61 replies to this topic

[iDreamShake]

ANTONI DOESNT EFFINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG PRACTICE DEFENSE

Dwight Howard is Right to Criticize Lakers, Mike D'Antoni for Lack of Defensive Focus

Riding a wave of momentum, the Lakers came out flat and spoiled a five game winning streak by losing on the road to the Denver Nuggets, 114-126, and in turn dropping to 14-15 overall.

If it didn't pop out at you, take another gander at that final score. Those season high 126 points allowed came in just 48 minutes of play. There was no overtime, nor something like a 50 point explosion from the likes of Andre Iguodala or Danilo Gallinari. Instead, six Nuggets hit double digits, with Corey Brewer leading the way off the bench with a career high 27 points, and the Nuggets shot 45-94 (48%) from the field, and 12-22 (55%) from downtown.

126 points allowed is just unacceptable.

Prior to Howard's ejection, the Nuggets scored 21 points in the third quarter. Following his ejection, the Nuggets closed the quarter with another 18 points for a total of 38. For the quarter, the Nuggets shot 11-19 (58%) from the field, including 5-8 (63%) from deep.

Following the game, defense was a main theme from the post-game reporters.

Coach D'Antoni was the first to respond. When given a followup question regarding the offensive rebounds and defensive woes, D'Antoni was asked:

Reporter: "Was that a hustle thing or positioning thing, or a little bit of both?"

D'Antoni: "You'd have to ask them, I don't know. Whatever it was, we didn't come off the ball, and they did. Somebody did something, and we didn't do it."

D'Antoni's statement definitely seems to come off as a shot at his players. He deflects any personal blame by stating, "You'd have to ask them," and he doesn't offer any sort of schematic explanation as for why the woes occurred. Obviously, D'Antoni was not pleased with the defensive effort of his squad.

Next up was the most interesting post-game response from Howard.

Reporter: "We've been talking about this all season, the area of defense, what was plaguing you guys tonight on that end?"

Howard: "The pick and roll defense wasn't great tonight. The help wasn't there, the help the helper wasn't there. It just has to be better overall."

Reporter: "Those are things you have talked about a lot of times this season, what's the learning curve going on in regards to that?"

Howard: "Those guys gotta be in the right spots, and they have to be taught it. It has to be something that you practice on, so guys can understand [what] they have to go through. You can't just talk about defense, and talk about where to go, you actually gotta show guys where to go."

Dwight Howard definitely takes a shot at Mike D'Antoni with this statement. I guess Howard isn't too fond of D'Antoni being proud of practicing defense for half an hour. Howard shifts to the second person, referencing D'Antoni when he states, "You can't just talk about defense, and talk about where to go, you actually gotta show guys where to go." Clearly, Howard wants more focus on the defensive end, and he must feel that his coach isn't living up to the task of preparing the team with defensive

http://www.opposingv...defensive-focus


ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME. I CANT BELIEVE I WANTED THIS GUY HIRED. ARE YOU EFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFING KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!!

[PhillyLaker24]

This is news? Antoni not putting an emphasis on defense is pretty well known, his whole career he never did why start now even though you have the best defensive big man in the league.

[Disaster in Paradise]

We've known that for a while now, lol.

[Honey Boo Boo]

Where are you Phil..

[Alpha Four]

Lel OP acts like this is news.

Our defense has been "good" recently.

[iDreamShake]

im sorry that its big news to me that a coach doesnt practice defense.LOL especially the LAKERS coach , who was supposed to save the day.

EDIT: YOU WOULD THINK THAT THE FO WOULD HAVE HAD A DISCUSSION WITH ANTONI ABOUT HES SUPPOSED(and now proved to be true) DEFENSIVE NEGLAGANCE.

Edited by GMTradePau4aBench, December 28, 2012 - 12:43 PM.

[iDreamShake]

We've known that for a while now, lol.

you really wanted to believe it? that an nba coach doesnt practice D? that the lakers FO hired a coach and didnt tell him that he NEEDS to focus on D

[Cj2008nw]

im sorry that its big news to me that a coach doesnt practice defense.LOL especially the LAKERS coach , who was supposed to save the day.

EDIT: YOU WOULD THINK THAT THE FO WOULD HAVE HAD A DISCUSSION WITH ANTONI ABOUT HES SUPPOSED(and now proved to be true) DEFENSIVE NEGLAGANCE.

