It's certainly not lonely at the top.

There are now FOUR teams within 1/2 game of the Lakers at the top of the West.

Tomorrow night, the Lakers could conceivably lose one game and go from first to fifth.

But there is now starting to be some separation of tiers of quality in the West:

1: the cream: Lakers, Spurs, Mavericks, Hornets, Suns

2: next tier down: Portland, Denver, Golden State, Utah

3: on the borderline of falling out of contention: Houston

4. out of contention: Kings, Clippers, Grizzlies, Sonics, Timberwolves.

Jon K.,

There is no point of satiety in this blog. We are 1st place, still many posters kept on doing what they do best, one third kept on CRITICIZING every laker fiber and prop up those Bulls of long time ago while the other third, they live by posting TRADES, without any sheer creativity or enhancement of the team. Can we just trade Gary Vitti? He is a bad karma. lol! It is all about irresponsible fandome and personal taste in the choice of players. Another way of posting is to strike at Mike T or trash Kobe. Is that entitlement of free speech of half-baked fans?

Why come to this blog if you cannot say something nice to the No. 1 team?

Why not be happy we're in the 1st place evern it's in a precarious position of possible being dislodged in few days. Learn how to count your blessings, we never expected this last summer. Contribute some ideas that may work rather deal with personalities of other players who are not lakers.

CaucasianSensation-

No, unfortunately I'm not. It's a shame, too, because if I was, I'd be loaded (haha). That guy makes bank.

BK

LTLF-

They may have dug too deep a hole to climb all the way out standings wise, but I have a feeling Utah is going to break into that upper tier in terms of competitiveness over the second half of the season.

BK

more Rod Benson notes:

He just did a great job showing on the pick and roll.

YOU READYYYY LETS GO

10% LUCK
20% SKILL
15% CONCENTRADED POWER OF WILL
5% PLEASURE
50% PAIN
AND A 100% REASON TO REMEMBER THE NAME

THATS RIGHT I WONT FORGET YOU BYNUM BABY NO MATTER HOW GOOD OR BAD THE TEAM DOES WITHOUT YOU, YOUR THE REASON WERE TITLE CONTENDERS, GET WELL SOON DREWSKI.......
MAMBA
make room for me on all your bandwagons and tomorrow before the game we'll circle the wagons around the staple center ,and get ready for a fight

THERES A REASON FOR EVERYTHING

chucky .L. ohnio

This is the way I say the whole Bynum situation:
First , let's think about what the Lakers accomplished through the first 39 games of last season, they were 26-13, before the injuries began to pile up. Now, we had Kwame as our center, Turiaf was still very, very raw, and mostly and energy guy, Bynum was not in the mix really, and neither was jordan farmar, we had no one who could defend at the three (now we have ariza), mihm was out for the season, vlad rad and vujajic could not find any type of shooting stroke, and smush was our starting point guard. No we have improvements in all those areas, including Mihm, who will be coming back in two weeks, and even though he doesn't contribute to the team that much, its still good to have another froncourt player. Okay, 26-13 was actually not that good considering the fact that we had a pretty weak schedule during that time. But now we have a greatly improved squad from that team that began 26-13, even without Bynum. What I hope happens is that during the 8 weeks Bynum will be out we can develop a second offensive scheme that doesn't revolve around the post area, like we had with Bynum. Granted this will not win as many games, because playing closer to the basket, as we did with Bynum, is always beneficial. Still though, hear me out. Remember the beginning of the season, when we had the full BENCH MOB effect? Well this bench mob revolved around the Farmar and Bynum, and then secondary came kickouts for three's with Vujajic, Vlad Rad and Cook (before getting traded). But then Kwame went down and Bynum became our starting center, so things changed a bit. Now the BENCH MOB was not quite as effective, because Bynum changed roles. They bench has still been effective, but as of late they have been giving up some leads. So this leads back to my point, dealing with improving how the Lakers play without Bynum on the floor. This might cost us some games, and seeding in the playoffs, but I think that in the long run it will only help the team. Because by playoff time, when Bynum goes to the bench, we will still have an effective squad, just with a different offensive scheme. And if there are any problems, we do have that guy named Kobe.

Interesting take LTLF and BK,

If you look at the West, you have 12 teams that might actually make a comeback and get into the Playoffs...as long as a top 8 team falters:

Utah is hot and back on the rise again. Crazy good at home.
Clippers are playing well right now...barely losing some tough games.
Kings get Bibby and Artest back and they've been keeping close enough that they can turn this around.
Houston, has some problems and probably won't make it but they're still close

Memphis, Minnesota and Seattle are done.

