HOLY CRAP, IT'S BEEN A LOOOONG WHILE SINCE I'VE SEEN SOMETHING LIKE THIS!!! GET KWAME OUT OF THE LAKERS!!!

Western Conference
Team GB
1. * LA Lakers 0.5
2. Phoenix --
3. * Portland 3.0
4. * San Antonio 0.5
5. Dallas 0.5
6. New Orleans 1.0
7. Denver 3.5
8. Golden State 4.5
9. Utah 5.0
10. Houston 6.5
11. Sacramento 10.5
12. LA Clippers 14.0
13. Memphis 16.0
14. Seattle 17.0
15. Minnesota 20.5

Aloha

Wow some people need to relax. Tonight Dallas lost at Sactown, Boston lost its 2nd in a row to Washington at home no less. Denver lost to the Bobcats and the Spurs had to hold off the 76ers. Welcome to the NBA. So we had tro scratch and claw to beat a bad team on their home court on the 2nd night of a back to back. It happens, a lot.

We are currently the top seed int the West. I do believe we will have to obtain another big while Andrew heals to stay near the top. It doesnt have to be a star, just someone solid. We really cant have only 3 guys covering the center and PF spot. As far as Lamar is concerned. He looked tired tonight. But with Andrew out his 14 boards came in handy. He always plays well against the Suns so I expect a big game from him thursday.

MH

ONE QUESTION: Was the bench very good when Kobe was sitting?

That 9 game road trip in starting at the end of January and going into February is going to be brutal

Jon -

You're an idiot. Have you not been watching at all this season? Kobe had to take shots tonight. Nothing was dropping for the rest of the team oh and by the way he was pretty close to 50% on the night.

just got back in.....saw the score and was glad that we won. but wow, lamar had a very off night. can anyone tell me why r how? were they blown layups? contested shots? or just an all around poor shooting night?

from the boxscore i'd say kobe shot too much and did not get his teammates involved enough. i'd rather see kobe have a game where he has 6 assists to end the first quarter and nineteen points in the half, like he did not too long ago.

Rick Friedman,

Kwame, Lamar, and Walton all on the floor at once is a recipe for failure in most games. Kobe carried the team on his back all of last season and it wasn't enough then and won't be enough over the next eight weeks.

I completely agree. I've posted the same sentiments on this blog. Those three should never be on the court at the same time. Just too many deficiencies(No athleticism(Walton), quickness(Walton, Odom), shooting(all 3), hands(Brown), layup conversions(all 3)). I think Walton should sit and either Turiaf or Ariza start. Those two just bring more energy and intangibles when they play/start and thats what the Lakers need now.

If this game is any indication of how the next 8wks are going to be, then this is gonna be a long 8wks. I hope the Lakers play at least 500ball. If they don't, they're in big trouble.

Also, when Bynum gets back his conditioning is going to be bad. Being out of commission like that affects your conditioning. This just spells doom for the Lakers. Thats why we should try and get another big(CWEbb would be perfect). Vlade Divac should try and pull some strings.

Lastly, Kwame is terrible. He, along w/ Olowakandi are the worst #1 overall choices in history! What the hell good does having a good stable base is when it doesn't translate into anything on the basketball court?!!! It looked like a layup drill downthere. Nick Collison looked like the second coming of Tim Duncan against LO and Brown. Again, just because no one can back Kwame down doesn't mean diddly if they can just go around or over him. HIs BASE is worthless. Give me Bynum anyday.

I agree with Jon. And lets get this straight right off the bat. I am not a Kobe-Hater. I am a Laker-Lover. Have been for about 20 years now.

Admittedly, the Lakers wont have much to work with until Sasha, Vlad and Chris get back, (chirs will at least help in the middle, and Sasha and Vlad will add potential scoring threats if they play like they did earlier) but I dont see how all of you think that this was a good game. Better team defense, and more distributed offense is THE ONLY way this Laker squad will be able to maintain even a four or five spot until Drew gets back.

I hate to say it, but at this point, Drew was a bigger loss than Kobe would have been... Kobe is amazing--at times-- , and did help down the stretch tonight, but Drew helps so much in the middle on defense, and helps spread the floor so much on offense, he makes everyone so much better around him. The Lakers wouldnt have even been in that kind of a situation if Drew was there.

There is no way the Sonics score over 100 on us tonight if Drew was in, and Kobe wasnt.

We just beat a team with less victories then the lakers have losses, by TWO points. IN OVERTIME no less! Time to get to the practice floor on how were gonna make this work against decent teams like the Suns without Andrew--and it all starts with D, and ends with much better TEAM basketball.

Everybody looked kind of lost without Drew but good teams suck it up and get it done! And that we did!! Great team win and Thank God Kobe plays for us!!! Don't have it in me to even discuss Kwame but I'll take the high road and congratulate him for netting a double double!!

Seven games and counting!! Let's get lil Stevie and his boys on Thursday!!!!

