In case you haven't noticed, the Lakers are falling apart. Last night, they lost by 19 points to the Grizzlies… at home:
It was the fourth loss in the Lakers' last six games, the third loss in their last four home games and their fourth loss in a row by 15 points or more.
Kobe Bryant had 17 of his game-high 28 points in the third quarter, but he took 12 of the Lakers' 22 total shots in the period in doing so. In the process, Memphis increased its lead from nine at halftime to 17 headed into the fourth.
"We get behind early on in the third quarter on some stupid plays — poor passing, poor transition defense — and then Kobe has to screw up the game and start energizing the team by going one-on-one and that takes the rest of the guys out as a consequence," Jackson said. "That didn't bring us back in, but it did give us a little run, we got the game back a little bit but we couldn't sustain it and we just went right back and made the same mistakes again."
Jackson's comments about Bryant came on the heels of him pointing out that Gasol, a three-time All-Star, had only 10 points on nine shot attempts for the game.
ESPN Los Angeles- New year, same problems for LA
But wait… there's more:
Jackson also blamed himself for giving the team New Year's Day off from practice. Kobe took his own dig back at Phil.
"We've had days off and blown teams out, so I'm not buying any of that Zen (bulls–t)," Bryant said. "I think we're looking too far down the road instead of looking just at the game that's right in front of you. You start skipping steps if you look too far down the line."
Ahhh… Nothing warms my heart quite like troubles in La-la land.
I'd be a poor businessman if I didn't take this opportunity to promote the Loser's t-shirt in the Reds Army story. You'll find a bunch of anti-Lakers gear there.
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