The Lakers lost their third in a row, this time to the Pacers. However, it is not a fluke. The Pacers are starting to become something more than a nice story with a nice coach who came out of nowhere to get that job and do it well.
Roy Hibbert looks a bit different, he’s refined his game somewhat, and he was able to handle Gasol and Bynum last night. Remember when we thought that the Pacers were silly for trusting their franchise to Tyler Hansbrough? Yeah. They weren’t doing that. They were waiting for something better and hoping Hansbrough would be a nice get. Roy Hibbert is turning out to be a force on the inside.
In fact, there was a series of events that featured Hibbert hurting himself, Hansbrough replacing him, shooting 0%, and then Hibbert came back in and the team improved.
If the Lakers lose three in a row, what does that mean? Yeah, they ran into a team that is going to keep getting better over the course of the season, but are they having bigger problems?
Let’s look at it. They had to move Lamar Odom. Then they had to deal with, and are still dealing with, the Bynum for Howard mess. Maybe Gasol has to get traded too? There must be some kind of locker room issues.
We know that Bynum has had his problems. Gasol probably isn’t enjoying this (especially since he almost became a Rocket anyways,) and the rest of the team is probably watching Kobe in awe as he tries to do too much. That’s what happens when the Lakers start playing poorly.
We could blame it on Mike Brown, but it isn’t his fault. This team needs to be put back together, the mental problems need to be handled, and the uncertainty needs to be made to leave the building before this gets worse.
