I’m here–but my comments usually come very late. This time without Lamar will be interesting. We already saw a bit of Powell and even the Sun as well as the ubiquitous Machine (not yet fully tuned up). Even without Luke, Jordan, and Lamar, the Lakers are tough!

Let’s say, during Odom’s absence, the Lakers were to win every game. Keep him out until the Clips game on the 21st – 2 weeks of rest seems reasonable. That means the upcoming stretch includes games against Miami, Houston, SA, Orlando, and Cleveland (side note – yikes…). Or even if the team goes 5-2 or 6-1 against that bunch, which would be a pretty pleasant outcome considering the competition.

Would you then be forced to admit that Lamar is not so vital as you once believed? Or would you claim small sample size?

And if it’s the latter, doesn’t that mean that your proclamations of Lamar’s importance being proved in the upcoming games are equally as vulnerable to the same counter-argument?

I actually like Odom a lot – I think he’s a great player, and honestly believe he deserves a lot of commendation for his time here. But he’s expensive, and a valuable piece – both for his contract, and his relative value for other teams vs L.A. So I’m not quite as sold as some folks on the “must keep Lamar” train.

Not saying the upcoming games prove -anything- one way or another. Simply pointing out that trying to use a week or two of games as proof of pretty much anything is… difficult.

Re: “you are about to see just how much they need him. It started last night.”

What I notice is that when Ariza’s energy is a bit off (like when he had the flu a few weeks back or last night) the whole team seems a bit sleepy. Last night’s problems began before LO was injured and his absence only exasperated what was a depressed effort by the team as a whole (Kobe and Sasha exempt). I’m sure they’ll be fine tonight.

Re: taking the luster off the Celtics win.

I’ve been watching the C’s effect on teams and fans alike since this season began, and David Thorpe’s chat mentions this as well, but people hate the C’s. You could see it in the Charlotte game last night. I heard it from Portland fans on and since Christmas. I know how I feel about them. The C’s have been pissing people off with their cheap shots, their disrespectful behavior and their general bullying. When we had Shaq, we had a team with every opportunity to be a bully and it wasn’t done with the same weird insecurity that the Celtics have been displaying. I read someone say about KG that he likes to get in people’s face and body up on people but if you stand up to him and give him some of his own medicine he backs down. I think the Lakers may have given the C’s some of their own medicine on Christmas and to a certain extent their whole team has backed down a bit. That is not to say they won’t get it together. I expect them to play the Cavs in the Eastern finals but, I think this exposes some element of KG’s unclutch persona and a weakness that can and has now been exploited by the league.

The fact that we play them in the 4th road game in the span of 6 days,which also happens to be the 2nd game of a back to back, PLUS the fact that Boston looks terrible right now just took away some luster for me.

I want to go to that game, but all of those factors make me hesitant to shell out good money for a trap game.