As Adrian Wojnarowski mentioned on the mothership Tuesday, the Lakers are not exactly in the best shape these days. They look sluggish on the court, aren't using the triangle offense to its full capabilities, and are fighting with each other. It's a bad situation that they'll need to fix if they hope to win a third-consecutive championship.
To make matters even worse, even technology is failing the Lakers these days. Ric Bucher has the story for ESPN.com:
Pau Gasol appeared to be sleep-walking through much of the Lakers' embarrassing loss to the Memphis Grizzlies at the Staples Center on Sunday. It turns out that might not have been too far from the truth.
"My alarm didn't go off so I woke up past the time," Gasol said. "I still went to shootaround, just a little later than I should have been."
But a team official said Tuesday that Gasol missed the team's entire morning shootaround.
Three Lakers in all said they did not get up on time because the alarm clocks on their iPhones malfunctioned that morning, sources said, but Gasol was the only one who didn't show up at all. Luke Walton was one of the other two Lakers who arrived late. The third Laker was not identified but sources said it was not Kobe Bryant. A source would only confirm that Gasol missed the shootaround.
Gasol had a terrible game in the loss -- 10 points, eight rebounds and five turnovers -- and this malfunction certainly could have been a reason for the problem. On the other hand, Gasol hasn't exactly been in top form recently, so it could just be a convenient excuse.
[Rewind: Golfer disqualified from tournament for oversleeping]
When Isaiah "J.R." Rider was deep into irresponsibility as a member of the Lakers 10 years ago, he said he was late for a team bus because his alarm clock was broken. It's tempting to think that Gasol, Walton and their mystery teammate engineered a complicated plan so they could all get an extra hour of sleep, but this same problem has been reported by iPhone users around the world. Even I'm not paranoid to think all those people could be part of the same conspiracy.
[Photo: See the Lakers' incredible 2010 championship rings]
Gasol improved his performance Tuesday night and finished with 21 points, seven rebounds and no turnovers. Maybe he switched to a BlackBerry and woke up at the right time. Then again, I'm pretty sure posses exist solely to perform basic tasks like these. Make them earn their allowance, Pau!
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