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A Lakers Blog. Thoughts, reflections, and the odd rant on the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA (even the Clippers).

Preview & Chat: The Sacramento Kings

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Records: Lakers 23-5 (1st in West) Kings 13-15 (13th in West)
Offensive points per 100 possessions: Lakers 107.5 (15th in league), Kings 109.1 (9th in league)
Defensive points per 100 possessions: Lakers 99.4 (2nd in league) Kings 110.4 (27th in league)
Projected Starting Lineups: Lakers: Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum
Kings: Tyreke Evans, Donte Green, Omar Casspi, Jason Thompson, Spencer Hawes

Talking Lakers at NBA Breakdown: The NBA Breakdown is talking Lakers today and they have two interviews up: One with Jeanie Buss and one with me (done prior to yesterday’s game). Check it out.

Ron Artest Out: Ron Artest tripped over a box and will now miss the Lakers Boxing Day game. He was at home last night and tripped over a box and down a flight of stairs. He was taken to a hospital, got stitches in the back of his head and on his left elbow. He was released last night and will visit with a neurologist today (Saturday) and any decisions on the Lakers Monday/Tuesday games will be based on that.

It will be interesting to see what Phil Jackson does here. He likely starts Odom at the three and goes big. But he can play Shannon Brown at the two, have him guard Evans, and slide Kobe to the three.

The Kings Coming In: Do not think the Kings are just a give me win, they are 4-6 in their last 10 and that includes taking the team that just thumped the Lakers (the Cavs) to overtime. They also had that great comeback against the Bulls — most teams down 35 with 18 minutes left and on the road roll over, and they fought back and won. That says this team is building something.

If the voting started today, Tyreke Evens would be rookie of the year. He has taken on the Dwyane Wade role for the Kings, as the guy with the ball in his hands who has to score and create for the other team. He is big and strong – 6’6” and he can bull rush you or beat you with quicks. He gives the Kings a player to really build around (although as a two it may mean Kevin Martin is on the move).

Also, Casspi has been a great surprise for the Kings. There were a lot of questions about how developed his game was. I’m not sure what the scouts were looking at, although he looked solid but not THIS good go me at Summer League. He has shown range all over the floor, you can’t leave the guy anywhere on the court. He also hustles on defense and is a solid rebounder. Just a good rookie.

By the way, they still really hate the Lakers in Sacramento.

Keys to game: The Kings have one of the very best NBA blogs out there with SacTown Royalty. Tom Ziller is a hero of mine. Also, Zach at Cowbell Kingdom is doing great work.

Keys to game: For the Lakers, it’s going to start with stopping Evans and his penetration. He shoots 58% when he gets to the rim, but if the Lakers big can cut off the path then he becomes a weak shooter — from the rim out to 10 feet he shoots 29%, from 10-15% it is 13%. He also is not a good three point shooter. Make him a jump shooter, keep him away from the rim. That means the Lakers bigs need to rotate.

The other deciding factor tonight may be the Pau Gasol/Jason Thompson matchup at the four. Thompson can be the kind of physical defender that gives Gasol difficulty. Even so, the Lakers still need to work the offense more through him and less in the ugly isolation stuff we saw against the Cavs. The Lakers need to run the offense.

Along those lines, the Lakers have the height advantage — especially with Odom moving into the starting lineup — will be hard for the Kings to match. The Lakers need to run the offense inside-out. Pass it in the post, cut off of that, kick-out if the double comes but repost sometimes. Just run the offense. The Kings are not a good defensive team, exploit them, make them pay.

What I really want to see is the focus and the effort of the team tonight.

Where you can watch: 7 p.m. start on KCAL here in Los Angeles, and of course ESPN 710 radio.


Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. GR8Scott says

    Tonight’s game will show how we bounce back from a very tough loss. We can and will play better, but we have to see more from our frontcourt – starting with Drew. His play is definitely lacking spirit. Play hard, don’t take any possessions off and stop arguing close calls. Go Lakers. And this one’s for Warren.

  2. jeremyLA24 says

    Kurt, Is the “triple tower” starting line up speculation or do you have a refrence to believe that PJ isn’t going to reserve LO as the bench leader? If so, this is going to be a must see!

  3. passerby says

    I strongly believe we will win this one…even with artest bouncing around. Amazing how people still feel like insulting ron-ron for his past. Some people never learn or forgive.

    Of all players I expect Pau to make the biggest turnaround. He couldn’t have played any worse than last night. I’m sure he is pissed at these “he got a new contract and played squack” comments.