What about bringing in Chris Webber as a backup center/power forward? He's an offensive presence, which is now lacking with Kwame starting. He might even turn out to be more effective as a starter. He can shoot and pass and give some variety to the offense, which isn't likely to happen with Drew gone. Playing the 4 to Kwame he's also likely to improve Kwame's numbers. And if he finds a role for himself in the months Drew is out, he may be a valuable contributor for another year or so coming off the bench.

passionate lakers fa

lol, its Brotha, and you're welcome. I'll put up a link for almost every game and the game thread. The only thing is that the nationally televised one's are usually not streamed online but for the rest, I will provide a link every time.

All the others that sent out the thank you's, you are welcome. Sorry I didn't respond when you each posted, I had to leave for dinner so I stopped watching and blogging.

I didn't know people were having problems with my posting the links, I apologize. I use IE and the blog works as normal for me, I guess it doesn't for firefox?? Someone suggested i should use tinyurl or something. If someone could explain what that is and how it work (I'll look it up myself as well), I will gladly do that as long as the link get's posted and people can see the game. For those that want to just go to the site themselves, its channelsurfing.net and this is how it works. Say there was a game tomorrow and it started at 7:30 p.m. When 7:30 rolls around, you go to channelsurfing.net, when you get there, hit the refresh button and then scroll down till you see the lakers vs. whoever link and click on that and another window will pop up and the game will buffer and play. Easy as that. When you visit the site, you can see that all the games are available there and you can watching whatever you want, so enjoy. But no worries if you don't want to, like I said, I'll post the link on all the game thread blogs and you can just go from there. If there's a way to make all parties participating happy, I'm all for it. I'll look into that tinyurl thing and hopefully that solves the problem.

As for tonights game, it was terrible. We won, so I'll take it but the D was pathetic. At the same time, its like Kobe said, the rhythm and flow is what will take a week or so to get back with the different line-up. Nonetheless, with Kwame being a defender and a defender only, that was very infuriating. The pick and rolls made the lakers look like a bunch of high schoolers who couldn't make the proper adjustment and it seemed as if there was no communication when it was happening. It's still a win, and the streak is still alive. We have two days off; there should be two hard days of practice and if we come with the right defensive intensity, phoenix and denver should be very winnalbe games. With the group of 4 games, phoenix, denver, sa, dallas, a 2-2 recod is acceptable but even with injuries, a 3-1 record is expected. There's no back-to-backs and plenty of days to rest and practice in between to get the timing going and the rhythm back.

I APOLOGIZE FOR SUCH A LENGTHY POST. I hope it cleared up some things for people. Peace!

Lots of irony in the game tonight.

Lakers win the game to become the top seed in the Western Conference. For one night it says 1. Boston 2. LA Lakers...just like those good 'ol days, despite struggling to beat a team that they currently lead by 17 games. This when NOBODY thought this was possible.

Second...

Tonight, Bynum made millions of dollars being injured while stting at home watching the game on tv.

He made millions because everybody just saw that without him on the floor, the D cant shut down one of the worst teams in the NBA. His value just skyrocketed. Forget the potential offense, the fear of the shotblock of Bynum is now a presence in the NBA.

Oh well, for one night the Lakers are tops in the West....order has been restored in the Universe.

But really, the Lakers were on a second night of back to back after a long stretch of 6 games that havent been really close. I am pleasantly suprised that the Lakers proved me wrong and actually won all 7 games they were supposed to win. It takes a lot of focus to win all those games. I actually feel the Lakers need to lose a game so that they refocus, but tonight was a game that they had to win for the fact of going home with a him for confidence against the Suns.

Did you see ariza just hugging Kobe? that showed to me that Kobe means a lot to these guys, so that for some of the players at least, they will try to battle for Kobe.

Tushar,
Thanks. i've finally understood my problem with Firefox, but of course I also have IE.

As for Tinyurl. That's simple. Go to the website http://tinyurl.com/ and copy the complete url into the window at the top. Confirm with the button "make TinyURL" and Bob's your uncle! This generates a tiny url which you can then copy to the blog.

CJ
I think you copied the list from Yahoo. Somebody should buy them a piece of software that manages to calculate Games Behind accurately. With identical records they put LA half a game behind Phoenix! It should say that Phoenix is 0 games behind LA. LA is in all cases first, because we have the better divisional record, plus our record against the Suns is better.

Job and andand,
Postgame quote of the night: "That's why he's the best player in the world," said Seattle rookie Kevin Durant.

I don't think he was talking about Luke Walton.

OUR WORST TIME HAS PASS ALL THE TEAM WITH .500 WE WON ALL THOSE GAME WHERE WE ALWAYS HAD PROBLEM. WITH BEST TEAM WE WIN DALLAS KOBE HAD 67 AND SAT FOR 4TH Q.
WE WILL WIN HAVE FAITH

WE ARE WEST LEADERS!!!
First time i saw that for a long while.

I haven't posted for a while,still read a lot about lakers but don't get their matches anymore so i have nothing so comment.

