All That Jazz The Lakers need to bounce back after a tough loss on the road. The Utah game went down to the wire, but the Lakers let Boozer, Okur and Williams get double-doubles. That won’t win you many games. On the positive side, turnovers were at a season low 11, Odom looked aggressive and […]
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Preview and Chat: The Utah Jazz
How is Utah 11-1? The answer is offense. Right now the Jazz are the best offense in the NBA, racking up 115.2 points per 100 possessions, much better than second place Detroit (111.9) and far ahead of the 10th-ranked Lakers (107.2). The Jazz are shooting a very nice 52.6% (eFG%) as a team, but more […]
Preview and Chat: The Los Angeles Clippers
UPS. We’re not the nickname-giving type of blog, but we love the suggestion from Dan to start calling Kwame Brown “UPS†— What Can Brown Do For You? Tonight he may need to do a lot, his slow introduction back into the Laker rotation will get a jump start as the Lakers look to match […]
Preview & Chat: The Chicago Bulls
Test Time. The Lakers beat the Raptors Friday night because, well, they were the Raptors, not because the Lakers played well. This week they can’t do that, starting tonight they have four games against quality teams – the Bulls, the Clippers, the Jazz and the Nets. I’ve got more on it a LAist, but think […]
Preview & Chat: The Toronto Raptors
81? Nah, not going to happen again, at least not tonight. But the Raptors do struggle to defend the two (PER against of 18.3), so Kobe should do well even with the sore knee. They are also struggling to cover the opposing center, a PER of 19.3 against, so watch out for Bynum. Well, let’s […]
Preview and Chat: The Memphis Grizzlies
About that last game. This was one of those games that last season Kobe would have just taken over, scored 50 and at least kept it close. Right now, he is not capable of doing that. Again Odom made a couple nice plays to start the game then faded (and again had a tough defensive […]
Preview & Chat: The Detroit Pistons
Bet the Over. It’s early, so let’s not read a lot into this, but right now the Lakers are second in the league in offensive efficiency at 108 (points per 100 possessions), while Detroit is fifth (105.2). And neither team is playing great defense. What’s the Under/Over on Ts? Four games in, Rasheed Wallace has […]
Preview & Chat: The Portland Trailblazers
Bynum’s Big Test. What a game from Andrew Bynum last night, obviously his best as a Laker — 20 points with a true shooting percentage of 74.6%, pulls down 14 boards, blocked three (changed many more) and is a team-best +14 on the night. He anticipated well on the defensive end and controlled the boards. […]
Preview & Chat: The Minnesota Timberwolves
Don’t Even Start. Yes the Timberwolves are in town but nobody should be mentioning a trade of that guy to this team. Not going to happen this season, probably a 1% chance it would ever happen. So stop it. Just stop it. Live in the moment. Sit Kobe? You need to check out the latest […]
Preview & Chat: The Seattle Supersonics (part two)
I suppose we should start with Kobe: He wasn’t the explosive Kobe that strikes fear into the hearts of mere mortals. There was certainly some rust. It appeared as if he looked to pass first and shoot second, feeling his way into the offense. All that said, Kobe did a good job of blending in […]