LAKERS vs RAPTORS (PRE-GAME REPORT)

The Lakers aren't the only team this year to use the twin tower strategy. Tonight the Lakers go on to face the Toronto Raptors(8-7) who slid Chris Bosh to the power forward position after adding Jermaine O'neal to their starting line-up when they traded T.J. Ford for O'neal over the summer. The last time these two teams met was durring the preseason games where the Lakers embarrassed the Raptors in a 23point victory. But then again, that was only preseason.

Again we play against a team with a pretty good point guard. Jose Calderon right now is second in the league in assist averaging 9.5apg and also putting up 13.2ppg. It was against the Raptors that I realized we had a problem containing point guards when T.j. Ford scored at will during the last regular season game last year against them. Lucky for us he's no longer with this team. O'neal has an ankle injury and listed as day-to-day but he expects to play against us on Sunday. Chris bosh is playing his best ball averaging 27pts and 10rebs. The Raptors also have a few good 3 shooters with Jason Kapono and Anthony Parker, and the problem with that is that the Lakers are not very good when defending behind the line.

I think we should do pretty good against Toronto as long as we can limit Calderon's assists and Bosh's touches. For the Raptors to hang with us they need a big game from Bosh and O'neal. Bosh has been shooting the ball pretty well lately from all areas of the floor making him a little more dangerous then the last time we played him. Durring the preseason we kept Bosh at 11pts and 11rebs, but at the same time Pau only had 7pts and 7rebs. But expect Pau to have a better game against them tonight. And though Bynum still has some foot problems, it didn't seem to show too much durring the Dallas game. If we don't make too many mistakes tonight, I think we should pull out another win maybe by 23 again or maybe more.

LAKERS VS MAVERICKS (POST-GAME REPORT)

LAKERS 114 MAVERICKS 107

The Lakers matched the 2001-02 championship club for the best start after 14 games in the franchise’s 61-year history. That team won three more games before getting their second loss. Even the 1971-72 squad that won an NBA-record 33 consecutive games with Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor lost three of their first nine before going on their historic winning streak.


“We’re a pretty smart team,” Bryant said. “So if something is not going our way in the first half, we all come in here and not just talk about playing harder, but we also talk about the execution of it. That’s the way Phil (Jackson) has raised us to play and think.”

Kobe brushed off a poor shooting night against the Nets and dropped a season high 35 points on 14-26 shooting as the Lakers came back from a 12 point deficit and used a 17-0 run to improve to 13-1 and still the best record in the NBA.

Not at 100%, Andrew Bynum still put up 18 points with 10 boards. He was very aggressive and attacked the basket to get to the line 7 times and converted for 6 of them. Bynum was also changing shots in the paint along with Pau to force the Mavs to shoot from the outside. He and Gasol ended with 2 blocks a piece. Pau had a quiet but efficient night shooting 7-12 for 14 points, 7 boards, 4 assists, and 0 turnovers.

Trevor Ariza and D Fish came through today. Ariza scored 15 points and was a major catalyst on defense. Fisher is a very streaky shooter, and when he's on, HE'S ON. Fish hit 8 of 14 shots scoring 19 points and 3 for 5 beyond the arc.

With Josh Howard out the Mavs were able to keep up with the Lakers. They were up 12 before the Lakeshow started to break the game open in the 3rd quarter. Jason Terry scored 29 points and almost seemed that he got any shot he wanted. Jason Kidd was just shy off a triple double with 12 points, 11 assists and 8 rebounds. Dirk had a double double with 19 and 12. When Josh Howard comes back we have to adjust to another scoring threat at the forward position, and from the past times we have met the Mavs, we have trouble with Jason Terry. The key is defense, we'll see what Phil does to force tough shots.

Next up, the Jermaine O'Neal-less Toronto Raptors. He is listed as day to day but I doubt he would want to come back his first game having to face Bynum and Pau on the inside. Chris Bosh is having an MVP season and we face another rising PG in Jose Calderon. Let's make it 14-1 sunday fellas!

LAKERS vs MAVERICKS (PRE-GAME REPORT)

Remember when the oldest guys on the same team were Jason Kidd and Kobe Bryant? The two veterans who helped capture gold this summer in Beijing will face off tonight at 7:30. In the last time these teams matched up, Jason Kidd went 1-7 from behind the arc. He's been shooting 60 percent in the last 3 games and is having one of the best shooting hot streaks in his career. Kobe Bryant, on the other hand, is coming off a tough shooting night against Kidd's former team. Mamba hit a horrible 5 of 17 shots, but the Lakers still routed the Nets. Not only did they win, but they blew out the opposition by 27.

