5 Things: That Sinking Feeling

This is where the rubber meets the road, where we find out who cares about winning or who is playing for their next deal. This is where we see what kind of coach we fired Vogel for and what kind of coach Ham might become. This is where we see what AD is made of.

1. El matador. That would describe the overall defensive intensity of the Lakers not just in this game but for the season. We’re 20th in overall defense, 17th in defensive rating (which is essentially our points allowed per game) and in points off turnovers. We’re 23rd in 2nd chance points and we saw a mediocre defensive effort from all involved last night. This team does not have a defensive identity except to get defensive with one another and the media. Can’t blame the old favorites, anymore (i.e: Russ, Bryant) this is all on the new fellers and man did it look awful. Wins against teams imploding slowly (Dallas) or missing key players (Golden State) created a false sense of hope and buoyancy that were quickly and jarringly brought back down to Earth. This was best exemplified in Schroder’s lackadaisical approach to defense but by no means was it relegated to one player. Yes, AD had 5 blocks and that’s wonderful. We let the Grizzlies score 86 points in the paint and 33 fast break points. Nobody was playing defense last night and this against a western conference team we absolutely needed to beat and a potential playoff match up (in theory…)
2. Getting the whistle didn’t save us this time. We’ve been fortunate to be on the right side of the free throw battle, for the most part, in a lot of our wins. We shot 6 more free throws again last night. It’s rare that we win when we shoot fewer free throws than the other team and that’s because we rely completely on paint points and fast break points. This team cannot shoot from the outside with any kind of consistency. Feel free to test me on this by going back and looking at individual games but you can quickly get to the truth by seeing we’re 4th in the league in FTA/game. Only Miami, Milwaukee and Boston are in front of us and those are also teams that attack the paint.
3. Band of Brothers, er, Mercenaries. This team feels like a plane full of mercs about to go on a mission together and they don’t care who comes back as long as they live. This is but one issue with a borderline complete roster overhaul with a 1/3 of the season left, a rookie coach, and a franchise with an identity of cheapness. Everyone is playing for their next deal, not for the team. Ham evidently commands the same amount of locker room respect Vogel did because this comes down to gravity. Or a lack thereof. Same goes for the leadership of LeBron and AD. For the amount of money we’re paying them one would think that they could kinda sorta maybe command the locker room to a small degree. Evidently not.
4. Speaking of AD… Out again tonight, along with D-Lo. The Lakers…all heart, baby. Michael Cooper and Kurt Rambis had more heart in a dirty sock than these guys.
5. We still have a chance. Incredibly just about every team we need to leapfrog also lost last night so what shred of hope that this dismal season could result in something meaningful yet lives. Not too sure how many more in conference games we can lose but the number is assuredly small. The Lakers are relying on more than couple teams to lose a lot more than we will and for that to even matter we need to win games. Memphis is a hungry team with chemistry, a better test than either Golden State or Dallas. OKC tonight…without our three highest paid players…would have been a good test and still could be for the scrubs and guys playing to get out of the vet minimum range of contracts. Lose tonight and OKC moves back in front of us which just makes the mole hill look more and more like a mountain.