    Another team with another up and coming point guard. Great test as always. GO LAKERS!

  4. exhelodrvr says

    In response to a post on the previous thread:
    I don’t think that Gasol or Bynum are overrated individually, but I think that at the moment, the pairing of them is overrated. To this point they/the team has not figured out how to get the most out of them while they are on the court together.

  5. passerby says

    kurt — is this our first meeting with sacto? (no lakers on that photo)

    also, clicked on the blogradio link. promised to be a great interview until it got clobbered by static all the way.

  6. passerby says

    if only shannon shot the 3 better i’d go with the smaller lineup…but lamar might have the same percentage from midrange to out there so might as well pound the kings inside with kobe and fish roaming outside. i don’t even want to know who comes off the bench first.

  7. JOE says

    They have to go with what works and thats there height advantage. Start with Bynum in the low block and work in Gasol slowly. Kobe has to hover like a vulture and pick and choose when to go for the kill and to put the finishing touches at the end. EVERYONE most play hard nose defense and box out for rebounding. We should absolutely slaughter this team tonight and as always I would like to see Brown get some time off the bench. I’ve just about given up on Sasha. In fact I would rather see Adam Morrison get some time. Cant wait to get Luke back.

    Side note Kobe should be passing Patrick Ewing on the all-time scoring career scoring list and by the end of the season should be ranked 11th or 12th on that list. We are truly fortunate to watch this kid develope into the all-time great player that he is.

  8. emh101 says

    The boo birds certainly come out of the woodwork after a prominent loss. I, for one, subscribe to Kurt’s philosophy. One loss does not a trend create. The next half a dozen games should give us a good indication of where the players’ heads are.

  10. Warren Wee Lim says

    The Holidays must have been causing this but its not very likely that chris h misses 2 successive gameday posts (phone in for me). If I remember correctly, we also missed the OKC game which we almost lost.

    Tyreke Evans has exceeded expectations. Due partly to Blake Griffin’s injury, the rest of the lottery picks of this year’s draft got encouraged coz the ROY award is left wide open.

    We all knew Rubio wouldn’t come over to Minnesota, and we all know Thabeet couldn’t buy himself a post move with his 4.4M salary. So with James Harden (playing very well for OKC), Stephen Curry struggling to cope with the Dubs scheme of things… the 2 natural leaders that come out are Tyreke Evans and Brandon Jennings. Both of whom are given the keys to the city.

    Thanks to Minnesota (again) for signing Sessions and Kevin Martin himself for his injury, both guys are neck to neck for the award. I wouldn’t give it to Tyreke just yet, but the prospect of him winning still depends if Jennings can once more revive the hype in Milwaukee. For the NBA’s sake I hope he does…

  11. Stephen says

    Kurt,
    Sac has been starting Evans at the point and going w/the 6’9″+ Donte Greene at the SG and Casspi at the SF.
    Rather astonishly given his previous play,Greene is often being used to guard the other team’s best scorer.
    Lot of high pick-n-rolls,esp w/Thompson.
    The Center Hawes likes the deep 3.
    Brockman crashes boards and hustles.
    Sac can score in a hurry,but their half-court offense is heavily reliant on 3s,pick-n-roll w/Evans and going backdoor for crowd-pleasing lobs.
    If they’re hitting their 3s,they are very tough,if not it’s Evans,Evans,Evans.

  16. ray says

    started out with good hustle, now crappy turnovers.

    And pau has touched the ball a lot so far. keep it going.

  18. passerby says

    great fighting back swing to end 1st q. not the time to melt a la @ denver. we can do this! great 3 for sasha and pass by ammo. kobe senses we can pull this off.

  21. dave in hillsboro says

    Sasha looked good out there too. Made a three, played some solid D, not too aggressive, didn’t force anything.

    Brown and Farmar to start the second, and Shannon shows us a nice midrange jumper, while Jordan gets lost on D more than once and throws up some ugly shots.

    Farmar got yanked, replaced by Sasha.

    Also, Ammo had a nice assist in the 1st, for a Bynum dunk.

  23. Joel says

    Sasha may be the dumbest defender in the league. He leaves Beno Udrih – who shoots over 40% from 3 – wide open in the corner to double Sergio freakin’ Rodriguez. Mindboggling.

  32. ray says

    @ Joel, I think the Kings Center, Hawes, is making Udrih look really good. Those are tough passes to make, and he makes them

  34. ray says

    this is why the lakers are frustrating to watch: pau not getting enough touches, either by him not being vocal enough or people not looking to him early and often…

    he went the last 9 minutes of the first half without a shot…

  37. Joel says

    OK, I know Powell is the 4th or 5th big in the rotation, but is it too much to ask for him not to turn his back on the play when his team has the ball? Good grief.

