Wed, Dec 10th: Phoenix Suns @ Los Angeles Lakers, ESPN

[semi-sentient]

I like the move by Phil last night. Radman definitely reverted to space cadet defense, and Walton is simply a smarter player. It didn't make much of a difference, but perhaps now that certain players know they can be benched at anytime they will start playing harder.

A few people were spot on about Kobe earlier. He gets burned regularly and then just shakes his head like a moron. I'm getting tired of it. That, and I didn't like how the whole team was "all smiles" towards the end of the game. What were they smiling about? Barely beating a depleted Suns team?

This team needs a real leader, not someone who is going to make behind-the-scenes comments about toughness then go on the floor and display the exact opposite. Garnett is doing it for Boston and LeBron is doing it for Cleveland. Who is going to step up and be a tough leader for the Lakers?

It seems that no one is up to the task.

[crazyeights]

Good point about the lack in vocal leadership. I thought that was D-Fish going to be that guy, but apparently it's nobody. What bothers me is right after the game in all their interviews they'll say we need to play better defense....uh, the game was 20 seconds ago. Why not know that then? Right now, it's all talk.

We've got our announcers harping on it, our beat writers asking the same questions, the players and coaches interviewing about it, yet we continue to play defense with no emotion or urgency. And Phil, I don't know how he's let this go on for so long. Not sure if he's just waiting for them to lose a few games just to bring them back to normal or what. But in that half-time interview, Rambis was pissed.

Hopefully things start changing.

[dockingsched]

I
A few people were spot on about Kobe earlier. He gets burned regularly and then just shakes his head like a moron. I'm getting tired of it.

, that is ANNOYING

[Verbal]

Kobe might need "Spybot Search & Destroy" if he keeps getting burned via backdoor like some of yous suggested.

[Cboywhitey]

Yeah something isn't right with kobe as of now. Phil kind of made it a point last night post game. He said he and Kobe have a deal about him being healthy enough to go...but that he has opted out of shoot arounds for the past several days to receive treatment. Just reading Phil's body language and emotion behind that...he obviously believes kobe is dealing with some things. Possibly an injury.

And I completely agree with the remarks about kobe not needing to play lock down defense. Just basic fundamentals will get the job done. Primarily it's proper rotations and spacing on the floor. He's just not playing fundamental individual and team defense right now.

In all reality nobody on this team needs to play lock down defense every single night. We just need solid fundamentals with proper effort every night.

Right now I think we've made a shift in how we're playing teams. It seems as though the first few games when we were hot from the field we turned up our defensive pressure and really blew games up. The past several games when we have been hot we've slacked off on defense. Then when we need to pull out a win...or when our shots are not falling we try to lock a team down. It's the killer instinct issue a lot of people talk about. When you're hot...squeeze the life out of them with defense. Don't let them hang around in the chance of you cooling off.

[Chubby Chaser]

Is anyone else thinking that the Olympics is the reason for Kobe's bad play as of late? He's not getting the same lift in his shots and this can be attributed to tired legs. We look tired out there like we're in game 68, but we're not even a third of the way through the season. Kobe has a lot of miles on those legs and he might need some time to rest them. It doesn't do him any favors to by having our bench give up leads and having kobe go back in the game when he should be resting in the fourth.