bronxlakerfan,

I don't know if you posted after seeing the link I posted. I didn't catch the game yesterday. But I haven't heard anything about the officiating except in the blog - not one writer has mentioned anything about the rough officiating. That picture, though, is worth a thousand word. Did Blake actually think Kobe's head was a ball?

If I were running the time, I'd post that on the front page and throw the gauntlet down. Do referees deserve a free pass? You can't help thinking "what if" after seeing that. What if Kobe were to have been seriously injured on that play?

Rick Friedman,

To illustrate my point, consider a couple of your comments from
last night's game:

>>>"Walton is not exactly having a career night, and neither is Fish."

Now that is a very reasonable and accurate comment. I totally agree when
someone makes a comment like that. And if it was made in the first quarter,
I might have added "and neither are Kobe or Lamar".

>>>"We need a new web site: www.NoMoreMinutes4Luke.com"

>>>"Can someone please refresh my memory as to why the Lakers
>>>signed Walton to a six year contract?"

See now you're tring to generalize the bad game tonight into a general
attack on Luke's play. That's just being petty. These are the sort
of statements that might lean toward getting you labeled a "hater".
I don't usually call people haters for it, but it bugs me when I have
to read through 50 similar comments during a game. And your comments
weren't the most derogatory.

It's all a matter of scale and fairness. I note that you did comment
on the fact that Fish wasn't having a career night. Where is the request
for a NoMoreMinutesForFish web site?

Did you comment on Luke's good play in the previous two games? Did you
ask for a new web site called "www.moreMinutesForLuke.com" in games where
he helped the team win? Or do you just ignore those games and only comment
on Luke when he has a bad game? And do you make snide comments about
Fish when he has a bad shooting night? He has had bad shooting nights in
7 of the last 10 games. Where is your comment questioning why the Lakers
re-signed Fish?

So it seems you are selectively criticizing one Laker more harshly and
more frequently than the others. So while I wouldn't call you a hater for
that, I could at least understand why Jon K might.

bronxlakerfan -

Unfortunately, I absolutely agree with you - the zebra's sucked last night, like they do most nights when they're calling Laker games. I don't get it - why is there no recourse? Sure they say the league reviews plays, yadda yadda yadda - but do they really??? Hariyahu posted a link earlier - did you see the picture??? Kobe was seriously being grabbed (understatement of the year) but do you think a flagrant was called? NO! Do you think something will be done after the fact? NO! Do you think that if Kobe made the same play he would have been called for the flagrant, kicked out of the game, fined? YES YES YES
Unbelievable - it's too frustrating for words (well - too frustrating for more words - I've said enough...)

GO LAKERS!
The BEAN for MVP (or NO PEACE)!!!!

After my tirade above, I realize I need to rescind a comment made yesterday. I had said something along the lines of Steve Javie seeming to be doing a better job these days. After last night, I must repent of my former mistakes and take it back. He was, is now and always will be - to quote bronxlakerfan - a turd.

Sorry if this has been posted, but the first "photo gallegy" picture in the LA Times (online) looks like Blake is choking the life out of Kobe. Hey Stu Jackson, isn't that 4 games?

http://tinyurl.com/5v9vz

Later Nation...

My thoughts once the Lake Show is healthy:

Starters:
KB24
Drew
The Spainard
LO
D-Fish

Bench Mob:
The Machine (Sacha)
The Bruin (Farmar)
The Predator (Ronny)
The Razor (Trevor)
The Longhorn (Chris)

Trade for draft picks:
The snowboarder (Vladimir)
The favorite son I (Luke)

Cap space:
The favorite son II (Coby)
The Black Belt (DJ)

I'm out.

Laker Lover,

Actually, he calls the 2005-06 team a D-League team. And I don't think that's much of a stretch, considering that team started Smush Parker, Kwame Brown, and Brian Cook.

Smush Parker can't even get a job as a reserve guard on THE WORST TEAM IN THE LEAGUE -- sounds like D-League material to me.

Kwame Brown is racking up DNP Coach's Decisions on the 3rd worst team in the League -- again, sounds like D-League material.

Brian Cook is the best of the 3, and he's averaging under 12 minutes in Orlando.

Beyond that, I think he was using that term because, before reading the article, I had recently read the same thing said about LeBron this year. But Zyrdunas Ilgauskas, Sasha Pavlovic, Daniel Gibson, and Anderson Varejao aren't D-Leaguers.

Besides, if that's the only complaint you have, he makes a ton of very valid points.

I'd like to know, specifically, what you think of his recent article on statistics. Do you judge the article by its own content, or dismiss him entirely for his bias?

This is the one: http://www.respectkobe.com/?p=18

THE EAST COAST BIAS... AGAIN REARS ITS HEAD!

I am so sick of the bias that the media has in favor of the East and against the West.
When you live on the East Coast, you never get any news about the West Coast games other than day old scores. They go to bed before we play so basically ignore us.

Steve Aschburner’s latest article continues more of the same. While saying that it would be unfair to limit the playoffs to the best 16 teams regardless of conference (which would eliminate 3 or 4 weak East teams from the playoffs), Aschburner suggests instead that we change the draft rules to give the East priority over the West.