  38. ray says

    shannon brown was wide open there… now i love kobe with the ball in the last seconds, but i hope that when he gets doubled like that, he gets the open guy… open shots are always better than double teamed contested shots.

  39. GR8Scott says

    It pains me greatly to watch Sasha play. He can’t hit the open jumpers and is a big defensive liability. We need to outplay them over the last 12 minutes.

  40. sT says

    Kobe has ice on his right elbo, what’s broken now. It is a right elbo strain and he is in the locker room now.

  44. ray says

    for all the +/- people, Adam Morrison is +6 so far in this game and Sasha is +4

    I am not a +/- person.

  48. passerby says

    kobe’s a warrior. shannon cancelled his three with that attempt at showtime when he should have pulled back and then that show-off foul on tyreke

  49. Eric says

    Pau needs to be wayyyyy more decisive with his low post moves, he is waiting too long for something to happen when he just needs to use his extensive array of lost post moves and score. People are complaining about him getting a lack of touches but half the time he just passes the ball back out or waits too long for someone to cut thus allowing the double team to come. Bynum once again terrible stat line and by the way shannon is playing solid D on Tyreke right now.

  50. ray says

    @ Eric, He’s supposed to wait though in the triangle post, to see if he gets a double team, then if he doesn’t he can go to work.

    I just wish he’d start being more aggressive/assertive and ask for the damn ball. 8 shots???

    mind boggling

  53. Eric says

    And wow Shannon showing up bigger than anyone in this quarter, Kobe looked like he hurt his finger on a catch off a pass a few possessions ago, cradling the ball in his left hand now anytime he catches it.

  54. Joel says

    I was critical of Brown in the previous post, but no complaints about his play tonight. Those step-back jumpers have been money.

  58. Scot says

    I’m following the game on the Internet and see Bynum has only 3 points on 1-8 shooting. Can someone watching please explain?

  61. ray says

    Ok, time to stop running it through kobe right now. lets go through pau. Kobe is hurting a lot…

    @ scot, he has been such a non factor i can’t even remember what he did on the floor.

  63. glove32 says

    I think Kobe might actually be hurt this time. He is not using his right arm and is passing and dribbling with his left hand almost exclusively

  65. Eric says

    Kobe clearly in pain he probably shouldn’t attempt to shoot if he can’t grip the ball properly. Bynum just looks out of sync with everyone he just seems lost, he has hit a rough patch in play lately.

  66. sT says

    Bynum can not buy a shot tonight, simple as that. As I say this Pau misses both his free throws and the game goes to overtime.

  71. Eric says

    Kobe HAS to stay in the game even if he can’t shoot, he made 2 CRUCIAL defensive plays late in the game

  73. ray says

    @ Pau gasol… u need to make those free throws so that people in LA will be comfortable with u getting the ball late.

  74. 3ThreeIII says

    Watching Kobe play with one arm, his left arm, and still defend, start breaks, and compete hard is simply unbelievable.

    MVP, Best in the Game, and Top Ten All Time.

    It is truly special to be able to watch him.

    (Don’t get me wrong, Gasol is a great player, but he is showing why we go to Kobe at the end of games… How much is our offense all about Kobe?)

  81. Eric says

    Finally a damn decisive low post move from Gasol. And he still chokes at the damn line, Pau you’re better than that

  84. Eric says

    More solid defense from Shannon on Tyreke, he single-handedly has played the best defense I’ve seen anyone play on Tyreke including Lebron on him Wednesday night.

  88. BOOBOO says

    OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

    I understand that refs don’t want to decide the outcome of the game, but they are doing just that by refusing to call three blatant fouls on the last possession.

  92. Eric says

    I have to say these Kings announcers are some of the worst I have listened to out of anyone and I’ve watched just about every team on NBA league pass

  93. Joel says

    Lakers need to devise a sensible plan of attack for this next OT. Gasol is being swarmed and Kobe’s shot is off, so just giving them the ball and hoping for the best is not going to work.

  95. jeremyLA24 says

    I want to say pau redeemed himself he wouldn’t have to hit a buzzer beater tip-in if he made one game winning freethrow!
    BTW: sorry to bug but does anyone have a non freedocast link? mine keeps getting blocked and I dont want to miss double OT! PLEASE!

