7:26- Stops and pops in Q. Ross' face, does Kobe. Early returns are very encouraging.  Offensively, the Lakers are doing a great job early of generating excellent opportunities.  Not making all of them, but still getting great looks.  On the other end, Kobe has to pick up Q Ross, so that's not a rough assignment.  At least he won't have to work a ton there.

5:50- Fish to Bynum on the screen and roll, alley oop.  On the previous possession, Drew put a nice move on Kaman and hit the baby hook.  Good start for Drew early.  Four points, a board, three blocks, and Kaman has missed his first five shots. 

Timeout on the floor (5:41).  16-10, LAL.  Take out some scores off raggedy play from LAC, and the gap gets even wider.  Kaman's at the line for two, which would cut the lead, but thus far the Lakers are playing a very solid game on both ends.  Smooth, efficient.  Kaman makes one of two, Lakers by five.

Kobe hits on the other end.  Then on the next trip, drills a three.  I'm going to call the groin problem a non-factor, for the time being.  Nine points, five shots, four makes.

4:35- Drew skies up to get a tipped ball on the screen and roll.  One of the best things about him is, unlike some tall players, he actually uses his length.  He gets up and extends to his body, using his full length to get the ball, whether coming off the glass, or in this case, dropping out of the air. 

Meanwhile the Clips turn the ball over, then Maggette launches an air ball on the next trip down.  Lakers by 11, and thus far, at least, the purple and gold are ruining Mike Dunleavy's weekend.

2:45- Timeout on the floor, Lakers up 25-11.  There isn't a statistical category the Lakers aren't dominating right now, short of rebounding.  The Clips are under 30%, the Lakers near 60%. 7-3 in dimes, 4-0 in blocks, 2-4 in TOs.  They're moving a lot of offense to the rim, but not forcing too much.  Just taking care of business.

Coming out of the TO, Vlad replaces Walton.  Farmar already on the floor for Fish.

LO to the line, with a minute left in the first.  makes one of two, and the Lakers have a 29-11.  Clipper Daryl is trying to do his thing.  He's not getting much love from the crowd, nor does it seem to be helping the red, white, and blue all that much.

:15- Kaman finally gets a bucket, but it comes off a tip in after a Clippers miss (Mobley, I believe, nicely adjusted by Drew). 

END OF THE FIRST- Lakers lead 29-15.  Hard to argue with this start.  AK will have the second, and remember, my +/- is +14.  If things go sour over the next 12, blame him.  I pulled my weight.

SECOND QUARTER:

Just for the record, BK might have a better +/-, but those stats don't matter because I do a better job protecting the rim. That's just a fact.

No Kobe or LO to kick the frame off.  it would be nice if these guys (Ariza, Farmar, Mihm, Sasha, Vlad) can keep the large lead intact for a pleasant stretch so the leading Laker scorers (and in particular, a groined out Kobe) can get some rest.  Back to back triples from Vlad and Farmar do their part to make the initially possible.

8:52 - Ariza's been admirably hellbent for leather so far when it comes to attacking the rim, but the actual makes-to-misses percentage hasn't shaken out in his favor.  But this time, he gets to the line as a result of a converted reverse layup waved through traffic.  A very nice move for the newest Laker.

8:08 - Mihm backs Kaman down, gets the position, lets the jump hook fly.. and it rattles in and out.  Thankfully, Ariza's there for the putback, but it marks yet another instance of Mihm just not looking quite right on shots typically made with relative ease pre-injury.  And on the other end, he's getting used by Kaman, who began the quarter 1-8 from the field and is now 3-10.  Bynum checks in, with LO quickly on his heels.

5:38 - With the lead down to 8 after a three point play by the wee Dan Dickau, a 14-footer by Kaman and a long jumper from Dickau, Kobe checks back in and wastes no time canning a 15-footer.  With the and-one miss, the Laker lead is back to 10.

4:38 - Luke's left way the hell wide open behind the arc, unguarded to the point where I say to myself, "Dude's just gotta make that shot." Thankfully, no worries, as the ball gets drained.

4:08 - The feed inside from Luke to Drew, who scores courtesy a sweet spinning layup by Drew in traffic.  That, friends, is good stuff.  With 8 points, 3 boards and 3 blocks, Bynum is currently way ahead in the mano y' mano battle with Kaman, who did almost all of his damage with Kareem's protege on the bench.

1:26 - In the span of about 30 seconds, Bynum blocks both Richie Frahm (not necessarily all that impressive) and Kaman (considrably more impressive).  That's five blocks for Drew this half.

.39 - Kobe bricks a pass to Bynum, sailing it off the backboard and into Maggette's hands.  It's so off, even Kobe has to laugh.

The half ends 57-44 Lakers.

THIRD QUARTER:

Clearly, AK doesn't know how to extend a lead.  I'll see what I can do.   It would be nice to give Kobe's groin a little extra rest in the fourth.  The rest of him, too.

