Their mental advantage has disappeared, and so is their home-court advantage. They have even lost the approval of one of their larger icons.
Asked how get snap them out of it, their Zen master coach suggested "flogged." Then he laughs. Hey, Phil Jackson retirement in a few days or weeks, so it could crack wise.
This melodrama is vintage Hollywood, but most for the people of sham. Or the Clippers. Certainly not the Kingdom of Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Still early in their second round against the Dallas Mavericks series, Bryant and the Lakers are in turmoil, and they know it.
Los Angeles is 0-2 down, entering game 3 Friday night. While three teams in NBA history have won a seven-game series after losing the first two at home, no team has rallied a 0-3 deficit. That is the next pivotal game in search of Lakers for a third straight championship.
"Desperate, that is a Word, said Bryant." "" I think that when you play desperate you do not play your best basketball. What we must do, is to relax, to focus on what we do wrong and errors that we do. We have much to consider and lock. ?
Their problems start on defense.
Dirk Nowitzki is having its way with the Lakers any if they try covering him with someone big or small. What happens with all teams. The surprise is that Los Angeles is faced with everyone, until speedy little backup leader J.J. Barea.
Barea tricycles around the Court in game 2 Wednesday night until the last minute, Ron Artest tilted his forearm and hit Barea in the face. Artest was overthrown and the League him Thursday that he cannot play game 3.
If the invincibility of the Lakers was not already extirpated, that cheap shots clearly frustrated how this team is.
Just look inside tandem of Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Gasol plays so poorly at both ends of the Court that he was booed in the second half of the second game, at least until many fans left early or lost interest. After the match, Bynum spiced things up by saying "all 13 of our guys have confidence issues now," in addition to describing these problems as "deeply rooted."
Lakers great Magic Johnson is disgusted. On Wednesday night, he tweeted, "it will be difficult to rise and I think that their chances are slim." Thursday, he tweeted that Bynum should have kept his mouth closed.
Ultimately, the Lakers look tired, mentally and physically. Perhaps this is the toll to reach the final of each of the last three years.
This is nothing new, either. They had several sections this season when they looked vulnerable only to return to their title-worthy form. Last round, they lost the first match to the Hornets and tied 2-2 in the series before Bryant fired through them. What appeared to be a springboard to another title run seeks now as it might have been a last breath.
"We don't like be in this position," point guard, said Derek Fisher. "He is not familiar, you know?". But we are where we are, then we must ensure that we stay together as a group and discover this thing. We try to make history here, and which is not easy. We must be prepared to be responsible, each of us. ?
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