  96. BKR says

    We need a real momentum swing if we’re gonna pull this one out… but huge tip by Pau at the buzzer, he’s the best player on the floor right now

  103. 3ThreeIII says

    K O B E !

    M V P !

    Tough, fierce, driven, insane, talented, and skilled.

    What else do you need?

  106. ray says

    im really critical of kobe (shoots a lil too much sometimes, forces things too much) but man. those two shots remind me why i feel so comfortable with him shooting late in games.

  113. Eric says

    Kobe actually is having a great night shooting with 16-28, I love how people forget that he has a broken finger, which just happens to be the specific finger that controls how the shot is released on his SHOOTING hand. Anyone who has played basketball knows how incredibly difficult this is. From here on out someone needs to tell Pau that he has to make his moves quicker, stop waiting for the double team to come and be decisive with the ball over the entire game, he did so in the overtimes but part of his problem is he is very uncertain with what he wants to do alot of the time.

  114. BOOBOO says

    Honestly, though, we did not deserve to win this due to so many turnovers and terrible job of boxing out.

    But… I’m glad we did.

  115. sT says

    After a full game and two OT’s, I am happy for this win and it was exciting to watch for sure. Kobe says he cannot feel his arm from his elbo down at the moment.

  116. ray says

    good tough win. not the definitive game i’m sure that we all wanted after yesterdays game.

    good to see shannon do some work. sasha was useless. pau needs to finish. kobe needs to get ice on the elbow (after the game he told john ireland that his funny bone got hit and couldn’t feel it, so it looks ok).

  117. jeremyLA24 says

    I think pau takes the extra time and almost wants the double to come so he can make one of those great passes to guys who cut down the lane or waits to find the open 3. If he knows he is going to shoot, he should be quicker and more decisive. The way I look at, since he is a great passer he should do so if he recieves the ball with bad position to score but if he get’s the ball deep he should make his move since he is also a wonderful scorer. Thoughts?

  118. dave in hillsboro says

    Pau had six blocks. People better give the Spaniard credit for his D. That guy is so damn good.

    Kobe amazing again.

    LO with 15 boards.

    Drew barely salvaged a terrible, TERRIBLE shooting game, 1-9 for 3 points, with 9 boards and 4 assists. He also won all three jump balls. But, damn, 1-9. That’s bad.

    Gotta be happy with this win, under the circumstances. Could have been a lot worse.

  120. lakersfansincemagic says

    Bynum looks like he’s not trying at all. His demeanor is discouraging. They should get him out of the rotation..

  121. Burgundy says

    I know Bynum has the sniffles. But that’s no excuse for playing like a @&$#! out there. GROW A PAIR DUDE! Earn your $14M per year! If I see another 1 for 9 game from him, I’m going to puke.

  122. nimble says

    Kobe for MVP!He is not human he deserves a statue next to Magic.
    Sacramento is really fun to watch as a side note.

  123. luubi says

    it’s always great to win a game like this and last night was a great night.

    in the bigger picture, I think the Lakers have been a bit overrated. so far, we’ve been like Cle of last year — rolling thru lesser teams but struggling against good competition. the den and uta games we discounted b/c they were b2b against great home teams, altho we did not compete the way, say, Mia did against us. there’s no discounting the Cle game.

    I think the Lakers have good chemistry but not great chemistry (hate to say it, but I think bos and perhaps cle both have better team chemistry). we also have a weak bench. we win lots of games by sheer talent and brilliance, but when Kobe and/or Pau are struggling, we don’t have bench and team chemistry to fall back on, and the result is some games where it looks like the team neither knows nor care how to play basketball, like on Christmas. I don’t want to overreact to one loss. I just think this will be a chronic problem for the Lakers. (Recall the slump we went into after that great road trip with b2b wins against bos and cle.) This is not a team that will win 72 or 33 straight. But it’s okay as long as we get the ring 🙂

  125. Pat says

    Yes, what’s going on with Bynum? He is single handedly responsible for our woes. There is no way that Igolskejoa/Shaq should have schooled Gasol/Bynum, but it happened.

    • Kurt says

      Woes? Woes? This team is 24-5, has the best record in the NBA and people are acting like spoiled fans who want to blow the whole thing up and rebuild. You sound like a bunch of whiny Knicks fans, but at least they have reason to be whiny. Your team is the defending NBA champs, has the best record in the league, your coach has won 10 titles by getting teams like this to meld and peak at the right time, it’s only 1/3 into the season and you all are acting more petulant than Bynum. You have no idea how good you all have it, that your biggest “problem” is a center only averaging 15 and 8 this season. The Lakers are not perfect, there are things to work on, but get some perspective in your lives. Things are good in Lakers Land right now. Try to enjoy the game.

