Warriors co-owner Peter Guber brought “Rush Hour” actor Chris Tucker as his guest, while part-owner Craig Johnson used Halloween as an excuse to dress up as Jack Nicholson, the Lakers’ No. 1 celebrity fan. Johnson sat courtside along with a friend disguised as Lou Adler, another big player in the entertainment business.

The centerpiece of the Warriors’ extravagant introductory ceremony was a graphic-lit curtain wrapped around the Jumbotron — something their in-state opponent kicks games off with regularly — and the players loved it, break-dancing underneath.

After Golden State’s 125-94 blowout, Coach Mark Jackson said: “First of all, I want to give credit to the people who organized the introduction, from the big screen to the curtains. I thought it was first-class. That’s how big-time organizations do it.

“I thought it was a thing of beauty from beginning to end.”

The Warriors led the game by as many as 35 points, and scored the first victory in their seven season openers against the Lakers in franchise history.

For seemingly endless years, except last season and 2006-07, the Warriors have failed to make the playoffs. But with Warriors expectations high this season and the marquee Lakers in rebuilding mode, a real rivalry could finally materialize between the California teams.

“It’s cool, to start a little rivalry. We’ve already seen each other three times,” said Warriors guard Klay Thompson, referring to the preseason games between the two teams in China. “And we’ll play them three more times this year.”

Golden State season ticket-holders are known to sell their tickets to Lakers fans when the Southern California team has come into town. But this year, the Warriors sold a record 14,500 season tickets, said spokesman Raymond Ridder, and the crowd wore a lot more gold and blue than purple and gold Wednesday.

“This is my 16th year here and that was the smallest amount of Laker fans that have been in our building,” said Ridder, who previously worked for the Lakers. “We’ve always had really good fans but I attribute that to the fact that we’re a better team now.”

Knowing Lakers star Kobe Bryant would sit out the game while still recovering from his Achilles injury made a big difference for San Jose resident Jackie Magtibay, who wore a Lakers T-shirt and attended with a fan of the home team.

“I’m mostly a Kobe fan and right now I don’t really care who wins because he’s not playing,” she said. “If Kobe was playing I would care more but I figured [the Lakers] would lose anyway.”

Warriors star Stephen Curry said it was “big for us to play well” and “make the show worth it.”

With a more-than-30-point lead in the fourth quarter, many fans were their loud, “Beat L.A.”-chanting selves, but others acted like some fans from the rival team, leaving their seats to beat the crowd since the win was in the box.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/a-hollywood-occasion-at-warriors-season-opener/Content?oid=2617046

“I ate a lot of Jack In The Box in college and Taco Bell and now I’ve transferred into Whole Foods,” laughed Robert Sacre. “Grass-fed animals, that’s all I eat, is grass-fed animals and I make sure that it’s grass-fed cows when I drink milk. None of this like, you know, wannabe cows.”

He wasn’t joking.

Lakers strength and conditioning coach Tim DiFrancesco, tasked with receiving the Whole Foods Market deliveries at home and on the road, explained a typical pregame meal: grass-fed beef skewers or omelets from eggs from chickens that ate grass, bacon from humanely-raised pigs, full-fat chocolate milk from grass-fed cows.

The rationale, according to DiFrancesco, is you can’t out-train a bad diet. All the work he does with the players in the weight room and on the court would not be as effective without being supported on the back end by good nutrition. So the question became, ‘What is good nutrition?’

Part of the answer came in a book by Dr. Cate Shanahan that head athletic trainer Gary Vitti had on his desk just before training camp. A couple phone conversations with Dr. Shanahan confirmed that knowing where the food comes from is key. The search for those products kept bringing DiFrancesco and Vitti back to Whole Foods, so they went ahead and created a relationship that’s set to go on indefinitely.

“The one in El Segundo is one of the largest and most extensive stores in the country and we happen to have it in our backyard, so we’re very lucky about that,” DiFrancesco said. “And that being the hub, they communicate with all Whole Foods in the other cities we travel to, so it’s a seamless relationship.”

A standard pre-game spread includes Applegate organic sliced meats like turkey, pepperoni and genoa salami; Organic Valley raw sharp cheddar, mild cheddar and jack cheese; and naturally fermented dill pickles with healthy bacteria to boost the players’ immune systems. Even meals on the plane come from Whole Foods.

