Los Angeles Lakers: Disaster Looms After Just One Night

Some of us knew it would be bad for the Los Angeles Lakers on opening night.  Some of us figured the location, reminder of who’s returning, and young aggressiveness would give the Lakers a chance for just one game.

James Harden and the Houston Rockets had something completely different in mind when they entered Staples Center on Tuesday.  It was the grand finale of the three games featured on NBA opening night, and it was the least impressive, least intriguing battle.

Early on, Byron Scott’s offense wasn’t clicking one bit, with a load of bad shot opportunities, poor drives by Jeremy Lin, and a foul-fest on Houston’s bigs.  The lack of easy looks at the rim was largely due to Howard seeking out to send a message.  With Hakeem Olajuwon in his corner this season on him deserving MVP votes by the end of the year, Howard wants to exterminate the rest of the league when they test him in the middle.  It’s always been his goal since entering from high school, but he’s never been this serious about it.

Moreover, when he touches the ball in the deep post, a hack seems to be coming 80 percent of the time.  He’s in wonderful position to get back on the All-NBA First Team selection, if the free throws can take a turn for the better.  Howard missed nine freebies in the opener, taking 16 attempts from the line.  It’s inconceivable how one can be so poor from the line with a decade of experience.

Los Angeles’ defense wasn’t complementing their scoring, by any means.  Allowing 62 points in a half is laughable, especially when you can’t manage to break 30 on your own in a single quarter.

Why was Mike D’Antoni even a little bit successful in some of the games he coached?  If you can’t stop a 5-year-old from scoring at will — because your defense is repulsive — you might as well try to out-score everyone you play.

This 2014-15 Lakers roster, even with Kobe Bryant, can do neither.  That’s why, in some ways, they can be even worse than last year’s 27-55 disaster.

While the scoring disparity was large in many ways during the 18-point blowout, it will continue to be horrid in one particular area.  If you know Byron Scott and his old-fashioned, archaic style of coaching, you’re aware that he doesn’t enjoy a ton of long-range attempts.

The jury is still out on how he’ll mold the offense, but all preseason and opening night indications prove that Los Angeles won’t take an unhealthy amount of 3-pointers.  Well, for their sake, it’s unhealthy if they keep this mentality.  We understand there’s barely a couple shooters on the roster that can spread the floor effectively, but creating better opportunities from the outside is the answer to them knocking some down — not eliminating that aspect from the game.

Kevin McHale had the Rockets taking 26.6 outside bombs per game last season, ranking them first overall to Atlanta.  Los Angeles hovered around seventh overall during the year, shooting just under 25 per night.  In last night’s debacle, Houston launched 19 more triples than the Lakers, who took just 10 for the evening.

10.  They connected on three.

When you consider Houston out-scored the Lakers 36-9 just on 3-pointers alone, it gets flustering.  The Rockets have found their balance with the inside and outside game, and the Lakers may never find that this season, with their current coach.  In proportions, Houston’s 3-point attempts (29) took up 39.7 percent of their overall shots.  For Los Angeles, it turned out to be just 12.7 percent.  You aren’t going to win games when less than 15 percent of your field goal attempts are from the outside.  87.3 percent of your offensive looks coming from mid-range and interior scoring is rarely a great sign.  Sometimes, it’s the “more efficient” mentality that gets you believing it could work, but leads get out of hand incredibly too easy in the NBA with that style.

The league has evolved from the time Byron Scott used to suit up and run with Magic Johnson.  If he doesn’t accept that, or if Jim Buss doesn’t search for shooters to surround Kobe Bryant with, 10 wins seems hard to come by in the first two months.

The on-court performance for the first three quarters actually took a backseat to what happened in the fourth, even if it was still a blowout.

Fun, Not-so-Friendly Feuding

With just over seven minutes left in the fourth, Bryant decided to aggressively challenge Dwight Howard in the backcourt.  Upon a defensive rebound by Howard, Bryant tried to disrupt any outlet pass, or hand-off by giving the big man absolutely no space to breathe.

Howard took it upon himself to clear room, and did so by throwing a couple elbows in Bryant’s direction.  Since there’s a six-inch difference in their heights, it was extremely easy for Howard to connect his elbows with Bryant’s face, and it caused a short temper tantrum from the two.

Bryant, not flinching at any of the elbow swings, just slowly walked up to Howard and let his facial expression make the first comments.  Howard found it humorous, trying to answer back with laughter.  “I know you, dog,” is what Howard appeared to be saying multiple times.

The 19-year veteran didn’t find anything amusing with it, replying back numerous times with “Try me.”

As the teams went back to their benches so the referees could line out what penalties to give each, Bryant was spotted looking over to Howard from across the court, yelling “Soft.”

