LAKERS vs NUGGETS (POST-GAME REPORT)

LAKERS 79 - NUGGETS 90

Total opposite of last night. The Lakers looked fatigued, average, and flat out helpless. The highest scoring team in the league was held to only 79 points against the third seed in the west, the Denver Nuggets.

The Laker bench was held to only 6 points, Kobe took 31 shots, Chris Anderson had 7 blocks tying his career high, and this is the first game we truly miss Andrew Bynum.

Our silver lining was Pau Gasol who continues to be consistest with 18 and 10. Although he did look tired, otherwise he would have been more aggressive against the lower ball IQ opponents. Kobe had 29 forced points, and Lamar had 12 points with 19 rebounds but only connected on 5 of 17 shooting. The Lakers shot under 30% which is surely their season lowest.

Let's try to forget this game and move on to the team we just dismantled the other night, the Pheonix Suns. Shaq is coming off a 45 point season high scoring effort, and I'm almost positive that they will change their technique on playing L.A. this time around.

LAKERS vs SUNS (POST-GAME REPORT)

LAKERS 132 - SUNS 106

The Lakers destroyed the Suns tonight at the Staples Center improving to 48-10 and winning 6 straight.

This was Shaq's first outing at Staples Center since he was a Miami Heat. He received a great ovation, and a great ass kicking.

Everybody got some tonight. Let's start with Lamar. 23 points on 11-12 shooting 9 rebounds and 4 assists in only 3 quarters. It's great to see the Suns not playing defense again. Kobe couldn't miss either. 22 points on 10-13 shooting 8 assists and 4 rebounds. Also in only 3 quarters. Pau had 16 and 9 with one rebound short of a double double but was somewhat busy on defending Shaq.

The bench was awesome. Tonight was the first night you saw the complete bench mob out and running. Even Mbenga got solid minutes and scored 8 points and 2 blocks. Shannon Brown and Adam Morrison look like they've been a part of this team since training camp, both contributing in the 4th quarter. The UCLA connection continued with their run-n-gun style. Ariza had 10 points with 5 steals, Farmar had 12 points with 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Josh Powell dropped 6 points and grabbed 6 rebounds and The Machine connected for 14 points.

Great game to watch. Even better to see the starters get some rest and not have to come back. The Lakers jumped on the Suns early and the Suns could just not get up. Hopefully the Lakers continue with their dominance tomorrow night in Denver. Next up, the injury riddened Nuggets.

LAKERS vs THUNDER (POST-GAME REPORT)

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)—Kobe Bryant needed just a few minutes to thwart an Oklahoma City rally and put the Los Angeles Lakers on the way to improving the NBA’s best record.

It took quite a bit longer to shake off the effects of the ankle injury he suffered in the process.

Bryant scored 10 of his 36 points in a 3-minute span of the fourth quarter to stave off the Thunder’s comeback bid and lead the Lakers to a 107-93 victory on Tuesday night. He didn’t emerge from the Lakers’ training room until about 40 minutes after the game, but he was in a good mood when he did.

“It was my ankle, but I’ve got ankle insurance,” Bryant said with a smile. “I’m fine.”

Bryant moved into 19th place on the NBA’s career scoring list, ahead of Adrian Dantley only one game after he passed Elgin Baylor for 20th. Entering the game, he had needed only 13 points to tie Dantley.

He got to that point with the first of back-to-back jumpers that pushed the lead back to 18 with 7:05 left in the third quarter after Oklahoma City had gotten within 10. The Thunder still had one last charge in them, closing within one before Bryant returned from the bench and took over.

Coach Phil Jackson said he had to turn away Bryant once before he finally let his star check back in with 9:17 to play and the Thunder within two. Bryant said the thoughts that were running through his head were not pleasant ones.

“If I don’t check in within the next 2 minutes, I’m just not going to sleep very well tonight,” Bryant said. “It’s about time for me to go in and do what they ask me to do.”

He had 15 points in the fourth quarter after the Thunder were threatening, allowing the Lakers to improve to 47-10 on the season and 21-6 on the road.

Kevin Durant scored 32 to lead Oklahoma City in its sixth straight loss. “A guy like Kobe Bryant, he’s a great player,” Durant said. “He makes those shots. We forced him into some of those tough ones, but that’s the kind of player he is.”

Pau Gasol added 14 points, Derek Fisher scored 12 and Luke Walton had 11 for Los Angeles. After averaging 16 rebounds over the last seven games, Lamar Odom had only eight points and eight rebounds.

But Bryant had plenty of production, especially down the stretch.

