I’m writing this in the first quarter of tonight’s Lakers-Rockets Game Six with the Rockets up 13-1. Time has passed Phil Jackson by. This team is not the Chicago Bulls. It is not even the Lakers team of 1999-2002. Jackson can no longer sit on the bench and watch as his team goes 12 points in the hole.
He needed to call time out when the score was 6-0 or 8-1 tops. But when he lets the Rockets get 12 points ahead like he did on Sunday, his team is too far out of rhythm to get it back.
They will be fighting an uphill battle for the rest of the game. He also needs to make a subsitution early. The score is now 21-3. Jackson has called just one timeout, and Derek Fisher is still in the game. Why?
Fisher is just loping along and taking wild three-point shots or passing off to Kobe Bryant who then takes wild three-point shots.
Wasn’t the game plan to work the ball inside, where the Lakers have size? Does Jackson have a problem communicating this to his players? Or does he have a problem benching them, even Kobe Bryant, if they don’t carry it out.
I have been critical of the Lakers and Phil Jackson for the last part of the season, and rightly so. If Jackson cannot energize his team, then who can?
Maybe Stan Van Gundy. Congratulations to Stan and his Magic coming back to force a Game Seven in there series against the Celtics.
Tags: Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Phil Jackson
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