Los Angeles Lakers head coach Mike D'Antoni resorted to some brutal—if overly dramatic and somewhat misdirected—honesty after his team's embarrassing loss to the Washington Wizards on March 22, and even though the tirade came off like some kind of desperate spectacle, a little bit of frank talk might be the only way for the Lakers to finally come together.
After all, they've tried just about everything else.
Lineup tinkering didn't work. Neither did shifting Kobe Bryant into the role of the facilitator while taking Steve Nash away from the ball.
Sure, some of the tweaks have shown temporary benefits. But the Lakers now seem to be right back where they started: losing games they shouldn't and searching for answers.
The reasons for L.A.'s cyclical rises and falls this season are pretty simple, and D'Antoni pegged them in his over-the-top rant: L.A doesn't defend with purpose and Bryant's penchant for "Hero Ball" keeps cropping up at the worst times.
Per Dave McMenamin of ESPN, D'Antoni said:
What happened was we didn't play hard enough. We think we can just figure stuff out. Trevor Ariza's got ...
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Article written by Grant Hughes
L.A. Lakers Can Only Come Together with Brutal Honesty
March 23rd, 2013 by Grant Hughes Leave a reply »
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