Back East, you have your top 3-4 teams, the rest is anybody's spot. Even last place Miami at 8 and 29 has a chance to get back in it.

I think this year's Playoff race will be one of the closest in years.

This is the way I say the whole Bynum situation:
First , let's think about what the Lakers accomplished through the first 39 games of last season, they were 26-13, before the injuries began to pile up. We had Kwame as our center, Turiaf was still very, very raw, and mostly and energy guy, Bynum was not in the mix really, and neither was jordan farmar, we had no one who could defend at the three (now we have ariza), mihm was out for the season, vlad rad and vujajic could not find any type of shooting stroke, and smush was our starting point guard. No we have improvements in all those areas, including Mihm, who will be coming back in two weeks, and even though he doesn't contribute to the team that much, its still good to have another froncourt player. Okay, 26-13 was actually not that good considering the fact that we had a pretty weak schedule during that time. But now, even without Bynum, we have a greatly improved squad from that team that began 26-13, . What I hope happens is that during the 8 weeks Bynum will be out we can develop a second offensive scheme that doesn't revolve around the post area, like we had with Bynum. Granted this will not win as many games, because playing closer to the basket, as we did with Bynum, is always beneficial. Still though, hear me out. Remember the beginning of the season, when we had the full BENCH MOB effect? Well this bench mob revolved around Farmar and Bynum, and then secondary were the kickouts for three's with Vujajic, Vlad Rad and Cook (before getting traded). But then Kwame went down and Bynum became our starting center, so things changed a bit. Now the BENCH MOB was not quite as effective, because Bynum changed roles. They bench has still been effective, but as of late they have been giving up some leads. So this leads back to my point, dealing with improving how the Lakers play without Bynum on the floor. This might cost us some games, and seeding in the playoffs, but I think that in the long run it will only help the team. Because by playoff time, when Bynum goes to the bench, we will still have an effective squad, just with a different offensive scheme. And if there are any problems, we do have that guy named Kobe.

Edwin Gueco,

>>>LTLF is a Critter critic.

nice. :-)

It's more that I'm a rookie critic.

Okay, let me pose a hypothetical question to show where I stand on Crittenton: If you were
the GM of the Lakers and Chicago called up and offered to trade Joachim Noah for either of
the Lakers backup PGs, who would you give up: Farmar or Crittenton? (or if you aren't a
Noah fan, imagine Atlanta calls up and offers Al Horford for either Farmar or Critter - the
point is a team offers you a talented young big for one of your talented young PGs, and the
Lakers are currently in need of a big)

In my belief that the Lakers could potentially make it to the finals THIS season, it's a much
better bet to give up Crittenton, since Farmar is already playing at a fairly high level. But
if I'm thinking about the future, then I'm guessing Crittenton will eventually be better than
Farmar, so it's better to give up Farmar.

I'll wager if presented with that situation, most people on this board would give up Farmar
and keep Crittenton. I think I would keep Farmar. What it comes down to with me is the
whole "bird in the hand" idea. If I keep Farmar, I know I've kept a good point guard, who
will be at least an average starting PG at the NBA level. With Critter, there's the potential
that he could be a top 10 PG in the NBA, but there's also a possibility that he could turn out
to be like Sebastian Telfair or Shaun Livingston or a hundred other PGs who looked like
they were going to be gems when they came into the league and turned out to just be
shiny stones. In the gem metaphor - Farmar is a ruby. Crittenton could be a diamond,
or he could be quartz, we just don't know yet.

Okay, I did a little breakdown of regular season games in which Kobe & MJ took 35 or more shots in a game. Jordan only took more than 40 shots once in his career (reg. season), in that insane game vs. Orlando in which he scored 64 points in a losing effort (watch it on Youtube). Kobe has taken 40 or more shots eight times, and the Lakers record in those games is 4-4. Here's the complete breakdown:

Games w/ 35+ FGA/G
MJ: 16
KB: 24

Record
MJ: 7-9
KB: 13-11

FG %
MJ: 48
KB: 46

Some interesting factoids from this: over the last three seasons, the Lakers are 10-6 in these games; MJ's worst game of this type was in the 97-98 season when he went 12-39 from the field (31%), scoring 29 points; Kobe's worst game was in '05-06 when he went 12-35 (34%), scoring 35 points; Kobe shot 61% when he posted 81 on the Raptors; MJ's best shooting percentage in any of these games was 60%. Overall, Kobe's career FGA/G is 18.9 and a 45% success rate; MJ's were 22.9 and 50%.