He hit a jumper immediately after checking back into the game, then scored six points in a row to respond to Jeff Green’s three-point play that cut the deficit to 81-80. He used a series of hesitation moves and pump fakes to draw two fouls from Weaver, then backed his way in against the rookie for a layup that made it 87-80.

The Lakers’ lead eventually ballooned to 104-89 on Walton’s layup, and that allowed Bryant to exit with 1:26 to play. He had stayed in the game despite clutching his right ankle when he landed awkwardly after getting fouled on a layup attempt under the basket with about 4 minutes left.

Odom was disappointed in how Los Angeles squandered the big lead and said it “wasn’t a wholehearted effort at all defensively for us.”

“We’re pushing for perfection. We can play better than what we played tonight,” Odom said.

LAKERS vs TIMBERWOLVES (POST-GAME)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)—Major knee injuries have robbed the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves of their star centers.

The Lakers just keep cruising right along on their way to the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference playoffs even without Andrew Bynum, while the Timberwolves look lost without Al Jefferson.

The difference? The Lakers have Lamar Odom.

Odom had 25 points and 14 rebounds, and Kobe Bryant scored 28 to move past Elgin Baylor into 20th place on the NBA’s career scoring list in the Lakers’ 111-108 victory Sunday night.

Pau Gasol added 25 points for the team with the league’s best record, which is 9-1 since Bynum went down with a torn MCL in his right knee on Jan. 31.

When asked how his team has sustained its success, guard Derek Fisher pointed across the locker room to Odom.

“Lamar has been asked more than anybody to make sacrifices that guys of his caliber normally aren’t asked to make,” Fisher said, referring to Odom coming off the bench for 45 of the team’s first 46 games. “Now that he’s back in the starting lineup, he’s letting the game come to him and his talent speaks for itself.”

Odom is averaging 17.2 points and 13.9 rebounds since Bynum went out.

“I’m just finding my way,” Odom said. “I’m feeling real comfortable out there.”

The Timberwolves wish they had that kind of depth.

Ryan Gomes had 20 points and seven rebounds and Craig Smith scored 19 on 9-for-10 shooting for the Timberwolves, who are 1-4 without Jefferson and have lost six straight home games.

“You just have to fight through that frustration level when you think things aren’t going your way,” Minnesota coach Kevin McHale said.

Bryant’s breakaway lay-in with 10:42 to play in the third quarter pushed him past the former Lakers great Baylor into third in franchise history, behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jerry West.

The last time the Lakers were here, Bynum had 27 points and 15 rebounds in the Lakers’ 132-119 victory, but things weren’t as easy this time around.

The Lakers had height mismatches all over the floor.

Bryant had a 2-inch advantage over Randy Foye according to the listed heights, but he plays so much bigger than the Wolves’ captain and had no problem getting his shots in the low post.

The 7-foot Gasol was an even bigger handful for Kevin Love, generously listed at 6-10, on the low block. The Spaniard routinely beat Love down the floor to gain position in the paint, and once he got the ball, it was all over.

Bryant was 6-for-8 in the first half, most coming on short turnaround jumpers over Foye. Gasol went 8-for-10 in the first two periods with nothing coming from further than 5 feet out.

“He is the best player in the game, the way he plays, the way he dominates,” Foye said of Bryant. “It’s just a tough matchup. It’s a mismatch all around the board. They’re always going to have a mismatch, no matter the position.”

Yet for all that success, the Lakers had plenty of problems putting this depleted Wolves team away. Smith made his first eight shots from the field, the last two on breakaway layups to give Minnesota an 80-78 lead after three quarters.

Bryant converted a three-point play and then a baseline turnaround jumper over Foye with his tongue wagging Jordan-style for a 106-103 lead. He added two free throws and Foye missed a desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer to seal it.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson ripped his team’s defense, which allowed the 18-37 Wolves to shoot 50 percent, make 10 3-pointers and get several wide-open drives to the basket.

“We got lucky, man,” Odom said.

LAKERS vs HORNETS (POST-GAME)

LOS ANGELES (AP)—The New Orleans Hornets were the only NBA team that hadn’t played an overtime game this season, so they might have forgotten what was required to win in the extra period.

They could’ve started with defending Kobe Bryant.

Bryant scored 11 of his 39 points in OT and the Los Angeles Lakers beat New Orleans 115-111 on Friday night, snapping an NBA-record streak of 13 overtime wins by the Hornets dating to December 2005.

“There have been many times this season where the starting unit struggled and the bench came in and bailed us out. Tonight was the opposite,” Bryant said. “Anytime you have a game like that where you kinda seesaw down the stretch like that and come out with a win, it’s always good.”