Jason Terry scored 21 points in their loss to the Lakers on Veteran's Day. He is averaging 23 points and shooting 53 percent from the field during their 5 game winning-streak. Look for our defense to make a change in those numbers tonight. Los Angeles is 59-10 all-time at home against Dallas, including wins in 31 of the last 34. The Lakers have won four in a row overall against the Mavs after losing five of six. We expect another win at home to put an end to the Mavericks winning streak and watch Mark Cuban's annoying self cry and wish he had a team merely as good as the Lakers. Let's make it 13-1 Lakeshow!

JUGGERNAUTS.

Is a word I've been seeing associated with the Lakers lately. So I went behind enemy lines and visited other team blogs and went to see what exactly they thought about us...and surprisingly they said good things. Here's a few of them from different team bloggers.
Bright Side Of The Sun - "Suns fans, let's face it. The LA Lakers are unbeatable. Rings are on order. They are the best team ever. They won't lose more then 1 game this year and this won't be one of them.
Hang it up. It's over."
"Don't believe me? Just ask anyone at ESPN. Or anyone in SoCal. Or anyone with a microphone that speaks about NBA basketball."
"The Lakers came back from the improvements they made last year and added a healthy Bynum and under appreciated Ariza. They've upgraded some key positions and are playing with a ton of confidence. They aren't forced to rely on Luke Walton which is a net plus in any one's book."
"On top of that they've brought a defensive intensity that the Suns still lack. Phil Jackson's triangle offense is well ingrained in this group of players which let's him focus defensively while Porter is still fighting with his team to figure out who they are going to be."

HORNETS247 - "The Lakers have not only been beating their opponents, they've been embarrassing them. After six games, they have an efficiency differential of 20.7. The 1995 Bulls, winners of 72 games, had a differential of 13.4. Granted, the Lakers have been able to feast on the awful Clippers twice, and both Denver and Dallas gave them some trouble, but still, their numbers are scary."

NUGGDOCTOR - "Sure, the Lakers are a great team. Bynum is back and is playing like a beast. Kobe Bryant could still be the best overall player in the world. Pau Gasol is averaging a double-double of 16.2 points and ten boards. Lamar Odom may not like coming off the bench, but that's not stopping the 6'10" power-point from giving Phil Jackson solid contributions nightly while Vladimir Radmanovic is quietly shooting 45% from three-point range as a starter. So.... So... So what?"

THE DREAMSHAKE - "Finally, I watch last night's Rockets game. Which started out great (28-16 lead after the 1st quarter). Then Rick Adelman went absolute batshit insane with his lineups and rotations. And the Rockets got steamrolled. Badly."

Haha...okay so I just put the last one up because it's funny. "absolute batshit insane" Who thinks of saying these things?? Hahaha.

POST-GAME REVIEW

L.A. vs NETS

Another +20 point blowout(27 points if you want to be technical) for the Lakers in this 120-93 victory against the New Jersey Nets, which means tacos for the fans, or as Mbenga says “DACOE!”. Its games like these that remind you why Lakers are such a great team. What other team do you know can be down damn near double digits and come back and win by 27?

Yes, the 1st half was a bit frustrating for all Laker fans with the lack of interior defense, and easy penetration from the Nets’ guards(Primarily Carter & Harris). But come 2nd half, the defensive switch was turned on and held New Jersey to 39 points in the 2nd half, as opposed to the 54 points they gave up in the first two quarters. Gasol led the way tonight with 26pts, 8rebs, 1blk, and was 8 for 8 at the line. Kobe only 5 for 17 tonight with 12pts and 6 rebounds.

Our friend Joe said, “Do we even need Kobe anymore? Is he even relevant?” as he said jokingly. There will be times when he’ll have these games but that’s the beauty of having a great team. When your star player(Kobe Bryant at that) can put up mediocre numbers and still win ball games in high margins. Bynum had 15pts and 6rebs tonight, but impressed me the most out of everyone. Reason being, that he showed his aggressiveness that he’s been preaching of doing this whole time. He showed his great post moves banging it inside most of his possessions instead of settling for short jumpers and those running half-way hooks.

