tlongII
04-09-2011, 09:39 AM
http://www.foxsportswest.com/msn/04/09/11/Losing-streak-makes-Lakers---and-Jackson/landing_lakers.html?blockID=500548&feedID=3709
PORTLAND, Ore. - If these keep piling up – the turnovers, the lackadaisical effort and the losses – Phil Jackson's retirement may come sooner than expected.
The Lakers lost to Portland 93-86 on Friday night for their fourth defeat in a row. Afterward, their coach was just as weary standing in a hallway outside the locker room as the players looked on the court.
"It's not fun to go through these games like this when you're coaching," said Jackson, whose team trailed by 24 points midway through the third quarter. "I asked them to give some kind of recognition of what this is about, this job, the professionalism and their responsibilities."
Jackson used terms like "lazy" and "not being focused" to describe his team's play for much of the night.
Though the Lakers are beginning to resemble last year's team down the stretch — the Lakers lost seven of their final 11 before righting themselves to win another championship — it is not a comforting feeling for their coach.
"It matters how you play in the playoffs," Jackson said. "But I hate to have this setup going into the playoffs where we're not playing hard. Just play the right way. Stop taking bad shots or looking at the referee when you get fouled and complaining about it."
Some Lakers took issue with Jackson's characterization of the team as lazy or unprofessional — "I don't think he's being fair if he says that," said Lamar Odom — but one who did not was Kobe Bryant.
"I agree," Bryant said.
After Wednesday's loss to Golden State — their third loss in four days — Bryant suggested that many of the players were fatigued, the effects of nearly 80 games having taken a toll.
Though the Lakers did not practice Thursday, and Jackson again limited minutes — nobody other than Andrew Bynum has played more than 33 minutes in each of the past three games — Bryant reiterated Friday that the team was tired, perhaps from the 17-1 streak that preceded their slide.
"Guys look a little tired, a little fatigued," Bryant said. "I don't know if that run took it out of us, but we look a little sluggish."
The Blazers, on the other hand, had no problem summoning energy, even though they played at Utah the night before.
They ran the Lakers up and down the court in the first half, Nicolas Batum and Gerald Wallace beating everyone to the basket.
At the end of the first half, the Blazers had 16 fast-break points, and the Lakers had none.
"We're defensively challenged, in the first place, getting back in transition, and then when the effort is not there, you end up getting 16 fast-break points to zero in one (half)," Bryant said. "That's what happens."
Bryant kept the Lakers from being blown out before halftime, hitting three consecutive 3-pointers that helped slice a 12-point deficit to 53-47.
It turned out to simply prolong the inevitable.
The Lakers missed their first six shots of the second half, and could not stop the staple of the Portland offense — an alley-oop to LaMarcus Aldridge — until they trailed 74-50.
The Lakers closed the third quarter by scoring the final 12 points, but they could not threaten the Blazers until the final two minutes. That turned out to be short-lived. The Lakers got within 84-77, but after Aldridge missed a jumper, Batum hustled to chase down the rebound and moments later sank a 3-pointer, and that was that.
Another play just before that put a stamp on the difference between the two teams.
With the Lakers trailing by nine, Bryant fed the ball to Bynum who was barreling down the lane on a secondary break. As he went up to dunk the ball, Wallace stood his ground.
Bynum was whistled for charging, his sixth foul.
"He's fearless," Blazers coach Nate McMillan said of Wallace. "We're sitting there and I'm saying, 'Somebody take a charge.' You've got a 7-footer coming down the paint, nobody but you and him, and he gives up his body and steps in front of that kid. I would say 90 percent of the league would not have done that."
The Blazers, who over the past few years were the one team in the Western Conference that could match the Lakers' height, have undergone a transformation. Their former star, Brandon Roy, now comes off the bench after several knee surgeries, and with the loss of Greg Oden (again) and the trades of Joel Przybilla and Dante Cunningham, they are smaller and quicker.
And perhaps, with the acquisition of Wallace before the trade deadline, tougher.
For most of the night, Wallace found himself wrestling with Ron Artest, who seemed intent on trying to lure Wallace into losing his cool. When they went to the floor to chase a loose ball in the fourth quarter, Artest wrapped his thighs around Wallace's head, a maneuver more suited to MMA.
He drew a foul for shoving Wallace to the ground, and the two drew matching technical fouls after an altercation.
The raucous Rose Garden crowd serenaded its star with chants of "Ger-ald Wallace." It served as a prelude to another chant, as the game's final minutes wound down: "Beat L.A."
Because the Blazers did, it further jumbled the playoff race.
The Lakers have a one-game lead over Dallas for second place in the Western Conference and a two-game lead over Oklahoma City with three games to play. Though they own the tiebreaker with both teams, their next two games are against Oklahoma City and San Antonio. The season finale is at Sacramento — in what could be the Kings' final game there — so it's actually possible, if unlikely, that the Lakers could fall to fourth.
In more flux is the bottom of the conference playoff race. Portland is in sixth place, a half-game ahead of New Orleans and a game and a half ahead of Memphis.
