Loss to Thunder, 100-85, Ends First Half of Crazy Season

The win in Dallas the previous night greatly mitigated this nearly inevitable loss to a team with the best record in the West playing on their home court. No biggie. Sure, Kobe shot too much (stop the presses!) and Pau didn’t shoot enough (though he had a good night) but, on the positive side, they hit their foul shots, didn’t turn it over much (12 times) and only took 14 3-pointers.

The All-Star game, which I boycott every year, not to mention the slam dunk contest, the 3-point contest, the rising stars challenge, etc., resulted in an injury (broken nose?) to Kobe. Naturally he played way too many minutes (35) and even stayed in the game after the injury because it was oh so important that he break Jordan’s record for career points in All-Star games. And we all think that’s cool, right? To me, the All-Star weekend represents everything that is horrible about the NBA, about sports in general and, in fact, about everything in general.

But now it’s time to focus on the second half of this better-than-nothing season. The Lakers aren’t pretty but that’s not a knock. They face some big expectations. When the goal of the fans and the local media is for the team to score 100 points or else be forever branded as wussies, when Showtime, rather than winning, is the greatest good, when someone’s game stats include the number of dunks, you can see what a burden this can be for a team. They have three A-list superstars—and Matt Barnes. I like some of those second-unit guys—they all have their moments–but nothing more than most other NBA bench players.

What to do? What with their cap restraints, and the reluctance of many teams to help the Lakers, probably nothing. But there are a couple of things they can do with their current roster. Probably most significantly is this: Start Devin Ebanks at small forward. The Lakers actually do have a decent bench, though their lack of interest in a backup center is a big mistake. The problem is that they are using their best bench players—Barnes and now World Peace—as starters. World Peace should be and could be a force on defense a la Dennis Rodman. Since they aren’t getting any offense from the small forwards they have been using, Ebanks can’t hurt the team and, if he’s as talented as the Lakers think he is, can help them with more playing time. Even if that proves not to be the answer, at least the bench wouldn’t be compromised.

Also, play McRoberts more, even as a starter–at power forward, with Pau moving to small forward. Let the rest of the league try to defend that front line. The thing is, McRoberts, who looked great early on, has regressed and it’s simply because Mike Brown refuses to play him. Stupid. McRoberts is a resource, not part of a garbage-time gang.

It’s probably too late to get a point guard. You’d want that guy to run the offense and that means he’d have to be respected enough for Kobe et al to let him do that. That ain’t happening. Which leads to my final plea to Kobe. I’ve said it a few times. Here’s one more time before it’s too late: Kobe must see to it that Pau and Bynum take about as many shots and score about as many points as he does. That way, and with the above changes, the Lakers have a shot at winning the West and all the rest. Problem is, only Kobe can make that happen because the offense goes through him.

Without these changes, the Lakers will win go down in flames. They’re currently in fifth place. If the playoffs started tomorrow they would play Dallas without having the home floor advantage and, given their road record, well…yeah.

Tomorrow night they resume play against the resurgent T-Wolves at Staples Center. Once upon a time that game was a gimme. Now it’s a serious challenge.