Stephen A Smith already put this to light

[Majesty]

It's funny how you post like this is news, what it comes down to is the effort on both ends. Our halfcourt set has been pretty good and our defense is the reason we were able to come back and beat both the Knicks and the Warriors and what kept us in games we were being beat in initially.

Why is it after a loss this comes up but during the 5 game winning streak when defense got us back into games it was silent?

Kobe himself said even Phil maybe ran defensive drills about 3 times during his entire tenure.

Our first real defensive coach in a while was Mike Brown. The guy where we somehow scored 7 points in a 4th quarter and won.

Why complain about offense when you get a defensive coach and then turn around and complain about defense when you got an offensive coach?

[iDreamShake]

Stephen A Smith already put this to light

im sorry i dont listen to that FOOL

[Cj2008nw]

im sorry i dont listen to that FOOL

I mean he's not the best person but on some things he is right

[iDreamShake]

I mean he's not the best person but on some things he is right

i only like him for entertainment purposes, him and skip . i think 99% of the stuff they say is wrong tho, kills me that i had to stop watching,,,the laughs just couldnt outweigh me pulling me hair out at their beliefs.

Edited by GMTradePau4aBench, December 28, 2012 - 01:04 PM.

[Cj2008nw]

i only like him for entertainment purposes, him and skip . i think 99% of the stuff they say is wrong tho, kills me that i had to stop watching,,,the laughs just couldnt outweigh me pulling me hair out at their beliefs.

Their beliefs aren't always wrong but they can be very BIASED based on favoritism

[Windu]

U get what u pay for

[Hollywood]

Told you all this coach aint [expletive]

[Majesty]

And fyi those quotes from D'antoni were where he was talking about effort. Which is what he was upset about not seeing on the rebounding end and closing out etc defensively.

And Dwight's comments were about being vocal on defense and helping each other out on the help side and not playing as a team defensively.


There was nothing in that article about the coach not teaching defense so you basically made a topic about something the article had nothing to do with to push home a point like it was news as Howard never said that D'antoni never practiced defense and was criticizing his TEAMMATES not the coach.

Needless to say the last 3 comeback games they've had, was attributed a LOT to their defense. So now when they've finally lost suddenly their defense is non existent. You can't have it both ways. Either give credit for their defense as often as you take credit from it or not all all either way. Because when we go 5 games where the entire reason we win is because we played defense late and were able to pull back into the game because of it, give the defense credit, don't ignore how it helped us in 5 straight games and then blast how terrible we are defensively after the one loss. It doesn't work that way. If our defense was as non existant we'd have lost to both New York and Golden State in blowouts. Our defense won us those games.

We went into Denver and stopped them on most of their first attempts, but allowed rebounds. That is because neither Dwight, nor Gasol were boxing out effectively, and Hill wasn't hustling like he usually does(and even so took down more rebounds that Dwight AND Gasol whilst coming off the bench) we also paid for the back door defensive weaknesses of Gasol and we helped "one pass away" too much. We played like a tired team, eventhough we should have been more rested.

Nash also played 31 minutes because D'antoni decided to rest him which meant Duhon got more minutes and the offense fell apart in his hands and he couldn't defend anybody on any end. But at the end of the day we didn't hustle for rebounds against a team that makes it's living on rebounding the ball and second chance opportunities, at home where they have the best home record in the NBA. So we were cruising for a loss with the way we came out and we need to hustle more against a team like that. End of story.

D'antoni can't coach effort and communication, that's up to the players to take responsibility for and be vocal and helping each other on the court, They already do it in practice, and during that 5 game stretch had extended it into games as Dwight has stated many times, they just picked the wrong night to let bad habits resurface, that's on them, as Dwight has also said.

Edited by Majesty, December 28, 2012 - 02:27 PM.

[Majesty]

and also, their film session today was BASED on their defensive breakdowns just fyi

Mike Trudell ‏@LakersReporter
Mike D'Antoni said the LAL D is just fine when the players play hard & show energy. When not (like at Denver), there is finger pointing.

Mike Trudell ‏@LakersReporter
D'Antoni waved off Howard's postgame comments about what was wrong w/D, said it was just energy. Howard likely agrees after film session.

What was it D'antoni said to that reporter that said they never look at defense?

"I didn't see you in the film room."

Same situation here

[True Lakers Fan]

Told you all this coach aint [expletive]

can you do better?

[evil Monkey]

TC: Why did you put quotation marks around something that was not said by Dwight?

[Hollywood]

can you do better?

So because im not a coach cant have an opinion? Can you do better than Morris?