Aside from Gasol and Bynum, I really didn’t see too much from our starters. “Ear” Jordan was 2nd in scoring for the Lakers with 18pts, 5asts, 4 steals and led the bench mob who opened up the game and extended our lead with a combined 56 points! Mr. Carter had a couple easy ones in the first half but held to only 14 pts. Another point guard disaster letting Devin Harris score 21pts and center Lopez had 17pts, 10rebs, and 3 blks. But all that doesn’t matter. We are now 12-1. The Lakers won and was a great game to watch at Staples Center. It was fun to hear all the “Boos”, “We want Tacos!”, “MVP” chants, and the “WTF ref??”. Till the Christmas game Staples Center, we‘ll see you again.

PRE-GAME REPORT.

L.A. vs NETS

When I think of the New Jersey Nets, I think of two things. I think of a team that could have done great things. They HAD great players that consisted of Jason Kidd, Keith Van Horn, Kerry Kittles, Richard Jefferson, and at that time, an injury free Kenyon Martin(Also recieving Vince Carter in 04'). They made it all the way to the finals in 2002 and were a great team. Only thing was, Lakers were the better team and swept them that year in the Finals. Year after year since then they started losing their key players except for Mr. Carter(Who is now the eldest in the Nets.). During the summer the Nets acquired power forward Yi Jianlian in a trade for Richard Jefferson(Which I think is a stupid trade). The second thing I think of when I think Nets is Pau Gasol’s first game as a Los Angeles Laker when he was acquired mid February 2008. I was running late on my way back from Melrose listening to the game on AM570. All I remember was hearing how smoothly Pau fit in our offense(Pau worked the pick-n-roll with Kobe to perfection). I get to my friend‘s house and watched the rest of the game where they defeated the Nets. Right then I knew we were set.

Now New Jersey(6-6 comes to face the Lakers(11-1) once again. But I hope that Vince Carter doesn’t think he can pull those long distance 3 pointers and reverse two handed alley-oops like he did in the game against the Raptors. If I know the Lakers, they’ll make up for their horrible defense they attempted on Sundays game against the Kings and dominate this game. Shouldn’t be too hard of a game for us.

LOOK OUT FOR US ON TV BECAUSE WE WILL BE ATTENDING!!!

11-1

LAKERS 118 KINGS 108

“I’m not happy with this win. We could have played much more solid defensively,” Bryant said. “They did a good job getting out in transition. So from that aspect, we might have been a little worn down.” - Our MVP

The Lakers beat the Kings 118-108 to make our record 11-1. Eight players on the Lakers had double digit scoring nights. This is was actually got us the win because as you can see with the score, their were no free tacos at the staples center tonight.

“I thought we were poor, defensively,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “Offensively we were effective, although we turned the ball over an inordinate amount of times. They shot the ball well and had a lot of speed and penetration out of turnovers. They had 30 points off turnovers. It’s tough to defend turnovers. I don’t think we recovered well and transitioned well back to defense.”
The Lakers allowed the Queens to shoot 53.4 percent, despite shooting 4-20 from 3 point range. Tonight we had 18 turnovers and pretty poor defense.

Lamar Odom had a great night hitting 7 out of 9 shots. He also had 7 boards, 3 assists, a steal and a block. Outstanding numbers for coming off the bench. Kobe seems to have his stroke back hitting 10 of 20 shots shooting 50%. 24 points, 6 assists, and 3 steals just because. To me Trevor Ariza is one of the biggest reasons why the Lakers have been winning. Statistically speaking, it hasn't showed how effective Trevor has been. Tonite speaks loud and clear. 11 points 11 boards 3 steals and pure hustle. It's not far fetched to think Ariza will have a breakout year this season. Bynum came through with 15 points and 10 rebounds but turned the ball over 6 times. Way to be agressive but take care of the ball my man! Pau shot a quiet 50% from the field with 16 points and 7 boards. Expect more from the big men especially with the lack of defensive prescence on the inside with the Nets. You do remember Pau's first game as a Laker don't you? Well imagine that with a Gasol actually in training camp, a healthy Andrew Bynum, and Lamar Odom coming off the bench.

On Tuesday night the Lakeshow takes on the New Jersey Nets. Vince Carter has been playing up to par, but against the Lakers you can't really have your way in the paint. Lets hope our team can play good the defense that got us to our great start and take another win making us 12-1.

A little tickle for the pickle.