The lion share of KB24s games like this came during three season: '02-03, 05-06, and 06-07. He's only had more than 35 shots once this year (Monday) and only one other game in '00-01. The 13-11 overall record in these games shows that while it's not an ideal situation, he doesn't hurt the team immensely in these games either. In fact, they're 5-2 in the last two seasons when he takes this many shots, so he's becoming more selective when he decides to go off. MJ wasn't better than Kobe in these types of games, and he wasn't completely immune from the urge to shoulder the shooting load, either. To say that Jordan 'never' had bad games is completely wrong, and even though I consider him to be the better overall player, the gulf between him and Kobe isn't enormous. During the years when I lived in Chicago, I watched a ton of Bulls games, and that team was amazing to watch. However, there were some games when they played really badly and Jordan had to take things over, usually with success (especially when they went 72-10). MJ was unbelievable, but he wasn't God.

BK,

I agree with you about Utah. I'm not sure why they've been kinda flat this season. I know
Okur was out injured for awhile, but even since he's come back, they haven't been nearly
as intimidating as last season.

I'm pretty sure Utah will make the playoffs at least.

LTLF-

In talking to one of the Jazz beat writers when they were in town, he pointed to the lack of consistent outside shooting, which was allowing teams to collapse on Boozer inside, and generally keeping them from spreading the floor and allowing their motion to work.

That, and in a very un-Jerry Sloanesque reality, they're not playing any D.

But like I said, of all the teams on the bottom half, they're the scariest.

BK

LTLF,

We'll never exchange any of our PG's especially Farmar, a true blue-blooded Bruin with Noah, that alligator. If he's good, why is he being offered around. Secondly, why are you in the habit of trading the good guys, why not pick the inefficient and inept. Thirdly, it's no use to trade at this time, I think Mitch K was right just go for a renewable 10-day contract. The best time to talk about trade when there will be plenty of F/A's offered in the flea market by July 1st together with '08 draft picks. No need of trading anybody, just cut your salary caps & go cherry picking. At this be proud of our players & give them a little break. If not, at least give them love for trying harder. some of your posts are too depressing, always talking of trades when we just hit the No. 1 chart. just my opinion.

BTW, Do you know how Los Angelinos feel about Noah, that Funk who was standing on the media table mocking at the Bruins not too long ago? You want him to be a Laker, your name as long timed Laker fan is highly questionable, you seemed to have no connection w/ local mood but more of your personal taste like Mr. JJ.

Great writing on that DING article to fill up the space but just to let everybody know SUNS AIN'T good cause NASH is not going off for 30 WHENEVR the SUNS aren't clicking.

Amare, D'Antonie, Marion, Barbosa, Bell, Diaw none of them are not doing anything different

STEVIE NASH is getting OLD end of the "article"

Jon K.,

"A lot of the people on this blog are just freaking out, but some people are just freaks."

Our team has greatly improved but as a blog, we never improved on our 3rd year, One time, John Ireland referred to us as "whackjobs". Have you noticed Roland Lazenby the author and Eric Pincus, a sports journalist of Hoopsworld are no longer posting? Even the oldtimers LakerTom, JayJay, Pete Maguire, Gaznabi, Zach Z, Paul Lee, Lysander, Fatty, Craig W., lakersrydeordie, kiwi, jorema, wiZo, Brylle, Weaverman, Guity and many more names, they post less and less because this is becoming a scary place, a bunch of freaks, haters, traders and plain junkies.

Other fans will be proud if their team hit a milestone of being in the NO.1 here we want to tear them apart.

Can we not add quality in the quatity?

Edwin Gueco,

>>>We'll never exchange any of our PG's especially Farmar, a true blue-blooded Bruin
>>>with Noah, that alligator. If he's good, why is he being offered around

Noah's not being offered around, and I wasn't proposing a trade for him. I was using it as
a hypothetical situation. Did you even read that part? Do you understand what a
hypothetical situation is? If you don't like Noah, then go back and re-read my post and
wherever it refers to Joachim Noah, substitute in LaMarcus Aldridge, if that calms your
mind (you don't have a deep seated hatred for Texas, do you?)

I've already been suggesting that the Lakers pick up a D-leaguer on a 10-day, and I even
took the trouble to find and post the stats from some of the most promising D-leaguers
(and did you see my review of Rod Benson from this thread?). That's what I think is the
best short term solution to the problem.

The only trade that I'm currently endorsing is if the Lakers could get one of the bigs that
were taken in the top of the second round in 2007 and aren't playing much. In an earlier
post, I suggested that the Lakers could trade Coby Karl and a future draft pick for someone
like Kyrylo Fesenko or Josh McRoberts. That way they could get a big to fill in without
increasing the salary and still leave a roster slot open if some veteran became available.

