Lakers Make It Up to Beat Nets 120-93

Last night’s match against the Los Angeles Lakers and the New Jersey Nets was supposed to be an easy match-up, as the Nets are mediocre and the Lakers are a one-loss team, but the game proved to be more interesting after all. The Nets were fierce competitors for the better part of three quarters but in the end the Lakers managed to turn the game into a 120-93 blowout. Although they took home the prize, the Lakers’ starters (with the exception of Pau Gasol, who scored 26 points) didn’t have a significant game (Bryant only scored 12 points).

Lakers coach Phil Jackson told the L.A. Times, “It’s a good sign. It’s a healthy sign, but we want Kobe to shoot the ball well and have good games. That’s the focal point of our offense, to get things through him.” Although Trevor Ariza only scored seven points, Jackson was nonetheless impressed: “Trevor’s overall speed is a threat to teams–his quickness, his steals and ability to get out on the wing or complete the basket on a long pass up the court. Trevor has really done things without having to have play-calls for him or special attention. He just gets his points hustling, offensive rebounding, stealing the ball and running the lanes.” While it may have been a off night for Byrant, the Lakers’ leading offensive player, their defense was on par.

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 26, 2008 - Post a comment

Lakers Need to Step Up Defense

The Los Angeles Lakers may still be leading the NBA in scoring, but the team has slipped to fifth in defense after Sunday night’s win against the Sacramento Kings and fans will be watching to see how their defense fares against the New Jersey Jets tonight.Averaging 105.9 points per game, the Lakers (11-1) have given up 92.7. New Jersey (6-6) is currently sixth in the league in scoring (99.9) and 26th in points given up (103.2).

Lakers coach Phil Jackson focused on defense during yesterday’s practice, telling the Los Angeles Times, “The first sequence that comes in a situation like that is stopping penetration. You stop that and usually the ball stops. We didn’t do a relatively good job on defense, I thought, containing some of the better guards last week.” New Jersey’s guard duo Vince Carter and Devin Harris are in the top 10 in scoring in the NBA (with Carter averaging 24.2 points per game and Harris averaging 23.2) so they will really test the Lakers defense. Check out the game tonight at Staples Center to see what happens.
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Permalink - Posted in General on November 25, 2008 - Post a comment

Lakers 118, Kings 108

The Los Angeles Lakers may have beaten the Sacramento Kings 118 to 108 last night at Staples Center, but it wasn’t the type of win fans were expecting. The Lakers offense was their main reason for winning, as their defense was lacking, allowing the Kings 53.4% shooting. Kobe Bryant told the L.A. Times, “I’m not happy with this win. I felt like we didn’t particularly get better tonight. We could have played much more solid defensively.” This game was supposed to signal the beginning of an easy stretch for the Lakers, as it was the first of several matchups against teams with losing records (the Kings have the seventh-worst record in the NBA).

Bryant continued to express his disappointment to the Times, saying, “Offense comes easy to us. Defense is the part we’ve really got to focus on. Whether you have all the guys in double figures, whatever it is, it means nothing. Winning a championship, you have to defend and you go to rebound. We’ll do better next game.”  Sacramento coach Reggie Theus commented on the Lakers defense as well: “They have a couple of guys that aren’t great defensive players. Kobe is a  great defensive player. Trevor [Ariza] is a great defensive player. But they have guys that aren’t great defensive players.” The Lakers improved 11-1 and eight of their next nine games will be against team currently without winning records. Tuesday night the Lakers play against the New Jersey Nets (6-6) at Staples Center.

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 24, 2008 - Post a comment

Lakers Beat Suns Easily

Last night the Lakers and the Suns were reunited but it wasn’t quite the face off fans were expecting. Lakers coach Phil Jackson and Shaquille O’Neal hugged it out before the game, in which Kobe Bryant had 24 points and the Lakers took home the prize all too easily. The Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns 105-92 at US Airways Center in parts thanks to Vladamir Radmanovic getting back his shooting skills and the Lakers up on their defense. The Suns’ defense has been hurting since Mike D’Antoni left to coach the New York Knicks and the Lakers drove into their weakness, holding the Suns almost nine points below their season average.

