So the Lakers sit fairly pretty at 20-3, yet they seem to be dissatisfied with their overall play.
“Defense,” Lamar Odom said. “It’s always defense. We can play better defense. And we can’t turn it off and on. You have to play consistent.”
Odom has been asked by Lakers coach Phil Jackson to be more of a leader for the Lakers’ talented bench players, who have at times been lackadaisical this season. But Odom has been fighting a head cold in recent days and hasn’t brought great focus either.
According to The Orange County Register, Lakers co-captain Derek Fisher called a team meeting Friday—when the Lakers were 18-3—to ask for better focus and effort each game.
“Every team should be a test,” Odom said. “You can’t pick them out. We have to think about what we want to accomplish.”
Said Kobe Bryant: “We have to focus on improving. We’re playing extremely well, and we have to focus on being better.”
Lakers 98, Timberwolves 86: The Lakers’ defense returned to form somewhat, holding Minnesota to 36.1 percent field-goal shooting—although the Timberwolves are a notoriously poor shooting team. Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol used their length to hold Minnesota’s Al Jefferson to 20 points on 8-of-24 shooting.
The Heat’s lack of offense was the big story as it headed into a three-day break that concludes with Friday’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Heat is mired in a three-game losing streak. It is averaging 80.7 points per game during that stretch, far down from its 97.4-point average for the season.
The downturn is the result of two factors: Dwyane Wade and the defense.
Wade is averaging just 17.7 points during this losing streak, about 11 fewer than his average. Teams are following the lead of Atlanta, the Heat’s first loss on this streak.
“We were trying to make it tough on him,” the Hawks’ Josh Smith said. “We were trying to make the other guys beat us.”
“We were trying to make it tough on him,” the Hawks’ Josh Smith said. “We were trying to make the other guys beat us.”
That’s also what Memphis and Milwaukee did. Perhaps as a reflection of his frustrations, Wade has been hit with a technical foul in each of the last two games for arguing calls.
The Heat’s defense, meanwhile, hasn’t been forcing turnovers and converting them into points via its transition offense and fast-break offense. That forces the Heat into a half-court game, and that hasn’t been a good thing all season.
Nevertheless, Coach Erik Spoelstra is keeping the faith.
I see no problem for Kobe and his teammates to crush in the Miami Heat on what could be a easy and fun game for them.
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