Consider this a short preview with a bunch of other stuff thrown in. Record: 17-18 (Pythagorean 17-18), 9th seed in the West Record last 10 games: 3-7 Offensive Rating: 106.6 (15th in league) Defensive Rating: 108.7 (20th in league) The Lakers coming in: Hopefully the Lakers learned this lesson against Portland: They can’t look past […]
Game Preview
On Tap: The Cleveland Cavaliers
Record: 20-12 (Pythagorean 21-11), 4th seed in the East Record last 10 games: 7-3 Offensive Rating: 111.9 (2nd in league) Defensive Rating: 105.8 (13th in league) The Lakers coming in: I’d love to provide some brilliant, subtle insight into last night’s loss in Portland, but what went wrong was painfully obvious — even Joel Meyers […]
On Tap: The Portland Trailblazers
I’ve been swamped with work the last 48 hours, so I’ve had no time to do a preview (or even read my email). But consider this — in the last two blog polls ranking NBA teams, I’ve had Portland dead last. Portland is 30th in offensive efficiency in the league, 28th in defense. Not a […]
On Tap: The Indiana Pacers
Record: 18-13 (Pythagorean 19-12), 5th seed in the East Record last 10 games: 5-5 Offensive Rating: 105.7 (21st in league) Defensive Rating: 102.2 (3rd in league) About the Pacers: With Ron Artest, the Pacers were 11-7, without him 7-6, which includes a win last night in Sacramento (a blowout that allowed some key guys to […]
On Tap: The Los Angeles Clippers
Record: 17-13 (Pythagorean 18-12), 6th seed in the West Record last 10 games: 3-7 Laker Record against Clippers: 0-1 Offensive Rating: 105.2 (19th in league) Defensive Rating: 105.0 (10th in league) About the Clippers: After starting the season 14-5, the Clippers have been lost at sea. They are 3-8 in their last 11, including a […]
On Tap: The Philadelphia 76ers
Record: 16-16 (Pythagorean 17-15), 7th seed in the East Record last 10 games: 5-5 Offensive Rating: 111.2 (5th in league) Defensive Rating: 107.6 (20th in league) About the Sixers: For many seasons, Allen Iverson was the poster child for inefficient scoring — he got his points but took an inordinate amount of shots to do […]
Replay: The Utah Jazz
Rather than rewrite everything from the last preview, here are the three things the Lakers need to do the right the wrongs of the loss the other night. They had better, because another close loss with bad execution at the end is sending me into the Glenmorangie bottle. 1) Play better defense. Coming into the […]
On Tap: The Utah Jazz
Happy New Year everyone! Record: 14-16 (Pythagorean 14-16), 9th seed in the West Record last 10 games: 6-4 Laker Record Against Jazz this season: 1-0 (in overtime) Offensive Rating: 100.8 (29th in league) Defensive Rating: 105.1 (12 in league) About the Jazz: The Lakers catch the Jazz in the second game of a back-to-back (they […]
On Tap: The Memphis Grizzlies
Record: 16-10 (Pythagorean 12-14), 5th seed in the West Record last 10 games: 6-4 Record Against Lakers this season: 1-1 Offensive Rating: (105.1, 18th in league) Defensive Rating: (101, 4th in league) About the Grizzlies: The last time these two hooked up was the final game of the Lakers 5-1 road trip, and LA won […]
On Tap: The Washington Wizards
Sorry this post is up late, but been busy with family. Record: 11-14 (Pythagorean 13-12), 9th seed in the East Record last 10 games: 4-6 Offensive Rating: (107.7, 10th in league) Defensive Rating: (108, 23th in league) About the Wizards: We just saw them 10 days ago, when the Lakers played a flat first half […]