“I think we’re the front-runner. If we had a healthy roster, I’d be very much more comfortable saying that. But at this point, given our schedule, I think we have a real good opportunity.”
Records: Lakers 48-21 (1 seed), Warriors 42-26 (8 seed West) (4 seed East)
Offense Ratings: Lakers-109.7 (3rd), Warriors-109.4 (4th)
Defense Ratings: Lakers- 102.3 (5th) Warriors- 106.1 (22nd)
Projected Starting Lineups-
Lakers: Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Vlad Rad, Lamar Odom, Ronny Turiaf
Warriors: Baron Davis, Monta Ellis, Al Harrington, M.Pietrus, Stephen Jackson
Pietrus and Croshere are both listed as questionable.
I don’t know.. whether to Fear the Beard or realize that Baron Davis was born to Roller-skate?
Why We Should all be happy (Pacers v. Bulls last-night): When I looked at the box score/recap this morning I saw that another Bulls player, Andres Nocioni, got benched for screaming at his coach (add him to the list of Ty Thomas, Joakim Noah, Chris Duhon and the departed Big Ben). I saw that Jermaine O’neal missed his 30th consecutive game. It all made me think, wow, Kobe has to got to be happy not to be on the Bulls, and the Lakers have got to be happy not to have traded Andrew for Jermaine O’neal.
GS coming in: The Warriors are coming off a tough loss to the Rockets. Monta Ellis is having a great 3rd season (if they re-did the 2005 draft he would be drafted 4th after Paul, Williams and Bynum) and averaged a ridiculous 26 pts a game in February. Rookie Brendan Wright has been coming on as of late, and if he could ever get consistent minutes, he could become a key contributor. Baron Davis is the straw that stirs the drink in Oakland, but Steven Jackson is the ice. His defense keeps this team in games and inspires his mates to do the same.Watching Jackson this year, I think he is one of the best defenders in the NBA. He can guard anyone from Dirk to Nash, and he will do his best to harass Kobe tonight. Look for Kobe to try to get him in foul trouble.
Last Time These Two Met: Baron Davis was blowing three-fingered kisses, while Kobe sat on the bench and watched. Golden State beat the Lakers 108-106 at home on Dec. 14 to snap a nine-game overall losing streak to Los Angeles.
Streaking is Fun: The Warriors have had some trouble winning at Staples. The Warriors have won just two of the last 16 meetings between the teams. They finally broke a 15 game losing streak with a win over the Clippers on Friday. The Warriors have lost 9 straight to the Lakers at Staples. But the Warriors have also been excellent at staying away from losing streaks. Sans the six game jag to start the season without Steven Jackson, the Warriors have yet to lose in consecutive contests.
Possible First Round Opponent: This is the first of a back to back home and home set and also a potential first round playoff match-up. Where the Lakers may really have their hands full is tomorrow in Oakland. The Warriors feed off the energy of their home crowd more than any team in the league.
Keys to the Game: Phil Jackson v. Nellie is always entertaining, neither like to give in to the other one’s moves. Phil wants to control tempo and pound the ball inside, Nellie wants the game to go up and down and drain threes. The key for the Lakers is not to get tempted into taking quick jump shots. If the Lakers are patient they can get any shot they want, this should be a game where Lamar and Kobe and whoever else, initiate their offense inside.
Where you can Watch: FSN West and League Pass (6:30 PST)
-Kwame a. with Gatinho
Gatinho says
Check out the two part interview with Warriors beat writer Tim Kawakami at http://warriorsworld.net/
Good stuff…
ryan says
The warriors are an interesting team. They can be deadly when they are hitting their shots, but if their shots are not falling then they are a bad team. Baron Davis is interesting too, on some nights hes one of the best players in the game on both ends of the floor, on other nights not so much.
kwame a. says
Nowitzki went down in the Spurs/Mavs game, and will miss a minimum of 2 weeks. Dallas is 0-8 versus teams over .500 since the Kidd deal and are now only 2 games ahead of Denver. They may miss the playoffs.
Louis C. says
Stu Lantz just used the words “infectuous” to describe Ronny’s attitude. He used it three times.
harold says
uhm. wow. ouch.
Warren Wee Lim says
Does anyone still think the Lakers can win this game? I mean… Monta going brokeback on us!
