A new thread for the first of two preseason games in two nights at Staples. The Bobcats are playing Wallace (30 min a game) and Richardson (26 min a game) a lot in the preseason, clearly trying to get them used to playing together. Should be a good defensive test for the Lakers.
chris says
hey does anybody know the status of KCAL HD, and FSN HD on Charter? (as like “when” will they switch to HD?)
I see the listings in the Lakers schedule as the channels going into HD around Nov 1…
that would be ncie to have the season, on both home and away in HD.
thanks
Mike in the Mountain West says
I listened to the game on the net so I didn’t get to see how they looked. I like the stat lines but because I didn’t see it I can’t tell how much was due to weak defense by bobcats and how much was the Lakers clicking. I’m also curious what people think of the bobcats shooting woes – good defense from the lakers, or bad offense from the ‘cats?
In a pregame interview Phil Jackson said there was only room for one center and flat out admitted one of our three C’s would probably get very little playing time. He also seemed to suggest that Bynum was likely the odd man out. That doesn’t make me happy. What do others think?
Mike in the Mountain West says
That should have been “room for TWO centers”
Craig W. says
Last year only Warner Cable (I think that is the name) was the only one to carry KCAL in HD. I believe they had an exclusive on this for a while. Until that ends, I suspect that will be the only HD outlet for Laker away games.
Craig W. says
I only saw the 2nd half tonite, but I did like what I saw about both the offense and the switching defense. I realize I can’t take the preseason games too seriously, but I do like our young lions so far.
Kurt says
Chris, wish I could help. I’m on DirecTV now, so I have the Foxes is HD but not KCAL.
George says
I have an HD set top box hooked up to my antenna, and I get the KCAL games in HD. Try that route. I watched the game vs the Sonics the other night in HD. Kwame dropping passes never looked so crisp, and frustrating…
Haven’t heard about Phil’s comments about only preferring to play two centers. I’d be sad to hear Bynum be the odd one out. I value Phil as a coach, but his ability to develop young players can be quite frustrating at times, especially these ones. Perhaps with Odom holding time at the 3, maybe Kwame might slide to the 4 a bit, leaving room for Mihm and Bynum, if we choose to go big?
DMo says
Interesting statline. The team shot 57%. Bynum had 8 rebs and 3 blocks in limited minutes. Vlad was on fire from 3 again. You can’t take preseason games against weaker opponents too seriously, but most of what we’ve seen so far this preseason has been positive (on the court, at least).
I wonder how this collection of players and coaches would be viewed if they were in a different city, on a different team? If they were being judged purely on basketball talent (not scandals) and didn’t have to suffer by comparison to the past greats who have worn the uniform before them, would everyone have them pegged as so… mediocre? Or, would this mix of great coaching, young talent and Kobe Bryant garner more respect around the league?
Your thoughts?
drrayeye says
The coach of my high school football team told the local press that we’re little–but we’re slow. Against the Bobs, Phil Jackson could say that the Lakers are big–but they’re fast! At least for the preseason, we looked huge, and it expanded our presence. Kwame in particular was coming way out on the point guards to stop the high pick and roll before it “rolled.”
For the first time this season, the Lakers were successfully doing everything they promsed to change on offense and defense. Even in preseason, when you win by twenty and thirty on succeeding nights, chemistry improves–and the players have fun.
Lamar who? All flavors of frontcourt were well represented by the players in uniform. When Andrew Bynum does a successful dribble penetration from the top of the key, and both Jordan and Javaris are grabbing defensive rebounds and leading the break, one wonders what Odom can add. Mihm and Ronny are hitting that midrange jumper. Everyone was driving to the hoop. Everyone was rebounding on defense–and bigs were rebounding and slamming on offense.
Walton was being Walton, and VladRad was being craftly, hitting the three, and having fun. Ronny was being Ronny, which means the whole team was having fun.
Oh, and to show that the evening was not out of Cinderella, Kwame’s free throw shooting reminded us nostalgically of the performance of the Big Aristotle. Javaris continues to sparkle on offense but is clueless on D, Cook is still Cook–both on offense and D. The “pieces” don’t run the triangle smoothly on offense.
The Lakers intimidated the Bobs with sheer size and inventive playground assists. Javaris may have stolen the show with a drive to the basket and last second behind the back to Andrew, who caught it and slammed it home.
Kobe was clearly having fun on the bench–laughing and joking.
Wonder what the press thought about that.
kwame a. says
If Phil plan on only using 2 centers, my gut feeling is that Mihm or Kwame (probably Mihm) will be playing a lot of 4 this year.
