Halftime Thoughts: Ah yes, yet another nationally televised game. Before I complain about Bill Walton, let me first say that thanks to this thing called geography, I am grateful for nationally televised Lakers road games. If this game wasn't on the four-letter, I would have my ear glued to my laptop listening to the NBA.com audio feed. With that said, I really can't stan Bill Walton. He doesn't have anything particularly insightful to say, plus, honestly, how could Golden State and Toronto be more exciting to watch than Boston? Woa woa woa. Off topic blurb: JASON KAPONO put up 29 tonight!
Anyhow, Andrew Bynum haters, put on the ear muffs. Okay, ready... 11 and 11 through the half. Yeah boy. Kobe and D-Fish have 10 a piece. For the Warriors, Al Harrington has 11 and Stephen Jackson has 10.
Kobe is WIRED tonight, and as much as I hate the idea of a player wearing a freaking microphone, it is pretty interesting to see Kobe dish out commands.
Live from San Diego, lets get it on!
[warning: homer sometimes comes out in live blogs]
Third Quarter
11:22 - I didn't mention that this crowd is off the chain. I've got to give props to Oakland for keeping the momentum from last season's run.
10:47 - Well, just like that, It's a three-point game. 56-53.
10:13 - Barron Davis just tied the game up with a huge three. COUNTERED by an Odom three. COUNTERED by a Davis three. ahhg.
9:24 - This is unreal. Two minutes into the half, and nobody in the Oracle is sitting down.
8:42 - Maybe Walton was right. Maybe I cursed it, but jeez, the Warriors have a chance to take the lead.
8:30 - Golden State takes the lead. 60-59. Wow, what an onslaught.
7:45 - Luke took the lead back with a break-away slam. BUT. foul on the other end. First shot? good. Second shot? good. 62-61, Golden State.
7:16 - Harrington nets a three to take a two point lead; Bynum counters with a delicious hook, Warriors come back to take the two point lead.
6:34 - Ahh, Baron David had FIVE fouls.Walton makes both frees. 67-67.
5:15 - Kobe scores; Lakers up by two. WHAT A GAME.
4:54 - Quick Bynum update before the re-up: 15 and 14.
4:52 - LARGEST CROWD TO EVER WATCH A BASKETBALL GAME IN CALIFORNIA. EVER.
4:22 - Kurt Rambis is bringing back the push broom stache.
3:57 - Ellis ties it up; Biedrins with a steal. All leads up to an and one for Kobe. AND, an automatic technical fal for Mr. Harrington for throwing the ball at the basket post. Kobe gets them both. 73-70, Lakers.
3:01 - Kobe brings his total to 19 with a sweet basket.
2:27 - BYNUM WITH AUTHORITY.
2:02 - Harrington ties it up with three; COUNTERED by a D-Fish three. Have I mentioned that this is an AWESOME game??
1:29 - Well, Bill and Luke came through with something; the ABC
Christmas Day commercial. I actually got a laugh out of that one.
1:02 - Farmar makes plays for Odom to blow them.
0:30 - Farmar netting a beautiful three to get the lead back. Jackson ties it back up 83.
0:00 - Odom just nailed a covered two at the buzzer. Not bad.
Through Three Lakers 85, Warriors 83 Fourth Quarter
11:40 - The Warriors sure know how to come out swinging.
11:21 - Turiaf to Farmar: The Bench Mob is in the house.
10:38 - Sasha nailed a three to bring the Lakers lead to five.
9:45 - Barron Davis just checked back in. Remember, five fouls.
9:17 - 10 points for Farmar; BENNCH MOBBB.
9:17 - Wow, Portland won tonight. They are actually one game under .500...
8:20 - Austin Croshere just netted a three to bring it to 92-90, Lakers on top.
7:56 - It looks like Kobe took a nut shot... or "groin" shot to be politically correct.
7:37 - Turiaf just bit the dust on a DIRTY DIRTY Matt Barnes push. That was DIRTY.
7:37 - Kobe looks hurt, and Turiaf missed both free throws. Both still in.
7:29 - Turiaf for two more. Made the first. Kobe "grabbed down by that area." Great analysis. Turiaf misses the second. 93-92 Lakers.
6:39 - Baron Davis takes a technical. Kobe looks about 75%
5:51 - Fisher just got a key steal on a 3-on-1 coming in on a fast break. Fisher converts to Odom for a lay-up. lakers 92-89. What a game.