Stuck on sugar? Not anymore!

When word got out about the new nutrition project, some players feared they’d no longer be able to eat what they wanted.

“It’s like telling a kid he can’t have any candy!” said Antawn Jamison. “It’s not bad though, a lot of guys really take care of their body on the team anyway so it’s just letting us know that what we eat, what we do off the court really makes a difference on the performance on the court.”

Before the new regiment, Dwight Howard said he was “stuck on sugar” – not just candy, but four to five fruits a day. He’d have two or three good meals a day and then one McDonald’s.

“When I got with Tim, no candy at all,” he said. “Fruits once a day for breakfast and throughout the day, only eat almonds and crazy snacks, things I wouldn’t eat, ever.”

For meals, his new diet includes steak and pasta, but tomato-based sauce instead of alfredo. A break from strictly water means Kombucha, a synergy drink Howard described as having “real itty bitty stuff in the inside, looks nasty, like octopus or something is floating around.”

“I’m like ‘uhh’ but it’s actually pretty good and it helps me recover,” he said. “I miss having sodas and stuff like that but I want to be able to get my body back to 100 percent and start to help this team win and just help myself get in better shape.”

DiFrancesco described the difference in energy coming from good fats versus carbohydrates and sugars as analogous to building a fire with sticks and twigs.

“If you put a bunch and lit them, they would burst into flames but they would quickly die out, that’s what things like pasta, rice, different types of energy bars that have a lot of carbohydrates and sugars end up doing,” he said.

‘It sucks, but it’s worth it’

The adjustment has varied among players.

At 39 years old, Steve Nash already watched what he ate and just had to try to get more healthy fats in his diet.

“It’s been good, I think it’s helped me. I feel like I have a lot of energy and my joints feel better too,” he said.

Arguably the most disciplined player in the league, Kobe Bryant cut out pepperoni pizza, Sour Patch Kids, sugar cookies in favor of fish, lean meat and vegetables last summer.

“It sucks, but it’s worth it,” said Bryant.

Now 16 pounds lighter, the superstar is putting up numbers better than his career averages in points, rebounds, assists and minutes per game, as well as shooting percentage, despite this being his 17^th season.

“The diet has a lot to do with it to be honest with you, I think it’s really impacted my energy level,” he said after scoring 41 points and leading the Lakers to a remarkable comeback against the Toronto Raptors earlier this month.

Strict as their new diet may be, players do get five or six meals out of the week on their own. DiFrancesco said it’s not about wagging a finger and telling players they can’t eat what they love, but instead educating them on how certain foods can impair their performance and empowering them to make better choices.

Jodie Meeks said he still eats pizza and fries sometimes, but tries to limit that intake during the season.

“As you get older, you have to watch what you eat,” he said. “I like the diet. It gives you more energy and they’ve done a great job of giving us an idea of what to eat when he’s not around.”

Indeed, DiFrancesco’s carrot-not-the-stick approach of surrounding players with the right food choices has gotten many of them hooked on healthy eating.

“The guys start saying, ‘Where did you get this? I really want this at home,’ because they notice how much better they feel and how much it helps them to avoid injury and breakdown during the course of the season,” DiFrancesco said.

Having a nutrition regiment is a luxury compared to the days when legend James Worthy was a Laker.

“It wasn’t as apparent as it is now,” the Hall-of-Famer said about emphasis on having nutritionists and someone like DiFrancesco around.

“I don’t want to give him credit, but I have to give him credit,” said Sacre, who’s been able to limit his number of stops at Popeyes chicken. “I’ve definitely seen an improvement and it’s helped me, so I don’t really look back at what I used to eat.”

http://www.twcsportsnet.com/articles/2013/03/26/kwong-lakers-nutrition-032613

In his more than 1,400 NBA games (including the playoffs), Bryant has constantly found himself in position to either shoot or pass the ball. If he shoots and makes it, he receives praise. If he passes and gets the assist, he receives praise. But if he shoots and misses, he is called a ball hog. And if he passes and his teammates miss often enough, he’ll take over the game himself, and the scrutiny follows.

It’s a conundrum that faces every star player who has the ability to get his own shot whenever he wants, and it seems to follow Bryant more than most. When do you put it on your own shoulders? When do you involve your teammates? It’s not easy to figure out, and the puzzle changes with each game.

