Via Larry Brown Sports:
The Los Angeles Lakers lost on Wednesday night — again. This time, it was the San Antonio Spurs that added to L.A.’s losing streak, which currently sits at five games. As the new head coach who is supposed to turn his talented roster into a championship contender, Mike D’Antoni is under a tremendous amount of pressure. Perhaps even too much.
“At least they put my (hotel) room on the third floor, so if I did jump I would just hurt my ankle a little bit,” D’Antoni said Wednesday night, via the LA Times.
The Lakers are doing plenty of scoring. Kobe Bryant is averaging over 30 points per game. Steve Nash has averaged over 10 assists per game during the losing streak and the team has scored 100 or more points in 18 of its last 20 games. Their defense, on the other hand, has been abysmal.
With a record of 15-20, it won’t be long before L.A. fans have to start wondering if their team is in danger of missing the playoffs. It may only be January, but the pressure continues to build as the losses pile up. And if the team wasn’t struggling enough when healthy, Dwight Howard has missed the last two games with a shoulder injury.
Most NBA fans thought this Lakers team would be fun to watch, but they thought that fun would come in the form of blowout victories — not gross incidents involving towels. If D’Antoni can’t get his team to figure out how to stop opponents from scoring on every possession, L.A.’s season could be ending early.
Original Story:
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January 10, 2013