Pau Gasol had 20 points and 12 rebounds for the defending Western Conference champions, who won for the 14th time in 16 games. Derek Fisher, whose 3-pointer with 14.6 seconds left in the fourth quarter forced overtime, made four free throws in the final 14.3 seconds of the extra period to ice it.

“We had our chances and should have won the game, there’s no doubt about it,” Hornets coach Byron Scott said. “We just gave it to them. The last thing I said in the huddle was, ‘Don’t give up open 3s.’ But we gave a 3 to Fisher. We just have to put it in the past and forget about it.”

Lamar Odom grabbed 12 points and 17 rebounds, the fifth time in six games that he had 17 or more boards.

The Lakers improved the NBA’s best record to 45-10 and avenged a 116-105 loss to the Hornets on Jan. 6 that ended a 15-game home winning streak. Chris Paul and David West, who combined for 72 points in that one, had 21 and 16 respectively in the rematch while Rasual Butler led the team with 31.

Paul also had 16 assists in 45 minutes before picking up his sixth foul with 1:32 left in OT—the first time he fouled out in a regular-season game in his four-year NBA career. West had a season-high 16 rebounds for New Orleans.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson rested Bryant for the first 5 minutes of the fourth quarter, and New Orleans reduced a 13-point deficit to 85-82 with 8:46 remaining on Butler’s 3-pointer—one of five by the Hornets in the quarter.

“We made it a lot harder on ourselves, which we have to give New Orleans credit for,” Jackson said. “They came out in the fourth quarter and hit a bunch of 3s. We knew they would eventually start hitting them, but I don’t think we were intent enough about covering them up.”

Paul’s two free throws gave the Hornets a 95-93 edge with 3:21 to play after the Lakers turned the ball over on a traveling violation. James Posey, who helped Boston beat the Lakers in last year’s finals, drained his third 3-pointer of the quarter to give the Hornets a 98-95 lead with 1:15 to play after Los Angeles tied it on a tip-in by Gasol.

Paul was called for an offensive foul with 20.1 seconds left. Fisher took the charge, then made Paul pay for it with his tying 3-pointer.

“We’re used to it from him,” Bryant said of Fisher. “That’s what he does. That’s why he is so valuable to our ballclub.”

Ariza Ready To Cash In.

from realgm.com

Trevor Ariza will become an unrestricted free agent this summer and is one of the Lakers' top off-season priorities.

He makes $3.1 million this season and might be able to at least double his salary with his new contract.

RealGM Note: Ariza is ranked 90th in season FIC and with a Reina Value of +152%, he 'deserves' to make almost $8 million.

Ariza has shown his impact to one of the best, if not THE best team in the league. I'm sure he'll be cashing in this summer and it was a great move by mitch to move Chris Mihm to prepare for the offseason.

LAKERS vs WARRIORS (POST-GAME REPORT)

LAKERS 129 - WARRIORS 121

Definitely an exciting game to watch! The first team to play defense would win the game. Neither team played defense in the first half, but Kobe and the Lakers did in the second. Well, kind of.


One thing you have to know about the Lakers is, don't let them be anywhere within reach. The Lakers hung around the whole game and just struck the Warriors down late in the 4th quarter with Trevor Ariza's back to back 3-pointers.

Kobe was extravagant tonite. 2 huge blocks showing his leaping ability, and 1 of them was on a strong dunk attempt from the rook Anthony Randolph, who is extremely annoying if I might add. He looked like he was going to start crying after falling off L.O.'s back. We already have one "Big Baby" in this league, please don't emulate. Back to Mamba, 30 points, 9 assists with 3 rebounds and 3 steals. And that oh-so-pretty fadeaway on his buddy Ronny to seal the deal. You should know better Ronny!

Pau Gasol continued to beast in the paint, even with the uptempo style that the Warriors ran. 24 points on 10-15 shooting, 13 rebounds, and still managed to dish out 5 assists.

Lamar continues to impress me. His aggressiveness and attacking the basket shows what he has learned since having early success against the more premier teams, confidence. 22 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks and 6-8 from the stripe. Lamar knocks down these free throws when they really matter most.


Josh Powell was great in the first half, and already proved that he can be on the court late in games. Remember the game in San Antonio? He definitely showed his stroke and has made his point that he wants more minutes with Bynum out and Mihm shipped to Memphis. 16 points and 7 rebounds and perfect from the line. It shows that any player can step up and have a big game on this roster at any given night. Along with Powell, Trevor Ariza showed why he is such an asset to the Bench Mob. Ariza had 17 points with 2 steals and knocked down those back to back 3's with confidence to put us up ahead and basically gave us the momentum.

Next up are the New Orleans Hornets with CP3 and company. Expect another high tempo game, but with a lot more defense. Lakers return home to get some rest and play friday night.