On nights like Friday against Portland, when the Lakers held a comfortable 22-point lead at the end of the third quarter and Bryant sat down after pouring in 27 points, head coach Mike D’Antoni doesn’t mind the Black Mamba take-over at all.

After the victory, D’Antoni poked fun at reporters who had been keeping tabs on how often the Lakers lose when Bryant scores at least 30 points (the 1-9 after the loss to Cleveland earlier this month has since improved to 6-11).

“Let me ask you guys something. If Kobe gets 27, divide that by 3, that’s 9 points a quarter … does his record go up if he’s over 35 points?” he said with a laugh. “Is that right, you don’t do that? It’s just weird, it’s just redundant?”

Things aren’t as jovial on nights like the 79-77 loss to the Indiana Pacers a month ago, when Bryant scored 40 points but also had 10 turnovers.

‘He’s doing a remarkable job’

What is a star player to do?

Lakers legend and Time Warner Cable SportsNet studio analyst James Worthy, who played with a star in Magic Johnson who seemed to master the right balance, said every star player has to enhance players around him and know when to pass the ball.

Given Bryant’s stats and place as the leading scorer in the league, Worthy said “he’s doing a remarkable job.” Steve Nash’s return has made a difference for the better, he added.

“(Bryant’s) consistency is a lot better, he’s not turning the ball around as much because his natural position is shooting guard instead of point guard,” Worthy said. “I think he needs to continue to allow Steve to be the guy handling the ball down the stretch.”

It could be that Bryant isn’t his best as a point guard, and judging his performance in the shooting guard position would be fairer.

Bryant alluded to something along those lines after leading the Lakers to an overtime victory over the Golden State Warriors on Dec. 22, scoring 34 points on 41 shots.

“Yeah, I mean I couldn’t imagine Michael Jordan not wanting to play with John Stockton,” he said, drawing the comparison to himself and Nash. “I just couldn’t, I just couldn’t imagine. I mean, to me it’s like putting a kid in the candy store.”

‘You’ve got to take the great with the bad’

After the Lakers’ close, 101-100 triumph over the Charlotte Bobcats on Dec. 18, how many points Bryant scored seemed to be the least of D’Antoni’s concerns.

“He plays the right way, he can score over 30 and that’s not a problem, that just meant that he had to shoulder the responsibility to try to get in the position to win,” he said. “If we play the right way, he can score over 30 and we should win.”

As Time Warner Cable SportsNet analyst Dave Miller put it: “With some players, you’ve got to take the good with the bad. With Kobe Bryant, you’ve got to take the great with the bad.”

Miller added: “He’s not selfish. If things aren’t going the way he thinks they should, then yes, he’s going to take over.”

The win at Golden State was a night when Bryant didn’t have to take over, and he sounded pretty pleased about that, commenting that Devin Ebanks and Antawn Jamison were having a good game and the team moved the ball extremely well.

“Everybody contributed, everybody played hard I mean that’s a good dilemma to have,” Bryant said. “I think us as a team, we’ve just got to be unselfish and whoever’s playing well stays in and plays and I think guys on the team accept that.”

And it seems the guys in the team also accept that the guy playing the best is usually Kobe Bryant.

http://www.twcsportsnet.com/articles/2012/12/30/kwong-kobe-connundrum-feature-123012

Hace una semana y media, la escuadra de Los Ángeles viajó a Madison Square Garden para enfrentar los Knicks – en ese entonces el líder de la conferencia Este – y de pronto cayeron detrás en puntos y perdieron 116-107, su cuarta derrota consecutiva.

En el partido de vuelta arrancando a mediodía el día de Navidad, la púrpura y oro viene con una gira de cuatro victorias y sus titulares Steve Nash y Pau Gasol listos para estar en la cancha después de haber faltado por lesiones el juego anterior.

El ánimo de Los Ángeles es mucho mejor que la conclusión del último partido en Nueva York, capturado por lo que dijo Kobe Bryant a reporteros después del partido: “Perdónenme por la espera, pero cuando estás eres mayor te toma más tiempo para recuperar. En este momento, deseara que tuviéramos los Generales de Washington (equipo de exhibición) en nuestro horario”.