TC says
Good lord. Did the Warriors pay the Lakers to play that badly? And I don’t wanna hear anything about the time change or 6:30 starts.
kwame a. says
If we’re gonna come back, this has gotta be the run, cut it to 10 at the end of 3.
Lakers Bringing Fear To The NBA says
They’re putting on a nice little run here.
If its possible to cut this lead to single digits after 3, then we have a chance…
Goo says
Posted from another thread because I was too dumb to notice it wasn’t the Warriors Post:
Interesting to see the Lakers play up tempo instead of just slow the game down like they usually do…maybe Phil is trying to feel out if his team can really run with a fast-break team
..but now they’ve dropped that nonsense and played Laker Basketball. Fun little experiment while it lasted atelast..
khandor says
Q1. How good are the Lakers right now?
A1. After being down 23 pts in the 3rdQ … watch & see … LA is going to come all the way back and win tonight’s game.
Lakers Bringing Fear To The NBA says
6 points is obviously a workable margin going into the 4th. They gotta stop shooting contested 3s when the Warriors are in the zone. Attack/drive to the basket and dish. Hopefully, Fisher keeps up the hot hand.
81 Witness says
holy cow KOBEEEEEE!!
laughing hard says
That sucked. Why was Ronny out in the last few minutes?
kwame a. says
Advantage that game goes to Nellie, Lakers couldn’t control tempo the entire first half. Also, the Lakers went zone on the last S. Jax three and obviously looked confused, with nobody marking the guy who hit a three the play before. Gotta go get that split tommorow.
harold says
well, they actually made a game out of this. some real clutch shooting by the warriors and some defensive miscues (what was fisher thinking?) … but all in all, it was lost in the 2nd quarter.
did kobe guard BD the whole game? he looked more winded than usual… lamar towards the end there looked like a monster.
Goo says
They’ll get them tomorrow
CTDeLude says
Once again Phil Jackson shows his defecincies in being a possession to possession coach. Instead of keeping with Ronny he goes with Luke and Luke being Luke put us into trouble several times over. I just don’t understand Jackson and his inability to see the mismatches and exploit then when they become avavilable during a game. I don’t believe any coach can prepare for an opponent better then Phil but once game time roles around he relies FAR too often on his own players abilities to recognize things as a substitute for him doing it himself. The Ronny situation is a perfect actualization of that. Sure there was foul trouble but certainly not at the end of the game when I believe Ronny had two fouls to use.
I’m just disappointed that we get into these situations when they were easily avoidable if we stuck to playing OUR gameplan and not switching to our opponents.
Lakers Bringing Fear To The NBA says
Kobe played almost the entire game, so he probably was tired. Agree that they should have played solid man-to-man defense in the last 38 seconds. Instead, they worried about Baron D’s penetration and kinda played a zone in the end with Lamar(who played a monster game) and fisher leaving Jackson with room cause he wanted to help.
Overall, the Lakers are lucky to even get back in this game. Warriors took it easy and it almost cost them the game. Great effort by the Lakers, but execution down the stretch cost them the top seed for now.
Tomorrow is another day, so lets not get down just yet.
hertagnism says
CTDeLude, I’d rather have Phil Jackson over any other coach. I wouldn’t put it past him to be thinking “okay, we’re down to a close game. Let me take out Ronny and put in Luke because in the playoffs, Luke might be in a similar situation so he needs to grow even if it costs us the game.”
So it’s not a deficiency if you’re looking at the bigger picture, which history shows us PJ is always looking at.
Good things you can take from the game, the team fought back after being down 26. Some defensive miscues and some CLUTCH SHOOTING by Stephen Jackson gave the game to the Warriors. It should have been a lost game but the Lakers made it a ballgame in the end. Their character has impressed me over the past 3 games.
khandor says
Would have been a ‘sweet call’ if they could have come back all the way … but, I suppose it was a touch of wishful thinking on my part, down 23 in the 3rdQ.
Should be another great game tomorrow.
AM says
After that first half, it’s hard to say that this game came down to only a few plays, but the last few possessions after “Los Lakers” took a brief lead were poorly done. On the offensive end, Lamar — who had a great overall game — was tipping the ball around instead of putting it in. On the defensive end, leaving Jackson wide open for two three-pointers (from the same spot on the floor) was frustrating to watch. Phil said that they wanted a foul on Ellis on the first one for pushing Luke and preventing him from closing out, but I think every Laker fan could see the second one coming with the way the team was set up on the floor.
