National Basketball Association

Report: Lakers blame phones for lateness

Published Jan. 5, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

If the Los Angeles Lakers weren't having enough problems on the court lately, technology seems to be failing them as well now.

Three Lakers were late to Sunday morning's shootaround before their loss to the Memphis Grizzlies because they say the alarm clocks on their iPhones malfunctioned, according to an ESPN.com report.

Lakers forward Pau Gasol said he was late arriving to the shootaround, but a team official said Tuesday that Gasol missed it entirely.

Luke Walton was one of the other two Lakers who arrived late, but the third Laker was not identified. ESPN.com sources said it was not Kobe Bryant.

iPhone users across the world have recently reported widespread alarm issues, citing a New Year's glitch with the Apple product.

Gasol said Lakers head coach Phil Jackson did not mention the tardiness to shootaround after Sunday night's loss to Memphis.

"No, I don't think that would be fair," Gasol told ESPN.com.

Jackson said, however, that shootaround absences did have some consequences on the outcome of the game.

"I always think that it affects the team's performance when everybody is not in their places ready to go when it's 10 o'clock in the morning and we're supposed to be ready to go through a film session," Jackson told the web site. "Then everybody is behind a little bit and everybody is wondering what happened to somebody else and then the messages conveyed aren't there in the same way. So, it affects (the team), but you have to be grown up enough to know that you can't let that affect your own game."

Gasol struggled in the loss, tallying only 10 points and eight rebounds while committing five turnovers.