Bryant había anotado 31 puntos en ese partido pero su equipo cayó aunque la estrella de los Knicks Carmelo Anthony, con 30 puntos, no jugó en el último cuarto.

Nash vio el lado positivo después de la victoria contra los Guerreros, diciendo que su equipo no está tan jóven, pero “todavía tenemos que tener una sonrisa en nuestras caras y disfrutamos de la batalla”.

“Podemos hacer mucho, sólo necesitamos que conseguir la química, creer en nosotros mismos, y ganaremos algunos partidos”, dijo Nash, quién tuvo 12 puntos y 9 asistencias en los 41 minutos de su primer partido en casi dos meses.

De hecho el regreso de ‘El Mago’, que ha dominado el rol de point guard bajo el sistema de su jefe entrenador en Phoenix Mike D’Antoni, tuvo un efecto transformativo para los Lakers.

Por eso, el anunciador Pepe Mantilla pronosticó en el show ‘Somos Lakers Éne-bé-a’ de Time Warner Cable Deportes anoche que “van a ganar los Lakers porque vana mover el balón en la ofensiva”.

Aparte de la amenaza que presenta Anthony, con 28.3 puntos por partido y en segundo lugar tras el líder Bryant, los Knicks tienen al centro Tyson Chandler. Sin embargo, los comentaristas de Time Warner Cable Deportes señalaron que probablemente va a ser ensombrecido por la fuerza del Dwight Howard de los Lakers.

“Chandler es un gran jugador pero Howard es mejor”, dijo el anunciador Fernando González en el show. “Yo creo que ganan los Lakers porque es la revancha, es oportunidad de ponerse 1-1. La clave es ser muy precisas en la defensiva”.

Se espera un partido emocionante también porque D’Antoni que resignó de los Knicks el año pasado después de entrenarlos por tres temporadas y media, por razones incluyendo diferencias con Anthony.

Los Lakers han perdido los últimos tres partidos de Navidad, y esperan cambiar ese mala racha este año. Con sus titulares estrellas en uniforme, es posible.

“Yo creo que ganan los Lakers, comentó el anunciador John Laguna anoche. “Los Knicks son bastante buenos pero no tan buenos como los Clippers ni Miami, ni tan buenos como Oklahoma City”.

El partido se arranca al mediodía mañana en el canal ABC, con la vista previa en el show ‘Lakers En Vivo’ en Time Warner Cable Deportes una hora antes.

http://www.twcdeportes.com/articles/2012/12/24/previa-vs-knicks

The Bulls took charge at the start Saturday and entered the final period with a 3-1 lead. But history repeated itself before 8,409 at the Citizens Business Bank Arena as the Ontario Reign caught up to force overtime and beat the Bulls in a shootout to win 4-3.

Did the Bulls play better on the second of the back-to-backs, though?

Bulls assistant coach Kyle Paige told SFBay:

“Yeah, definitely. At the start of the game we kept the style simple and got the puck through the net and in the third period, they took control. With a team this good, the key is to limit those mistakes so they don’t get those chances.”

After San Francisco gave up two goals in the final period and overtime went scoreless, the teams went into a shootout. Said Paige:

“In a shootout, it’s anyone’s game really.”

The Reign made it theirs, with the second of their three successful shootout goals playing out epic, if not theatrical.

Up 1-0 at the end of two rounds, Ontario’s Colton Yellow Horn skated in innocently enough. Once he skated past the slot, he passed the puck through his legs to his right skate, then spun and beat sprawling Bulls’ goalie Thomas Heemskerk glove side with a nifty two-handed backhand.

Heemskerk recounted:

“The ESPN highlight reel. I just remember he kind of pushed it blocker side and next thing I knew, I was behind the play and he was going the other way. I couldn’t catch up.”

The Bulls’ Dean Ouellet answered with the only Bulls shootout goal, then Ontario’s Jason Beeman finished the Bulls off with a right-handed finisher.

Though the Bulls lost after a 3-1 shootout, Paige told SFBay he wasn’t disappointed in Heemskerk’s work as the goalie:

“He probably would have liked to get a couple saves but they had a lot of skilled forwards that were tough to stop, so I thought he played well.”

Earlier, the Reign had taken the first goal of the game at 17:03 into the first period thanks to forward Kyle Kraemer. The Bulls had luck on their side at the very end of the period with a power play, when a stifled Andrew Crescenzi shot allowed Justin Bowers to score on the right side into an open net.