Phoenix fans may have been holding signs reading: “Mission: Beat L.A.,” but when the Lakers pulled away from a 50-44 halftime edge for an 80-67 advantage at the end of the third quarter their morale started to dwindle. Then Lamar Odom drilled a three-pointer with 8:34 to play and the Lakers had an 89-71 lead. The Suns fans began to file out of the arena as “Let’s go, Lakers” got louder and louder. The highly anticipated match up between O’Neal and Andrew Bynum was just about the only thing that didn’t go the Lakers way. O’Neal finished with 15 points and nine rebounds in 27 minutes. Bynum finished with 10 points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes.

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 21, 2008 - Post a comment

Lakers-Suns Rivalry Will Come to a Head Thursday Night

Phoenix Suns’ center Shaquille O’Neal will face off against his former team on Thursday night after a recent war of words with Lakers coach Phil Jackson. Shaq may have failed to help the Suns advance past the first round of the playoffs last season after arriving in February, but his presence hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Lakers. Last week O’Neal spoke with a former Lakers beat writer (who now works for the Sacramento Bee) about his former team, claiming that he never really had any beef with Kobe Bryant and blaming Jackson for the constant conflict on the championship-winning Lakers teams of years past. When asked if he would return to the Lakers as a free agent in 2010 as Andrew Bynum’s backup, O’Neal said, “I don’t like to think that far ahead, but anything could happen.”

Phil Jackson, however, was more candid with reporters on the subject of Shaq, telling reporter that he did call O’Neal and Bryant into his office one time, “maybe after the first championship.” It appears as if O’Neal is trying to eat his words, as he denied ever criticizing Jackson: “It just wouldn’t be right to say that now, 10 years later. On the record, Phil has always done right by me. Great guy, he always took care of me. We won championships and it would be idiotic of me to say something bad about him now.” Bryant has remained mum on the subject. The Suns are 8-4 with Steve Nash falling behind compared to last season and it will be interesting to see what happens between Bynum and O’Neal, as they have only faced off for two minutes since Bynum was drafted in 2005. Bynum told reporters with a smile: “We keep missing each other. It’s going to be an interesting experience for me. He’s real big, so I’m just going to try and keep him away from the rim.”

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 20, 2008 - Post a comment

Lakers Back to Winning

Last night the Lakers beat the Chicago Bulls 116-109 and redeemed themselves after losing to the Detroit Pistons last Friday. Kobe Bryant had 21 points, Pau Gasol had 34 and the Lakers are officially back on the winning side, after Bryant called the Bulls “gritty” prior to the game despite Chicago’s status as a middle-of-the-road team from the East. The push for the Lakers came during the third quarter, as they created distance with a 12-minute, 29-18 advance that put them enough ahead for fans to get comfortable at 90-74. The Lakers are now 8-1 and the Bulls 5-6.

Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson told the L.A. Times, “That’s a sign of what this team should be about. I don’t know if they’re ready to claim that yet, bu that’s what makes a difference in NBA ballgames, is to find one space where you can really bust open a game.” The Lakers were frustrated during the first half but Andrew Bynum scored nine points and took six rebounds in the third quarter, telling the Times, “All I can do is try to go out there and be aggressive.” The Lakers will face off against Phoenix (and Shaquille O’Neal) Thursday in Phoenix.

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 19, 2008 - Post a comment

Lakers vs. Bulls Predictions

Kobe Bryant expects another tough game against the Chicago Bulls even though they aren’t as formidable as Detroit, the team that broke the Lakers’ winning streak.The Lakers will play the Bulls, who have started their season with injuries and are 5-5, tonight at Staples Center and after losing to Detroit 106-95 Friday Bryant told the L.A. Times it will be another chance at a “gritty” team from the East. “That’s what makes the season exciting. You have these runs where it looks like you’re just unbeatable, you might go 82-0 or win 70 games. Then you lose one, it’s like ‘[They're] fighting for an eighth seed.’ But for us, it’s a nice and steady pace,” Bryant explained to the Times.

