About Last Night. Well, I really liked the first quarter. It helped that apparently the Kings’ defense strategy involved doubling Kobe and Bynum and ignoring Brian Cook. Kobe, when he started scoring on the night, got to the line a lot and was very efficient overall (70.5% true shooting percentage, which is like points per […]
Game Preview
Preview and Chat: The Sacramento Kings
Ask the Expert. You want to know about the Kings, you ask one of the very best team bloggers out there, Tom Ziller of Sactown Royalty. So, I did that and he was kind enough to answer (or was so drunk he didn’t realize it was me). Q: We read about the friction between Ron […]
Preview and Chat: The Philadelphia 76ers
Bad Charlotte. It was maybe the ugliest Laker game of the season. On offense, it was a game where Kobe was hot early, so everyone else seemed to spend the rest of the game (and particularly the overtimes) just throwing him the ball, clearing out and letting him go one-on-one. Kobe clearly got tired as […]
Preview and Chat: The Charlotte Bobcats
American Express and Spinal Tap? Has anyone else noticed that the background music for the latest series of American Express business card ads is Spinal Tap? Seriously, you can view it here. The song is “Give me some money†from the band’s 50s incarnation (before becoming the heavy metal powerhouse and star of its own […]
Preview and Chat: The Orlando Magic
Big Test. Great new blog post by Roland Lazenby this morning, which is a must read for you Derek Fisher fans out there. But for my purposes I’ll just excerpt the part about tonight’s game: Now the Lakers face a huge test, a moment of truth, in their efforts to rebuild into a championship contender. […]
Preview and Chat: The Miami Heat
A game that has become a holiday tradition. Well, at least that is how ABC is selling this one, Personally, I can think of a dozen of matchups I’d rather see that don’t even involve the Lakers. And what does it say about the marketing suits at NBA headquarters that the Shaq/Kobe rivalry (and you […]
Preview and chat: The New Jersey Nets
Those Super Subs: I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a game-flow chart (from the amazing popcornmachine.net) as definitive as the one from the Laker win in Minnesota. When the starters were on the floor the Lakers struggled, when the bench guys came on so did the Lakers. Here’s why that matters tonight: when the Lakers […]
Preview and chat: The Minnesota Timberwolves
You get what you pay for here at FB&G. I have no comments from last night’s game as I didn’t see it (blame the virus wiping me out). So, I’ll borrow some thoughts from yesterday’s comments: From the always-insightful kwame a.: Second half we lost our defensive intensity, we only gave up 42 pts in […]
Preview and chat: The Chicago Bulls
Hit the road, Jack. Six game road swing for the Lakers through the Midwest and East, starting tonight in Chicago. I’d say 3-3 is passable for this trip, 4-2 a good goal to shoot for. About Kobe and Gil. Kobe got a lot of attention after saying Arenas’ 60-point performance against the Lakers was a […]
Preview and Chat: The Washington Wizards
Last Season’s Lakers. Houston certainly gave “The Kobe Rules†a shot, trying a few different ways to force the ball out of Kobe’s hands. At one point late in the first half, when Kobe had been bringing the ball up the court, the Rockets started trapping him with two men as soon as he crossed […]