Kobe’s Got Some Brand New Shoes

Lakers guard Kobe Bryant unveiled his new sneaker at a live global web cast inside the basketball game at Westchester High yesterday.Since entering the NBA in 1996 Bryant has seen the league become a global and international game and his brand new Nike Zoom Kobe IV is one way he is capitalizing on that. Bryant told the L.A. Times, “The world is a smaller place. Like we sat here and I’m communicating with people in Asia, Italy. I mean, it’s pretty unbelievable.” The 30-year-old is an international star, with his No. 24 Jersey the No. 1 seller in China, even managing to outsell China’s Yao Ming. Bryant said the “weight of the show is drastically lighter” and also said he had a hand in designing the shoe.
Over 1,000 media members were online for Kobe’s webcast from China, Japan and other parts of Asia as well as Europe and Byrant answered their questions as well as questions from students and local media.  Westchester alumnus and Lakers teammate Trevor Ariza was on hand for the webcast, saying “The best player in the NBA is here at my high school and that’s a cool thing. He used to come here when I was playing here. For him to be here, that’s a big thing.” Bryant will debut his sneaker on Christmas Day when the Lakers play at Staples Center against the Boston Celtics.

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Permalink - Posted in General on December 12, 2008 - Post a comment

The Lakers Beat the Suns…But Not By Much

Last night the Lakers played the Suns and although Phoenix only had eight players available, their 115-110 victory was a shaky one. Lakers coach Phil Jackson started Luke Walton instead of Vladimir Radmanovic but the Lakers still weren’t able to take advantage of the fact that Shaquille O’Neal (who was attending funeral services for his grandmother in New Jersey) was missing. Everyone expected the Suns to be the disadvantaged team, as they recently lost to two sub-.500 teams, but on the court it was the Lakers that looked short-handed. Grant Hill scored 23 points on nine-for-11 shooting and former UCLA star Matt Barnes made five three-point attempts on the way to 25 points.

At Staples Center the Lakers improved 18-3 overall, 11-1 at home, but were obviously not pleased with their performance. Jackson declined to open up his postgame news conference with a brief statement, instead commenting dryly, “Maybe I’ll put it on tape and just run it right here on the podium so you guys don’t have to ask me questions anymore.” What questions was Jackson referring to? Well, they were probably along the lines of, “What’s wrong with the Lakers?” Jackson wasn’t too worried when asked about Kobe Bryant’s performance: “Not worrisome. Maybe bothersome would be a better term, a minor drop down from worrisome.”

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Permalink - Posted in General on December 11, 2008 - Post a comment

Lakers Defeated By Kings

Last night the Lakers endured their third (and worst) defeat against the Sacramento Kings, who scored 113 points to the Lakers’ 101. Arco Arena hosted the Lakers loss Tuesday, in which the Kings sought to come back from an unremarkable 5-16 season, make that 6-16. Kobe Bryant had 28 points with nine-for-25 shooting and Bynum had eight points and four rebounds in 21 minutes. “We want Luke!” chanted a few Lakers fans toward the end of the game, referring to bench-warming Lakers forward Luke Walton. Lamar Odom, who had 11 points and eight rebounds, told the L.A. Times, “You’ve got to respect your opponent to win games consistently. We came here thinking we were going to win. We’ve got to come out with a lot of energy and play the right way the whole game. If we don’t, then we could lose to Westchester High School.” Ouch.

While the Boston Celtics (20-2) were thought of as the Lakers’ fiercest opponent early on in the season, they now trail Cleveland (18-3) with a 17-3 record. Bryant commented on the Lakers loss, saying “We’ve got to focus on defense pretty much exclusively and not worry about the offensive side of things. We’ve go to get back to that, start sharpening it up a little bit.” When asked if any of the Lakers played well, coach Phil Jackson answered, “Pau had a fine game.” And he did, scoring 25 points with 12 rebounds. One Kings fan had a sign that read, “All we want for Christmas is to beat L.A.” so it looks like Christmas came early this year.