By the way, I don't know if you've seen Noah play at all this season, but he's doing pretty
well. In fact, he has the highest PER of any rookie currently. There is absolutely NO WAY
that Chicago would trade him for either Farmar or Critter, so you don't have to worry
about it. Critter looks promising as well, but with the current needs of the Lakers, I'd
willingly trade a talented small for a talented big, including Critter for Noah if that were
even remotely possible.

Don't be so blinded by the summer league play of one player on the Lakers (Critter) that
you ignore the good play in REAL NBA GAMES of another player.

BTW Edwin, I attended UCLA and had season tickets to the Mens Basketball games every
year I was there. I lined up overnight to get priority numbers to get the best seats to see
the Bruins play Duke and Arizona and USC; I walked over to say hi to John Wooden.
I did the 8-clap until your hands hurt. I screamed at the refs and the opposing team until
I was hoarse. I went down at the start of games and formed the tunnel of students for
the players to run through as they came out onto the court. I went down at halftime and
did the Southwest Airlines shootout. If you didn't do all those things, then don't even
START to talk about my loyalty to the Bruins.

And I wouldn't give up Farmar for Noah, not because it's a Bruin vs Gator thing, but
because at this point in their careers, Farmar is a better player than Noah. This ain't
college. This is the pros. Or maybe you didn't know that. The Lakers are not a college
team. There is no UJB (University of Jerry Buss).

L O L O L O L O ......lamar odom

Adir,

First, thank you for being concise. I'll try and respond likewise.

First my source: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playbyplay?gameId=280114025

1st shot is LO's. Second is D-Fish. Kobe is the 3rd shooter. Maybe it's
that he took the next 4 shots that piss you off?

You also wrote: LO's shots were forced. He had an off night, but he wasnt getting any looks created for him, he was forced to find them himself. A good leader should have helped him find his shot by creating some good looks for him

One of the "intangibles" of Lamar Odom is that he's *supposed* to be able to create
his own shot right? A big man who can dribble, take you to the hole, always go to
the left ... I watched him. He was being Lamar. He was missing his shots as
sometimes happens. They were "reasonable" looks.

re: Kobe and 44 shots. You're saying that it's better for the Lakers to lose 1 game than it
is for Kobe to take 44 shots and the Lakers win. Out of curiosity, would you change
your mind if it was Game 7 of the championships? Your argument leads to them having a
lower seed, if they make the playoffs at all. If you argue that maybe not this year. Maybe
next year they get the championship by playing team ball, then I point you to injuries.
You *CAN'T* guarantee the future! When is Bynum's resigning? When is Kobe's
resigning? PJ's extension is only for 2 years.

re: his percentages. you wrote: As far as your percentages, Kobe's shooting was closer 47% then 49%.

my response. Ok. fine. Just so we're clear about this. That percentage is 1 shot. He was
21 of 44. 22 of 44 is 50%. You're nit picking over 1 shot?

My main point is this: I feel as though when Kobe comes out firing, the whole squad gets into a timid, lets defer to Kobe mode. That is not good. That is not what a leader wanting a championship should do. Just because I dont think Kobe is playing to his potential as a leader or even a scorer (he still isnt as efficient as other scorers are), doesnt mean I dont see his greatness or appreciate some of the things he does do. It means I think he isnt perfect, and still has a lot to learn, and some improvement left to do.

My response: What if your feelings based upon yesterday affect what you see today?
These are the FACTS: " Kobe took 44 shots and made 21 which is 1 shy of 50%.
2 of the other starters had a poor shooting game and 1 of the other starters is
limited offensively". It is subjective that Kobe's aggressive offense caused the poor
shooting nights for Lamar and Luke. Having watched both of these players have
bad nights on multiple occasions when Bynum was playing and Kobe was playing
team ball, I am not going to put that on him. Consider this though ... If Luke was such
a tremendous offensive asset, his position/playing time would not be in peril from Ariza.

When it comes to basketball, do you consider Kobe to be a liar? When he scored 62
against the spurs and he said he could score 80, was he lying? In preason, when
he was making a ton of turnovers, he said that he was testing players to see who
could catch what type of pass [ i.e. experimenting. ] was he lying? When he said the
turnovers would go down in regular season was he lying? When he said he would
play wherever he was, was he lying? That's a lot of questions and I'm sorry to beat
a dead horse, but ... When actually talking about what happens on the court, I don't
think Kobe actually tells lies. I think history actually backs him up.

