Records: Lakers 33-15 (2nd in West), Rockets 22-27 (11th in West) Offensive ratings: Lakers 112.5 (2nd in NBA), Rockets (110.1 (5th in NBA) Defensive ratings: Lakers 105.1 (10th in NBA), Rockets 109.9 (24th in NBA) Projected Starting Lineups: Lakers:Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Ron Artest, Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol Rockets: Kyle Lowry, Kevin Martin, Shane Battier, […]
Is It Fair To Doubt Pau Gasol?
Wearing a Lakers’ jersey invites scrutiny. The team has produced many great players, but none have been immune to being second guessed at some point in their careers. Ask Kobe the “ballhog”. Or Magic after he “choked away” the ’84 Finals. Kareem and Shaq also received their fair share of blame for Lakers defeats during their tenure […]
Lakers/Celtics: Lack Of Execution Dooms Lakers
Team brilliance will always trump individual brilliance. The Lakers learned that lesson (again) when they fell to the Celtics 109-96. Really the key to this game was the fact that down the stretch the Celtics pounded away with their deliberate offensive sets and smothering D while the Lakers’ offense stagnated into a Kobe-centric attack while […]
Around The World (Wide Web)
From Andy Kamentzky, Land O’ Lakers Blog: The Lakers swore during Thursday’s practice nobody was looking ahead to Sunday’s showdown with the Celtics. After this debacle, I’m hoping it was the opposite. I’d like to believe everyone wasn’t just looking ahead, but actually played while picturing Celtic heads on the bodies of each King. In […]
Lakers/Kings: How To Not Win A Game
Coming into this contest I thought there was a great chance that this could be a trap game. With the Celtics coming into to town on Sunday, I thought it’d be very easy for the Lakers to only go through the motions versus the Kings, simply relying on talent in the hope that outclassing the […]
Preview and Chat: The Sacramento Kings
Records: Lakers 33-13 (2nd in West), Kings 10-33 (14th in West) Offensive ratings: Lakers 112.7 (1st in NBA), Kings 102.5 (26th in NBA) Defensive ratings: Lakers 104.5 (8th in NBA), Kings 108.0 (16th in NBA) Projected Starting Lineups: Lakers: Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Ron Artest, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum Kings: Tyreke Evans, Beno Udrih, Omri […]
Ron Artest Is Finding His Groove
For most of the year, a topic of (at least some) concern has been the play of Ron Artest. In early December we covered the topic and ultimately came to the conclusion that Ron wasn’t playing as poorly as some of his numbers looked and that a lot of what we were judging Ron’s performances on were based […]
Familiar Foes
It’s been said that familarity breeds contempt. In personal relationships this idiom is often used to explain how people grow tired of/lose respect for those that they live with and/or work. How those every day interactions lead to getting too familiar with a person’s faults or those traits that ultimately become annoying. However, when applying this […]
Lakers/Jazz: Beating A Good Team Shouldn’t Look That Easy
Coming into this game, my hope was that the Lakers would jump on the reeling Jazz from the outset and carry over their strong play from Friday’s win against the Nuggets. My thought was that even though the Jazz hadn’t had much success at Staples (losing their last 16 games when visiting the Lakers) that […]
Preview and Chat: The Utah Jazz
Records: Lakers 32-13 (2nd in West, 6 games behind Spurs), Jazz (27-17 (6th in West, 4.5 games behind Lakers) Offensive ratings: Lakers 112.3 (1st in NBA), Jazz 109.6 (8th in NBA) Defensive ratings: Lakers Lakers 104.7 (10th in NBA), Jazz 108.3 (19th in NBA) Projected Starting Lineups: Lakers: Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Ron Artest, Pau Gasol, Andrew […]