  127. VoR says

    When the Lakers start playing well and losing games, then I will get concerned.
    Until then, it is about staying injury free (looking at you Kobe and you, too Andrew) and figuring out how to get the team peaking for the playoffs.

    I’ll be interested to see how Luke’s return impacts the bench (if at all). I’d really like to see some consistency from Farmar and Brown – they show flashes (like Brown last night). That would give us a solid bench that runs 9 deep able to play consistent minutes.

  128. jeremyLA24 says

    A concern, (not an unfixable problem that would lead to trading away our franchise) that I’ve had for the past two games is our closing out on open 3pt shooters. I’ve watched every game this season and I just can’t recollect on us having such a problem with this in our previous games. What has the NBA or at least CLE & SAC figured out about our defense? If we can’t fix this by the time we play the suns and they watch the tapes, we are SOL that game. The kings have decent shooting but nash and barbosa will kill us!
    Side note: (not trade spec) Ever since the dynasty break-up the two players that I wanted to see most in purple & gold are Leonardo Barbosa and Jason Terry. They would both play to kobe’s strengths, cut the lanes well and finish, and knock down the 3. If it is permitted I would be interested to hear who anyone else wanted to see in L.A.

  129. DTM says

    Kurt said it. To much complaining around here. At this point in time, the Lakers have done what they should have done.

  130. J says

    Thanks Kurt, well said. Often i just want to call out some of the more ridiculous posts but I just walk away because I don’t want this great blog to devolve into that kind of sniping. I stop myself from posting about 75% of the time because I get so ticked off at some of the more moronic posts I see. But man, sometimes what you said just needs to be put out there. Much more weight when it comes from you or the other mods.

    It’s absolutely ridiculous the kind of whining and crying that’s going on with some of the posts. Bynum is a crappy center, Pau is soft, let’s dump half the roster for player X,etc.

    This team isn’t perfect by any means and I have concerns about how this team hasn’t shown up for either statement game yet (Den and Clev). Last year’s team stepped up for all statement games. That said, there’s plenty of season to go and let’s see how this team continues to gel and grow. If they continue to struggle and show no signs of improvement, then it’s a problem. Even then, this team needs tweaks, not radical overhauls.

  131. jeremyLA24 says

    This whole season and off season I have been following this blog post by post. I’ve got to say that on both ends of the spectrum of complainers and people who don’t want to here the complainers have made this blog hard to follow lately. Some people have made valid points (that’s what I thought we do here) and they get lost with the complaining and the people trying to stop the complaining. Let’s just find a way to ignore the bad comments and conversate about inteligent laker topics. (see post 129… J.K but I would like to see what some of you think) Thanks Laker Family.

  132. pb says

    Well said, Kurt. I feel like some of the posts sound like a successful lawyer in LA earning multi-six figure income with a DDG wife and 3 beautiful kids living in the West side of LA and driving a fine european automobile, only to be complaining because his other DDG girlfriend/mistress is not as pretty as that of his friend. Are you kidding me?

    Yes, our team could be playing better, but wouldn’t you want it to hit the peak in May and June, not in December? Sure our bench can be better, but would you rather have that problem with starters or with bench? Bynum is a 22 year old who has about as good a post game as anyone in the league right now. Yes, he could defend and rebound better, but how wise were YOU when you were at his age?

    Believe me, I hated CLE loss as any Laker fan. Couldn’t watch it. Couldn’t listen to it on the radio because it just made me sick. But, it’s just one game in December. Sure it was nationally televised game. But maybe it’s better that the rest of the country thinks we’re overrated because maybe their teams will take us lightly, too. If we are too dominant at this stage, the rest of the league might conspire to intentionally injure a player or two to even the playing field.

    We should all be thankful about our team and stop crying like female dogs. Please focus on the bigger picture. This is not the time to be panicking and pulling unnecesary trades…thank God, Mitch and J. Buss are more patient than we are…

  133. chris h says

    what I find utterly amusing is when posters claim to “know” what Mitch or Dr Buss are thinking in terms of money or player related “issues” (and most of these “issues” are just fodder for us to debate anyway, nothing more)
    it’s great to have such a passion, and we are blessed to be fans of what’s been called very recently the sports franchise of the decade, (and could easily go beyond just this decade in our minds), but I think we’ve all got to keep it in perspective, (which is hard, because we do live in “interesting times”, which is a curse according to the Chinese), we are fans of a great team, with great players and management, but we are just “fans”. period. face it, we don’t know what PJ is thinking, just because we follow the games, post-game reporting and read his books, we just don’t, seriously.
    and while it’s great to have freedom of speech and be able to spout all our concerns and fears on places such as here at FB&G, we all need to understand that this is a place to enjoy discussing our team. if we have criticisms then we need to posture them with some kind of respect towards the spirit of the blog, communicating with fellow fans. it does get a little hostile at times and part of that is because we do live in interesting times, freedoms, instant information, the internet age, etc, and we just have to roll with it, like water off a duck’s back.

    and I also think Kobe is pulling too many minutes, over 50 mins last night.