If the Lakers were honest enough to admit it, at some point during their frustration-filled night, a thought must have occurred to them.
Well, let's hope we don't have to do that again.
PORTLAND, Ore. - If these keep piling up – the turnovers, the lackadaisical effort and the losses – Phil Jackson's retirement may come sooner than expected.
The Lakers lost to Portland 93-86 on Friday night for their fourth defeat in a row. Afterward, their coach was just as weary standing in a hallway outside the locker room as the players looked on the court.
"It's not fun to go through these games like this when you're coaching," said Jackson, whose team trailed by 24 points midway through the third quarter. "I asked them to give some kind of recognition of what this is about, this job, the professionalism and their responsibilities."
Jackson used terms like "lazy" and "not being focused" to describe his team's play for much of the night.
Though the Lakers are beginning to resemble last year's team down the stretch — the Lakers lost seven of their final 11 before righting themselves to win another championship — it is not a comforting feeling for their coach.
"It matters how you play in the playoffs," Jackson said. "But I hate to have this setup going into the playoffs where we're not playing hard. Just play the right way. Stop taking bad shots or looking at the referee when you get fouled and complaining about it."
Some Lakers took issue with Jackson's characterization of the team as lazy or unprofessional — "I don't think he's being fair if he says that," said Lamar Odom — but one who did not was Kobe Bryant.
"I agree," Bryant said.
After Wednesday's loss to Golden State — their third loss in four days — Bryant suggested that many of the players were fatigued, the effects of nearly 80 games having taken a toll.
Though the Lakers did not practice Thursday, and Jackson again limited minutes — nobody other than Andrew Bynum has played more than 33 minutes in each of the past three games — Bryant reiterated Friday that the team was tired, perhaps from the 17-1 streak that preceded their slide.
"Guys look a little tired, a little fatigued," Bryant said. "I don't know if that run took it out of us, but we look a little sluggish."
The Blazers, on the other hand, had no problem summoning energy, even though they played at Utah the night before.
They ran the Lakers up and down the court in the first half, Nicolas Batum and Gerald Wallace beating everyone to the basket.
At the end of the first half, the Blazers had 16 fast-break points, and the Lakers had none.
"We're defensively challenged, in the first place, getting back in transition, and then when the effort is not there, you end up getting 16 fast-break points to zero in one (half)," Bryant said. "That's what happens."
Bryant kept the Lakers from being blown out before halftime, hitting three consecutive 3-pointers that helped slice a 12-point deficit to 53-47.
It turned out to simply prolong the inevitable.
The Lakers missed their first six shots of the second half, and could not stop the staple of the Portland offense — an alley-oop to LaMarcus Aldridge — until they trailed 74-50.
The Lakers closed the third quarter by scoring the final 12 points, but they could not threaten the Blazers until the final two minutes. That turned out to be short-lived. The Lakers got within 84-77, but after Aldridge missed a jumper, Batum hustled to chase down the rebound and moments later sank a 3-pointer, and that was that.
Another play just before that put a stamp on the difference between the two teams.
With the Lakers trailing by nine, Bryant fed the ball to Bynum who was barreling down the lane on a secondary break. As he went up to dunk the ball, Wallace stood his ground.
Bynum was whistled for charging, his sixth foul.
"He's fearless," Blazers coach Nate McMillan said of Wallace. "We're sitting there and I'm saying, 'Somebody take a charge.' You've got a 7-footer coming down the paint, nobody but you and him, and he gives up his body and steps in front of that kid. I would say 90 percent of the league would not have done that."
The Blazers, who over the past few years were the one team in the Western Conference that could match the Lakers' height, have undergone a transformation. Their former star, Brandon Roy, now comes off the bench after several knee surgeries, and with the loss of Greg Oden (again) and the trades of Joel Przybilla and Dante Cunningham, they are smaller and quicker.
And perhaps, with the acquisition of Wallace before the trade deadline, tougher.
For most of the night, Wallace found himself wrestling with Ron Artest, who seemed intent on trying to lure Wallace into losing his cool. When they went to the floor to chase a loose ball in the fourth quarter, Artest wrapped his thighs around Wallace's head, a maneuver more suited to MMA.
He drew a foul for shoving Wallace to the ground, and the two drew matching technical fouls after an altercation.
The raucous Rose Garden crowd serenaded its star with chants of "Ger-ald Wallace." It served as a prelude to another chant, as the game's final minutes wound down: "Beat L.A."
Because the Blazers did, it further jumbled the playoff race.
The Lakers have a one-game lead over Dallas for second place in the Western Conference and a two-game lead over Oklahoma City with three games to play. Though they own the tiebreaker with both teams, their next two games are against Oklahoma City and San Antonio. The season finale is at Sacramento — in what could be the Kings' final game there — so it's actually possible, if unlikely, that the Lakers could fall to fourth.
In more flux is the bottom of the conference playoff race. Portland is in sixth place, a half-game ahead of New Orleans and a game and a half ahead of Memphis.
If the Lakers were honest enough to admit it, at some point during their frustration-filled night, a thought must have occurred to them.
Well, let's hope we don't have to do that again.