Below is the column I wrote from the Pistons-Lakers game; it will be posted later on the Web site and run in the Sunday paper, but here’s a first look:
LOS ANGELES – There were a lot of big-headed Lakers trying to play one-on-one basketball Friday night, so the Lakers got what they deserved: their perfect season ruined.
Here’s what could be far worse for them as this all plays out: Lamar Odom, the guy who started training camp griping about his individual place on the team, left Staples Center with renewed strain in his relationship with Lakers coach Phil Jackson.
Upon being yanked from the game by Jackson with 4:30 to play after committing consecutive frustration fouls, Odom reached the bench and gave a quick, dismissive wave with his left hand in Jackson’s direction. Odom immediately began unwinding the tape from his wrist and spent the rest of the game sulking, slumped back in his chair even when every other teammate on the bench leaned forward with hope during a brief Kobe Bryant-led Lakers surge.
Afterward, the usually genial Odom was clearly disturbed – stepping all over Patrick O’Neal’s questions to rush through a Fox Sports interview, turning his back to the camera before it was over. Odom then delivered more clipped responses to other reporters before speed-walking away.
Despite having success in the post against Detroit’s Tayshaun Prince in the second quarter, Odom played 20:08 – his least playing time in any game this season or last.
Odom balked initially at the start of training camp in light of Jackson’s desire to take away his starting job in the final year of his contract. Once Jackson did shift Odom to the bench, the coach made Odom the first Laker off the bench, consistently replacing either Andrew Bynum or Pau Gasol midway through the first and third quarters.
But Wednesday night in New Orleans, Odom didn’t enter the game until later in the first and third quarters. And Friday night against Detroit, it went back further: Odom didn’t come in until 2:34 remained in the first. He didn’t come in until 1:49 remained in the third (even though Trevor Ariza entered with 6:20 on the clock).
Odom actually made all five shots he took from the field, although one unforced turnover with a minute left in the third quarter and the Lakers down by 10 points was an egregious error. Odom was mostly on the bench while other Lakers – particularly Bryant, Derek Fisher, Jordan Farmar, Gasol and Vladimir Radmanovic – looked too early and often to attack through individual offense instead of through the pass.
And when Odom watched Gasol toss up a missed shot after another solo foray with 5:09 to play and Detroit ahead, 89-71. Odom immediately ran and committed an obvious backcourt foul on Detroit’s Rasheed Wallace – and because the Lakers were beyond the five-foul penalty limit for the quarter, Wallace got to walk down and make two free throws for a 91-71 lead. Less than a minute later, Odom fouled Wallace in the backcourt again after a Lakers miss, Wallace went to make two more free throws, and Jackson gave Odom the hook.
After the game Jackson went out of his way to bring up with reporters “fouling out of frustration in situations that were unnecessary and put them on the foul line” as one of the “things we can learn from.”
And when answering a question about Prince, Jackson said: “I thought Lamar played well against him at the (offensive) end of the floor. He was effective. But Lamar got frustrated out there a little bit in the fourth quarter.”
Asked about Odom’s minutes being down, Jackson answered cryptically: “Matchups and rhythm of our offense – just doing the right thing out there and creating the right spacing – I thought we misplayed a lot of those situations.”
Odom didn’t have much to say in his comments.
“We didn’t take good shots as a team,” he said. “We didn’t do nothing good as a team.”
The truth of it is that other Lakers were far more responsible for this first loss than Odom. At emotional heart, Odom is a team player who will eventually tap back into his light, affable spirit. Nevertheless, he does have a history of detaching himself when things go bad.
And besides suffering injuries, nothing ranks higher on the to-don’t list for the Lakers this season than what befell this deep, skilled team Friday night: individualism.
It’s Farmar’s little-man complex emerging once Iverson bested him a couple of times. It’s Radmanovic feeling as if he deserved to go right down and jack up a 3-point shot after looking bad on Prince’s dunk that happened because Bynum didn’t properly help when Radmanovic funneled Prince toward him. It’s especially a frustrated Odom losing trust in his teammates and his coach.
Champions respond to adversity by using it to come together. From the Lakers’ first defeat of the season, though, Odom walked away wholly alone.
i don’t like what you are saying kevin. i agree with you, watching the game, i was mad at how kobe, fisher, jordan and several other were playing. at lamar i was mad at how he was mad and just made horrible misstakes.
i think the tone was set by kobe and fisher, the 2 leaders were very selfish, i mean 46 shots in between them and horrible shooting %. i don’t understand what were they trying to prove last night?
unless phil had something to do with them losing this game to see how they responded.
andrew and pau looked scared out there, with kwame and rasheed. we go back to the boston serious, if they don’t change that, the same result will happen. they’ll win the west and get destroyed by an east team. be it, the cavs, the celtics or the pistons.
ego might be the worst enemy of this team. that would be a shame.
maybe that’s what phil wants, did you read the comments shaq made?
that phil was responsible for all the fights shaq and kobe had. that phil never took them into a room and told them to get their act together and cut it out. he said that phil manipulated them and knew shaq would respond and kobe would play his hardest.
the problem is this team is not a team to play mind games with.
sorry for the misspells, it’s still early for me….
it’s: others, mistakes, series
Kobe shoots too much. He needs to involve his team mates. Too much individual plays by Kobe causes a loss of continuity in both offense and defense - his team mates would be standing around instead of playing. Kobe, watch the tapes of Magic on how to involve team mates. Better yet, ask Magic to teach you.