Despite acquiring two additional future Hall of Famers to play
alongside their two existing future Hall of Famers, the Los Angeles
Lakers have yet to lock up a single victory this season.
If you want to include last year’s flameout versus the Oklahoma City
Thunder, the Lakers are zero for their last 12. If you want to simply
count this season’s record, the Lakers are zero for their last 10. And
if you just want to count regular season games, the Lakers are zero for
their last two. Any which way you want to do the math – this team
doesn’t look good right now.
Injuries are already becoming a problem (Steve Nash is doubtful for
Friday night). The defense is porous (22nd in points allowed). They’re
turning the ball over a lot (seventh most in the league). The offense
requires time to sync, but needs Nash present in order to work itself
out. The heat, justifiably or not, is intensifying under Mike
Brown’s seat. And, best of all, nearly half of Los Angeles still can’t
watch the games without an illegal stream because DirecTV and Dish
haven’t worked out a deal with Time Warner yet.
Understandably, Lakers fans are a little antsy right now. What does
the King of L.A., Kobe Bryant, have to say to all the frustrated fans
out there?
Shut up.
“They’ve seen us win multiple championships here, playing an offense
that was tough to learn, that was a sequence of options that weren’t set
plays that took five guys being on the same page of working together,”
Bryant said of the fans on Thursday (via Los Angeles Times).
“They know how that stuff works. For them to be so stupid now...”
Lakers fans do know how it works. This team sleeps through
the regular season and then gets bounced out of the playoffs in the
second round. That has been the reality L.A. has lived through over the
past two years.
Fans nodded along and made excuses for this squad for a lot of the
past 24 months, assuming that they would stop sleepwalking when games
that mattered finally arrived. Yeah, it doesn’t work like that. You
can’t just turn it on. You either have it, or you don’t. And if you
don’t have it, you better develop it during the regular season – or
else.
“They say, 'Well, let Steve [Nash] dribble the ball around and create
opportunities for everybody. And let Dwight [Howard] post up and let me
iso.' It’s ... I don’t want to say idiotic, but it’s close.”
To be fair, that part is sort of idiotic. Brown and his
staff are trying to implement a complex offense – that does take time.
And there are plenty of other things to be agitated about, so picking
this particular item is dumb
Panic and pessimism aside, though, Kobe delivered some great lines on Thursday.
“Now you have Mike Brown telling everybody to be patient,” Bryant
continued. “Back then, it was Phil Jackson telling everybody to shut
up...
“Mike, it would be a little tougher for him to say that. So I’ll say it for him: Everybody shut up. Let us work.”
