Fresh off an embarrassing 123-104 loss to the Dallas Mavericks to start their three-game road trip, the Los Angeles Lakers were greeted in the locker by questions about who other than Dwight Howard.
The Lakers will fly to Houston tonight in advance of their Thursday matchup at the Toyota Center against Howard and the Rockets as it’ll be the first time they face him since he decided to leave for Houston. After Tuesday night’s game, Lakers forward Jordan Hill said he respected Howard’s decision to go to Houston via TWC SportsNet:
Jordan Hill said Dwight Howard’s a “cool cat” said there’s “no love lost” & respects that he thought Houston would be a better fit (on TWC)
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) November 6, 2013
Last night, it was Howard getting all the questions about the Lakers as he made his first trip back to Staples Center as the Rockets took on the Los Angeles Clippers. It was Hill that Howard named as a player on the Lakers he keeps in touch with, and after a rough loss tonight, this could prove to be an unnecessary distraction.
While the Lakers have been impressive at home, it seems their biggest growing pains will be winning on the road as they lost by 31 points to the Golden State Warriors and were down by 30 points at one point tonight.
Veteran guard Steve Blake put things in perspective after a disappointing start to the road trip:
Steve Blake on Thursday’s match-up vs. Houston: “I could care less if it’s Dwight or whoever we just need to focus on ourselves.” (on TWC)
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) November 6, 2013
Blake is absolutely correct as the Lakers need to prove that they’re mentally tough enough to win on the road this season. The bench continues to outscore the starters even with the insertion of Xavier Henry into the starting lineup for the second straight night.
Going into Thursday night’s matchup against the Rockets, Lakers players will continue to be asked about facing Howard, but like Blake said, they need to focus on themselves and not their former teammate.
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