Ricky Rubio voiced his opinion about his friend Gasol’s situation, and it was one of displeasure, from HoopsHype: “Wolves guard Ricky Rubio is not happy with the way the Lakers are treating fellow Spaniard Pau Gasol. “Pau Gasol has given the Lakers a lot and I don’t feel he’s getting enough in return, especially as far as confidence,” Rubio said in a conference call earlier today. “But he’s a pro. If he goes to another team, I think he would make a contender out of that team. Wherever he goes, he’s going to be fighting for the title.”
- Antawn Jamison is unhappy about not playing and suggested a better establishment of identity for team success. Mark Medina of Daily News has more: “I’ve never had this,” Jamison said in a quiet moment with this newspaper. “I’m going home and going to pray. I’m doing something I love to do. You just have to find the positives in life. We won.”… “I’m here to win a championship,” Jamison said. “If me not being out there improves our chances, then you have to roll with it. Of course I’m not excited about it. I want to compete. I know if I’m out there, I can contribute. But what else can you do?” Jamison then answered his own question. “You just have to stay positive,” Jamison said… Right now, we’re all confused by what’s going on.”Jamison then suggested the constant rotation changes has only contributed to that confusion. “In order for us to be successful, we have to establish an identity,” Jamison said. “Of course injuries play a part. But we have to establish a bench. We have to know what we’re going to do with our starters. We have yet to do that. It’s kind of hard to get into a rhythm when you don’t know what’s going on. Your guess is as good as mine.”
Dirk Nowitzki practiced for the first time since undergoing arthroscopic surgery in October, and may be targeting a return after Christmas. Here is the latest update on the Mavericks forward, from Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News: “Asked if he had a date in mind for getting back in game action, Nowitzki said: “Not really. We’ll just see how it goes. This is the first day stopping, pushing off, moving. We’ll see how it reacts. I’m going to do that a couple times, and do some contact for a while. Maybe any time after Christmas, that’ll be fun. “(I at least want) a couple practices under my belt. But there’s no real date set. So we’ll have to see how the knee responds to the first couple workouts.” As for when that date gets closer, Nowitzki said he would talk with the coaching staff and determine the right way to ease back into the role of franchise player. “(We’ll) see what the smartest thing is, maybe come off the bench for the first couple games, play around 20-25 minutes,” he said. “That’s something I guess we need to talk about when it gets to that point. I’m not opposed to obviously coming off the bench at the beginning and slowly finding my rhythm, but I think that’s something we need to talk about when it gets closer.”
Metta World Peace was demoted to a bench role in the game against the Bobcats, but he certainly doesn’t seem to mind the idea of it, from Medina: “There’s nothing to explain,” World Peace said. “He’s the head coach, man. We’re trying to win. When we were kids, maybe you get things told to you in a little nice tone and things like that. But we’re grown men. There’s no need to explain. Just come off the bench sucka. Just come off the bench and go play.”… “I don’t care how many minutes I play,” World Peace said. “I just care about winning. That’s it. If we win the game and I don’t play, or I play five minutes, 10 minutes, or I split it, that’s what matters.”
- Howard believes Steve Nash will help the Lakers’ defense, from Eric Pincus of Los Angeles Times: “Dwight Howard says the Lakers’ offense gives up so much, turnovers, bad shot that Nash will help the defense. He elaborates on Nash, defense and many Lakers issues. “If we can control the ball on the offensive end, play the way we want to play on offense and get a good shot every time, then we get back and set our defense, which for the most part is pretty good,” Howard said. “When we turn the ball over, it puts us in a bad position to get back because we’re running a play and then losing the ball, our momentum is going this way and they’re going back the other way. We just really have to focus on getting a good shot every time, using the clock shot to our advantage.”
Howard believes the Lakers lack the personnel to run all the time, and thinks right now is the “darkest moment” for his team. Pincus has details: “We’re playing against these young teams who want to go up and down the whole game. With the guys we have — we’ve got some old guys — I’m not sure they just want to run the whole game. I’m not sure that’s to our advantage,” Howard said. “We have to play with a pace on the offensive end but at the same time realize that if we need to grind and pound, we can do that also.” Howard referred to a famous quote, dating back a few hundred years, although Howard attributed it to a more modern source. “Some of our players, we watch ‘Batman’ a lot,” Howard said. “There’s a part in the movie ‘Batman’ where he says, ‘The night is the darkest right before dawn.’ “It basically means right now this is probably the darkest moment for our team. It’s not going to last forever. The sun is going to come up and we’re going to be where we need to be. We can’t kill ourselves or shoot ourselves in the foot if we’re not playing our best brand of basketball right now.”
we couldn’t know for cetrian whether Antni had anything to do with Kobe’s different approach, I’m just saying the evidence is lacking, and Kobe said he decided it on his own. I’m just repeating myself here.Well, over the course of one game, taking him out and then putting him back in could be more likely to cause injury, or at least might not minimize it. That wasn’t what I said. I think that the main difference was that he averaged 46 minutes a game or whatever for so many games in a row, that is the cause of the deep fatigue. And definitely Kobe should have gone out in the GS game as soon as we figured out that he was injured the first time- he actually looked like he suffered 3 injuries over the course of the game. Seems like warning lights should be flashing by at least the second.AK- By me, it’s just risk management. The risk is greater the more he plays. I think that the team can handle playing without Kobe, and the reward of having Kobe for a few extra minutes isn’t worth it to me.
Daniel, thanks for the condolence. I knew once the Lakers hired Mike D’Antoni over Phil Jackson, LakersNation was going to be run to the ground. He is the worst coach possible to be in this situation for the Lakers right now. He is clueless to figure out a rotation with the roster he has, he cannot answer a straight question and he relies on Kobe Bryant too much.
I am going to say D’Antoni is BS every day, all day as long as he is the Lakers’ coach, and even when (or if ever) he starts winnings more with the Lakers. I hate this guy. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it! Why did Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss pick him!!!
I wish D’Antoni wouldn’t let Kobe jack up every other shot and play him for 40-plus minutes every game. The Lakers have other options and Dwight Howard!!! Let those other options be a part of the offense so the team can start winning! All these idiotic decisions by D’Antoni is going to run Howard away from resigning with the team in the summer.
I hate you D’Antoni!
Sincerely,
An annoyed Lakers fan
As a Knicks fan, I want to share my condolences with the Lakers. It’s unfortunate that the best team on paper in the NBA has become another victim of the most stubborn SOB coach in the entire league. And it’s no surprise to me, because we heard it time and time again here in New York:
Q: “Coach, can Carmelo Anthony play efficiently in your system?”
A: “I don’t see why not. He’s too good not to succeed in any system.”
This is D’Antoni’s stock answer for any player whose talents are minimized to drastic result by “his system.” Why the f*ck would any coach be so stubborn as to ask a pure 7-footer like Pau Gasol, one of the three best post players in the league – who, mind you, helped the Lakers win two championships already – play beyond his range and shoot 3-balls all night?
The answer is because D’Antoni is more interested in running up the scoreboard every night, and solidifying HIS legacy as some kind of innovator, than he is in actually winning a championship. Results be damned. He such an arrogant, belligerent a-hole, I can’t believe the Lakers hired this fool in haste. But, truthfully, it seems like everything the Lakers do nowadays is in haste.
Strike two for Lil’ Jimmy Buss.