Daily News(Los Angeles): The Lakers are off to their best start since beginning the 2001-02 season with a 16-1 record. That team went on to win the third of its three consecutive NBA titles to start this decade, sweeping the New Jersey Nets in the Finals. ... The Lakers were second in the league in scoring going into Saturday's games, averaging 104.8 points, and third in defense (91.3). No team has led the league in offense and defense since the NBA went to a four-division format before the 1970-71 season, according to research by the Lakers' media relations staff. The Lakers have never been the league's top defensive team.

The Queens (Pre-Game Report)

Tomorrow the big bad Los Angeles Lakers take on the Sacramento Queens. No matter how long ago it was, even though all the players are gone (besides Bobby Jackson who came back), no one can forget the rivalry and how much we hate the Queens. From Mike Bibby's annoying face, Vlade Divac's Sir-Flop-A-Lot, C Webb's tears dropping from his eyes, and the infamous scuffle with Doug Christie and Rick Fox in the locker hall. Oh how we miss those days.


John Salmons is an emerging player in the NBA, and with Artest gone and Kevin Martin out with an ankle injury, he has taken on the scoring role. Beno Udrih showed much promise especially last year late in the season. He is a fast point guard with the ability to create his own shot. Jason Thomas at the power forward position has been putting up big numbers and is trying to work for a permanent spot in the starting line-up. Francisco Garcia has yet to play in a game this season, Mikki Moore is ugly, and is day-to-day for ugliness (and an ankle sprain), and Brad Miller is just old. The only way to really be concerned about this game is that a few days ago the Queens upset the Hornets on their home court. Should we be worried? I don't think so. Look for the lakers to make it 11 and 1 and win by at least 20. It will be more exciting to watch the classic game after where "Big Shot Bob" does his thing. I remember that day and the exact moment it happened. I was in the living room of my cousins house with all my family, as soon as Horry put up the shot everyone held their breath. Once we heard the first yell from Staples Center on the tube we all ran out of the house and so did our neighbors. Everyone screaming their lungs off and celebrating like we won the lottery. The site of Robert Horry aka Will Smith look-a-like nodding his head up and down after knocking down one of the biggest shots in Lakers history still gives me chills. Where were you when you experienced this part of the Lakers run to another championship?

POST GAME REVIEW.

L.A. vs DENVER

Okay, okay, okay. So I guess this win wasn't too hard to take away from the Nuggets. It was again the Lakers' team defense that did the job holding the Nuggets to 90 points in this 104-90 victory.
Lakers jumped at them in the first half with their defense and awesome ball movement leading by 20 before the beginning of the third quarter. Though for some reason we seem to let go of leads at times, we still won by 14. Kobe at times seemed like he couldn't miss and ended with 29pts in 30mins on 66.7% shooting, without playing in the fourth quarter. His level awesome is unparalleled! As I predicted, Bynum put up his share with 13pts, 13rebs, and 5asts. 5 assists man, 5 assists! Pau did make up for it tonight(After his game against Pheonix) with points(12), but slacked a bit in some of the other areas. Mr. VladRad (AKA The Wolfman), after putting up 5-6 three pointers the night before only put up 3 points and 1 block. Fisher still seems to be struggling out there, but no worries. When the time comes to show, Fish will show!
Now our bench(The Minute-Men as Phil calls them) did their job and contributed 40 points to our scoreboard. But this time it was Trevor Ariza who filled the box score with 11pts, 7rebs, 4ast, 3stls, and led the Lakers in minutes(32mins). But his stats don't stop there. Because of his defense(With help from Vladrad) held Nugget's star player Carmelo Anthony to 5-19 shooting. Denver's defense almost non-existant. But Billups and Smith had a combined 33pts and 11ast. which CP3 did to us alone so I guess they weren't that much trouble for us. Aside from the clumsiness the Lakers played at certain times in the second half and the stupid passes from Sasha, the Lakers played great.
In the words of Andrew Bynum(In the Post-game locker interview) "Instead of being 10-1, we should be 10-0"... *crickets*... No you idiot we should be 11-0! But let us remember that Bynum is still a young boy so we'll void his last comment. Yet the young man is right. We should be undefeated. But it's cool, we'll just have to make it 11-1 next game.

UP NEXT is wack ass Sacramento Kings. Kevin Martin is out so shouldn't be a hard game. But you never know what could happen.

Things to look out for.