  134. jeremyLA24 says

    6 threads whining about the complainers! Can we put it to rest? (see 132). If the guys making the posts wanted a conversation about that topic they would have put one up. Kurt, good call… everyone who hopped on his back about it, bad call.

  135. sT says

    This is funny, my roomate and I were just arguing with each other about the Lakers and who they have lost to and why. I am just very tired of this, defending my team, to people who do not want to enjoy the ride (World Champion Lakers) through the season. If I see a negative comment on FB&G, I just ignore it and read on, period.

  137. P. Ami says

    An injured Kobe, Gasol looking a bit gassed (he might have hit a mini-wall seeing that he missed training camp and the first few weeks of the season), LO being LO, Artest concussed, and whatever it is that is ailing Bynum, I think that gutting out a win in double overtime, against a team we always have trouble with (no matter where they are in the standings) can be seen positively.

    Now, we lose to the Lepers and I’ll want everybody’s head on a platter. If Rondo goes up against the bigs for a rebound and does his loose ball flop where he somehow always lands soft side to the court and his face rested on his forearm, looking like a kid sent to bed without his dinner, I fully expect Fish to put that kid over his lap and administer a spanking.

  138. lakersfansincemagic says

    Kurt, I don’t think we were being whiny at all. What we have to do is recognize our team’s weaknesses, despite our record. If you notice a player isn’t playing with passion, not just for one or 2 games, but for the last month or so, then you get frustrated.

    I do think we have it good, and I do think we realize it – but as fans, we don’t want to just sit back and accept the lack of effort we’re seeing on one particular player. Saying “Get Bynum out of the rotation” is a bit much, sure. But the message is that he’s playing w/o effort, and I don’t want to watch a game like that.. if he’s performing badly with effort then we can be a little more understanding, but we’ve seen him play better – with more effort.

    In this case, I agree with Pat and disagree with you to a degree.

    I found myself just watching “Dirty Jobs” while the Lakers are playing because I was so discouraged by their plays.

    It’s not just a simple lack of effort we’re seeing. It’s the Significant lack of effort. 1-9 on offense.. no rebounding effort.. defense is weak.. poor passing (blackhole)… it’s unfair to spot one particular game, but I don’t think it’s the case here.

    Maybe if we see him developing, we’d be more understanding, but what we’re seeing is a decay.

  139. J says

    #135 Jeremy, if you’ve watched every game this year, then you’ve noticed that Lakers do lead the league in opponent 3 PT FG %. But you’re going to base your observation on the last two games as a sample?

  140. J says

    my connection got cut. So you’re going to call us out for complaining about ridiculous posts? But you’re going to put up something like that? Sheesh!

  141. chris h says

    ya know J, I gotta agree with you, at first I felt like just ignoring Jeremy, (because that would curtail the negative comments) but then I kind got pissed about his tone, you’re right, why’s he calling us out? all I did was bring up a point about being a good fan, anyway…
    the real reason I came back now was this recent LA Times article –
    http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-spw-lakers-bench28-2009dec28,0,4159838.story

    I agree, Shannon played very well last night, and he has the strength and quickness and seems to have the attitude to become a good contributor to this team. he played in many key moments last night, and his 3 gave us a lead at a critical time.
    all he needs is to continue to bring it, stay focused and listen and learn from the vets, he’ll become a key part of this team.

  142. Aaron says

    I was out of the country for a week. I agree and disagree with the significance of the Cavs loss. I think it will be our worst loss of the season. We lose to an inferior team at home on the most hyped game of the regular season when our antennas should be up on two days rest. BUT… it was only one game. In the end I think it was more than one game. But what is just as important as how we bounce back is what is up with Bynum going on operation shutdown, or Odom playing like he is 40 years old, or are we going to get any production out of our PG position.

  143. wil says

    Does complaining about complainers make you a complainer too?

    If the dog bark at you, do you bark back?

  144. harold says

    Took me two days to recover from our loss to Cleveland.

