0-2 never felt more like 0-10. Maybe because that’s what the Lakers are so far for this season. Idiots like me were saying the 0-8 preseason meant nothing. Well, turns out the preseason Lakers were pretty much a preview of the regular season Lakers.
Tonight the Lake Show authored an authentic Halloween Horror show in losing 116-106 in Portland.
Jaime Valdez-US PRESSWIRE
There were even more of those terrible turnovers, 24 in all. Plenty of disastrous defense as the Blazers shot 51% as a team.
And the most terrifying sight of all – Steve Nash leaving the game due to injury.
In the second quarter Nash bumped into Blazers stud rookie Damian Lillard. The end result would leave Nash limping before exiting shortly after the second half started. No official word yet on Nash but even when he was in the game it mattered little.
Lillard ate up the Lakers dropping 23 and 11 dimes in his NBA debut. We knew Nash was never going to be a defensive presence so let’s just reacquaint ourselves with every point guard in the league killing the Lakers.
What we did expect from Nash has yet to arrive. Though his night was cut short Nash did little in his 16 minutes on the court.
Even with Nash out of action the Lakers had this game within reach late in the third. L.A. went on a run to cut Portland’s lead to three with just over two minutes to play. Then disaster struck as the Lakers turned the ball over in every way possible, played no defense and committed silly fouls allowing the Blazers to go on 13-0 run that effectively ended the game.
The real frustration is that Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard both dropped 30+ with Pau Gasol chipping in with another 16. How this team can lose when their top three players are producing like this is beyond frustrating. It’s nearly impossible to explain.
Then again, when the Blazers are getting open looks, easy paths to the bucket and dunks in transition then it doesn’t matter what anybody is doing on offense for the Lakers.
Two games in and the clouds of doom are forming. Could Nash be a victim of the Karl Malone curse? We all know what happened to Malone’s status of being injury free until he put on a purple and gold jersey.
Is this team just going through growing pains or is this the type of effort we’re going to get more often than not? We’ve got way too many questions piling up with very few answers coming. The next test is Friday as the first Battle of Los Angeles headlines at Staples. With Halloween in the rearview the hope is that the Lakers take off their costumes and start playing like team we all expected.