Luckily, their fourth opponent happened to be the lowly Detroit Pistons, so the team is now 1-3. With Nash out of the picture for the next few weeks with a leg fracture, it will be interesting to see how the Lakers continue to develop their offense for the long haul.
More importantly, the defense will have to improve drastically – the team was giving up 106.7 points before holding the Pistons to 79 points – if coach Brown wants to stop hearing the chants for him to get the pink slip.
[Related: Miami Heat becoming an offensive force]
On a side note, Steve Blake was fined $25,000 by the league on Tuesday. Perhaps he should focus a little harder on the game and not so much on what a fan in the front row has to say to him.
Moving onto other news from around the league from Tuesday:
Gerald Henderson will be out for two-to-four weeks, according to Rick Bonnell of Charlotte Observer: “Charlotte Bobcats co-captain Gerald Henderson was actually relieved by what he heard from the doctor Tuesday. Losing 2-4 weeks with a left mid-foot sprain is no bargain, but Henderson feared worse – a ligament tear that would have required surgery and jeopardized his season. “It had potential to be worse where the injury was,’’ Henderson said, his foot wrapped in a protective boot. “It’s pretty painful to walk on. It could have been broken. “It could have been a higher degree of tear of ligaments; I could have had surgery. Not anything like that. So I was happy to hear what he said.’’
Shawn Marion will be sidelined for at least a few games due to sprained MCL in his left knee, from Chris Bernucca: “The Dallas Mavericks have been doing just fine without Dirk Nowitzki. Now we will see how they do without Shawn Marion. The Mavericks said Tuesday that Marion has a sprained MCL in his left knee and will miss at least three games before being re-evaluated. Marion suffered the injury in the third quarter of Monday’s 114-91 home win over Portland and did not return. Initially, the injury was not believed to be serious. According to the team, Marion had an MRI that confirmed the injury. He will not play in Wednesday’s home game vs. Toronto and will not travel with the team for a two-game trip to New York and Charlotte later in the week.”
- James Harden expressed hurt feelings over the way Sam Presti handled his contract situation, but he is also ready to go back to his “old ways” with the Rockets, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports: