The Los Angeles Lakers Continue to Stumble

Friday night seemed like a great opportunity for the Los Angeles Lakers to take another step in the direction of improving their playoff position.

Not only were they playing the Washington Wizards at home in the Staples Center, they had their "Big 4" for only the 18th time all year.

Paul Gasol and Kobe Bryant returned to the lineup only to see the Lakers lose another game they should of won, falling 103-100 to the Wizards.

The headline from the night was more than just another loss for the Lakers, it was that their coach called the Lakers hopes of a "Championship" laughable...

"This is a good team that just for whatever reason can't collectively mentally get stimulated to [play hard] every time," D'Antoni said after the Lakers wasted an 18-point first-half lead. "I told them today, we put our hands in [the huddle], and you guys have probably seen it, we say, 'Championship,' and go out [on the floor]. That's laughable. Championship? You got to be kidding me. Nobody understands the importance of every possession offensively and defensively. Every time they got to come out with some kind of determination to be a good basketball team, and [until] then, we're just, we're fooling ourselves. Right now, that's what we're doing. We're just making a 'sham-mockery' out of it."

Obviously the Lakers Head Coach is losing confidence in his team, how long until his team loses confidence in him.

Maybe D'Antoni needs to look in the mirror before making such comments though.  He is the one who has been just as big a hamper to the success of this Lakers team with his inability to adjust his game plans and style to fit this roster.

Plus, he complains about defensive effort when anyone who has watched D'Antoni coach over the years knows that his idea of good defense is good offense. Unfortunately with this roster, scoring goes through Kobe and periodically some one else, but defense is not their strong suit.

The Lakers will most likely make the playoffs and most likely win a game or two, but most critics would agree with D'Antoni's latest comments and conclude a Championship run for the Lakers is indeed laughable.