Thanks to Utah's 113-91 win over Houston last night, we don't have to wait until Tuesday to see the Lakers take the floor. This is a good thing. I don't know how much longer I could take the "rest vs. rust" discussions. Anyway, the Lakers cruised through the first round, but that might be the problem. I'm not a big fan of speculation, but it's hard not to listen when someone says something along the lines of "well, the Lakers are going to get overconfident after the sweep, Denver just rolled over and gave them the series." Personally, I think the Lakers know what their doing. This whole notion of 'overconfidence' is milked too much in the media. It's playoff basketball. The Lakers (as with just about any other team) have enough experience to know what their going up against and how to react.
Sunday is going to make for some terrific basketball. Not only do we have the Lakers kicking off this series, but the #1 seed Celtics face elimination in game seven of that CRAZY series at 10am.
The Lakers are 3-1 in the season series, losing on November 30th at EnergySolutions Arena. On March 20th the Lakers issued Utah one of only four losses at EnergySolutions Arena. Interestingly enough, all three Lakers' wins against Utah were without Pau Gasol--just like the Denver series.
In the regular season, the Lakers scored
108.6 points per game and allowed 101.3 points per game with an
offensive rating at 3rd of 30 and a defensive rating at 5th of 30. The Jazz scored
106.4 points per game and allowed 99.3 points per game with an
offensive rating at 1st of 30 and a defensive rating at 12th of 30.
Series Schedule: Game One Sunday - 5/4 Jazz @ Lakers 12:30pm - ABC
Game Two Wednesday - 5/7 Jazz @ Lakers 7:30pm - TNT
Game Three Friday - 5/9 Lakers @ Jazz 6:00pm - ESPN/KCAL
Game Four Sunday - 5/11 Lakers @ Jazz 12:30pm - ABC
*Game Five Wednesday - 5/14 Jazz @ Lakers TBD - TNT
*Game Six Friday - 5/16 Lakers @ Jazz TBD - ESPN/KCAL
*Game Seven Monday - 5/19 Jazz @ Lakers TBD - TNT
Starting Matchups: Point Guard (LAL) Derek Fisher - 6-1, 205 - 11.7 PPG, 2.1 RPG, 2.9 APG (8.5 PPG in Round 1) (UTA) Deron Williams - 6-3, 208 - 18.8 PPG. 3.0 RPG, 10.5 APG (20.8 PPG in Round 1)
Shooting Guard (LAL) Kobe Bryant - 6-6, 220 - 28.3 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 5.4 APG (33.1 PPG in Round 1) (UTA) Ronnie Brewer - 6-7, 223 - 12 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 1.8 APG (9.3 PPG in Round 1)
Small Forward (LAL) Vladimir Radmanovic - 6-10, 234 - 8.4 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 1.9 APG (8.2 PPG in Round 1) (UTA) Andrei Kirilenko - 6-9, 223 - 11 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 4.0 APG (9.3 PPG in Round 1)
Power Forward (LAL) Lamar Odom - 6-10, 230 - 14.2 PPG, 10.6 RPG, 3.5 APG (11.7 PPG in Round 1) (UTA) Carlos Boozer - 6-9, 266 - 21.1 PPG, 10.4 RPG, 2.9 APG (16 PPG in Round 1)
Center (LAL) Pau Gasol - 7-0, 260 - 18.9 PPG, 8.4 RPG, 3.2 APG, 0.5 SPG (22.2 PPG in Round 1) (UTA) Mehmet Okur - 6-11, 263 - 14.5 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 2.0 APG (13.1 PPG in Round 1)
All-Time Series Facts (from game notes):
Lakers vs. Utah in Postseason (from game notes): The Lakers and Jazz have met three times in the postseason (1988, 1997 and 1998) with Los Angeles advancing on once occasion (1988 Western Conference Semifinals 4-3, the lone time the Lakers have held the home-court advantage over the Jazz). Utah eliminated Los Angeles from the playoffs in two consecutive seasons: 1997 Western Conference Semifinals (1-4) and 1998 Western Conference Finals (0-4). The Jazz sweep of the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals in 1998 included a 112-77 victory in Game 1, the largest margin of defeat by the Jazz over the Lakers in their playoff series history.