L.A. vs DENVER

Back to back games? "No es nada!"...isss NOTHING! or is it? The new and somewhat improved Denver Nuggets look to end their 8 game losing streak against the Powerhouse Lakers. With a new PG Chauncy "Buh buh buh buh BILLUPS!"(Who was aquired in a trade for Allen Iverson a couple days after our first game with them), they don't seem to be the same Denver Nuggets we played, umm about 3 weeks ago? Billups did what I hoped would not happen. He's done what he did for Detriot and create for his team and has also put an emphasis on "Defense." Pre-Billups they gave up 104.0 per game. Now that they got Billups in the line-up they've held the opposing team to 92.5 points per game. All in all, Nuggets are a better team with Chauncy on the roster. But do I think they can beat the Lakers? NOPE!

Do I think it's going to be easy? Probably not. Yes I know we've beaten them by an average of 18pts in our homecourt. But keep in mind. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME TEAM! But then again we are No. 1 in the west(AND LEAD THE LEAGUE IN DEFENSE) and would be the league, if Boston didn't already play like 20 games. I expect for some of the no-show Lakers yesterday to make up for it today. How did kobe have a bad shooting night last night and still managed to put up 24? He is the MAN! Anyway I expect Bynum and Pau to put up some numbers tonight. I also expect their guards (Billups and Smith in particular) to give us some trouble early in the game

ESPN's Accuscore Projections
(Where each game is simulated one play
at a time and minimum of 10,000 times)
Lakers - 79%(favorite)
Nuggets - 21%(underdog)

Duel in the Desert

LAKERS 105 SUNS 92

What better way can start a blog than one of the most intense rivalries in the NBA? The Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns, Kobe vs Shaq, Mamba vs The Big Aristotle, Diesel, Ex-Superman, Ex-Cop, KAZAAM!

Two Western Conference powerhouses went head to head today at the US Airways Center in Phoenix. Before tip-off you see the ex-teammates Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'neal shake hands with a little hug before the game. You can't help but wonder, if they had put their differences aside, how many more championships would the two have won?



The LakeShow started off slow as usual but won the game by playing hard-nose defense. Which can actually be the key to winning a chip this year and many more years to come. 25 assists on 7 turnovers. More importantly forcing the Suns to 15 turnovers. Steve Nash was held to only 8 points on 3 of 9 shooting. I truly believe if the opposing teams star PG is held shooting wise or assist wise, we will win games big. If they can't be stopped, they can always be contained. Nash still dropped 10 dimes, but it wasn't enough for Bryant and company. RadMan shot an incredible 5 out of 5 from the 3 point line. With all the talent on this team, if Radmanovic steps up and hits these kind of shots, it will definitely be a wise decision by the Zen Master himself to keep him in the starting lineup to spread the floor. L.O. stepped up big today, but is it me or does he always play good against the suns? Maybe he hates them as much as I do. 6 of 11 from the field, hitting a 3 pointer with major confidence to spread our lead. 9 rebounds, great job L.O.! Pau only scored 4 points but only took 8 shots and had 9 rebounds and 9 assists to make up for it. He also held Amare Stoudemaire to 9-21 shooting. As Phil said, we'll settle with Amare taking the outside jumpshots. Kobe was just being Kobe. Shooting horribly in the first quarter but eventually found his way to the paint and started knocking down shots. 8 of 23 for the night with 24 points. Andrew Bynum had a hard task by guarding the interior offense of Shaq and Amare, but did a great job along Pau. Bynum is being more aggressive, and had a pretty efficient night. 5 for 8 shooting, 10 pts, 7 rebounds and a block. We're still waiting for his breakout game but we all must remember, our Lakers are 9-1, Kobe doesn't need to score 50 anymore, Pau and Bynum can switch at being 2nd and 3rd option, and we have one of the best small forwards in the league coming off the bench? Now that is the pure definition of DEPTH! Trevor Ariza had another great game playing defense and hustling on every posession. It looks like him and Sasha got passed differences and know when to go to work. It must be a blowout when Luke comes in and hits a three on you. Shaq finished with 15 points and 9 rebounds but didn't play in the fourth quarter because, well, he can't run anymore.

The Lakers look solid and will rest up for tomorrow nights game against the "new-look" Denver Nuggets with their newly acquired star PG in Chauncey Buh buh buh buh Billups. In our last meeting in the beginning of the season we took a 104 to 97 victory on the Nuggets home floor. This was during the trade talks of Iverson and Billups, and A.I. didn't play in the 4th quarter. Look for a more organized Nugg team with Chancey running the point and making plays. We should be able to come out with a win and take the first double digit win column in the big bad Western Conference!