The Warriors earned tonight’s win. If the Lakers come out of the gate tomorrow playing like they did in tonight’s second half, though, they might be able to get one back.
George says
I don’t know what is more valuable, a #1 seed, or avoiding a first round match up with the Warriors….
any thoughts??
pw says
Although Lamar was good on the boards, I don’t think he played a good game. He makes so many mental mistakes every game. Even on the final 3-pointer by Stephen Jackson, Lamar was the one who went to help and missed his assignment. He was supposed to cover Jackson. I was keeping track today and on more than 40% GS field goals the person whom Lamar was supposed to cover made the field goal.
If Phil had persisted with the bench mob and Kobe, they might actually have won. They were the ones who got the score to tie in the first place.
The Dude Abides says
Hertagnism, the problem with the big picture scenario is that Luke shouldn’t even get consideration vs Ronny, Vlad, Ariza, Newble, etc when it comes to playing time in the playoffs. Sometimes I think that the rest of the team has to pay the price for Phil’s particular rehabilitation projects (Smush, Kwame, Luke, etc.). These are guys that aren’t really legitimate NBA players. Memphis took a look at Kwame for a couple weeks and realized that he’s pretty much worthless. Riley took a look at Smush for a couple weeks and realized the same thing (the Heat was shorthanded at the point, and he still kept Smush away from the team on indefinite leave). If it weren’t for Phil, Luke would not have a job in this league.
Anonymous says
If Luke is actually considered to be their worst player, then that goes to show how good and how deep of a team the Lakers are.
Warren Wee Lim says
The Dude Abides…
Don’t you have a shorter name I could call you with? I mean, the dude abides is too 3-syllable. I’ll call you DUDEA for now…
I like what you said about Kwame, Smush and now Luke Walton. Even guys like Sasha and Coby Karl would be utterly jobless if not for Phil’s experimenting. These guys should give Phil half their salaries for they have made some real money because of Phil. Seriously.
My point then does not touch on whether putting Luke on the floor with the game on the line was wise or not, my case in point is that Phil is truly a great coach. Let Smush and Kwame be the proof of it all. If you can have a team nearly beat Phoenix 2 years ago and bring to the playoffs for 2 straight years with guys like Smush and Kwame, you are truly, truly great.
harold says
yeah, luke, once one of our ‘more solid’ pieces, now the scapegoat following the mighty parker-cook-kwame-odom line 😉
well, odom was always an oddity, so leaving him out, we’ve progressed a LOT.
i mean…
parker-cook-kwame-walton.
that’s progress
Bill Bridges says
This game was a wake up call for Farmar. His eagerness to jack up shots and lack of effort on D is now being called out by teammates. Turiaf apparently called him out for being selfish after Farmar was beat once again forcing Ronny to foul a penetrating guard.
Too bad one of the plays of the year – Kobe’s behind the back, reverse spin, layoff to Turiaf for an and one was wasted.
Renato Afonso says
Guys, PJ coaching, as always, left a lot to be desired… as CTDeLude stated. Awesome game-planning, terrible in-game decisions.
But to me, what bothers me the most, isn’t Luke being in for Ronny (which could have something to do with FT, I hope)… it’s the fact that Stephen Jackson had enough time to shoot the second 3-pointer that worries me.
First of all, the Lakers are down by one and the Warriors have the ball with 30 seconds to go on the clock. You cannot go zone or diamond-one or whatever there. You must go man-to-man and you cover the three point shot. It’s better to concede a 2 pointer than a 3 pointer.
Now, here’s what kills me. Each NBA team plays 82 regular season games, so you know each player’s weaknesses and strenghts. What you should do is, get your best on-ball defender on Baron Davis and force him to the left side of the court (since he’s right-handed) while keeping a big body inside (Ronny). You let him go as far as the baseline and invite him to shoot. If he shoots, since he’s right handed, you have more probability to successfully contest it, as his shooting arm is closer to you. If he drives to the hoop, you trap him with the big body and some help from the weakside.
What you DON’T do is give help from the strong side. What you DON’T do is give help from the weak side if your man is in the center of the court waiting to shoot a three.