Staples Center Advantage (from game notes): Since moving to STAPLES Center prior to the 1999-2000 season, the Lakers have won 82% of their postseason games (45-10). The Lakers have topped the century mark in half of their postseason home games at STAPLES Center (28-of-55) while the opposition has been held under 100 points in all but 14 of those games. In their last 18 home playoff games, the Lakers are 15-3.
The Lakers' woes appear to be in the rear-view mirror.
I say appear, because we all know how crazy this season has been thus far and there's always the propensity for it to get crazier.
If things go as planned, the Lakers will have both of their big men on the floor in a matter of games. Not weeks, not months. GAMES.
First order of business--Jonathan Abrams at The LA Times is reporting:
"The Lakers received their most upbeat medical report in weeks after
practice on Tuesday: Pau Gasol is expected to play tonight when the
Lakers play host to the Portland Trail Blazers, after missing nine
games because of a sprained left ankle.
Gasol underwent a full practice Tuesday, afterward labeling his ankle a little sore but showing progress.
His ankle is not fully healed but good enough to give it a go tonight.
"That's
the main question, right?" Gasol said. "If nothing crazy happens and
the ankle responds well to the work today, I think it's a pretty good
guess that I'll be out there."
Gasol is averaging 18.9 points
and 8.5 rebounds. He has played 19 games at center for the Lakers,
filling in for injured Andrew Bynum, since being acquired in a Feb. 1
trade. The Lakers are 15-4 with Gasol in the lineup, and were 5-4 in
his absence as Ronny Turiaf and DJ Mbenga played center and the team
slipped a bit in a tight Western Conference race."
So, one piece to the puzzle is back. To boot, the news on the second piece to the LONG AWAITED twin-tower front line is good as well.
We know Andrew Bynum will be traveling on the Lakers upcoming two-gamer through Sacramento and Portland on Sunday and Tuesday. "It's not really connected to his injury per se. It was just the amount
of work that he's started to be able to do, which is impressive,"
Jackson said. "I told him to expect to go on the trip to Sacramento and Portland. Whether he can play or not, it
may not be that time, but he's going to go through the workouts and
practices and the pregame and whatever we have."
I wouldn't expect either Pau or Andrew to be 100%, but their returns are definitely going to be instrumental to the team's performance coming down the stretch.
Also, some rather niche things for the Lakers fans:
-If you didn't catch the news yesterday, the Lakers signed Ira Newble for the rest of the season. Newble only saw action in his first game in a Lakers uniform, scoring two points and pulling down two rebounds in 3:46 on March 21.
-Derek Fisher is listed in the Lakers' injury report as day-to-day with that partial tear of a tendon in his right foot. Fisher, who is expected to play, played through the pain on Sunday, scoring 17 points in 32:53.
Finally, for those of you as interested as I am about the $75,000 Alter-G Treadmill that has been making headlines, Lakers.com put out a video explaining the machine.
Well, the short handed Lakers threw a little bit of a wrench into equation tonight.
After quite possibly the worst week (in terms of losing players) of the season (or the past few seasons, for that matter), The Lakers, anchored by Derek Fisher are messing with us once again.
Tonight's 116-99 victory over the Nuggets provided proof of the Andrew Bynum Theory. 'When someone other than Kobe is hot (usually Bynum, but tonight, D-Fish) the Lakers will win.' This, (obviously) allows the Lakers to exploit the defense's special attention to Kobe, and... RESULTS. Who would've thought?
Fisher scored one off from his career high tonight, with 28 points. Jordan Farmar stepped things up, contributing to the bench mob's 40+ points, with 19. Kobe did his thing, scoring 17 points and dishing out 11 assists. Lamar put up 15 and 11, and Ronny Turiaf added 11. Oh yeah, Kwame didn't do too bad tonight, posting 7 and 11.
Carmelo Anthony managed to score 13 points before going down hard on Kobe's shoe, on what is most likely going to be an ankle sprain (x-rays were negative). Allen Iverson scored 24, LINAS Kleiza added 21, Marcus Camby put up 18 and 12, and Kenyon Martin contributed with 16 and 11. Odd stat of the night? Anthony Carter: ZERO points and 14 assists.
