Dwight Howard urges the Los Angeles Lakers to hang tough – NBA Update
When Dwight Howard forced his way from Orlando Magic to the Los Angeles Lakers this summer, he expected to be the part of a team which would just roll opponents and be the most formidable contender for the NBA championship, something
he has not won in his 8 year career.
The situation has however turned out to be the complete opposite. The Lakers started off by losing all their pre-season games, and were 1-4 into the season when Mike Brown got fired. Bernie Bickerstaff saw a stable interim period
for a while, but ever since Mike D’Antoni took over, the most successful team of the last decade, has been on a downward spiral. Things got worse on Tuesday night, when the Lakers dropped their 8th of last 11 against the Cleveland Cavaliers who
came into the game with a 4-17 record.
The loss drew out an exasperated response from team leader Kobe Bryant, but Dwight Howard, the man who is slated to carry the franchise into the future, had a more measured approach and urged his team mates to slug out the tough
phase.
"We have to stop the bleeding -- somehow," said Howard, who scored 19 points and hauled down 20 rebounds in the game. "We can't let this kill our spirits too much. This is tough on all of us right now.”
"We want to win. We're sick of losing. We all understand that situations like this don't last forever. We've got to stay focused and stay strong," he said. "We can't let this break who we are as a team. We talk about it every day.”
Part of the problem in the last few games has been Dwight’s inability to make free throws on a consistent basis. Opponents have now made it a habit to hack and force him to the stripe, and even in tonight’s loss, he missed 9 of
22 shots from the line. That however is just a part of the problem, not the problem itself. The Lakers have just not been able to portray the energy and intensity required to win games, and it has more to do with mental aspect of things than the skills and
the talent level of the players.
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