I'm not sure why you have a need to compare him to other people who aren't in his
shoes. It actually doesn't work very well. If you want to compare his leadership
skills why not talk about how D-Wade has transformed Smush into an all-star pt
guard or how he's helped Shaq maintain his weight/conditioning? Then we could
talk apples to apples.

Here's the bottom line: With what Kobe did, TODAY the Lakers are in 1st. With
what you want, TOMORROW the Lakers MAY win a championship or they MAY
NOT win a championship for a number of reasons. Phil can say anything he wants
to but, at the end of the day, he's glad they're in first. Every win before the hard
part of the season is a cushion while Bynum is out.

BTW, if Kobe had done this for 5 games I would agree with you. *I* remember when
the Lakers couldn't win a game last year unless he went off. I'm not convinced that
having the Lakers *NOT* make the playoffs last year would have been the best for
the team. I don't think Phil or Jerry Buss really felt that way either.

A-Bomb get well soon...

Instead of celebrating that we're no. 1 in the west, everyone is busy hitting left and right.. C'mon fella, no bashing to anyone. We should be thankful that someone allows us to taste the food that we used to have in our table. We surely all forgotten how does it taste.

I am with you LTLF.

I do not trade Odom for Marion, and definitely Bynum for Amare. Bynum owns Amare.

Odom is not a 2nd option so people need to stop trying to make him one. Let his value come to the team in defense, rebounds and other intangibles to help the team. IE valuable role player.

Bynum is not even a choice. Don't give super star in making for lesser player. I remember in the first game Amare tried to defend AB and put his body in front of AB with his hands straight up. AB I swaer looks like he did as close to a sky hook over Amare and scored. Did the same thing the next possesion. Suns coach then took Amare off of AB and they tried to double team the rest of the game.

No way trade away better for lesser.

I agree we don't give up Critter at all. IMO He will be better than Farmar down the road and we will have a solid one-two punch at PG as Fish will probably retire in a couple of years.

If we trade crit and Farmar gets injured and Fish is retired then what? We had to go so long weak at the pg for a long time with Atkins and Parker etc. Now we have two studs and some want to give one up. No way future depth.

If no Webber then D leaguer is best option. As stated before PJ Brown not interested. Rod Bensen, Jelani McCoy, Larry Turner, etc. are the best options. Leave Gasol overseas to develope. I watched the video that was posted and was unimpressed. He has some skills but can't figure out how good he is now as the competition level was so far NBA standards. He was bigger than opponents but that won't hold true in the NBA. That is why I was unimpressed. Let him get more time to groom. The reason to store or stockpile players overseas is to groom them so that when they join team so they will contribute sooner.

Keep Coby Karl as we need depth with 3 point shooters. Vlad and Sasha out so we need his outside accuracy.

Check out the Suns website http://www.nba.com/suns/index_main.html and look at the top right...

ROFLCOPTER makes me feel good just thinking about the faces of the Suns fans looking at the Standings! HAHA!!

Also seeing PHO at 6th place (http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/standings) makes my day.

Suck the Funs!! GO LAKERS!!

I CAN'T BELIEVE PEOPLE WOULD STILL SAY NEGATIVE THINGS WHEN OUR TEAM IS WINNING.

I USED TO POST HERE AT LEAST EVERY LAKER GAME, BUT HAS SHY AWAY FROM DOING SO WITH ALL OF THIS HATING AND BICKERING.

WHY CAN'T WE JUST ENJOY WHAT IS PLACED BEFORE US? WHY?

WE ARE SO MUCH FORTUNATE TO HAVE A PLAYER LIKE KOBE. HISTORY WILL JUDGE HIM TO BE GREAT AND YET HERE WE ARE. WE KEEP ON BASHING HIM, COMPARING HIM TO SOMEBODY RIDICULOUSLY, PUTTING HIM DOWN.

LO cannot create his own shot. I'm sorry.

Now if you're upset that Kobe isn't creating enough shots for Odom, then you're simply upset that Bynum is down....

It's called Jordan rules. It's really easy to defend one player. When you have more than one player, it gets a lot harder... and that's when it opens things up for everyone a lot more. Let's hope the triangle does its thing and we have a lot of off the ball cuts. OR we're going to have to go with a one-two of Kobe & Farmar and have them penetrate as often as possible.

LTLF- When Kobe starts averaging 44 shots a game, then I'll join you in the complaints. When it happens every once in awhile, I'm fine with that. In fact, I'd be happy to see another 81 point game. I would be entertained by that.

you may be entertained by that by PJ isnt and he is the coach. PJ believes in team basketball, not making the game entertaining for Kobe loving fans.