The Lakers needed to talk. So they did. Loudly.
They held a clear-the-air team meeting before Wednesday morning's shoot-around, with Kobe Bryant very directly asking Dwight Howard if he disliked playing with the long-time Lakers star.
"Guys went at each other a little bit," said a person who witnessed the meeting.
Coach Mike D'Antoni started it by saying he was tired of reading newspaper stories about players questioning his offense or wanting more touches. Bryant and Howard each fell under that category after the Lakers' lifeless 95-83 loss Monday in Chicago: Bryant said the offense needed to slow down while Howard expressed displeasure after taking only five shots.
D'Antoni then told the team to stop worrying about offense and start playing better defense. The Lakers are fifth in scoring (102.6 points a game) but 26th in defense (101.4 points a game).
He then asked players to speak up. Steve Nash went first.
Nash, in his first season with the Lakers, said he didn't care how they played, whether it was via pick-and-roll or fastbreak or whatever. He just wanted everybody to be comfortable in the system. It was seen as a sacrifice by Nash, who played four seasons under D'Antoni's run-and-gun offense in Phoenix and won two NBA MVP awards while doing it.
Bryant also spoke up, acknowledging he could be "hard to play with" and asking Howard if that bothered him.
Howard's answer was unclear, though he did not engage Bryant in nearly as vocal a manner as Bryant engaged him.
