D Fenders

The Lakers were well represented on Wednesday night as the D-Fenders opened their season with a 112-98 victory over the Idaho Stampede. Guard Darius Johnson-Odom and center Robert Sacre were recently sent to the Lakers' D-League affiliate to get some valuable floor time. Johnson-Odom scored a game-high 30 points while making 11 of 15 shots from the field (five of seven from three-point range). He also had six rebounds and four assists. Sacre collected a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds.

The Lakers have been losing games since the season began in two major areas: turnovers and free throws.  The Lakers (7-8) are now leading the league in turnovers per game at 17.2. In their most recent loss to the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday, the Lakers turned the ball over 21 times. Kobe Bryant notched a triple-double with 40 points, 10 rebounds and 10 turnovers. It's a problem, one that can be naturally traced to the absence of Steve Nash. Bryant is leading the team in turnovers with 4.1 a game.  Dwight Howard is close behind at 3.2 while the remaining starters average a combined 6.7. Given the team has the second-worst free-throw shooting percentage at 66.8%, the Lakers are finding it very easy to lose basketball games.

With hockey embroiled in a lengthy lockout, the Kings mascot "Bailey" had some free time to visit with Lakers center Dwight Howard recently. Bailey challenged Howard to both a free throw and three-point shooting contest, while wearing the full lion costume. Surprising or no, Bailey won both . . . "Sometimes you have to lose to win," joked Howard afterwards. The Kings are the current NHL champions but with games canceled through December 14, they haven't had a chance to defend their title just yet. The NBA's recent lockout followed a similar path with a shortened season starting on Christmas Day.  It remains to be seen if hockey will be able to salvage the year before it's canceled in its entirety.

The Lakers have assigned rookie center Robert Sacre to the D-Fenders. Sacre hasn't gotten much of an opportunity to play for the Lakers during the regular season, sitting behind Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol and Jordan Hill in the rotation. The 7-foot Gonzaga Bulldog was taken with the 60th pick in the 2012 NBA draft. After a busy preseason, starting while Howard was out recovering from back surgery, Sacre has made just eight appearances this year for a total of 19 minutes. He'll join Darius Johnson-Odom with the Lakers' D-League affiliate.

The Bernie Bickerstaff era (4-1) finally came to a close as Mike D'Antoni took his place as the team's new head coach.  He had to work without Steve Nash (leg) and Steve Blake (abdominal strain), both sidelined with injuries. D'Antoni's debut was a challenging 95-90 win over the Brooklyn Nets.  With Metta World Peace emerging as a consistent offensive force, D'Antoni noted he expects even more from his forward , 17 to 20  points a game. D'Antoni also mentioned that he has no problem with teams intentionally fouling center Dwight Howard, saying he likes the math if Howard can hit one of two free throws per possession.

The Lakers have re-assigned rookie guard Darius Johnson-Odom to the D-Fenders. Johnson-Odom was sent to the D-League last week. He scored 22 points in a 120-117 win over the Bakersfield Jam in a preseason game on Nov. 17. The Lakers acquired Johnson-Odom on draft night from Dallas, who had selected him as the 55th overall pick. An athletic 6-2 shooting guard out of Marquette, Johnson-Odom has yet to score for the Lakers in four appearances.  Of course, he's played only six minutes in total, missing all four shot attempts (but he did collect four rebounds in that span)

As he accepted the head coach position for the NBA Development League's Los Angeles D-Fenders, Reggie Theus said he now has a chance to return to his roots. "My mom is 89 years old. I have a son that's a senior at Fairfax High School, and a daughter that's a freshman at Redondo Union, and one that just graduated from UC Irvine," the Los Angeles native said. "So for me to be home with family is very important at this point in my career. With various head-coaching and assistant stints in the NBA, college basketball and the AAU under his belt, Theus comes home after spending the past year as a Pac-12 analyst for Fox Sports Net. "The opportunity to work for the D-Fenders in an area of basketball that's about developing is really exciting.

More specifics will be ironed out in days to come, but the Lakers reached out to Devin Ebanks' representive to express interest in re-signing the small forward. Ebanks' agent, David Bauman, told The Times on Saturday night that General Manager Mitch Kupchak reached out to him via text message shortly after 9 p.m., which marked the beginning of free agency. Bauman said Kupchak reiterated the same sentiments in a follow-up phone conversation. "Mitch and I had a really good talk. Mitch told me how much the Lakers want Devin to return," Bauman said.

A season after parting ways with about 20 employees for cost-cutting reasons before the lockout, the Lakers are taking some steps in restoring their staff. The Lakers named Glenn Carraro as the team's assistant general manager after spending last season as both the director of basketball administration for the Lakers and as general manager of the D-Fenders, the Lakers' affiliate in the Development League. The Lakers were without an assistant general manager in the 2011-12 season after they didn't renew Ronnie Lester's contract.