I don't really know what to say about tonight's game... I think everyone in LakerNation is expecting the worst, especially going into the huge road trip at the end of the month, and tonight we were treated to what can happen. Tonight, we saw the best game of the post-subluxation era... is there more to come? Post-Game Locker Talk [Lakers.com]
Heartwarming picture of the night? Los Angeles Lakers' Coby Karl, left hugs his father, Denver Nuggets
coach George Karl (AP Photo/Gus Ruelas)
Tonight marked the third time in NBA history that a father coached against a son. Yep, and Coby Karl aired out a three and tossed a behind the back pass into the lap of a Denver assistant. Nevertheless, we love Coby Karl.
The Lakers unveiled their latest throwback tonight; the 1987-1988 World Champion rendition. Showtime was restored in La Cuidad, and the Lakes met the challenge, winning 123-113 over the Warriors, who were paying homage to the '75 team.
The Lakers posted SEVEN in dubs: Kobe (28), Andrew Bynum (20 and 11), D- FIsh (15), Vlad Rad (14), Lamar Odom (14 and 10), TREVOR ARIZA! (11), and Ronny Turiaf (10).
In my opinion, the unis stole the show. I typically lean more toward the technical side of the game, but tonight, the visions of my youth were re-hashed (read that in an elegant tone). It was good to see the Lakers rock the old digs, even though the only thing that's different is the color scheme on the numbers, and the absence of the v-neck. The casual observer may not have even noticed the difference, but long-time Lakers fans couldn't help but admire tribute to jersey worn by the Lakers from the mid-70s to 1999.
Phil Jackson finally agreed to that two-year extension that had been nagging at him for some time now. The move bothered me somewhat after Phil's demeanor over the past few games, but tonight's huge 127, 99 win over Denver sways my opinion quite a bit. Jackson set Thanksgiving as a deadline for his decision, and after a tough road trip through the East Coast, a coaching error in the final play of Sunday's contest with the Nets, and a sloppy win over one of the league's worst teams, we all figured something was going to give.
Jackson's decision surprised me... and almost angered me, but some six hours later, I see the light. I sometimes forget about the head the Jackson had on his shoulders. I sometimes forget that he commanded MJ and the Bulls to victory. I sometimes forget that he brought championship basketball back to LA. Sometimes Phil looks disinterested as a coach, but when he leads the Lakers to big wins; his presence is invaluable.
And a big win this was. Despite trailing by 17 at one point in the second quarter, The Lakers posted seven in double figures, including someone who came out of the woodwork to land a career high. Sasha Vujacic lit it up from the field, finishing with 22 points. Kobe (aptly enough) scored 24, Luke Walton came off the bench with 14, and Lamar Odom posted 12.
Andrew Bynum showed his stuff, snagging another double-double, with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
The Lakers point guard tandem of D-Fish and Jordan Farmar put up 10 points respectively.
The best part to me, however was a result of the big lead... We finally got to see a lot more of the Bench Mob. The Lakers bench scored 63 points. That is HUGE.
We saw a lot of rookie, Javaris Crittenton, who scored seven points in five minutes.
We saw some more time out of newcomer Trevor Ariza, who laid some bricks at the line, missed a gimme, and impressed nobody.
SIDENOTES
Carmelo Anthony was ejected in the fourth quarter after nearly taking Sasha's dome off, in a play that resulted in a flagrant-two ruling after a video review.
Coby Karl scored 19 points in his first game with the Lakers' D-league affiliate, the Los Angeles D-Fenders.
In just the second good Lakers game of the season, Kobe posted 30, grabbed 8 boards, and since everyone in Los Angeles is counting, he smiled a couple of times.
Now when I say good, I don't mean that either team particularly played well, I mean it was fun to watch. The fact that I had to watch it on ESPN, however, was like pulling teeth. I know it's been said in various blogs since the beginning of time, but jeez, could ESPN's coverage of basketball be any worse? I don't want cute father-son moments between Bill and Luke Walton. I don't want to listen to a couple of guys that don't know much of anything about either team pretending like they do. And, I really don't want to sit through 60 seconds of analysis on the Ohio St. v Michigan during a time out with 29 seconds left in a two point game.
Time to explain my situation, for those of you who are not familiar with the Lakers broadcast schedule, all home games are broadcast on Fox Sports Net West, while all away games are broadcast on the terrestrial KCAL 9.