The second period was all Bulls – specifically forward Jordan Morrison. His first goal whizzed past Ontario goalie Chris Carrozzi at 17:17, and just over a minute later the puck hit a defenseman before Morrison deflected it into an unguarded net.

Said Morrison:

“The second one was just a lucky bounce.”

Doom began to descend on the Bulls halfway through the third period, when Reign right wing Dan DaSilva passed the puck to forward Chris Cloud who sent it sailing past Heemskerk just inside the left circle.

At 17:03, a cluster of Reign circulated the goal to defenseman Vincent LoVerde for a shot off the right side past Heemskerk’s blocker to tie the game at 3-3.

As for the rest, well, you already know.

Of his team’s performance, Reign head coach Jason Christie said:

“We got sidetracked a little but came back in the third period and worked hard.”

The Bulls also lost in a shootout in Ontario Oct. 17, 5-4. San Francisco, eighth in the Western Conference, is 1-7 against the Reign, second in the conference. They return home to battle the Las Vegas Wranglers on Friday at 7:15 p.m., and won’t face their doom again until Jan. 31 when the Reign visit at the Cow Palace.

Heemskerk admitted the Bulls have to figure out how to play a full game against the Reign:

“They’re a great team, really tough, especially against us, not too sure why or if there’s a reason.”

His teammate Morrison, however, was more optimistic:

“I think our guys worked hard. We didn’t get outcome we wanted but it’s a long season. We’ll play these guys a few more times and we’ll get ‘em.”

http://sfbay.ca/2012/12/23/reign-dazzle-bulls-with-shootout-finish/

Hace 10 días, los Guerreros derrotaron la escuadra poderosa del Heat de Miami, y ayer vencieron a los Bobcats de Charlotte por cinco puntos mientras que los Lakers en su último partido en Charlotte apenas ganaron por uno.

Ésta noche en el Oakland Coliseum, los Lakers, terceros en la división pacifica con un récord de 12-14, buscarán conseguir su gira más larga de cuatro victorias ante los Guerreros, segundos en la misma división con un récord de 18-9.

Los Ángeles se encuentran en una mejor posición que estaba en las últimas semanas cuando ambos titulares Pau Gasol y Steve Nash estuvieron en la banca por lesiones. El español ha regresado, y hay posibilidad haga su mucho anticipado regreso Nash contra Golden State.

El la práctica ayer, Nash dijo a reporteros que se sintió bien después de dos días de entrenamiento con su equipo pero considerando que ha jugado dos días de baloncesto en 7 semanas, “la probabilidad es baja” que pueda estar en uniforme hoy.

“Vamos a ver. Voy a tener que hablar con todos para calcular no solo cómo me siento sino también cómo se ajusta en la imagen grande”, relató ‘El Mago’. “Si todos se sienten bien entonces hay chanza que jugaré, pero el día de Navidad seguro”.

La amenaza que presentan los Guerreros son sus buenos anotadores, principalmente la guardia Stephen Curry que tiene un promedio de 19.9 puntos y 6.3 asistencias por partido y el atacante David Lee con un promedio de 19.8 puntos y 11.2 rebotes.

“Anotan el balón extremadamente bien”, señaló el jefe entrenador Mike D’Antoni sobre los oponentes. “Probablemente es el primer año que Curry está saludable y eso cambia el equipo como cualquier guardia buena lo hace, y David Lee es muy buen ofensivamente”.

El jefe entrenador de los Guerreros, Mark Jackson, expresó que no tendrá reservaciones en usar el método ‘Hack-a-Dwight’ contra los Lakers, que es cometer faltas a propósito al centro estrella de los Lakers porque no tiene buen porcentaje con los tiros libres.

Dwight Howard expresó poca preocupación al oír ésta táctica.

“Está bien por mí, está bien”, dijo. “He estado trabajando en mis tiros libres, entonces si pasa, estaré listo para hacerlo pagar”.

En el primer encuentro con los Guerreros el 9 de noviembre, los Lakers los vencieron 101-77 y han ganado 17 de los últimos 18 partidos. Kobe Bryant, quién anotó 27 puntos en el último partido contra Golden State, sigue siendo el líder anotador de la éne-bé-a con 29 puntos por partido.

