GT: Lakers (6-5) vs. Queens (2-8) 11/21/12 7:00PM

[jigga_man]

Teams have been targeting Pau for a while now. No hyperbole but he's one of the worst help defenders in the league right now. He needs to be traded or moved to the bench. Hill is a much better fit in the starting lineup. When Nash comes back they'll be more than enough offense that Pau wouldn't be needed.

[ReturnofMVP3]

Hey guys didn't catch the game but I noticed Dwight took 4 shots and played 40 minutes. Is there a reason why he wasn't shooting?

Doubled teams most of the night, he did the right thing and kicked it out. And some of it was not getting the ball sometimes, it happens

Thanks man, makes more sense now

[laduane1]

No time table for his return. Could be a week or a month or more.

[Stebo_SSK]

You guys overreact to every loss. Pau played great against the Nets and everyone was on hush mouth.

[EArl]

sucks that we lost. What was the ain reason we lost this game?

[Wavy Q]

according to everyone here, Pau Gasol is the reason

i prefer to blame it on the huge # of turnovers and missed free throws.

[Pb]

Is funny when everytime you lose, blame Pau, I wonder if he have been guarding Salmons, Evans and Thornton... Cause obviously, as Metta and Kobe are such great defenders...

[jigga_man]

You guys overreact to every loss. Pau played great against the Nets and everyone was on hush mouth.

I wasn't. He was getting blown by constantly by Brook Lopez who isn't much of a faceup player or known for his quick step. I'm thinking long term here. I don't care too much about the regular season, hell the lakers can still win 50-60 games with hm being a major piece. But this has been a problem since 2011 and his defense has gotten worse. The opposition continues to target him for the pnr and won't stop. He either has to be traded or moved to the bench. If Nash stays healthy and mwp continues to shoot decently then he isn't needed in the starting line up & he'll help boost the bench, solve at least some of the defensive woes and insert more athleticism in the starting line up. Everybody wins.

[Joao Saraiva]

I'm not a Lakers fan but didn't watch the game so I'm wondering how does Dwight only shoot 4 times and 4 FTs? What happened?

About the LA defense I've been telling this since the begining and it might have been the problem from what I see in nba.com: there's a lack of speed among the perimeter defense, and Sacramento fits just right. That can be a problem for this team, that's why I don't think D'Antoni is the right coach. But let's see.

[crazy8ights]

I think the turnovers cost us the game really and the strange anomaly of D12 getting shut down.

[timdunkit]

I thought the defense cost us the game. It wasn't aggressive enough early on. That and Dwight/Gasol contributed little on the offensive end.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL58vTAP1IA[/youtube]

[Kilroy]

Doesn't Cousins always play Dwight close? Or am I thinking of someone else?
Regardless, you'd think it'd be a lot harder to do on this team.

[Compton310]

We had are 3rd an 4th string PGs on the court at the same damn time. Ball game.... An pau is worthless now it's time to cut are looses

[b shaw20]

Is funny when everytime you lose, blame Pau, I wonder if he have been guarding Salmons, Evans and Thornton... Cause obviously, as Metta and Kobe are such great defenders...

Yup, I agree.

The guards have to hold themselves accountable for letting some of these guys blow by them at will. But our bigs have to own the paint without help. Our defense overall was just too lazy and we never made a consertive effort to get some stops. On offense, our bigs could not will themselves into the game to make an imprint on this game even with Cuz on the bench with foul trouble. OK, so D12 was being doubled but that should never be an excuse to make him dissappear like this. Get him looks with Kobe on PnR, some looks with movement towards the basket. Something more than tonights effort.

I am not denying it, Pau was weak tonight. But with a full roster he will be our new Lamar, in that anything we get from him will be gravy. We will not depend on him to put up 20/10 for us to win. Imo, he is way too good to become the scapegoat on this team. But he has to will himself into tough games like tonight, stfu and man up.

Its very dissaponting to lose this one.

Anyways, hope everyone a good thxgvn holiday.

[Stebo_SSK]

You guys overreact to every loss. Pau played great against the Nets and everyone was on hush mouth.

I wasn't. He was getting blown by constantly by Brook Lopez who isn't much of a faceup player or known for his quick step. I'm thinking long term here. I don't care too much about the regular season, hell the lakers can still win 50-60 games with hm being a major piece. But this has been a problem since 2011 and his defense has gotten worse. The opposition continues to target him for the pnr and won't stop. He either has to be traded or moved to the bench. If Nash stays healthy and mwp continues to shoot decently then he isn't needed in the starting line up & he'll help boost the bench, solve at least some of the defensive woes and insert more athleticism in the starting line up. Everybody wins.

He got blown by one damn time man and give Brook some credit for being a good offensive player. The rest of brooks points were mid range jumpers and dump offs. Lets not act like its a crime for a good player to score on another. Now if Reggie Evans had a good offensive game then that would be a different story.

[semi-sentient]

He got blown by several times. There's no need to defend Gasol's defense because it's been downright awful this year.

Having said that, our guards have gotten roasted all season as well. Kobe can't keep anyone in front of him and gives up entirely too much space to shooters. Hell he directly cost us a game because he wasn't playing defense (Spurs). He's been a large part of the problem. Howard, Metta, and Morris are the only players who have played above average defense this year.

Last nights loss has to be on a) our bench losing momentum early on and not playing any sort of defense and b) our bigs being ineffective on offense while also not rebounding the ball particularly well. Dwight did a horrible job of establishing post position and that's why he didn't get more touches. Credit Cousins for playing him extremely well. Pau missed a lot wide open shots that he should be knocking down, and defensively he's just about useless as a help defender. Several times guards got into the paint for a layup when Pau was in position to contest. As usual they blow right by and get uncontested shots at the rim. Turnovers were obviously a problem but our overall execution on both ends stunk.

[GAME TIME]

Teams have been targeting Pau for a while now. No hyperbole but he's one of the worst help defenders in the league right now. He needs to be traded or moved to the bench. Hill is a much better fit in the starting lineup. When Nash comes back they'll be more than enough offense that Pau wouldn't be needed.

This is true. Gasol effort is not there in help defense. Gasol is always looking at his teammates when the opposing team scores an easy layup. Howard is the best help defender in the game, but Gasol leaves his guy all alone, he needs to back up his teammates there. It's frustrating to watch him try to put the blame on his team mates for his miscues.

Eventhough Gasol isn't playing to the ability of a few years ago, with the money he is receiving, one will wonder if the Lakres FO will trade him, for not playing up to his contract.

I'm not sure if Josh Smith is the answer, hopefully they would get a nice role player with him. I'm sure though if Josh Smith is a laker, Lakerland will be all over on him too, like Gasol, but in different aspects of his play with his shooting and lack up post up game or lower iq plays.

I think everyone is hoping for the old Gasol to come back for just one more run, but does he have the legs in him to do it and mental confidence, we shall see.

[desertlakerfan]

Im going to keep saying it since it keeps killing us.

Whenever we trot out the lineup of Duhon, Meeks, Jamison, Hill and Howard/Gasol we have no one on the court with the ability to create shots for others. Not having a shot creator makes our offense very predictable and easy to defend, and causes us to lose leads or give up large runs. We need to have one of Kobe or Morris(sad that they are the only two who can dribble and create for others right now) on the court at all times. This will be less of a problem whenever Nash gets back, and hopefully not a issue at all if D'antoni keeps Morris as the backup PG instead of Blake who also can't create for others.