Kobe’s “moderate†ankle sprain from last night’s solid win over Indiana has him listed as day-to-day — but, then again, aren’t we all? The Lakers should be fine for a game or two without Kobe, and I’m not going to worry unless he misses the game against San Antonio Sunday.
Kwame Brown had his best offensive game of the season, scoring 17 on 8 of 12 shooting, but he grabbed only four boards. Odom was the force on the boards, doing his Magic impersonation by grabbing 13 boards and often taking the ball up the court himself to lead the break.
The Laker defense was solid, holding Indiana to 47% (eFG%) shooting as a team. I loved Phil’s moving of putting Odom on Harrington and letting Walton have the larger but less dangerous Foster. I’d like to see more of that, hiding Walton on D if possible. Also, part of the good Laker defense was Indiana doing a poor job of exploiting their advantages. Case in point, with about six minutes left in the first half the Laker defenders switched on a high pick and roll, leaving Jordan Farmar on Jermaine O’Neal. So what did the Pacers do? They swung the ball around the perimeter for a long jumper they missed.
One other note from the game — this was all about the Laker starters outplaying their counterparts. All the Laker starters were at leat +16, while everyone off the bench was in the negative.
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I think my favorite thing I’ve read in the last few days is from Jones on the NBA — a list of the best international players ever in the NBA. Of course, that list includes Vlade Divac.
Vlade Divac is another one of the O.G. European players to make it big in the NBA. He first made his mark with the Los Angeles Lakers back in the 1989-90 season, replacing Kareem as the teams starting center. During his stint with the Lakers he slowly evolved into one of the top centers in the game and was one of the young Lakers that helped turn around the franchise during the 1994-95 season. Vlade would eventually move on to the Charlotte, after being dealt to the Hornets by the Lakers in exchange for Kobe Bryant
Side Note: How great of a trade was that for the Lakers? Seriously it’s up there with Red Auerbach’s draft day two for one deal that brought him Kevin McHale and Robert Parish.
Goo says
Just to move the last thread discussion into this one, i too would prefer would go back to physical playoff ball but its not going to happen. I loved that we would see what teams would man up and be willing to bang..to me thats what basketball is all about. I still go back and watch old 80s Laker playoff games from time to time (my dad taped them because I was too young to know what was going on but he said he knew that I would want to see these games when I grew up..never believed him until now)
Anyways, if you’re going to respond to John R, either you bring up your own breakdown of how the Lakers get screwed by the ref’s or ignore him..because just making fun of him is the kind of thing that makes us look worse. He brought up alot of good points in that novel he wrote out…the Lakers DO fall apart when calls don’t go their way (see: Phoenix playoff series, Games 5-7) and they have that collective “Oh man what do we do now” face (also known as the Smush frown)..there were plenty of times we would talk about how the Lakers were expecting calls last year and just fell apart because Kobe couldn’t bail them out and the ref’s wouldn’t either..
Unfortunately, no team is going to win a championship without a 6th man in pinstripes
Jason says
Is Walton really that bad on D? The only Laker that drives me nuts w/ his D every game is Smush.
“Unfortunately, no team is going to win a championship without a 6th man in pinstripes ”
When the Lakers beat the Sixers in the finals, I felt like the Sixers were getting the borderline calls. (Yeah, Mutumbo, yeah, but thats what happens when you intentionally put your face a few inches away from Shaq’s elbow.)
Kurt says
Walton is not an eye-poppingly bad defender, but he can’t handle really athletic guys (like Harrington). When Walton is on the court the Laker’s defense is 6.4 points per 100 possessions worse (to be fair, he is primarily playing against opposing starters). His opponent PERs are not bad. I really think though you put Waton on the weakest of the three/four link of the opponents and Odom on the better one. Last night the Lakers went with Kwame on O’Neal, Odom on Harrington and Walton on Foster, which is the best way to utilize your strengths.
ian says
Does anyone know whether I can live-stream local LA tv on the web (specifically for the laker games that aren’t nationaly televised)? My dorm simply doesn’t get tv reception.
Gatinho says
On kb24.com there is a mini-iterview where he shows his ankle and how he’s doing…
Ian, there is a program called TVUlive.com that is “broadband television” but it won’t get local channels.
Kurt says
Ian, the NBA tightly controls these things, and right now there isn’t live game streaming (unless someone knows some trick I don’t). NBA.com does stream some highlight packages, but it strikes me as slightly behind the times that the NBA (or other leagues) don’t let you stream local broadcasts, even if there was a small fee.
kwame a. says
the only way to get live streaming games is through league pass, once you subcribe you get the games over broadband as part of the package
Gatinho says
But even if you had League Pass you still would be blacked out from viewing your local teams. I’v watched some games on the computer and their are a lot glitches to be worked out with the player. It took MLB about three seasons to get their online act together. (I watch Dodger games that way).