Sin embargo, la falta de consistencia es el desafío que sigue enfrentando a los Lakers, según el anunciador John Laguna de Time Warner Cable Deportes.

En esa área los Guerreros han superado, según los comentarios de Nash: “Pienso que tienen gran espíritu ésta temporada y sabes que su entrenador tiene gran química con los jugadores y pienso que tienen un gran entendimiento sobre lo que él quiere y creen en él, entonces los pone en una posición que les da chanza de ganar”.

Los comentaristas de Time Warner Cable Deportes estuvieron de acuerdo que el partido no será fácil para los Lakers.

Lo más importante para la escuadra de los Lakers, según el presentador Ricardo Celis, será “que jueguen los 48 minutos y no se les olvide ni un cuarto”.

El partido se arranca a las 7:30 pm en el canal Time Warner Cable Deportes o Time Warner Cable SportsNet.

“Lakers ya ganaron el primer partido entre estos dos equipos”, comentó el anunciador Pepe Mantilla. “Y puede ganar este otro lo cual le daría ánimos positivos para el enfrentamiento del 25 de diciembre en asa contra Nueva York”.

http://www.twcdeportes.com/articles/2012/12/22/previa-lakers-warriors

Es a Philadelphia donde se fue el centro Andrew Bynum de los Lakers en el intercambio que trajo a Dwight Howard a Los Ángeles y envió Andre Iguodala de los 76ers a los Nuggets de Denver. Sin embargo, Bynum no ha podido jugar por sus rodillas y parece que Howard lo va a tener más fácil contra Lavoy Allen de los Sixers.

Además, es posible que los Sixers no van a tener el líder anotador de su equipo, Jrue Holiday, por una lesión en el pie por tener un promedio de 17 puntos por partido.

Según el anunciador Pepe Mantilla en el show ‘Somos Lakers Éne-bé-a’, los Sixers pueden dominar si juega Holiday “porque los Lakers tienen Lakercina, que es curar los equipos malos”.

Inexplicablemente, la púrpura y oro ha perdido contra equipos malos como los Caveliers de Cleveland, y los Sixers con un récord de 12-11 tampoco se consideran muy buenos.

Sin Iguodala, los Sixers van a tener que contar con Evan Turner, con un promedio de 15.4 puntos por partido, para defender Kobe Bryant, quien sigue siendo el líder anotador en la liga con 29.3 puntos por partido y quien aparte nació en Philadelphia.

Otro Laker que tiene un pasado con Philadelphia es el guardia Jodie Meeks, quien jugó con los Sixers desde el 2010 hasta el año pasado.

“Va a ser emocionante, pero la única cosa que quiero es que ganemos”, relató Meeks después del partido el viernes. “Estoy seguro que voy a oír un par de ‘boo’s’ pero no estoy enfocado en eso. Es una buena ciudad”.

Aún otro Laker puede esperar ‘boo’s’, Metta World Peace, quién nació en Nueva York, una ciudad que los fanáticos en Philadelphia odian. En entrevistas con reporteros, World Peace dijo que no sabía de ésta tensión.

“Seguro que es una audiencia difícil, es una ciudad difícil si no estás en su equipo”, expresó World Peace. “Philadelphia es difícil como Nueva York, como Los Ángeles, donde son todos para el deporte. Para nosotros, solo tenemos que jugar juntos”.

Los Lakers siguen sin Pau Gasol por tendinitis en las rodillas, Steve Nash por la fractura en la pierna, y Steve Blake por cirugía abdominal.

La clave para los Lakers será buscar los triples, según el anunciador Fernando González en el show ayer.

Pero Mantilla señaló: “No me extrañaría ver a Jason Richardson (de los Sixers) hacerles varios triples a los Lakers porque se especializa en eso”.

En el único partido que tuvieron en la temporada corta el año pasado, los Sixers derrotaron los Lakers 95-90 en Philadelphia.

El partido, el último de una gira de cuatro partidos fuera de casa para Los Ángeles, arranca a las 3 p.m. en los canales Time Warner Cable Deportes y Time Warner Cable SportsNet.

Cuando el presentador Elmur Souza de Time Warner Cable Deportes le preguntó a los anunciadores por sus pronosticas, sus respuestas definieron la inconsistencia que ha caracterizado los Lakers.