An ironic choice of words for Byrant, as the Bulls’ season has been anything but steady. Bulls’ guard Kirk Hinrich is out for three months after undergoing thumb surgery, forward Tyrus Thomas hasn’t matched up to his fourth pick (in the 2006 draft) expectations and the team has failed to take advantage of an early schedule full of home games. Chicago does have rookie guard Derrick Rose, however, who is averaging 18.9 points, 5.6 assists and five rebounds a game (only seven players in NBA history have averaged over 18 points, five assists and five rebounds as rookies-Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Oscar Robertson, LeBron James, Grant Hill, Steve Francis and Alvin Adams).

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 18, 2008 - Post a comment

First Loss of the Season for the Lakers

The Lakers lost to the Pistons 106-95 Friday and are no longer the only undefeated team in the league. Allen Iverson and Rasheed Wallace scored 25 points each to lead Detroit to victory in the second half and Lakers fans, who have a tendency to leave early because their team is winning, were seen leaving the stadium in the last few minutes of Friday’s game simply to not have to watch them lose. Lakers forward Lamar Odom told the L.A. Times, “We didn’t do nothing good as a team–defense, offense, extra effort, loose balls, steals.” Although Kobe Bryant scored 29 points against the Pistons, he wasn’t shooting straight and only made 12 out of a whopping 30 shots.

Derek Fisher missed 12 of 16 shots, finishing with nine points. Lakers coach Phil Jackson told the Times, “Kobe and Fish both had difficult nights shooting the ball. You’re not going to win sometimes when that happens.” The Pistons led by as many as 20 points in the fourth quarter before the Lakers seemingly made a comeback, but they still lost when the final horn sounded. Kwame Brown had a good game last night and Jackson commended him, saying “He outplayed Andrew tonight…but Kwame’s capable. We know that he’s had good games, and he had one tonight.” Six of the Lakers next seven games will be at home and only two of them are against teams with winning records. Next up, they face off against Chicago on Tuesday.

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 17, 2008 - Post a comment

Will the Lakers Schedule Help Them Keep On Winning?

It appears as if the Lakers schedule is working in heir favor, as seven of their next eight games are home games and just three of them are against teams with winning records. The Lakers are the NBA’s only undefeated team and after a two-game sweep at Dallas and New Orleans, news of the upcoming schedule is only helping them continue their winning streak. When told of the schedule for the next 16 days, Lakers coach Phil Jackson told the L.A. Times, “Wow. We’re not thinking about anything but once game at a time, and that’s a hard concept right now because when things start going well, you start anticipating that, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re going to win games easily.’ There’s no such thing in this game.”

The Lakers will play Detroit tonight and upcoming games will be against Chicago, New Jersey, Sacramento and Dallas. For their only road game in the next two weeks, the Lakers will travel to Phoenix. Lakers’ Lamar Odom told the Times that they don’t plan on taking any team lightly because more wins usually mean fewer practices, in other words the players get more time off the better they do. As of now the Lakers will probably take a day off Saturday or Sunday.

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 14, 2008 - Post a comment

Lakers Continue Perfect Record

Lakers win 93-86 in New Orleans to improve to 7-0, but Lakers coach Phil Jackson told the team, “You sucked the joy out of a good victory.” The Lakers had a 21-point lead early in the fourth quarter but the blowout stopped there and their lead dwindled down to three. Luckily the Lakers recovered in time to narrowly beat the New Orleans Hornets to remain the NBA’s only undefeated team. The collapse of the Lakers was prevented only by key defensive plays by Lamar Odom and Kobe Bryant’s late three-point shot. With a 51-30 halftime lead, it looked like the Lakers would emerge victorious without breaking a sweat, but the game proved more exciting than that.

Kobe Bryant reflected on the game to the L.A. Times saying, “We’re perfectionists. We want to make sure we do everything well. You look at it as a learning experience this early in the season.”  Although the Lakers remain undefeated, their current trend of making it up in the fourth quarter didn’t impress Phil Jackson, who quipped sarcastically, “If at the end of the season it’s like this, then it would mean a lot, wouldn’t it?”

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 13, 2008 - Post a comment


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