These guys have always wanted their have their cake and eat it, too. They first gerrymandered the NCAA playoffs to make sure the Bruins and Wooden couldn’t dominate, then they outlawed the dunk shot to prevent Kareem and Walton from dominating. Now, when the right thing to do is to gerrymander the NBA playoffs to get rid of the weak sisters in the East, the East biased media reverts back to the old geographical balance. Let’s not eliminate the weak teams in the East from the playoffs. Instead, let’s just give them a little more help in the draft to get better.

The real NBA is the West and just like every other year, the toughest match-up for our Lakers will be San Antonio in the Western Conference Finals – not Boston or Detroit or some other Eastern Conference team that is given an easy road to the Finals. East coast media is as quality poor as the Eastern Conference teams. West rules despite the rules.

Tom

http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/press022708-pj-brown.html

LTLF,

Actually, if you go back a few game threads (I don't have time in the middle of a work day), you will find comments I posted noting Luke's contributions when he was having a good night, or a good half. You will also find comments I posted noting that we want to cheer for Walton because we need him to help the team. I am not a "hater."

As for Fish, he is streaky and has ups and downs, but rarely even on a bad night does he hurt the team. He is also an official captain, which means he holds a special place on the team, both on and off the court.

As for "www.nomoreminutes4luke.com," c'mon, you gotta see an element of tongue-in-cheek.

In closing: GO LAKERS!

you've go to admire TJ Simmers....he's bad... i mean... he really wants to be the antagonist in the lakers story: Road to the Championship...every story must have the annoying, little prick to make it more interesting...

in any case, lakers won, we have to celebrate for a while and win our next game. let's ignore the masquerading laker lovers in the blog...

but in the game against the blazers, we saw Gasol struggling offensively and defensively... i believe that his struggle in the offense was due to his struggles in the defensive end. Pau is really not a one on one defender, he showed that in this game, he was being pushed around Przybilla in the rebounds and in the lo post by that young PF of blazers...

in playoffs time, its not all about offense, defense will always be the key to winning series... and we need a stronger interior defense...that is why we need bynum not on the 2nd unit but on the 1st...

for whatever its worth, 20 more wins to reach PJ expectations...but i hope we can win more than that...

Go Lakers!

Impressions on a laker win:

I think the Blazers struggling late has
more to do with our changes than anything. Before hand, we really didn't do that good a job keeping the ball out of Aldridge's, or Outlaw's (is that right?) hands. We instead packed the paint and challenged their outside shots. Holding them at 35% shooting in the second half, speaks volumes of the defense we played down the
stretch.

It of course helped that we were finally making our shots as well (without da Fish whom I love, has been on a very bad streak of late, and Luke, whom I refuse to comment on lol). But going back to defense. To me, the play in which Pau made the adjustment on the Blazer jump hook spoke volume of our adjustment. He blocked that
shot. Something he was helpless on several plays before. Also, we went to the hole aggressively. Aside from the hapless refs (seriously!) we only shot 9 freethrows in 3 quarters (I believe) because we were settling a lot on outside shots. You may be getting
hacked, but refs are refs, they tend to not call those.

Either way I like the adjustments we made when it came to crunch time. If for nothing else...going with a lineup that works (hello, it got the lead
in the second!) worked wonders for our D, and O lol.

Stevo,

>>>am I the only one worried about the impact of just one
>>>more injury?

That's why you have a deep bench. Most teams, if they
had 2 7-foot centers injured and their best wing defending
SF injured and their best 3-point shooter injured, they'd
be done. They'd be playing their equivalents of "the other
Coby" and "Congolian Beef" big minutes.

With the Lakers, it just means Luke gets more minutes than
we'd like and the other guys have to take it up a notch.

-The Lake Show-

"...Sonnybelfast might ...try to poison Kobe like that one playoffs"

I have grown the apples. I'm digging up the hemlock as we speak.

Sonnybelfast

I think Simers is funny and good at his job.

Unfortunately, he gets old quick, because he only takes the view point of the underdog. His perspective is always on the unheralded, the underappreciated. His schtick is not to praise the already praised,or to add to popular opinion. He's strictly an against the grain guy.

It's like Simon Cowell. Show him a singer with a good voice and modesty, and he will say "you were pretty good". But show him the exact same singer but with tons of arrogance, and watch Cowell tear the young singer to shreds with his criticism.

Oh yeah, this blog is about basketball ... the Lakers have three straight games on National TV starting with Miami on TNT, at Portland on ESPN, and Dallas on ABC. As we know, the MVP award is a media fueled abomination, so if the Lakers can make it a national sweep, they'll kill two birds with one stone by improving their record, and giving Kobe a huge boost in the MVP voting!

YOU EVER NOTICE

PUKE
IS LUKES DOGS NAME

Only he pronounces it "POOKY"

The problem with Simers is:

HE ADMITTED THAT HE DOESNT EVEN WATCH LAKER GAMES!!!!!!

