Number 2: Team Harmony
What made the Lakers special last year was this: the supporting cast was comfortable letting Kobe run the show, as long as that meant they got to head to Jason’s of Beverly Hills to get ringed up.
The Road to Five has hit a speed bump.
SIDE NOTE: A friend of mine was married a few weeks ago in a charming gathering at the old City Court House. The best part of the story: he decided to tell me this by saying, “I got ringed up.” Is there a better expression for this? I mean, really. I would like to propose that people who tie the knot in non-traditional settings (i.e. Vegas, Court House, etc) should be required to tell people they “got ringed up”. Can we start using this?
Back to the point at hand, Kobe’s injuries have had a clear effect on two aspects of his game: (1) his shot, and (2) his defense. Since he’s not at 100% and has so far refused to adapt his game to his injuries, there are some not-so-quiet rumblings in Lakerland that certain players (read: Pau Gasol) aren’t happy with the number of touches they’re getting on offense. We didn’t hear anything about that last season for one simple reason: as long as people are winning, they keep their mouth shut.
So what happens after the Lakers lose their third in a row in Orlando this past Sunday? Pau drops lines about “moving the ball,” “getting open shots,” and “finding a balance with the interior game,” which was his way of saying: “Kobe, pass me the damn ball.”
Even after he hit the game winning shot against Toronto on Tuesday night, there was something missing from his post game reaction: emotion. Kobe was not excited to hit another game winning shot, he was pissed. He did not want to bail out the Lakers against the mediocre Toronto Rapters, he wanted to pound them into submission. Needless to say, he wasn’t happy with his team’s defensive effort and certainly wasn’t happy with the way Toronto walked all over them at times.
Well, so much for team harmony.
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