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 A once-proud franchise which can boast 16 NBA championship
banners hanging from the rafters at its home venue in downtown Los
Angeles lost their first four games to remain rooted to the bottom
of the Western Conference standings.
Not since 1957 has the team launched a season so poorly, and that
was when they were based in Minneapolis, Minnesota where their
former standout center George Mikan was head coach. The Lakers began
that 1957-58 season 0-7.
"No, it doesn't bother me," five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant said
with heavy sarcasm after he and his team mates were pounded 127-104
by the Golden State Warriors on Saturday to slip to 0-4 for the
season. "Festive and jovial about it."
 Bryant, who piled up a team-high 28 points on 12-for-28 shooting,
later conceded: "I'm not happy about it. Also nothing you can do
about it. Gotta move on to the next one.
"Just stay the course. We still have a lot of room for improvement,
but we're moving in the right direction."
The Lakers were always likely to struggle this season after
assembling a roster that many viewed as inferior to the one that
ended 2013-14 well under .500 with a 27-55 record, having never
before lost so many games in a single campaign.
Though they acquired Jeremy Lin and Carlos Boozer, plus Julius
Randle, the seventh overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft, they lost
four-time All-Star Pau Gasol, who opted to leave for the Chicago
Bulls.
INJURY PROBLEMS
Injuries, which posed all sorts of problems for the Lakers last
season, have once again rocked the team.
Twice NBA Most Valuable Player Steve Nash, who has battled a bad
back for years, was last month ruled out for the entire season after
re-injuring his back while carrying his bags.
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Rookie Randle broke his right leg in his first game, the Lakers'
108-90 loss to the Houston Rockets last week, and is expected to
miss the rest of the season after having surgery.
The struggling Lakers, who began the season with the most difficult
schedule in the league (four games in five days), have also been
without Nick Young (right thumb) and Ryan Kelly (sore right
hamstring).
Among very few bright spots for the team over those four games have
been the sizzling form, in bursts, by guard Bryant, surprising
consistency and sharp shooting from forward Jordan Hill and much
needed offense off the bench from Ed Davis.
Apart from the early proliferation of injuries, the biggest
headaches so far for Lakers head coach Byron Scott, who was
appointed in July, have been the poor form shown by point guard Lin
and forward Boozer, along with a woeful defense.
Lin has struggled with his shooting and committed far too many
turnovers while Boozer has failed to hit double digits in three of
the first four games.
The Lakers rank 30th among the 30 teams in the league in both points
allowed (118 per game) and fast-break points allowed (21.2).
"Defensively, we've just got to get tougher and we've got to get a
little bit grittier," said Scott. "Sometimes we lose focus after we
score and all of a sudden we relax. Our bigs got to do a better
job."
(Editing by Frank Pingue)
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