like to face real competition.

• It is about time some Laker bench player other than Shannon Brown made a highlight reel play.  Jordan Farmar’s amazing blocked shot to end the first quarter was something special and looked to really inspire Jordan for the rest of the game.
• All these recent blowouts do have a benefit, Phil Jackson is getting a chance to experiment with some different line-ups, including giving Sasha Vujacic a few minutes at point guard.

Lake Show Outtakes:

• That one little anecdote about Lamar Odom asking the other players if they are a passer or shooter revealed a lot about Sasha Vujacic.  Amazingly, Sasha couldn’t come up with an answer.  This is shocking on two levels because everyone knows he is a ridiculously shoot-first player and he can’t admit it and because he is clearly so lost on the floor that he even has to turn a simple question about his game into a philosophical dilemma.
• I know Lawrence Frank got fired before the game, but his replacement looked like nobody remember to tell him that he is in charge.  I am not even sure I saw coach Barrise blink the entire game.

Tags: Andrew Bynum, Game Rewind, Jordan Farmar, Lamar Odom, New Jersey Nets, Sasha Vujacic, Shannon Brown