Chalking up the loss now: What's up, Lakers!?!

Tonight the Los Angeles Lakers head to the World Famous Madison Square Garden.  Even when the Knicks were terrible, and even during the 3-5 seasons of disappointing Laker basketball in my 30 years, MSG games were always something different and something to feel excited about.  NY vs. LA.  The established primary US city vs. the city that continues to erode the primary city's importance.  East vs. West.  Biggie vs. Tupac.  Tonight's game feels much different.

Forget the fact that the Knicks are undefeated at home this year.  Forget the fact that D'Antoni is heading in to coach his first game against his former team.  Forget the fact that two future Hall of Famers are not playing.  After all, this isn't about playing against a hot team, isn't about taking time to implement an offense, and isn't about a lack of chemistry on the offensive end or of offensive production components.  We can look back at various stretches of the 2003-04 season to draw comparisons, and at no point did the Lakers look as lifeless and beatable as they do right now.

The game isn't until 5 on the West Coast tonight, but I'm already recouping from what will be the Lakers' fourth straight loss.  Of course I'm still going to tune in and hope that they actually show up and play, but I also try to be a realist.  There is no heart, and no fight in this team (exemption, Kobe), and they are absolutely going to miss the playoffs at this rate.  With four future Hall of Fame first-ballot inductees.

It's gut check time, Lakers.  I know fans are giving you the excuse of blaming the front office, but I don't buy the whole notion of pigeon-holing a professional basketball coach into a single, monochromatic style.  Phil and Jerry are exceptions, not the rule, so a Mike D'Antoni team can play defense.  Any other excuse is complete B.S. and needs to be treated as such.  Better defense leads to run-and-gun offense, so the two can absolutely compliment each other.  Maybe we run Shell Drill all damn practice to drive the point home, but the latest disappointment in Cleveland clearly shows that it's time for everyone in the locker room to have a long look in the mirror and ask themselves what they are doing to earn their paycheck.  Mitch has done plenty, so don't let him (and the rest of us) down.

Take Your Eye off the Throne: This is Laker-Town!

Last night, the highly re-tooled Lakers got a pre-season smack-down from the immensely upgraded Clippers.  I've heard the reactions, the lamentations on the Lakers and the growing expectations of a young Clipper team.  I've heard the assertions that the Clippers are now the best team in town, and that the Lakers have fallen off dramatically.

Please.

Did anyone not see the raw awesomeness that was Darrius Morris last night?  No, just me?  If Derek Fisher is to maximize his utility this year, it's going to be in taking this kid under his wing and teaching him how to run The Show.

Was nobody else impressed by some of the Josh McRoberts flashes of genius?  Feel free to disagree, and maybe I'm just making a Dukie comparison, but I put J McBob on the same "basketball intelligence" level as Grant Hill and Shane Battier.

I was distraught over the loss of my favorite Laker since Nick Van Exel.  I was so excited in the summer of 2004 that I barely noticed Shaq left (hyperbole, but you get my point)  Lamar left a huge hole that isn't easily filled on the Lakers roster, and in fact it's going to take two white boys to attempt the feat.  But if any duo could fill Lamar's shoes, J McBob and Troy Murphy are the two to make it happen.

Yes, Kobe looked old and slow.  Yes, Pau looked soft.  No, Andrew did not look in shape.  Yes, MWP looks worthless on the offensive side of the court.

This is pre-season, folks.

And yes, Chris Paul was magnificent last night, and DeAndre Jordan simply owned the paint.  Blake Griffin looked solid, and the Chauncy Billups pickup looks like a steal right now.

But to the highly trained basketball eye, what did you really notice with a view from the rafters?  The Clippers certainly will put up some SportsCenter highlights this year, because they are a talented, highly athletic team.  Teams like that win games when a) other teams get caught up and try to play like them. b) other teams forget to focus on defense c) other teams are both less athletic and less disciplined.  The Lakers were guilty of both b and c last night, and consequently had the table run on them.

But the intelligence of The Show's new 4's, the speedy PG we finally have in Darrius Morris, the strength of Bynum, the finesse of Pau, and the linchpin of the Mamba will not let us fans down.  True, the path to June is not as clear this year as it had been in years past, but let's not overreact before the games even count.

Ben Rosales (@brosales12), a contributor to the Silver Screen and Roll (SSR) blog probably had the best insight to adjustments regarding last night's game, other than Mike Brown's obvious assessment that the defense needs to be stepped up (don't worry, Mike, cohesion and discipline will fix that).  Ben beat me to the tweet, noting that Mike Brown should keep Pau at the high post as much as humanly possible this season, with Drew down low.  Methinks the high-low game will work well with the Lakers' lineup, and encourage more ball movement than the triangle did.

So yes, the Lakers got smacked last night.  It happens.  But the bandwagon is barely out of the garage and people are suiting up in their red and blue to jump on it.  Feel free, but I'm going to continue driving my purp-n-yellow double-dutch bus even if people hop off because the road ahead looks rough.

GO LAKERS!
I BELIEVE

Coming Unglued: This isn't the 1987 Lakers

I've tried my best over the past week to keep quiet, projectile retweets notwithstanding.  I've tried to withold judgement on the status of the Lakers' shortened free-agent season, but as much as Magic Johnson has been urging us all to keep patient and have faith in the Lakers' front office, I think I've run out of mine at this point.

It's enough that the rumors of a blockbuster Chris Paul-to-LA trade leaked to the media and consequently all NBA fans, creating a huge frenzy, let alone the spin put on the failed negotiations that the League office vetoed the trade at the behest of crying owners such as Cuban and Gilbert.

But to add to the failed CP3 trade, letting Lamar Odom go for nothing?  I'm sorry, but a draft pick is useless to a team like the Lakers.  And to let him go to Dallas, who swept us out of the playoffs last year, and whose owner cried at the mere mention of Paul going to the Lakers, was just wrong.  I've waited for the other shoe to drop, waited for the larger picture to come into focus, but nothing has changed.  The Lakers dropped their best all-around player out of fear, and got nothing in return.  Dr.  Buss wouldn't let this happen, if he was in good health.

Then, to replace the sixth man of the year, one of the most versatile players of this generation, with Josh McRoberts?  Really?  Hey Mitch/Jimmy, WE STILL NEED A SPEEDY POINT GUARD WHO CAN PLAY DEFENSE!  Josh Mc Roberts.  Come on!  This move rivals the multi-year contract gifted to Luke Walton a few years back, as far as bad business decisions go.

This current Lakers squad is nothing like the 1987 squad that people thought was over-the-hill.  Kareem was still better than Pau and Bynum combined at age 38; let's not forget that this man is arguably the best big man of all time, and holds the NBA career scoring record.  And in 1987, Magic Johnson was in the prime of his career, aided by James Worthy and all-defensive team perennial Michael Cooper.  Please, when you think of how stacked the 1987 Lakers were, it makes you want to find those nay-sayers from 25 years ago and heckle them all over again.  But this 2012 squad is truly aging and fragile, and in need of some serious re-tooling.

But now that Chris Paul has officially been traded to the Clips, and Dwight Howard is seemingly off the market, the big moves that the Lakers were supposed to make this offseason seem like nothing more than big dreams.  This time last week, CP3 and Superman were coming to play for the greatest franchise in the NBA; this week that same franchise is setting up for implosion in this lockout-shortened season.

But hey, maybe this means tickets on Stubhub will be cheap and I can get to a few more games this year!  There's always a silver lining, right?