Record: 11-36
What Vegas says: Lakers -9, Pittsburgh -4
Offense: 94.5
Defense: 100.0
Last 10: 0-10
Injury Update: Forward Lamar Odom said he would not play tonight against Charlotte because of slightly torn rib cartilage and a minor case of whiplash. (Insert watching Kobe go by joke here) Sasha or D George are likely candidates to replace him in the starting line up.
Young and Injured: Playing without injured leading scorer Gerald Wallace and leading rebounder Emeka Okafor, Charlotte has dropped a franchise-record 13 in a row. Ex-Laker Kareem Rush has just returned from a finger injury that caused him to miss 13 games. Rookie Sean May is out indefinitely after recently having knee surgery. Melvin Ely will be back in the starting line up.
Since the Big Night: Bryant has shot 34-91 over the last 4 with a shooting percentage of 37%. (If anyone knows how to calculate his TS% and has the time, help a brother out.)Have the defenses “learned” Bryant? Has he become predictable beyond the fact that we know he is going to shoot the ball? Doubtful, but obviously the backlash of scoring 81 points is that defenses will want to make sure, if possible, that they are not the next victims.
More familiar faces: Ex-Laker Jumaine Jones will start and be among the few who might be able to guard Bryant decently. Bernard Robinson should also get an opportunity after having done a serviceable job in their previous game in L.A. Kobe was 9 for 30, but Robinson commited the foul that sent him to the line to ice the game.
Desperate means dangerous: In their last meeting, the Lakers came out sluggish and almost handed the game over. Chris Mihm scored 21 and Sasha Vujacic scored a season high 12 points. You may remember it as the game that had the Staples Center crowd giving courtside seated Shaquille “It’s not easy to be me†O’Neal a warm round of applause accompanied by his familiar “Superman†theme song.
The Bard of Chick Hearn Court: Check out excerpts from the Kobe penned article in Dime Magazine:
“The only thing I truly worry about is that my drive and my will are sometimes too much for my teammates to handle. Do I expect too much from them? How can I elevate them to play with my same passion every night?”
More for the bulletin board from Charlotte.com :
“Los Angeles has a different dynamic. Get rid of every teammate who will compete with Kobe for shots and headlines, and get Bryant a scoring championship. â€
A measure of respect or popularity?: Kobe Bryant was selected to the NBA All-Star game for an eighth consecutive season, receiving 450,000 more votes than he did last season.
Bynum inspired by snub?: Andrew Bynum will not be playing in the rookie game for now. The participants were selected by the NBA’s assistant coaches and the results were announced the day of the Knick game. Look for the Man-cub to get some run tonight if this one gets out of hand.
Micahel Jordan versus the Dallas Cowboys: Who doesn’t love the absurdity of Super Bowl prop bets? Oddly enough, the roots of these goofy bets can be traced to Jordan. “In the ’93 Super Bowl, The Cowboys were expected to score around 29 points, just about Jordan’s per game average, and you could take one against the other on that Sunday.”
-Gatinho
Goo says
I believe ESPN’s Chad Ford has an Insider (sigh) article about possible tradeable players/scenarios. I usually don’t care for the blubber ESPN throws out in its “rumor” mill but a picture of Devean George appeared right above the headline. Anybody kind enough to share some excerpts?
Gatinho says
In a nutshell, the only players the Lakers would trade are George and Medvedenko. Trading for players midseason is difficult with the learning curve invovled with the Triangle.
Goo says
I don’t know how the salary cap figures work out, but I would think about a trade of Medvedenko for a spot up 3 point shooter, Jim Jackson perhaps? It’s pretty obvious now that Kobe is going to see firm double teams the second he touches the ball. With Jim, Odom, Smush, Sasha, and Cook all on the team, one of them has to be on fire on any given night to give us atleast 50% on wide open 3’s
Steve says
Watching the game…4 qtr right now with lakers losing by 8 how in gods name is Sasha Vujavic in the rotation
??? He is just plain horrible and defensively he stinks as well…..Other than Smush once again none is stepping up to help Kobe…Brian Cook nice shooter but soft like a doughboy…Devean George is shooting 1-8 so far which is the case lately…..Bynum looked good but he only got 4 minutes…..aggghh…watching the lakers hurts sometimes…most of the times….Phil should get Brynum in for some kind of defensive stopper….sheesh the bobcats suck!!!
Patrick says
TS% = Pts/(2*(FGA + (.44*FTA)))
Kobe’s TS% was .7969.
At least he had an good shooting game (though he did have an unexceptable number of turnovers).
Goo says
I think we just found out what the offense looks like without Odom handling the ball..what was that…like 8 TO’s by Kobe against the f’ing Bobcats? 16 TOs at halftime?
John R says
Embarrassing.
What now Laker fan? A team that is close to contending doesn’t lose that game.
Later Show says
As was mentioned before, they’re doomed to medocrity for quite awhile. Blame mgmt for not pulling the trigger on any deal. Why not Big Dog/puppy Glen Robinson, or even Spree? Ronnie is not the scorer but a hustle/rebounder/defender perhaps.
chris henderson says
speaking about management…
I was very upset at the start of the year when in the pre-season, Jumaine Jones was warming the bench, no PT at all, so then it’s no surprise when he got dealt. but for a 2nd round pick???!!? wtf were they thinking???
I remember last year, and when JJ was on the floor, he brought a good 3 pt shot, lot’s of hustle, and it seemed to me that when he was on the floor, the team played better overall, the hustle was contaigous. (one of the FEW bright spots of last season), so, when he was dealt, I felt that was a pretty bad move.
then, in the LA Times today, to hear PJ say they had “no idea he was that good”…wtf??? …WTF!!??
WHO knows what IS going on on that team???
I was actually happy to see JJ light it up.
I’m sorry, I’ve been a die hard Laker fan for 20 (plus) years, I used to be depressed atfer a loss, took it as hard as Magic did, remember those years we’d pick up the Times, the next morning, and check what Boston or Detroit did, cause we knew we’d be seeing them in the finals???
well, all I can say this time is to management, You got what you deserved last night!
these days, after a loss, it’s like…”oh well”, maybe they’ll learn from it, (like LO in Sacto)…but I gotta tell you, the patience is wearing thin amigos.