Howard not playing his game.

In my opinion, Dwight's performance was affected because he isn't the first option in Lakers offense. Unlike in Orlando, he is the leading scorer and the main man so he gets the ball every offensive position. Lakers are full of superstars so the chances that a star player like Dwight get's to score will be limited. Kobe rarely pass and he's the Lakers 1st option, Dwight just got to rebound the ball and set picks in order for him to score.

I have to agree with you, I don't know if it's the back issues that he is still having or not but Dwight Howard is definitely not playing anywhere near the way he used to. There are games where he has like seven points and less then ten rebounds. I don't think it's fair to place all the blame on Dwight Howard though because the whole team is completely disorganized and their bench doesn't really do enough for them. Mike Dantoni is not a good coaching fit either and that is why the Lakers are pretty pathetic at defense. They just look like they are slacking when it comes to the defensive end and I've seen some pretty pathetic games by the Lakers. I agree with you that sometimes it doesn't seem like Dwight is trying and after all the years he has been in the NBA he still has yet to improve his free throw percentage. He's just not as dominant as he was with the Magic and who knows how long it will take him until he doesn't really feel like playing for the Lakers anymore and he is surrounded by a bunch of controversy again. What I'm kind of disappointed by is that he was still elected as an all-star. In my opinion there are a good amount of centers or power forwards that should have taken his spot on the western conference team.