Inconsistent Lakers can’t afford lack of intensity at Magic
March 7th, 2010 Posted in NBA basketball newsThere was no panic in the Lakers’ locker room Thursday night after they had decided they needed to play only about 17 of the allotted 53 minutes in an overtime loss to the Heat. There was, however, a hint of concern from one of the most astute and observant occupants of that room, Pau Gasol.
“We’re just interested in seeing our team getting better and playing stronger on the road, being successful on the road,” Gasol said. “So far we’ve been pretty inconsistent on the road.”
Well, so much for that plan. The Lakers’ maddening habit of flipping their intensity on and off at will carried over to a 98-83 embarrassment in Charlotte on Friday night. Now, they’re a 2½-hour exercise in Orlando away from an 0-3 road trip, which for the suddenly stumbling defending champs would qualify as a tailspin of significant proportions.
Despite their recent struggles, Ron Artest isn’t all that worried about the Lakers. (US Presswire) The month of March presents 11 road games and only four at Staples Center, where the Lakers spent the majority of the first quarter of the season. Payback, as they say, is a nuisance. They arrive in Orlando as a team unusually healthy from a physical standpoint, getting Kobe Bryant back from a five-game absence that straddled the All-Star break and enjoying contributions from Andrew Bynum this late in the season for the first time in three years.
As for mental health, though, the Lakers are a few threads short of a headband. They’re only 4-3 since Bryant returned, after going 4-1 without him. Gasol’s midseason slump has become worrisome enough to coach Phil Jackson that the Zen Master pulled Gasol aside in the locker room Friday night and said, “Pau, I want you to meet a friend of mine.”
That friend was Charles Oakley, who embodied the fer especially on the defensive end. L.A. has allowed 100 points only twice in eight games since the All-Star break, but that statistic doesn’t do justice to the sporadic disinterest they’ve exhibited on that end of the floor. They allowed Miami to score 30 in the third quarter Thursday night, then gave up back-to-back 26-point quarters to the Bobcats, one of the worst offensive teams in the NBA.
“We have no rhythm, no confidence in what we’re doing out there,” Gasol was quoted as saying Friday night in the , which pointed out that the Lakers made the offensively challenged Bobcats look like the Globetrotters, “scoring at will and having fun doing it.”
So after the nonchalant disposition they exhibited in the visiting locker room in Miami, it was time once again for Bryant to exert his motivational powers with a strategic speech similar to the one he gave during a mid-January stumble.
“I’ll probably say something,” Kobe said Friday night.
Talk will be futile, however, against the defending Eastern Conference champion Magic, who have won four straight and six out of seven. The second and final regular-season meeting between last year’s Finals combatants is significant from the litmus-test standpoint. How will Bynum, who was a shell of himself in the Finals, change the dynamic of the Dwight Howard problem? How will Ron Artest, who watched the Finals from a courtside seat at Staples while longing to sign with the Lakers, alter the balance of power in his matchup against Hedo Turkoglu’s replacement, Vince Carter? With three-quarters of the regular season behind us, Sunday’s nationally televised game presents an interesting measuring stick with subplots galore.
“In Orlando’s situation with Carter, Ron is going to be very influential because he’s going to have to guard Carter in that ballgame,” Jackson said. “He’s a guy that he can guard and is a big part of their offense right now.”
In January, when the Lakers still had the best record in the NBA, Artest told me he had no idea how that was the case because, “We haven’t played good basketball this whole year. We haven’t played a 48-minute game this whole season. It’s too easy for us.”
In the weeks since, that trend has reemerged, resulting in Cleveland (49-14) passing the Lakers (46-17) for the league’s best record. The Cavs have a comfortable three-game lead in the race that would determine home-court advantage in a potential Fina will catch them, too.
But nothing ever seems as cataclysmic within the confines of the Lakers’ locker room as it does on the outside. Artest, providing an update Thursday night on his January proclamation, pondered for a few seconds and said, “I think we’re OK.”
“Kobe’s back playing to his regular self, guys are playing hard, Lamar [Odom] is shooting the ball great, and I’m moving my feet better on defense,” Artest said. “I’m really active, really active.”
Sitting at his locker in Miami, Artest evidence of a diet primarily consisting of fish and vegetables that has melted 14 pounds since the season started. The added quickness helped him during a recent stretch when he contained Shawn Marion, Carmelo Anthony and Danny Granger. He played Dwyane Wade essentially to a draw Thursday night, and gets Carter on Sunday. A bout with plantar fasciitis has calmed down.
“I’m feeling really good,” Artest said. “I feel really, really positive. I’m just happy that my feet are moving. I know when it gets down to it, I’m going to get stops. Not everybody is D-Wade.”
The months change, and the years, but the story with the Lakers remains the same. Clearly, they’re the most talented team in the league. They play hard and smart when they feel like it, and I would suggest that now would be a good time to start feeling that way. Don’t hold your breath, though.
“I want to see that sense of urgency consistently,” Bryant said. “I know it’s been there in spurts, but we need to be able to pick it up and turn it on.”
Turning it on is never the problem for the Lakers. Leaving it on is another matter entirely.