All of it seemed a bit childish, but it’s the direct result of over-flowing emotions, lasting from two seasons ago.  As you should recall, Howard and Bryant were teammates for one full season, which ended up being the most under-performing team in NBA history, if you want to put a measure on it.  Expected to be a top two seed in the West, along with Metta World Peace claiming “73 wins” were in store for them, those 2012-13 Lakers made their way into the playoffs on the very last night of the season.

Most of that could be credited to the massive injury bug to Pau Gasol, Steve Nash, and even World Peace, but most of it had to rest on the displeasure between the Lakers’ two superstars at the time.  Howard wasn’t thrilled with being a clean-up guy to Bryant’s 20.4 shots per night.  On the other hand, Bryant felt that it was the only way the Lakers would reach the postseason if he took command every night down the stretch of the calendar.

Bryant’s 30.5 points, 7.5 assists, 7.0 rebounds, and 45.2 minutes per game in April 2013 were the only reason they climbed into the hunt with Houston for the last seed.  Dwight played well, too, but it was a six-game stretch that was purely reliant on Kobe’s “playoff guarantee.”

Following that stretch, Bryant ruptured his Achilles tendon, and Howard found it much harder to win a single game in the first round series, vs. San Antonio.  There, the emotion finally boiled over for Howard, and he left the City of Angels for H-town.

Last night, it was finally time for Bryant to let off a little of his steam towards Howard.  That’s all the scuffle was.  Nothing else should be made of it.

When asked about the skirmish, and if Bryant genuinely disliked Howard as a person (or player), the response was certainly sardonic.

“He’s a teddy bear,” Bryant said.  “You can’t help but like him.  I really mean that.  He’s a really nice kid.  But, when you’re competing, and you have a goal in mind, certain times we don’t see eye to eye.”

Do any of us really think he’s telling the truth about how he “likes” Howard?  Surely not.  In some ways, Howard is the sole reason why Los Angeles doesn’t have the ability to reach the postseason now.  Of course there are millions of other factors that go into building a team, but with the most dominant big man in the sport re-signing with the Lakers in summer 2013, Kobe’s job would be far easier than it is now.

The two are polar opposites in terms of personalities and approach to the game.  For the sake of their sanity, it’s a blessing they’re no longer teammates.  There’s still two more of these wars we’ll get to document, as they collide again on Nov. 19 and Jan. 25.  Remember to get a good viewing snack for those.

Rookie Pitfall

Directly after Bryant and Howard tangled together, rookie Julius Randle suffered the shock of his lifetime, and early basketball career.

Driving strong to the right-hand side, Randle exploded off the ground and was testing the Rockets’ bigs in the air.  As soon as he lifted off the ground, his right leg just gave out.  At first, you would’ve thought he just kicked his leg with his left foot, but you began to notice he hurt it on the lift once you slowed down the film.

Laying near the goal’s stanchion in worrisome pain, the entire Lakers roster gathered around the 19-year-old, concerned that this could’ve been another Paul George situation … heaven forbid.

As trainer Gary Vitti expressed to the sideline reporters, Randle was believed to suffer a broken right leg.  That was the initial diagnosis, without any x-rays or even a trip back to the locker room.

Once Randle was taken out on a stretcher and sent to the emergency room, everyone was told during post-game that Randle was faced with a fractured right tibia.

Nobody is certain of the recovery details and timetable, but that’s the last thing people should be worried about at this point in time.  It’s always amazing how many folks are quick to focus on the “When will he be back?” and completely forget that this is a young kid who just had his dream partly shattered.  There should be no question of when he’ll return, because Randle is likely missing the entire 2014-15 season.  You don’t automatically let these major broken bones heal and come back to the court when it’s healthy again.

You have to go through rigorous training to get back into the shape you want to be in, and develop even more basketball skills that allow you to be comfortable again.  Remember, he’ll be laying off his leg for the next few weeks, maybe longer than a month.  Weight gaining is something tough to avoid when you’re inactive for months at a time, and Bryant even went through the same thing.

There’s no better mentors for Randle at this point with lower leg injuries than Bryant and Paul George, who suffered a compound fracture on August 1.  Between talking with those two and learning all the nuances of the recovery processes and how your demeanor should be, he’ll be in bullish condition moving forward.

As for the Lakers as a team, this loss pounds their faces deeper into the dirt.  It’s now asking for for meaningful contributions from Robert Sacre, Ed Davis, and Ryan Kelly (after his hamstring recovery).  The fact that there was no competent depth coming into opening night was a serious problem.

Serious just turned into a calamity.

Upon returning, Kelly will be the best floor-stretcher Byron Scott has to implement, but we all know how hamstring injuries work.  Ask Jordan Farmar last year, who was a former Laker.  They can re-occur in a heartbeat.  The only member of the second unit’s frontcourt that is capable of making huge impacts in the paint is Davis, who now becomes the most energetic piece of the big men.

That title used to belong to Randle, who now has to wait a prolonged time before he can be “the next Kobe Bryant.”

Devastating injuries need to keep away from Hollywood.  This team can’t take much more.  The bottom is about to fall out, already.