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Permalink - Posted in General on December 10, 2008 - Post a comment

Worries About Trevor Ariza Dispelled

When Trevor Ariza arrived in a trade with Orlando last year there was some question as to how he would fit in with the Lakers, but by now he is fitting right in. Last year Brian Cook and Maurice Evans had just been traded to Orlando so the Lakers were concerned about the status of their second-unit chemistry. Add in the fact that no one really knew much about Ariza and you can see why the Lakers were worried. So here’s a little bio on Ariza: After excelling at Westchester High, he had a solid first season at UCLA before entering the 2004 draft (he was picked 44th overall by New York). In his fourth NBA season he was playing limited minutes after Orlando signed All-Star forward Rashard Lewis. When the Lakers acquired Ariza he was averaging 3.3 points and 2.2 rebounds but now the 23-year-old has been leading the Lakers with 1.95 steals per game and averaging 9.6 points and 5.2 rebounds in 24.2 minutes.

Lakers official Bill Bertka told the L.A. Times, “He’s something refreshing. He’s a lot like Michael Cooper was athletically.”  Ariza has been praised for his ability to create turnovers often capped with a dunk but has been inconsistent on his offense. Ariza told the Times, “It definitely helped me work on things that I wasn’t really [good] at doing–shooting the ball and trying to feel more confident on the court. I devoted all my [off-season] time to shooting. It was a seven-day-a-week thing.” Jackson didn’t start Ariza this season, but acknowledged his capability to play “heavier-type minutes than just bench minutes.” Ariza becomes an unrestricted free agent in July and it is unknown whether he will stay with the Lakers. The team will have the advantage of signing him for up to six years while other teams can only offer a max of five years, although Ariza is trying to focus on the present and not worry about the future, saying “When that time comes, it’ll be an exciting time. Hopefully things work out so I can stay home.”

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Permalink - Posted in General on December 9, 2008 - Post a comment

The Sun Finally Rises for the Lakers

Sun Yue played his first NBA regular-season game with Lakers on Sunday, filling in for Luke Walton, who was warming the bench due to an illness. Walton was suffering flu-like symptoms so Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson offered the roster spot to Sun over DJ Mbenga. Sun looked nervous during his first active stint playing this season and scored four points in his 5:14 of play. After the game, against the Milwaukee Bucks at Staples Center, he told the L.A. Times in fairly good English, “I feel different. (Usually) I’m already on the go now.” He’s right, he 6-9 guard  from China is usually the first one out of the locker room.

The Lakers first acquired Sun in 2007 with a second-round pick (40th overall) but he didn’t sign until Aug. 25 of this year and the crowd was happy about it: “I think we were both happy tonight. We both have a great night. I think it was a fantastic night for me, but also a fantastic night for the fans. I showed them something. At least I’m not making them disappointed tonight,” Sun told the Times.Despite the buzz about Sun’s first game, he said he was “excited but not nervous.” Sun will most likely play a few games on the Lakers’ NBA Development League team, the D-Fenders.

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Permalink - Posted in General on December 8, 2008 - Post a comment

Lakers vs. Washington Wizards Tonight

The Lakers (15-2) will face off against the Washington Wizards (3-13) tonight. Although the Lakers have won the last three games against the Wizards, Lakers coach Phil Jackson has recently been commenting on how well the Wizards have been playing. Tonight the Wizards are without All-Star guard Gilbert Arenas (left knee surgery) and center Brendan Haywood (torn ligament, right wrist) and Washington just replaced coach Eddie Jordan with Ed Tapscott.

The Lakers will need to pay attention to their defense tonight, as they have been experiencing defensive breakdowns recently. Lakers Derek Fisher told the L.A. Times that he and Jordan Farmar must do their part as the first line of defense but shouldn’t be the only ones held accountable: “The great defensive teams are not only the ones that are great on on-ball defense, but it’s really those four guys behind the guy guarding the ball that make the difference. We’re still improving in that area.” Those four Fisher is referring to are Kobe Bryant, Vladimir Radmanovic, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson says the team’s weakness is “screen-roll” defense, but they may get a break tonight with the Wizard’s point guard out.

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Permalink - Posted in General on December 5, 2008 - Post a comment

Lakers Beat 76ers

Although the Lakers defense didn’t show much improvement, Kobe Bryant scored 32 points and the Lakers bounced back to beat the Philadelphia 76ers 114-102. The 76ers were 24th in the league in scoring, with 94.3 points per game, but last night at Wachovia Center the Lakers were set back by a pair of point guards. Andre Miller had 26 points, eight rebounds and five assists for the 76ers (8-11) and backup Louis Williams scored all 15 of his points in the fourth quarter. In response to the persistent lack of defensive effort (highlighted by the lakers loss to Indiana 118-117), Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson told the L.A. Times resignedly, “We are what we are, I guess. A good offensive team.” That was proved by the Lakers making a season-high 58.1% of their shots.