But maybe, we should’ve played defense from the start of the game, and not be in this position at the end…
nomuskles says
I wasn’t real mad at the end of that one. Lakers fought hard to come back. Lamar was really active tonight and I think he deserves a lot of props. blocks, rebounds, and timely jumpers. Hopefully we can pick up the win tonight in Oakland!
Chris248NYC says
Warren, I guess you’re not in the whole brevity thing.
Chris248NYC says
I mean, I guess you are.
Sigh. Nothing to see here. Move on.
Bryan says
Between this game and the recent Houston game, we seem to be in the habit of giving big leads to the other team to start a game. The only way we made these two games competitive is that neither could hit water from a boat in the 3rd quarter. I must have looked up shocked at a Warrior missed layup a half dozen times in the third quarter.
The funny part? Had we won, Kobe would have been raving about the team’s defense, as he has in all of his recent post-game interviews. Which Kurt has rightly pointed out that we win in spite of of defense.
Jed says
32. Actually, I hear Warren is quite fond of Victoria’s Secret.
Darius says
I don’t understand the frustration with Phil…
He’s been the same coach since he’s been in the league, and he’s been quite successful with it. Would I have wanted another player besides Luke in the game? Sure. But RadMan was having a game where he’s passing up open jumpers and dropping rebounds out of bounds. Sasha was missing wide open jumpers from everywhere, but was still eager to shoot contested jumpers on the exchange/handoff from the extended elbow. So, it’s not like Phil had a lot of options with our depleted depth and ineffective players.
Also, I didn’t see a zone on that last JackO 3. Fisher just did not respect Jackson’s range and sagged a little too much. KD pointed out over at the Yahoo blog, that JackO shoots a flat footed jumper and does not need his legs to get off late game jumpers when he’s tired, and Fish needed to recognize that as well as Jackson’s range, as well as the fact that Jackson had already hit FIVE(!) 3’s. I saw that as a classic defensive lapse where we were too anxious to help (which is ironic considering that Phil had just ripped into them for that same thing on the play before) and we got burned. All of Kobe’s heroics won’t be enough if you have mental lapses in key situations on defense.
And one other thing on Luke…Do we really need a whipping boy? I tire of us always having to have a guy to pick on and being the guy we blame for losses. As I mentioned above, there were several players that made bad plays/mistakes/mental errors that led to missed oppurtunities or let the Warriors capitalize and get points. I saw so many that had nothing to do with Luke, but his name pops up in the comments of every game chat, win or lose. I’m not saying people can’t have an opinion. But Luke is not our only player that deserves to get called out, much less every game. It was the same with Lamar earlier this year, and it got to the point where Kurt had to put up a “Lamar is what he is” post. I mean even when these guys play(ed) well, they still get backhanded compliments and “unlike usual” comments about them having good games. Sorry for the rant, I just feel like all these players bring stuff to the table to help us win. And every player (including Kobe) do things during a game that contribute to losses. I feel like every player deserves our support, unless they continually commit egregious errors that consistently lead us to losses. Luke is not that guy. We don’t have one guy on our roster like that. Sorry again.
chris h says
thanks Darius, couldn’t agree more.
there used to be one guy who always was a constant for the frustration, and he’s gone now, (kwame) at least for this season.
I also have a hard time with the posters who claim the sky is falling during one bad game.
remember folks, it’s an 82 game season, and what really matters is what we have at the end, in the second season, the playoffs.
and PJ knows this better than anybody.
someone up there was worried about a first round match up with the Warriors…why???
bring them on!
don’t forget folks, we played last night without 2 starters, big men in the middle which will dramatically change the shape of that series, I’d say PJ and staff would come up with a way to take advantage of our size to demolish those guys.
Kurt says
First, a new preview for tonight is up.
And count me in with Daruis — this is Phil’s MO. The best way to beat the Warriors is pounding them inside and the two Lakers who can do that are in street clothes. He is limited in options but doing a lot with what he has to keep winning.
kelly says
Lakers need to become a smarter team on both ends of the floor. On the offensive end, run the offense and stop taking so many quick shots. On the defensive end, stop double teaming when it’s not necessary and collapsing in the paint. Just stick with your man
On both Jackson 3 point shots the D was solid on Ellis and Baron Davis.