Because of school, this is my first season living outside of the Los Angeles television coverage area, and while we do have Fox Sports down here, we are without KCAL 9, and the beloved LTV pregame show. In effect, I'm lucky to get a road game on ESPN or TNT, because if not, I'm tied to the computer using NBA.com's free live audio, which is great, but it's just not the same.
Now that my diatribe is over, lets get to the game itself...
Lakers 93, Rockets 90
The Lakers jumped out to a huge lead, and held it through the half... Then the third quarter hit. Is it just me, or are the Lakers historically horrific in the third quarter?
They were outscored 22-14 in the third. Keep in mind that this was after Tracy McGrady went out with that injury on his right elbow.
Nevertheless, despite it being the second Houston v. Lakers game of the season to end in nail-biting three-pointer, the Lake Show walked out of the Toyota Center with a much needed win. Kobe's 30 points and 8 rebounds were backed by an overall solid showing from the supporting cast. D-Fish finished with 13 and Lamar Odom posted 10 and 7, despite admitting to "playing through the pain" on the Lakers postgame show on KLAC AM 570.
After the game Kobe had this to say: "It's very good for us to bounce back and come out
and play our best. It wasn't pretty the last two minutes. We wanted to
kick it up (in the second quarter) and I was able to get my game going.
My fade-away is my secret weapon. I'm entirely optimistic all the time."
This was one of those games where you find yourself appreciating Kobe, not because you like him, but because there's no way you would have won the game without him.
On the other side of the floor, Yao put up a stylish 26 points with 13 rebounds alongside Bonzi freaking Wells who added 21 and pulled down 10.
The Lakes head home with a 4-3 record, set to take on Detroit friday night.
around the league Chasing 0bscurity You know the drill... if not, see the last post.
Undefeated Boston Celtics (7-0) - next game: 11/16 vs. Miami - 4:30pm pt
Winless Golden State Warriors (0-5) - next game: 11/16 vs. Clippers
Thoughts Two teams succeeded from the ranks of "Chasing Obscurity" tonight. The Sonics finally got a win, beating the Heat tonight, bringing them to a spectacular record of 1-8, consequently, the loss brought the Heat to a 1-7 record. The T-Wolves beat the Queens by a score 108-103, bringing their record to 1-5.
Let's not get too excited just yet, but the Lakers are playing good basketball.
In their past two games, the Lakes have played the kind of ball that we would get maybe three or four times a month over the past couple of years.
Kobe seems happy, Fisher is leading the offense better than any point guard since... Derek Fisher, and the kids are making things happen.
Remember last night, when I was all excited about five Lakers in double figures?
Well tonight, the Lakers had SIX with 10 or more.
The Lakers are playing similar to the way they were early on last season, before the injury bug hit. Does a healthy team mean that this kind of play stays consistent? I think there's a good possibility.
Kobe scored his obligatory 33 points, and got everyone excited, blocking an Andrei Kirilenko two handed jam in the fourth. D-Fish scored 19, And Andrew Bynum held down the fort down low with 9 rebounds and 15 points. Jordan Farmar, Ronny Turiaf, and Luke Walton all posted dubs.
Yeah, I know, we're only three games in, but to my utter disbelief, the Lakers are playing solid basketball.
I'm a realistic observer of the vast world that surrounds the Los Angeles Lakers. You can thank Nick Van Exel, Eddie Jones, Elden Campbell, Cedric Ceballos, and Vlade Divac for making that possible. The greatest person of all time is Francis Dayle "Chick" Hearn. There's no getting around that. Me? I'm eighteen years old and working my way to a journalism degree.
First order of business--Jonathan Abrams at The 
Tonight's 116-99 victory over the Nuggets provided proof of the Andrew Bynum Theory. 'When someone other than Kobe is hot (usually Bynum, but tonight, D-Fish) the Lakers will win.' This, (obviously) allows the Lakers to exploit the defense's special attention to Kobe, and... RESULTS. Who would've thought?
points. Kobe (aptly enough) scored 24, Luke Walton came off the bench with 14, and Lamar Odom posted 12.
They were outscored 22-14 in the third. Keep in mind that this was after Tracy McGrady went out with that injury on his right elbow.
Kobe seems happy, Fisher is leading the offense better than any point guard since... Derek Fisher, and the kids are making things happen.
