One more reason the Lakers lost

[Roy Hobbs]

I saw this on a Lakers forum, and it cracked me up:

Obviously we lost this series because we are not tough enough. Not being able to close out gap, beat the home crowd (or ignore the noise). They are intimidated by Boston's defense, which is great by the way. Most of them just look at the refs after literally every play, while on Boston's sides they just put the heads down and run back. That's mental softness. And we need to change that in the offseason.

My rating on them (toughest first):

1 Fisher
2 Kobe
3 Sasha
4 Odom
...

HAHAHAHAHAHA.  When Sasha Vujachic is your third toughest player, and Odom is #4, you know your team is screwed.  That brought a smile to my face. 

Mentally weak.

[Tenacious D]

When Sasha Vujachic is your third toughest player you know your team is screwed.

Tommy point, Roy. When your "3rd toughest guy" whines to the media about dirty play? Oh my. Im thinking how Ray posterierized Sasha late in the game.

[Celtic]

Sasha is tough on offense only, he isn't afraid to shoot like a lot of the Lakers were last night, but he is terrified on defense.

Odom is a punk, not tough, not even close. He was an embarrassment at the end of the game, he was just out there to hurt people, and I blame Phil Jackson for not pulling him earlier.

[zerophase]

odom is not tough, he's dirty. awful sportsmanship and just an overall bad character player, seen when he tackled ray allen.

[Eeyore III]

I basically agree with the Laker fan's diagnosis of the problem, although I'd add mediocre defense in addition to mental softness, but his list of the "toughest" Lakers reeks of homerism.  I really don't think any one on that team is particularly tough.

[TerreHaute]

If Odom would have put the same effort into the first 40 mminutes that he put into the last 8, the Lakers might not have been in the position they were in.

To me, toughness is playing hard even when things go bad, or not letting your teammates cave in, or executing in the end game. There wasn't one player on the Lakers (everyone's beloved Kobe included) who showed any of these things consistently in this series.

With that definition, I would have trouble putting the toughness label on anyone but Derek Fischer on that team. He gets that for how he handles off-court issues as much as on-court issues.

[ACF]

I like the LA Times front page:
(picture of Kobe)
"MVP? More Like MIA"

My Laker friend told me he was SO
embarrassed by the Lakers' effort.
Or maybe lack of effort!
He basically said they played like
sissies. I did not argue with him.

[Oldschoolkid]

Bynum is going to be a problem next year, he is a strong kid, big....with kobe and Gasol, that will be a tough lineup...Bynum is like Orlando's Howard, put 7' Gasol and Kobe....we will have to work them over good!!! The Lakers lost this year basically because they have a worse team than cleveland. a few European shooters, average point guards, Lamar Odom could be great, but he probably won't be. Bad attitude. There are a ton of players like him around, everyone can see the potential, but also can see the problem with him. Funny whoever said the Lakers look at the refs every play.....like spoiled kids. Phil Jackson isn't ever going to be near Red....Phil didn't invent anything, Tex Winter invented the triangle offense, Jordan ran that team..IF Phil was sooo great he would have made that team work better.

[SShoreFan 2.0]

Beyond toughness, I think another huge reason why LA lost...

Arrogance.

An arrogant coach who sincerely loathes Boston and believes he is significantly better than the Celtics organization as well as an arrogant star and an arrogant fan base.



How sweet it is!

[ACF]

Maybe the Lakers spent just a little
too much time listening to the so-called
experts over at ESPN.

Which reminds me: Thank you, Tim.
You believed in us. So thank you!

[cfly34]

comparing bynum to dwight howard is very misguided...