For years the Lakers had a great locker room balance — Kobe Bryant was the bad cop, Derek Fisher the good cop. Kobe would get in a guys face over a missed rotation or whatever, Fisher would come along later as the “big brother” who would listen to you but also tell you how it is.
Fisher is gone and the Lakers are still looking for that balance. The Lakers had a team meeting in Memphis last week where Kobe reportedly was direct with Dwight Howard asking him “do you want to play with me?” Then Kobe said he wanted to direct the offense and Howard needed to take a secondary role then dominate the defense.
So how does the more jovial, smiling Howard like confrontational Kobe? Mark Medina at the Daily News asked him.“I love it,” Howard said. “That’s something we needed. A lot of times we have a lot of guys come together and nobody wants to step on anybody’s toes or do anything against anybody else. We want to win. In order for us to win, we have to pull the best out of each other every night….
“We all know Kobe is the first option,” Howard said. “Whoever scores after that doesn’t matter. The defensive end is where I take lead and make sure I hold guys accountable and make sure do my job in being active.”
What did you expect him to say?
‘For a couple games the Lakers have gone away from Mike D’Antoni’s offense to an offense where a lot of guys are having success at things they haven’t done a ton of in the past — Kobe the facilitator, Steve Nash a shooter off the ball, Howard making off the ball cuts. Their defense has been a lot better as directed by Howard.
Can they maintain it? Especially on a seven-game road trip (granted mostly against teams under .500)? We will see.
But the chemistry in the locker room appears to be just fine.