See i used to tell you to keep Bynum,sad that i can only watch 1 min worth of highlights.

AK/BK the leaders part needs it s own thread!

"hate to say it, but at this point, Drew was a bigger loss than Kobe would have been... K" - ADIR

wow... now thats really really stupid...

Im sorry I cant help but comment... some people just dont get it.... Its easy to say such things, but when it happens what?

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR...

geez...

The Lakers aren't going anywhere without a legitimate 2nd scoring threat on the court. Living and dying on Bryant's shot would not be in the best interest of Laker fans.

Though Bryant scored 48 points, how many shots did he hoist up to get those points? Granted, the other Laker starters looked lethargic tonight, Bryant's 1st quarter consecutive shots barrage did no favors for anyone. The Lakers are 8-1 when Bryant scores below 20 point per game this season.

The Lakers are more than capable of putting points on the board. When Bryant lets the team participate on the offensive end, the players feels more energized and participatory on the defensive end.

Bryant is resuming his role as the vacuum on the court. Seems like every time he touches the ball, it's another shot.

Victories from the past two games are fool's gold. It's easy to be "oohed" and "awhed" by Bryant's performance but he has got to start to balance his game if the Lakers look to advance deep into the playoffs.

-Jeffs Aho

Laker Fans!!! We are number 1 on the standings!!!
I am so happy for them...
I am so proud of them...
I am so excited for them...

I believe in challenges, not problems...
these challenges that we are currently experiencing and will experience...
...like last 2 weeks of January
...like 9 road games
...like Drew out for 8 weeks
It is only going to make this team, OUR LAKERS, better...
It is only going to make this team, OUR LAKERS, tougher...
It is only going to make this team, OUR LAKERS, readier...
to contend for the Championship...

I BELIEVE... GO LAKERS!!!

max,
"But you can't overlook 1-6."

10 rebounds, 7 assists, 0 turnovers, 1-6 shooting, 4 points. I will take happily that stat line every night on a team that has the other offensive weapons the Lakers have.

it will be tough for the next two months. unfortunately, i see us dropping down to 5th or 6th place when bynum returns. kwame is not going to demand the respect that bynum was earning from the opposing teams. we might see turiaf start some games instead of kwame.

AK,

You said this: As unparalleled as Kobe remains when it comes to hitting an opponent with punches, the same can't be said about his ability to roll with them. I'd like to think Kobe will see the bigger picture, recognize this development as a hiccup (even if it costs the Lakers what was shaping into a terrific season) and keep sight of what appears to be a very good thing going in L.A. But seeing the bigger picture has never been Kobe's strong suit, so while I'm optimistic he will, "confident " would be a stretch.

My response: With respect, I think you're wrong and you have maligned Kobe. 2 years ago he was very
supportive of Kwame and didn't say anything when Mihm went down. Last year we had SMUSH & we had
a chance to get J-Kidd. Last year we also had Brian Cook && Vlad "Half-Pipe" Rad. Last year, Bynum was
acting like a "kid" instead of playing like a man. Smush, Cook && Bynum is a lot for Kobe to carry, isn't it?

This year he's got D-Fish. Farmar has really stepped up his game. We got rid of Cook & picked up Ariza.
He's *NOT* going to revert. A lot has been said about who "The heart & soul" of the Lakers are. I think
he served notice last night. His name is KOBE! He will carry us as best he can

Jon,

you wrote: Meanwhile Kobe says he wants better teammates but does nothing to develop them. Whatever, remember that I wrote down that Kobe would blame his teammates when we lose in the playoffs. Yet how does any player become better if he doesn't get shots where he is comfortable not where and when kobe decides to pass him the ball.

my response: Go smoke a cigarette and calm down! Kobe has been developing his teammates for 3 years.

1. 1st play off series against phx when he shared the ball magnificently. He said, "I was told to carry us to the
playoffs. Phil said, " I told Kobe to carry us. "

2. Last year, he shared the ball magnificently until the plague of injuries hit and Smush was revealed as a
"detriment" to the team. Do you remember Smush? The guy they just got rid of? Do you recall the losing
streaks when he shared the ball and his teammates couldn't buy a shot?

3. The beginning of this year. All the trade rumors about Kobe. What did he say? "I'll play wherever I am."
Did he quit even though he had asked to be traded? Once the regular season started, did his turnovers
go down? Has he been setting up Bynum for the first 3rd of the season? Has he been passing to Ariza,
the new guy? Have you been to busy to watch the dunks from everyone who goes to the cup?
i.e. Ariza, Turiaf, Bynum, Kwame, etc.

That hate is going to rot your gut!

Will those Kobe haters just shut up?! 4 other Lakers were in double figures. WE WON! WE LEAD THE WEST!

I don't know why some people are crying about adding C-Webb to the squad. Is he going to help us get defensive stops? We need to try to get P.J. Brown.

He can D guys up and consistently hit the 12-15 footer.