JONESONTHENBA says
I keep telling people the same thing. This team was mediocre last season for two reasons. First, their 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th best players each missed at least 25 games. I’m talking about Lamar, Luke, Chris Mihm, Kwame, and Vlad Rad. Kwame missed half of the season and Mihm missed all of it. What other team in the league could take such a hit and sustain their winning ways? Also Smush Parker quit on the team and was just horrible at the PG position for most of the season. The key to this seaon will be health. Because they certainly are more talented than anyone thinks. That bench of Luke, Vlad Rad, Mihm, Kwame, Farmar, Crittenton, and Mo Evans might be in contention for the deepest bench in the league. Everyone keeps forgetting the Lakers start. They were beating the likes of Dallas and San Antonio. Injuries and Smush killed that team. No team in the league could sustain winning after losing as many key players as the Lakers did last year. Just no way. I mean, they basically didn’t have a back up center for half of the games last season. With no Mihm and no Kwame for at least 41 games, the only answer the lakers had at center for a majority of their games was a 19 year old Bynum. And people wonder why they fell off as hard as they did. Also the Lakers found out how important Luke was to their team after he went down. They became a down right terrible team after his injury. I mean, dispite not having Kwame and Lamar throughout January, the Lakers were 9-4 that month (even beating San Antonio on the road) before Walton went down against Charlotte. They were also 27-15 at that point. After Walton’s Injury they proceeded to go 6-16 until he came back. I will note that during that time, Walton, Kwame, Vlad, and Lamar were all out at points during that stretch. This is the point where the Lakers seaon got off track. Those guys all got back in time for the playoffs, but by that time all of their early season chemistry was down the tubes. Plus Walton, Kwame, and Lamar were all still playing injured. Imagine if Walton, Kwame, and Lamar never go down. At one point in the seaon, George Karl called the Lakers the best passing team in the league. He also said they were the team no one would want to play in the playoffs because of Kobe and their execution. Injuries killed that. The offense stiffled and their defense became even worse than it already was. Believe me, if that team would have stayed healthy, they probably would have played Houston or Utah in the first round. And who knows what could have happened from there.
Lamar Odom says
Lakers-the sleeper team of the west. If we don’t take the top 4 seeds we’ll be a strong 5th or 6th and we’ll make noise in the playoffs.
Craig W. says
Wasn’t it less than a week ago that I heard that we should trade our team to make Kobe happy?
Let’s not go overboard. I did expect our younger players to each make a noticeable step forward this year, but it is still exhibition season and we haven’t played any power teams. I do expect Bynum to have more of an impact against these teams, but let’s not crown our guys quite yet.
As JONESONTHENBA said, last year we lost our #2,3,4,5,6 players for substantial parts of the year and we still finished above .500. Therefore, we weren’t as bad as the naysayers were preaching, but we still don’t know how good we can be.
I do like it that no one is talking about how poorly the FO performed this summer. At least until we lose another exhibition game.
Paul says
The team looks good. We have some solid role players and we have a superstar. What is missing is a second scoring option/defensive stopper. Lamar is a poor man’s first option, who needs the ball in his hands a lot, and he is reasonably good, but not great on defense. Trade Lamar for Msarion, please, and thuis team is a contender.
Mike in the Mountain West says
Check out this story about Vujacic. He’s claiming this is his year to break-out. What determination, work-ethic, and commitment he’s showing! And in a contract year no less. An amazing development. Totally unexepected….
the other Stephen says
what story? please let me read about how vujacic is finally going to claim his rightful title as white mamba.
Jeremy says
11. Whether the team finishes as the 5th or 8th seed in the playoffs, it is not a championship contender and that is why Kobe wants out. We have a lot of good players but not enough stars to win the title and in LA, nothing else should matter. Without the stars, a great bench means nothing.
JONESONTHENBA says
16) It’s hard to say how good they are if we haven’t seen them play as a healthy unit for an entire season. Who knows, they could have gotten better as the year went on (like they did in 2006) if injuries didn’t kick in. A top seed hasn’t won the NBA title since the 2003 Spurs. Kobe Bryant is so good that if he has decent team around them, he can get them to the finals. Before the injuries, last year’s team showed that it could hang with Dallas, Houston, Utah, San Antonio, and PHX. Believe me, before injuries killed this team everyone was talking about Kobe being the MVP and the Lakers making a lot of noise in the playoffs. Seems like a long time ago now. But that team was so fun to watch the first part of the year. I think they’ll be a lot better than everyone thinks.
Lastly, people critcize the FO, but what moves could they have made? Honestly, they made a play for Garnett. It didn’t work out. Other than that, the rest of the deals that have been publicized were not going to help the team win now. Mitch is doing a better job than people think. They’ve made good picks the last three years (other than taking Von Wafer over Monta Ellis…Still hurting over that one). Adding Fisher was a great move for leadership, experience, and maturity purposes. Mihm, Vujacic, Kwame Brown, Mo Evans, and Ronny Turiaf are all basically free agents after the seaon. They are going to be busting their butts for contracts. Also, Bynum is esentially playing to determine what kind of extension he’ll get from the Lakers next season. Basically, I’m saying that a lot of guys on this team have a lot to play for.
Don’t count this team out. Believe me, if this team starts out well and keeps healthy, everyone will change their tone (even Kobe!).