“As much as the defense we were trying this year was a lot of positives about it, I don’t think this team was ready for all that adjustment. I think we were just too inconsistent on the defensive end, teams were getting too many open shots. I think our execution of the triangle was not at the same level its been over the past few years, as far as picking teams apart. It was basic this year, a lot of simple aspects of the offense, not the second and third and counter options that make it so hard to guard especially in a playoffs series, when everyone else runs sets and we know what sets they’re running, where they’re going to go. With us, no matter what you do defensively, there’s always a counter to counter that. We never got into that too much this year. I think with just being a little more sharp offensively, and if we do keep the same defense, having that much more time starting it in training camp. It was a complex defense, and it took all five people (being) on the same page. I think just being more aware of that and offensively (paying) more attention to the details .. there’s no reason this team can’t win another championship if not two.”
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Thinking that they were the best, that they’d win again, and not being quite as willing to really get in and sacrifice. It was easier to just give the ball to Kobe, Gasol and Bynum and let them score because “they’re the best out there and no one can stop them” instead of really running the offense the right way, which makes L.A. “nearly impossible to stop.” That frustrated him because that’s what he loves about basketball and the triangle, how “you can just pick other teams apart and make them look helpless out there,” which L.A. “didn’t do that down the stretch this year.” He also said it was simply difficult for L.A. to practice without a lot of bodies, with various players getting treatment or ice on their knees regularly. “We didn’t have the bodies to go as hard as we usually go.”
