The whipping boy for everything that went wrong, Mike D’antoni was purged from the Lakers organization like he was a moldy virus. The emotion overwhelmed the logic: getting rid of D’antoni would reverse the ills of a team that could not rebound or defend. They could score, yes, but the basic basketball principle everyone learns in high school of keeping others from scoring was simply lost on D’antoni. His style was tolerated, barely, the D’antoni way of pushing the ball, moving it, getting behind the three point line and jacking shots up. On some nights it was an entertaining product. And on some nights it was the ugliest, most depressing thing going.
Oct 9, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward Wesley Johnson (11) defends against Golden State Warriors forward Harrison Barnes (40) during the first half at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports
This latest version of the Lakers are the same melancholic bunch in much the same way except they make your eyes water. No entertainment factor. No glitz. Their intensity is like a days old corpse. They can’t consistently make three point shots or two point shots or finish at the rim. How is Wesley Johnson any different than last year? The open layup he missed against Golden State happened a dozen times last year. Jordan Hill getting beaten by taller and more athletic centers is so routine it’s a blurry image. The question that bears asking is one of intention. If the results are the same as last year, what was the point in getting rid of Mike D’antoni? Besides public relations.
On the face of it, the Lakers have taken a terrible idea and slapped it across their chests: go down memory lane as way to recreate the past, then spin it into a golden rule, the one about nostalgia and how things used to be. We’re not talking about a long period of time here. The Lakers won the title 4 years ago. The Warriors won the title 40 years ago. So taking a breath is required even as overreaction is the staple of sports these days. One game or one performance is exaggerated to the point of suffocation and so perspective is necessary in the pre-season.
However, these past two games against Golden State have been noteworthy and eye opening to the dreamers, shattering any illusion that the Lakers have the talent on the floor to be able to stay in games when faced with hyper athletic shooters. In mirror images of themselves, Golden State came into these two games with a mission to beat up on the old, weary team that has ruined so many of their seasons. The Warriors are not approaching this like a pre-season match up. It felt like they were fighting to save their souls. Steve Kerr has them ferociously defending and passing the ball so someone will always be open. The Warriors are smug about it, delighting in the Lakers mediocrity, kicking the old dog and then joking about it to all of their friends.
Oct 9, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) passes against Golden State Warriors guard Brandon Rush (4) during the first half at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports
This is the truth: when faced with speed and explosion the Lakers are worn down by the athleticism the same way a Toyota is worn down by the torque of a Ferrari. There is nothing much to fall back on here. The Lakers have two natural offensive players, Nick Young and Kobe Bryant. They have no innate defensive players. When faced with stress you submerge into your habits, into your mental recesses of how to win fights. But how exactly does a team fight when they are still in teaching mode?
It is a paradox. The Lakers only way to compete is with Kobe initiating the offense. But with Kobe initiating the offense, without finishers, without three point shooters, there are a lot of missed shots, missed rebounds, fast breaks and 5 point leads that turn into 30 point blow outs.
Last year the Lakers played Golden State in the pre-season but Mark Jackson was conservative with Steph Curry’s minutes. The Lakers split the two games. Enter Steve Kerr. He has the Warriors full throttle. They are an offensive perimeter machine and their defense has improved.
Which brings us back to the subject of Mike D’antoni, the man every Lakers die hard wants to hate. You know his smug I-told-you-so expression is etched on his face right about now as he is sitting on his couch watching the debacle of the Lakers against the Warriors. D’antoni’s illusions of grandeur, of how things would be different if he was still coaching Los Angeles, are smothered in what he did last year to make it possible for the Lakers to post their worst record in Los Angeles Lakers history.
So despite his glee at the Lakers further descent, Mike D’antoni is not exonerated, not really. The worst of his crimes are still in the history books. D’antoni was not talented enough to coach in the Lakers organization. That’s a talking point that is true but six months later its residue is a sad memory. The guts of the argument is not that D’antoni was not Phil Jackson, was not a winner, was not the right person for a championship organization. That’s old news. The point is this: the talent D’antoni had to work with was on the level of teams that play in Minnesota. Same goes for Byron Scott.
In a twist of irony, Byron Scott is looking at the same images that plagued D’antoni all of last year though the lens is somewhat different. Byron Scott is a local kid who made a career for himself. He won titles and was celebrated so he will evade the Mike D’antoni effigy burning.
Ships pass each other in the night and ships guide themselves through collisions. Or try to. In that Byron Scott and Mike D’antoni have something in common, even as one is somber while the other is smiling. They still know the truth of this Lakers job and they both know how suffering feels.