Bryant had 32 points on 12-for-20 shooting and Pau Gasol had 22 points of eight-for-12 shooting and while Andrew Bynum scored 18 points on seven-for-11 shooting he had three rebounds that caused an irritated Jackson to mutter, “Some of the guards outrebounded Andrew tonight.” Bynum offered a rebuttal: “I might have gotten some [rebounds] the last six minutes, again. You never know until the fat lady sings and he sings for me a lot.”

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Permalink - Posted in General on December 4, 2008 - Post a comment

Los Angeles Lakers Lose to the Indiana Pacers 118-117

In an unexpected defeat, the Lakers lost to the Indiana Pacers 118-117 last night after becoming unglued in the fourth quarter. Approaching the fourth quarter the Pacers had a 16-point deficit but they were able to overcome it to beat the Lakers largely due to a last-second tip-in by forward Troy Murphy. Lakers coach Phil Jackson told the L.A. Times the play that basically ended the game was “fortuitous.” As for Pacers coach Jim O’Brien, he said the game was “special … a great, great feeling for everyone who is a Pacer.” The Lakers posted 30-36-35 across the first three quarters but fell apart in the fourth, 32-16.

Lakers Lamar Odom weighed in on the loss: “That’s what happens when you put yourself in a position against a team that we should have beat by 10 or more points. We had them down 16 in the fourth. That was our first letdown of the season.” The Lakers had only 18 assists to the Pacers’ 27 and although the Lakers were awarded more than double the free throws of the Pacers, they were only able to capitalize on 73.3% (33 of 45) of them while the Pacers made 95.2% (20 of 21). To summarize Kobe Bryant told the Times, “We could have done much better, obviosuly, defensively. We’re not happy about that. We’ve got to get back on track.”

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Permalink - Posted in General on December 3, 2008 - Post a comment

Lakers Strive for Faster Starts

The Lakers next three games are against teams that are 15-32, so instead of setting winning as their goal (which is almost inevitable) they are aiming for faster starts as a personal team goal instead. The Lakers will play Indiana (6-10), Philadelphia (7-10) and Washington (2-12) and plan on trying to improve upon their slow starts. Lakers center Andrew Bynum told the L.A. Times: “I would say the first quarter. We have to limit the amount of points by the other teams. If we’re not at home, we won’t have the fans or the atmosphere. It’s going to be momentum for them.”

Although the Lakers have an incredible record this season, they have set a trend for not doing so stellar in the first half; their average point differential going into halftime is plus-4.9 points, but their average margin of victory is 15.5 points per game. The Lakers are 14-1 overall and 5-0 on the road and have another back-to-back tonight at Indiana, Wednesday at Philadelphia. Lakers forward Pau Gasol told the Times, “Usually teams play better at home. You don’t want to come out thinking you have the win guaranteed. We have to go there, play hard and set a tone early on and do what we’ve been doing.”

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Permalink - Posted in General on December 2, 2008 - Post a comment

Lakers Coach Phil Jackson Plans Team-Oriented Approach

After last year’s devastating loss to the Boston Celtics in the NBA finals, Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson says the team plans on sticking to a team-oriented approach as opposed to relying on Koby Bryant’s personal scoring records. Two seasons ago Bryant scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors, the second-highest point total in NBA history, second only to Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point effort in 1962. Jackson used last season’s NBA finals to cite his case as to why it would be better if Bryant didn’t have a repeat performance of his 81-point scoring record to the L.A. Times: “We know that Boston literally said, ‘We’ve got to take Kobe out, we just have to throw out defense at them. We have to have more guys fit into our offense if we’re going to be a team that can compete with those clubs.”

This season Bryant has had fewer minutes and lower stats across the board; on Sunday’s game against the Raptors he scored 23 points and failed to beat Chamberlain to 22,000, which would make him the youngest player to score that many points. In 1966 Chamberlain was 30 years old and 100 days when he hit the 22,000 mark and on Sunday Bryant was 30 years and 99 days old. Jackson reinforced his hopes that Bryant would put the team first, saying, “Kobe does have agendas at times that will come out. A couple years ago, when things didn’t go well, he went on that tear. He could get into that [again]. You hope that he stays focused on what the overall plan is.”

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Permalink - Posted in General on December 1, 2008 - Post a comment


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