LAKERS vs CAVALIERS (PRE-GAME REPORT)

Several nights ago, Kobe set a record at MSG breaking the scoring record of most points as an opposing player with 61pts. How did LeBron respond to this? The next night(also playing against the Knicks), he may have only put up 52pts, but the man also added 11ast and 9rebs! Who does that? Effin' man-child that dood is.


Coming off a huge win over the Celts', the road trip ends with the Lakers' final test. They come to Cleveland to face the Cavs who have been amazing at home. With being the only team in the NBA who has yet taken a loss on their floor with 23 straight wins in their arena. Yeah, pretty amazing. The L.A. team looks to return home with a win tonight sweeping the road trip.

The last time these teams clashed, the Lakers took the win in a 105-88 victory as the Lakers throttled through the second half. Minor differences in tonight's game though. One, the Lakers come handicapped without Bynum who is a big presence offensively as well as defensively. Two, last time they played without Luke and Farmar(who are important roles for the Lakers), and now they're back on the roster. Three, the Cavs played without Ilgauskas last time, and he is a guy who can be big problems for the Lakers, and here's why.

The Lakers' defense depends on denying penetration from the middle and funneling the opposing guards to go baseline where either Bynum or Gasol would meet them and trap. Now any of this would be alright going up against any other center, but this is where our problems arise. Ilgauskas, also has a touch outside the paint that ranges out all the way to the 3-point line and spreads the floor. And in my opinion if Bynum were playing, would guard Wallace and Gasol would take Ilgauskas. But since Drew is out, Pau would guard Ilguaskas leaving the middle open for penetration. This problem became evident when they played Detroit with Rasheed shooing threes. But another option is having Odom rotate off of Ben when penetration does occur, being that Ben isn't much of an offensive threat.

Since Big Z's return, Verejao's numbers pretty much became stagnant, so I guess it just evens out. You just trade point in the paint for jumpers. Although Big Z can score, I don't see him much of an defensive player, I guess that's why they have Big Ben out there. So the Lakers need to dominate the paint early. Both Pau and Odom need to assert themselves and be aggressive. Wally has been shooting the ball pretty well also, so there's another guy who can spread the floor for the Cavs.

I see Mamba and King James going at it as things heat up in the game. Hopefully they don't cancel each other out like they did last time. And hopefully this time the Refs will let them play a little bit more than calling questionable calls and weenie fouls. Either way were in for a good game.