9:50: Fisher picks up his fourth foul.  That'll give some extended minutes to Farmar. 

Walton hits a three at the top of the key.  Nice to see him playing a good, consistent game.  He's been in the flow of the offense, has done a nice job distributing, and is hitting from outside.  Much, much better effort from 4 tonight.

8:52- Kobe hits on one of the damn near most impossible looking and-ones I think I've ever seen.  Q Ross was basically in his lap.  Hits the FT, Lakers up 67-49.

6:31- Kobe hits two more FTs, and the lead is up to 16. 

6:16- Kaman slips inside Drew off the Davis miss, and gets to the line, via the Drew foul.  It's one of the only times tonight that Kamn has found an opening and beaten Bynum to it. 

Lead down to 14, but LO is going to the line.  It would be nice to see the Lakers hit the gas here in the final 5:35 to stretch this thing out to 20 or so.  Odom can push the lead to 16 with one more FT... but he misses. 

5:18- Great steal from Luke on Maggette.  He jumped the screen, and tied him up in a big way, then stripped the ball.  Good D, 15 points.  It's fair to say everything's coming up Luke tonight.  Too early to say he's turned the corner, but it's certainly encouraging.

4:08- Great recognition by Drew on the Maggette layup.  Maggette had position, and the ball was in the hoop.  All Drew could have done was picked up his fourth foul.  Not much good could have come out of it.  Smart play not to pick up the cheapie.  It's that sort of recognition that will help keep him on the floor more w/o picking up serious foul trouble.

3:00- A tough Mihm shot breaks an 8-0 Clippers run, but then Maggette gets inside and makes an easy layup to cut the lead back to 11.  This has been a problem with the Lakers all year.  Given the opportunity to put a team away, they don't.  Not that they're in danger of losing right now, but they also haven't put it in high gear and given themselves a victory lap in the fourth.

Kobe draws another foul on Thornton- apparently, AT didn't get the memo that Kobe likes to pump fake, because he's bit at least a couple times tonight- so coming out of the LAC timeout (one perhaps in which Mike Dunleavy will remind Thornton about the whole pump fake thing), the Lakers can push it back to 13.  Tough spot for the Lakers right now with Drew on the bench.  If I'm the Clippers, I pound on Mihm as much as humanly possible...

1:25- Sasha Vujacic one on one against Richie Frahm.  That's what the people come to see.

:30- Maggette hits two FTs, to cut the Laker lead to nine, and give himself 18 for the quarter.  That's a nice 12 minutes...

Holy crap!  He hits the prayer at the end of the quarter for three.  21 for the quarter, and the Lakers will now enter the fourth up by only six.   LAC finishes the quarter on an 18-5 run to finish the quarter, much of it coming after Drew picked up his fourth...

AK will have the fourth.

FOURTH QUARTER

10:48 - Sasha catches the pass from Kobe behind the arc, dribble step just inside, then drills one over Richie Frahm's head.  A classic play to mark a classic matchup: Vujacic v. Frahm.  That's what the people paid good money to see.  And thus far, advantage Vujacic.

8:57 - But the see saw battle takes another turn.  A Laker possession features much dribbling from Sasha, eventually winding up as a missed three pointer with a lot of Richie Frahm nearby throughout.  In this particular case, Frahm... wait for it... comes alive.

6:38 - Cuttino Mobley gets upset for some reason after sinking a layup.  Violet Palmer's having none of it and immediately T's him up.  Sasha sinks the technical freebie, then quickly adds a trey ball to his resume. It wasn't over Frahm, but still, the crowd seemed to like it.  Especially since it put the Lakers up by 20.

5:46 - The Lakers reenter the game after the timeout with The Critter getting some run.  Human victory cigar time, perhaps?

4:13 - Luke checks in to replace Kobe, who gets some well deserved cheers after putting up 32 points, 8 boards and 3 assists on a groin that must hurt like a mother.  When it comes to playing through ridiculous pain on a regular basis, there likely isn't anybody in the league better than The New Jack Bauer.

2:29 - Sasha drills another trey ball, again another three points at the expense of the guy BK and I have arbitrarily declared his nemesis, one Richie Frahm.  The newest Clipper will start having flashbacks the next time he hears the word, "Slovenia."

2;19 - Ronny Turiaf enters the action for the first time after the timeout, putting the tally of Zags (Turiaf, Dickau, Frahm) on the floor at 3.   I'm not bothering to do the research, but I'm pretty sure that's an NBA record.

Final score.  Lakers 113, Clips 92.  Pretty much a slaughter from start to finish and with the exception of a third quarter run that was more Corey Maggette (21 points) than concerted red, white and blue, the Lakers' opponents brought little in the way of fear to the proceedings.  We gotta run so Stu and Joel can do their thing (they're filmed where we sit), but thanks for dropping by.

AK