The Lakers are currently 36-34 and holding onto the 8th seed in the Western Conference thanks in part to the Utah Jazz falling apart. One thing I’ve noticed is the Lakers would build up big leads and then lose it. That also happened last night when they built an 18 point lead over the Washington Wizards then lost it and subsequently lost the game. Of course this frustrated their coach Mike D’Antoni and he let them have it. Read more after the jump.
From ProBasketballTalk
“What happened was we didn’t play hard enough. We think we can just figure things out and just point. I mean, Trevor Ariza‘s got 12 attempts at three and he’s wide open. That’s inexcusable and it’s just a matter of lapses or gambling or ‘I’m not gonna play hard tonight because we’re just gonna outscore them….’
“There’s no explanation for it. I don’t know. I can’t explain it, but every time we get up 16, it’s like, ‘Oh, we’re really good and we don’t have to play hard.’ And we start messing with the game. You start messing with not moving the ball. You start messing with ‘I’m just gonna go 1-on-1 every time.’ You start messing with the basketball Gods and they get you. That ball will roll around and go in for them and it’ll roll around and go out for us, because we’re messing with the game.
“And if we don’t change that, well, obviously we won’t make the playoffs. But even if we do, then we’ll get blown out in the playoffs. …
And I told them in (the locker room), we put our hands in (the huddle), and you’ve guys have probably seen it, we say ‘Championship!” and go out there. And that’s laughable. Championship? You gotta be kidding me
“Until they understand the importance of every possession offensively and defensively, and every time, they gotta come out with some kind of determination to be a good basketball team, then we’re just fooling ourselves. And right now, that’s what we’re doing. We’re making sham-mockery of it, or whatever that is.”
Many people expect them to get bounced from the first round of the playoffs but if they continue on this path they’re chances of even making it might dwindle away. I’m sure Kobe is going to make sure everyone gets on their A-game for the remaining 12 games if D’Antoni’s rant didn’t work.