    Thank god the Lakers recovered quicker 😉

  145. Moshi Moshi says

    I think some of us always think of the Lakers as a glass half-empty kind of thing instead of focusing on our positives and what we’re doing well on both ends of the floor.

    That being said, Andrew’s numbers in December since Pau’s return has got to at least be troubling to the fans and the management. Is he not fully 100%? Why did his aggression go away? Perhaps we need to give Bynum more time to adjust to a new role alongside Pau, not to mention the fact that we need to give him more touches instead of having a 7 footer deliver an entry pass to the post for Kobe or Ron.

    However, I don’t think we can repeat this year with having a less than 100% Bynum. As we learned from the CLE game, as great as Kobe is, we need solid post play from Andrew, Pau, and Lamar. Factor in our bench play, which has been horrible to say the least, it just goes to show that repeating is such a hard thing to accomplish.

  146. jeremyLA24 says

    J- to answer your first question, yes I am going to base it off of the past two games because I thought for sure we were going to make adjustments after as bad as MO killed us out there on xmas but we didn’t. As for the stats side of it, I didn’t know that because I didn’t check it/ don’t know where to get that stat.

    When it comes to these posts, I pay attention to the names of who post stuff and I know that you’re a regular and same with most of the people who posted their gripes about the gripers. All I’m saying is that if someone is to mediate the type of posts that are written it should be who created the post. That way the conversation stays on topic and interesting. My appologies to you and chris if it came off malice to you guys.

  147. Warren Wee Lim says

    The problem with Bynum has always been mental… and his attitude is exactly that of a 22 yo. Maybe I matured faster and maybe a College degree helps in that process but I don’t excuse his problems to the extent of “enjoying” when he can’t grab a rebound when it matters.

    These problems will get magnified as we head into January when he exerts himself to be an All-Star… wanting to play beside 2 of his teammates who clearly deserve to be voted in. So far he is 2nd to Amare (and doesn’t appear to be catching up) and its up to the top Western Coach by late January to decide if he will be part of Dallas ASG or not. For his confidence’s sake I hope he makes it.

    For what its worth, I will remain critical of his performance. I’d rather see him put up 11-11-3 than 20-8 nightly because that’s what his team asks him to do and not because 20-8 is what he wants himself to be.

    Your time will come young man.

  148. passerby says

    i must confess that i am a spoiled lakers fan. i mean, i’ve set the bar so high on this squad i sometimes become blind or non-analytical and non-critical about how other teams play compared to ours. for example, watching the spurs @ bucks yesterday aside from jennings maturity lesson kind of bored me. to some it was interesting already for many valid points. part of it is emotional/sentimental/personal…seeing the lakers lose really makes me feel bad (ruins my day) and that tells me a lot about how i appreciate my being a sports fan and the team i root for.

    kurt and company via this blog have tamed my desire for dominance in many ways over 2 years. thanks! (this weakness comes from being a 22 y.o.)

    what i will not accept though is complacency. perhaps this is laker championship DNA/identity at work here but am not buying that. some of it is mental. some of it is tactical. obviously some of it is physical and because of physical limitations (injuries anyone?). but i maintain that this laker team can do much better than advertised and go somewhere near the level of hype. to that end a combination of Xs and Os and to the extreme, player movement MAY contribute. but that is not for me to determine and pay for.1

    but then am acting spoiled again. teehee

    i remember that we had a similar gut-out game like this under the same cloud of predicaments (warranted or not) last year. and guess what? we got the trophy.

    GO LAKERS!

  149. Anonymous says

    Maybe Chris Kaman should be selected as the backup center for the All Star Game. Maybe that will light a fire under Bynum for the second half of the season.

  150. Rudy says

    I believe people are critical of our Lakers despite having the best record is because we see the bigger picture. Rather than come on this site and brag about our good record and our great players, true Lakers fans who know their basketball realize that records can be deceiving. Yes we are the World Champs and should be greatful, but with teams like the Lakers and the Yankees in baseball it’s championship or bust (especially with their huge payrolls)

    As we saw with the Cavs last year, having a great regular season record doesn’t guarantee you anything. The Cavs last season had some defeciencies which I bet true Cavs fans probably complained about all last season.

    With the amount of talent that we have, I guess we just look for perfection. My reason for coming on this site is because I’m a huge Lakers fan who watches all of their games and I like to see if other fans who watch most if not all the games are happy or frustrated with the same things as I am.

  151. sT says

    Wow, now I am very happy since Christmas, Baron Davis sinks the game winning shot (turnaround, fadeaway jumper) with 1 second left to beat the Celtics.

