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 […]
News
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 […]
Player Pairs (and some other stuff)
Now that we’re 23 games into the season — and Phil Jackson has seemingly tried every possible lineup combination in his search for a rotation — that an interesting thing to do is start looking at player pairs. Specifically, what players are playing well with each other (using +/- and other numbers). For example, who […]
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 […]
Preview and Chat: The Houston Rockets
Don’t expect a long preview, it feels like we did this just a few days ago. Double Yao. The one thing discussed after the last game here was that the Lakers waited until the second half to start doubling Yao Ming in the post. Not so coincidentally, that’s when the Lakers went on a big […]
The Kobe Rules
It was mentioned by Ian yesterday in the comments, Dallas has developed its “Kobe Rules†— defensive rules that apply just to Kobe in an attempt to stop him from doing things like scoring 62 points in three quarters. The rules are pretty logical: try to deny Kobe the ball, be physical with him, vary […]
Preview and Chat: The Dallas Mavericks
Odom’s status. The official word has come down and it looks like the Lakers are without Odom for the next four weeks at least. Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. Saving Kwame. Another great post at Lakernoise by Roland Lazenby, this one about the turnaround in Kwame Brown: Yes, Kwame Brown […]
Life Without Lamar
Well, that sucks. If one guy deserved a season without misfortune it was Odom. First things first, we’ll know more later today on just how long Odom will be out after the MRI is completed. Early guesses ranged from one to six weeks, depending on who you listen to. But as kwame a. said in […]
Preview and Chat: The Houston Rockets
14-6. It was the record we hoped the Lakers would come out of that heavy home schedule with, and even with the toughest tests ahead I think we’ve learned a lot about this team through 20 games. And there are a lot of reasons to be excited. Due to a couple of big games I’ll […]