i remember how clear the lanes were that night against dirk. i did figure there must’ve been some reason he didn’t drive. since it was early on in the season, i blamed fatigue. it wasn’t as if dirk was sagging back to protect the lane.

yeah, i feel like a bit of a crazy homer bumping the lakers up so high. i know the competition hasn’t been the greatest so far on this road trip, but they’ve beaten them severely like they should have. i really like how the offense looks, the defense is sexy, and on top of that other really pro habits seem like they’re being built.

get minnesota on a non back-to-back, i think that’s about an equal fight.

chicago away and not the 2nd game of a back-to-back will be a good of a test. would you rate the bulls higher than the lakers at the moment? gimme a number in your next post.

Stats without context are only half the picture. That’s one key way advanced hoop stats are differnet than what has happened in baseball, the people working with teams have basketball backgrounds and understand the need to meld the two worlds.

About Dallas switching against the Suns, the book on Phoenix often is to switch and make Nash beat you as a shooter. Dangerous, but less so then letting him get his teammates better shots.

i’ve been wondering just how good this team is now, if the good habits aren’t reversed, with a goose egg contribution from kwame brown.

i don’t think i’d put them in the top 10 teams, although i’m not sure. i’d probably rate them a touch above or below minnesota… that high because it seems like they’re developing a killer instinct.

i remember that dallas-phoenix game. did you see it? i couldn’t believe how dallas was just switching dirk on nash at the end.

i was even more surprised that nash didn’t take advantage of it at ALL. a seven footer on him and a whole side of the court cleared out, all he did was pull up for jumpers. must’ve been tired.

stats are nice, but they don’t tell the whole story. a guy on the comments of cuban’s blog used 82 games to prove that kobe is a TERRIBLE clutch shooter. we all know that is only half the story.

i would suspect the switching stat has its own half-truth. either it being run by a lot of teams that are unable to take a real advantage of the pick and roll, or [more likely] it’s the type of defense the mavs have been the least inept at.

Thankfully, Phil couldn’t give a flying flip.

D. George has been playing a fair amount of minutes coming off the bench for the Lakers but he’s the one guy they may get rid of who has the most trade value. I’m just not sure how much.

The Grady hiring depressed me. I still don’t understand how you fire a solid manager like Tracy who always kept his team in the thick of things, even when the talent wasn’t necessarily there. Especially when you then go and fire the GM who got rid of Tracy. And now we get Grady. It’s rough being a Dodger fan these days. A like minded article on the subject: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5148452.

My pregnant wife and I were at the Sac/LAL X-mas game in ’03 when they lost to the Kings. She was screaming (and cursing like a sailor) so much she had to go puke in the third quarter. “Honey, you need to calm down” wasn’t working then either.