  152. Tyler says

    Nothing like a Celtics loss to get us Laker fans back in the right frame of mind I think.

    Especially when my least favorite player in the league blows free throws to lose the game.

  153. Warren Wee Lim says

    150 – Anonymous

    I wouldn’t be opposed to having Chris Kaman in there even though the Laker bias in me wants Drew. Chris Kaman is playing the best basketball in his career. If it was a choice between him and Drew odds do not favor us.

  154. Warren Wee Lim says

    LOL it was on Philippine TV but I had to work… gonna watch the replay tonite 😀 teehee!

  155. DreDawg says

    I don’t think the lakers are as good as their record indicates. Solo number one thanks to b diddy but does anyone think they’re the best right now? Obviously that doesn’t matter till April but I think the gripes are valid… We should be playing better ball right now. Were better than this and that’s what us fans want to see. At least at the effort side. I can forgive bad shooting but effort and lack of focus is frustrating… We are 24-5 but we needed some luck to win against Miami Milwaukee and Sacramento… We should be 21-8. I’m glad were beating the teams we should be but a little disappointed that were mediocre against the 600 teams. We had absolutely no chance to win any of those five losses. But as Kurt said, if were nitpicking about these little details, we should be happy… And I am. Mostly 🙂

  156. Josh says

    I think it was a rough game that’s over. Meanwhile the Lakers got the W the next night in hostile terrain against a team that is peaking and under especially difficult circumstances. We got to see Brown step up and the Black Mamba bare his fangs.

    Also, Boston just lost to the Clippers.

  157. Zephid says

    Hey, at least we win the games that are close. This tells our opponents that the only way to beat us is to blow us out with max effort. Otherwise, if it’s close going into the 4th, you’re screwed.

    • Kurt says

      If you think things are bad here, you should go check out some Celtics blogs tonight. Like Zephid said, right now the Lakers are winning these games (even when our key guy misses to free throws late).

      All I guess I’m saying is this: Name a roster you would want to trade for right now? I can tell you that 29 other fan bases want our problems. We can nit pick problems, and there are issues, but our problems are not all that bad in the grand scheme, and that perspective seems lost on people right now.

    • Kurt says

      And Rudy, I am not a championship or bust guy, for the record. To me, it is the journey, it is about the basketball. The goal is more than a destination, it is enjoying the journey, something else that I try to remind people of and just often do it in a more venting way than I should.

  159. DreDawg says

    I am impressed that we won those 3 games…huge come from behinds in the last two minutes. Down 4 with 9 secs to go. 7 with 2 and a half to go and with Milwaukee, was it 6 with a minute and a half? That didn’t happen much last year… But would u have rather beat Cleveland and Utah and lost to the bucks and kings or the other way around? Just wondering… 🙂

  160. DreDawg says

    153. He missed 3 if you count that one practice shot he took. Haha I take comfort in Boston losing one too. They’ve lost most of their games against sub 500 teams come to think of it. Must be hell at celticshub.

  161. Warren Wee Lim says

    At some point in all this (referring to Celtics fans and blogs) they will say “IF ONLY WE HAD OUR TEAM INJURY FREE” we would be able to beat the Lakers.

  162. Yusuf says

    LOL Rondo!!!!!!!!!! I say the Lakers employ the hack-a-rondo strategy if it comes down to it. Watchin a PG struggle to make ft’s is one of the funniest things ive seen in my life

  163. passerby says

    lol hack a rondo! that davis shot was sick and painful…for the celtics…that release barely made it and that is the definition of a buzzer-beater.

    kurt — ofcourse, i’d feel bad for any fan here that claims he’s a fan and fails to appreciate where and when it’s due, enjoy the ride and be with our lakers through thick or thin. on the other hand, we are not perfect. so i suppose people bring up these observations out of careful thought i presume. i don’t think that many have hit the panic button or are missing the big picture here. i like the exchanges a la rudy and kurt because it’s an exchange on perspective.

    anyhow, onwards to phoenix. that team can score…any word or ron-ron? GO LAKERS!

  164. DieTryin' says

    #158

    Touche Zephid! Our performance in close games has to get inside opponents heads a little.

  165. Anonymous says

    Brief teevee interview with Kobe after the Sacramento game – in so many words he stated games like vs Cleveland happen every so often and (the Lakers) just need to push thru them.

    You know what? He’s right!

    Re: 161 (Kurt) – You point is so well taken; I would not trade our roster for anybody’s; no way.