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 […]
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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 […]
Life Without Kwame
Coming into Sacramento on Thursday, the new Laker starting five (Smush, Kobe, Walton, Cook and Bynum) have played a total of 16 minutes together this season, over four different shifts. The results: They scored 31 points shooting just 46.3% (eFG%); they gave up 38 points and let opponents shoot 57.4%; the lineup took 70% of […]
Lakers New Year’s Resolutions
I posted the full list over at LAist, and while some of it is aimed at a mass audience (hence the simplistic explanation of the pick-and-roll) they are all things we can hope for. Here are a couple resolutions for the team. Get healthy. It’s one of your resolutions — to eat better, to drop […]
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 […]
Thoughts watching Orlando
Just a collection of thoughts typed while watching the game, and a few afterward thanks to stats sent by Rob L. • All credit to Kwame, who held phenom Dwight Howard to 40% shooting (eFG%), 17% off his season average, just 8 rebounds and an offensive rating of 91.04. • Smush just seems to play […]
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 […]
Quotable Lakers
One of my early Christmas gifts this year is a book called “Laker Glory,” a collection of quotes from and about the Lakers, compiled by freelance author Alan Ross. It’s not going to be confused with “The Show†anytime soon, but there are some interesting quotes I’ve found already, so I thought I’d pass them […]