“Va a ganar el equipo de los Lakers”, opinó Mantilla.

“Puede ganar los Lakers”, opinó González.

“We’ll figure it out when Steve comes back and gives a little more flow to it,” D’Antoni said about the team’s lackluster offense following Tuesday night’s loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“Right now, we’re all screwed up,” he admitted.

Sure, Steve Nash was D’Antoni’s key facilitator when he led the Phoenix Suns to 33-victory increase in 2004-05 on the way to being named Coach of the Year. But that was eight years ago. Now Nash is 38, has missed the last 23 games due to a small left leg fracture, and is still out indefinitely.

The Lakers won their last two games, but their opponents – the Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers – were missing key players, and a 11-14 record is nowhere near ‘Laker basketball’.

Is it wise for D’Antoni to bank so much on one star player’s return?

7 seconds or less

It’s not unwise, according to Time Warner Cable SportsNet analyst and 25-year basketball coach Dave Miller, because D’Antoni “has no other choice due to the fact that this is how he wants this team to play.”

The D’Antoni system, dubbed ‘seven seconds or less’, calls for players to execute a fast-paced offense, run the floor and take quick shots. The more possessions, the better the chance of victory. All this with good balance, rhythm and flow.

“He’ll run the offense like nothing,” D’Antoni said of Nash in his introductory press conference last month. “For the other guys, it’s very simple. He’s a big part of it; we got Steve Blake coming back and he’s a big part of it. (Chris) Duhon knows it already, so that’s cool. We’ll get the other guys up to snuff. But the process should not be long and it should not be tedious at all.”

But the process has been long for the Lakers, and their 6-9 record under D’Antoni suggests they haven’t made much progress picking up his system. But whether or not they’re words inspired from their head coach, the players are betting on the same saving grace.

“Steve’s been conducting this offense for a while, and when he gets out on the floor he’ll be able to put guys in the right places,” Kobe Bryant said during practice earlier this month.

After the Lakers lost to the Cavs, a frustrated Bryant reiterated that catch phrase.

“When Steve gets back,” he said, “We’ll do a lot of running of that nature, try to do the ‘Showtime’ thing, get up and down the floor.”

That’s placing a big bet on Nash, but D’Antoni “has to put that much unwarranted pressure on Steve” because his offense was a custom fit for an elite point guard who understands transition basketball, according to Miller.

“He has no other recourse because there’s no other guard on the Lakers roster that understands the ebb and flow – when to push it, how to push it,” Miller said. “No one is a better floor general, regardless of age.”

The silver lining in all of this is that available point guards Chris Duhon and Darius Morris are going to have to learn the job, he said.

But former Lakers point guard Magic Johnson shared a different view recently.

At a Los Angeles Dodgers press conference (Johnson is a minority owner), he said D’Antoni’s offense system doesn’t fit the Lakers and that Bryant is the only player who can get up and down the court.

“What the coach has to do is say, ‘I have a certain philosophy but I don’t have the players to play that scheme and that system,’” Johnson said. “I’ve got to adjust my system a little if I’m the coach.”

Committed to the system

The franchise, however, seems committed to D’Antoni’s system, even though Nash’s timeline remains unclear amid reports he may start practicing this week, and backup point guard Steve Blake is out through January while he recovers from abdominal surgery.

After his team fell to the New York Knicks, Nash told media “I can see some light at the end of the tunnel” but admitted that playing at the level he wants to might take some time even after he’s in uniform.

“All I can do is fight every day to get better, put myself through some of those painful workouts and hopefully this thing heals and I can get in shape sooner rather than later,” he said.

Nash also hinted at one of the Lakers’ fears – that his return might not be the magic solution everyone’s been waiting for.

“Hopefully I can help, but for me I just feel for my teammates. It’s been a tough year,” he said. “Hopefully we can get our guys back and we can all pitch in and make us a little better. But I still think there’s a lot of growing to do for this team regardless of who’s in or out of the lineup.”

Of the remaining point guards, Morris hasn’t contributed much beside a 15-point quarter against the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday, and Duhon has had mixed results. Duhon blamed a recent loss to the Utah Jazz, another lower-ranked team, on the Lakers’ defense – not offensive elements.

“We have the talent. We’re going to score. We just don’t play defense,” he said. “Until we do, nothing’s going to change.”