4:22 - Bynum just pulled down his 16th rebound! That's right 16 rebounds and 17 points to boot. Bynum is showing his stuff tonight.
3:57 - Odom is stepping it up. 100-94, Lakers.
3:19 - Kobe is jacked up. The Lakers face the Clippers in the cross-town on Sunday night. It will be interesting to see what happens with, what now looks like a groin issue.
2:59 - 102-98, Lakers. Buckle up.
2:17 - Baron Davis just nailed a three to bring it to two. DAVIS TO JACKSON with the bank. TIED GAME. The Oracle is on fire.
1:27 - Fisher bricks a free throw. 94% on the season thus far. Kobe out or Ariza. Fisher get the secon.
1:22 - Bucher reports of a strained left groin for Kobe.
0:58 - KOBE is out Lakers down by one. ODOM BLOWS IT.
0:16 - Davis nails the three. 108-104 Golden State. The Warriors biggest lead of the game comes with 16 seconds left on the clock.
0:16 - Kobe back in. Misses the three.
0:08 - ODOM AND ONE. What is going on here? MAKE THIS LAMAR.. Unless the intentional miss??
0:00 - ODOM MISSES (unintentional) he had his hands on the rebound with enough time to call a timeout, he loses it. GAME OVER. Lakers lose.
Final Score Golden State 108, Lakers 106
Post Mortem The Warriors finally broke their nine game losing streak against the Lakers, in a freaking thriller. I've said "what a game" about 90,000 times in the last hour. The Lakers got sloppy in the final minute, and Kobe's absence seems to attribute to that. What was reported as a "strained left groin" just might have been the Lakers demise tonight. The is an argument, however, for the four or five minutes that Kobe is IN the game and somewhat immobilized.
Regardless, the crowd in Oakland brought the noise. In (literally) the biggest NBA game in the history of California, the Warriors faithful showed their support, and seemingly willed them to a win in the final minute.
Al Harrington had 22 points, Barron Davis also had 22 with 5 fouls and a tech to boot, Stephen Jackson posted 20, Monta Ellis added 19, and Biedrins put up 10, and pulled down 11.
For the purple and gold, Kobe scored 21, Lamar scored 18 and pulled down 15, Fisher had 16, and Farmar added 10. Bynum haters? 17 points and 16 rebounds on 8-10 from the field.
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.
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.
Leg one of the over-hyped Lakers road trip through Texas resulted in a
predictable loss to the now 7-1 Spurs, in a game that saw phenomenal
team ball on the Spurs behalf... like that's out of the ordinary.
Basically, the main point of the night was centered on the
always-entertaining Kobe on Bruce Bowen match-up. Bowen covered Kobe
well, and outscored him, putting up 23, compared to Kobe's 18.
Jordan Farmar played well, putting up 16, along
side Lamar Odom, who kept up the pace from his debut on Friday, putting
up 12 points and grabbing 6 rebounds.
The Lakers simply got outplayed tonight, nothing much more can be said
for their effort, aside from the fact that they will need to rebound
big to beat Houston tomorrow.
Tomorrow night's game is the one that the Lake Show can realistically win. The Rockets are coming off of a 105-95 loss in Memphis, so there is room for the Lakers to snag a win from a team that looked pretty solid up until tonight. around the league Chasing Obscurity Chasing Obscurity is a tradition that I'll be carrying over from my previous blogging adventures that spotlights the league's undefeated and winless teams until there simply are no more. Why? Because that kind of thing gets me going.
Undefeated Boston Celtics (6-0) - next game: 11/14 vs. New Jersey - 4:00pm pt
Winless Seattle Sonics (0-8) - next game: 11/14 @ Miami - 4:30pm pt Minnesota Timberwolves (0-5) - next game: 11/14 vs. Sacramento - 5:00pm pt Golden State Warriors (0-5) - next game: 11/14 vs. Detroit - 7:30pm pt
Thoughts That Seattle v Miami game should be a real thriller. The 1-6 Heat play host to 0-8 Sonics... Look for the Heat to take advantage of the home floor in this one.
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.
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.
Leg one of the over-hyped Lakers road trip through Texas resulted in a
predictable loss to the now 7-1 Spurs, in a game that saw phenomenal
team ball on the Spurs behalf... like that's out of the ordinary. 
