Jackson Again A Whiny Beyatch

[HexNBA]

Jackson's Protests Accomplish Little
# Lakers fall to 1-5 on trip with a 102-87 loss to the Mavericks. Bryant is held to 24, and coach complains about Brown and the officiating.

By Mike Bresnahan, Times Staff Writer

DALLAS — The Lakers actually led by two, the beginning and the end of a short highlight reel as they came closer to the finality of their lowlight this season, a seven-game trip that just won't quit.

Kobe Bryant wasn't Kobe Bryant, Kwame Brown was Kwame Brown, and Coach Phil Jackson called a personal foul on the referees, Mark Cuban, and even his own decision-making, in a 102-87 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday at American Airlines Center.

On their 11th day away from home, the Lakers fell to 1-5 on their trip, with one game left tonight in Houston, at which point they could be caught by Utah for the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference.

By then, Brown might no longer be a starter even though Chris Mihm could still be out because of a sprained right shoulder. Brown went scoreless and had four rebounds and four fouls in 14 minutes against Dallas, enough to incur the wrath of Jackson afterward.

"That's awful," Jackson said. "He gave us a terrible game tonight. I had a short meeting with him the other day and told him I really valued the opportunity he was getting and he just didn't give us any productive minutes at all."

Bryant wasn't very efficient either, making only five of 22 shots and scoring 24 points. Brian Cook had a career-high 28 points and Lamar Odom played despite torn rib cartilage, finishing with 14 points, seven assists and six rebounds in 39 minutes.

Three Lakers had technical fouls, another two had flagrant fouls and the team was charged with a technical when Jackson kept the players huddled on the sideline despite referees' warnings to break it up after a timeout had elapsed with 1:08 to play.

It was a silent protest by Jackson, backed up by sharp words afterward and a dig at the Mavericks' owner.

"I thought it was really a poorly refereed ball game," he said. "I know there's a lot of pressure on the refs when they come here because Mark has them review the tapes and send them into the league. These guys are nervous Nellies when they come in to referee in this building. But they have to do a better job than they're doing. That's not acceptable."

Brown and Andrew Bynum were called for the flagrant fouls, and Bryant, Odom and Devean George were called for the technicals.

Bryant smiled when asked about Jackson's late protest.

"You eyeing my piggy bank too?" he said, suggesting he didn't want to be fined by the league.

He paused and then added, "It was cool."

Bryant was cold during the game, which came seven weeks after he scored 62 points in only three quarters against the Mavericks at Staples Center.

He was double-teamed, trapped, hassled, even triple-teamed as the Lakers fell to 2-5 since he scored 81 against Toronto an eternity ago.

"That's the defense we've been seeing this whole trip," Bryant said. "We've been struggling. We've got to find a way to combat that."

The Lakers, who trailed by 20 points in the first half, finally found a way to take a lead, which hadn't happened in 160 minutes of game time, more than 13 quarters since they led against Indiana in the second quarter Feb. 1.

Two free throws by Odom gave the Lakers a 66-64 edge with 2:56 left in the third, but the Mavericks took off on a 19-2 run and never fretted from there on the way to a 12th consecutive victory.

Unlike the last time the Lakers played here, Jackson didn't even wander over to the scorer's table and ask the enthusiastic public-address announcer if he was part of the cheerleading squad. But he did question his decision to sub Luke Walton and Sasha Vujacic for George and Smush Parker shortly after the short-lived Laker lead.

"Strategically, it was a bad move on my part," Jackson said. "Guys went in the ballgame and didn't give us any help."

The Laker advantage lasted exactly nine seconds before Josh Howard tied the score with a nine-foot fadeaway

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Stop smoking the indo chief triangle. If anything I think the refs would be pissed at Cuban for his constant badgering, and more inclined to call fouls on the Mavs. You're a sour loser.

[raefformvp]

I think your title for this thread should have been the headline for that article. I've never had much of a problem with Phil, but oh my! This is just pathetic. Blaming Cuban? He needs to watch some tape of our "superstar" getting hammered and not getting calls in our own building. His team is sucking it up right now, and instead of putting the blame solely on his team, he decides to point his zen finger in some of the most ridiculous places. Whatever.

[Just211]

what he's doing is trying to get in the heads of officials, that way every home game the refs will have something to think about "are we Cubans bitch" mainly. It's a bitch move by a bitch punk. How many times could every team make similar comments when playing at Staples (for Lakers, not Clippers). I think Phil has never had a bad team that doesn't get the benefit of the doubt, and now he's seeing how the other side is. Which isn't really isn't as bad as most shitty teams, because Kobe still gets a lot of "foul" calls

[MavKikiNYC]

His criticism of the officials was not to be heard a week ago after Kobe single-handedly attempted 26 FTs to the NYKs 24 as a team.

F'em.

[dude1394]

Sounds just like Van Gundy last year when he started panicking about getting his rear end kicked.

Kobe did give the mavs some good advice to all of the nay-sayers however, we've heard it before.

F'em

[Drbio]

I thought his zen garbage was teaching him how to be one with the world....not a whiney stand-alone bitch.

[jayC]

The only thing it does is divert the attention away from his team. He could easily say what is this crap I have for a team. Odom is easily the most overrated big man in the league.

[Thespiralgoeson]

Originally Posted by Just211

How many times could every team make similar comments when playing at Staples (for Lakers, not Clippers).

That's so true it's ridiculous. You know, a lane violation is one of the rarest calls in basketball, but I thought it was remarkable how the refs almost always called a lane violation 3-4 times a game whenever Shaq would miss his free throws.

[wescx]

I've heard some people in the media today say that Jackson is saying this as part of some master plan to get better treatment in a potential playoff matchup.

But if you ask me its just whining and the media would be saying the same thing if any other coach in the NBA had said it.