Why didn't he have a bounce-back effort like the last time he was ejected from a game, against Denver, then dominated against Portland?
Howard: "Look at the stat sheet."
Fouls?
"No, look at the stat sheet."
Turnovers?
"Look at the stat sheet."
Then a reporter brought up Howard's shot total of five, of which he made two. (Howard shot 4-for-8 from the free throw line, also, so the meager total of five shots is a bit skewed.)
How can you get more shots?
Howard: "You guys know. It's simple. Play inside-out."
What can you do to play inside-out?
Howard: "There's not nothing I can do. Just continue to play. Not get frustrated. As hard as it is, I can't get frustrated."
The perplexing part is that Howard said the team needs to keep its faith in one another in one breath, then in the next breath he vaguely referred to the stat sheet that saw him go 2-for-5 ... while Bryant shot 7-for-22, extending Bryant's three-game slump to a 25-for-79 total from the field.
Howard didn't explicitly blame Bryant, the way Kobe asked the media to do Sunday, but he might as well have.