D’Antoni’s lack of emphasis on defense was, in fact, the criticism from Johnson and others that overshadowed concerns that his system might not suit the older, slower Lakers.

While the team is averaging more points per game – 103.1 under D’Antoni versus 97.8 under Brown – they are also allowing their opponents to score more. They limited opponents to 95.2 points under Brown, but have given up at least 100 in nine of D’Antoni’s 15 games so far.

“When Nash comes back” may be D’Antoni’s go-to answer, but he’s not turning a blind eye to the lacking defense.

“It won’t cure everything but it’ll help,” he said of Nash’s return. “But at that point, if it doesn’t cure some stuff, then we’re going to need to have some heart-to-hearts and we need to understand what’s going on. If he can’t run it, then we’ve got some problems.”

With the Lakers under .500 and 12th in the Western Conference a quarter of the season through, one thing is certain – Lakers fans are tired of excuses.

One of the first things that Lakers fans emotionally invested in the return of Phil Jackson pointed to in the hiring of Mike D’Antoni was that he apparently doesn’t coach defense.

D’Antoni, 61, who has never before had a player on a level with Dwight Howard – the three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year — had something to say about that in his introductory press conference last week.

“Maybe he can put the D back in my name, that would be nice,” he said about Howard. “Some people have been taking that out, that’s not fair. But he’ll definitely do that.”

In practice before Sunday’s game against the Houston Rockets, D’Antoni continued to joke about the comments on his defense, or lack thereof. The Lakers had emerged victorious over the Phoenix Suns on Friday, but gave up 64 points in the paint.

“Yeah, well see my coaching already took over,” D’Antoni laughed in response to a reporter’s question. But he explained: “I thought we were a little tired. I didn’t think we were aggressive early. In the second half we were a lot better … put a little more energy into it.”

While concerns about defense have been the center of debate, D’Antoni’s fast-paced offense has also raised questions about whether he was the appropriate fit for the Lakers.

The 2004-05 NBA Coach of the Year won that title for guiding the Phoenix Suns to 33 more wins than the previous season. He also was behind Jeremy Lin’s explosive “Linsanity” stint with the New York Knicks last year. But Steve Nash is older now, as are the Lakers starters, so his ‘Showtime’ style of play and “seven seconds or less offense” may not deliver.

Among the biggest critics of the front office’s choice of D’Antoni over the Zen – and ring – Master, Jackson, was Magic Johnson, a model of ‘Showtime’.

D’Antoni addressed this too in his press conference: “We would love to be able to play ‘Showtime’ basketball. They might have done it the best that you can do it. We would like to get someplace close to that but that’s the type of basketball, so no better person to talk to and pick his brain than him (Johnson).”

Is his defense as bad as you think?

In fact, numbers show that D’Antoni’s defense is not as poor as the media has suggested and fans have perpetuated. While D’Antoni’s defenses have historically ranked near the bottom of the NBA in post allowed per game, that statistic isn’t necessarily the best measuring stick.

If you play faster, you get more opportunities to score – as does your opponent – so you are likely to give up more points per game. A more telling stat is points allowed per possession. By that measure, D’Antoni’s defenses typically rank in the middle of the pack, and last year’s Knicks team actually ranked fifth in the NBA.

Commentators in Time Warner Cable SportsNet’s “Access SportsNet: Lakers” show have also come to D’Antoni’s defense, to a degree.

“They’ve got to correct that defense but the last time I checked, no coach has ever built a wall and took a charge,” said former NBA coach and SportsNet analyst Dave Miller. “It’s the five guys that are on the court that have to come through in a collective effort.”

Miller added that he wants to challenge the team to increase their defense because being able to run off turnovers, rebounding and pushing the ball will lead to easier shots.

“You can duplicate and try and replicate that fast break basketball but it all started with defense, am I correct?” Miller said.

“Without a question,” said former Lakers champion and SportsNet analyst James Worthy. “No defense, no rebound, no rings.”

D’Antoni, who has kept calm and carried on amidst all the talk, is expected to make his much-anticipated debut with the Lakers tonight against the Brooklyn Nets. The expectations are high and he knows it.

“We’re built to win this year, this is not a project,” he said at the start of his press conference. “We have a window and we’re going to try to get through it.”