Doesnt anyone remember him saying that? How can you critique or comment on anything without seeing what it is first?

Hating him has nothing to do with his position on anything, its his complete lack of journalistic integrity, how can you have integrity if you comment about something you know nothing about.

In other forms of media it isnt tolerated.

The Black Crowes are all over Maxim Magazine for a bad review that Maxim gave, but here is the rub, the Crowes havnet submitted the album for review yet, and called maxim on it publicly. How can you review an album you havnet listened to?

Same with Simers, how can he have ANY opinion about the Lakers when he doesnt watch the games?

ITS LUDICROUS.

In regards to the referees Im not surprised by anything they do, Tim Donaghy or Joey Crawford anyone?

Anyone remember this?

"Dont look at me Rasheed"

"Stop looking at me Rasheed!"

I mean really??? Garretson actually threw Rasheed Wallace out of the 2000 Western Conference Finals, FOR LOOKING AT HIM!!!!!!!!!

As far as last night goes as soon as I saw Steve Javie I knew wed get hosed. Fortunately the Lakers are good enough to take the "REF" factor out of the game.

BrandonC out.

LTLF,

It makes me so happy to hear you use "Congolian Beef"

LOL

http://www.sportshubla.com/2008/02/22/hes-beethoven-bryant-
now-hear-the-music/

Let me be the one to suggest to the haters that if you don’t begin realizing that a true basketball Beethoven is passing your way again, Kobe Bryant is going to be gone before you had a chance to genuinely enjoy and embrace the show.
-By Ted M. Green

SA said:

“Sean P . . .
for you to say that the lakers of 91 were in any way a reasonable facsimile of their hey day showtime era is a gross misunderstanding of basketball . . . Although, i will give jordan a lot of credit . . . he took that series with ever ounce of basketball he could eek out. And again, u fail to say how the overall effects of scottie pippen and horace grant and bj armstrong and craig hodges affected the outcome of those games.
as for the rest of the league and your "supposed" youtube proof that all those players were so great . . i say this . . . ITS NOT HARD BEING THE SKINNY KID AT FAT CAMP. . . . in other eras, shawn kemp and charles barkley would be in the Professional Eating League. Karl Malone would have been an average powerforwards. John Stockton wouldnt be able to play point against chris paul, baron davis, tony parker and the new breed point guard.
and as reference i would like to point the Mr. Harold "the next Jordan" Miner and Mr Cedric "Lake Havasu" Ceballos and how ceballos was considered a transcendent talent for scoring 50 points. PLEASE give me a break. These players in the 90s were garbage compared to the athlete of today's NBA. I want you to tell me any one other than jordan who belongs on a top 25 all time NBA list who's prime was in the bulls era . . . . case closed”

I didn’t say that the ’91 Lakers were a reasonable facsimile of their heyday. I said that they were not old.

However, since you’ve brought up... yeah, they most definitely were a reasonable facsimile of their heyday, considering they still had most of the same players who had won back-to-backs and who, with the exception of Mychal Thompson, were still at prime ages. They were a damn fine basketball team that went 58-24 in the regular season and 11-3 in the Western Conference playoffs (beating quality Suns and Blazers teams). Nobody I knew thought that they were going to lose to a Bulls team led by a selfish ballhog. Then MJ went ahead and put up 11.4 apg on us while making the transcendent play of the series (that switch-handed layup). Sure, his teammates helped (especially Scottie who gave Big Game James fits), but it was Michael that made that Bulls team special. Looking back now, I can see how someone might have thought that was a last gasp by an ageing team, if they didn’t know the particulars. What killed us wasn’t that we got old, it was because we lost both Magic and Worthy without getting anything in return the next season (HIV and knee injury).

There you go again with the unsubstantiated assertions. Barkley kept his weight under control his down his whole professional career, despite serious back problems. That he let go of himself after he retired has no reflection on the way he played. Kemp had (and still has) drug and alcohol (especially) problems. Classy of you to mock him for that. Regardless, that’s neither here nor there when we talking about ‘96 when Kemp was at his absolute peak (especially in the finals that year, when his outstanding performance had the media proclaiming him as the next great star).

As far as Stockton and Malone are concerned, they both played at a high level for 20 years and through several eras, so to say that they would not have been successful in a any particular era has no basis. It’s especially hilarious for you to say that Stockton could not have matched up against guys like Baron Davis and Tony Parker, as if he didn’t actually play against them. Stockton was still putting up a 21.0 PER at age 40 in ‘02-03 when Parker and Davis were putting up a 16.5 and 16.9 respectively. And you don’t think Stockton could have played against these guys in his prime? This guy came in the L in its heyday for pgs (why do you think that the 80s teams played such attractive ball?). With guys like Magic, Isiah, Mo Cheeks, Dennis Johnson, Fat Lever, Doc Rivers, Norm Nixon, Alvin Robertson, Terry Porter, Derek Harper, Mark Jackson, Mark Price, Kevin Johnson & Nate McMillan roaming the courts, there were no nights off for pgs in those days.

What do Harold Miner & Cedric Ceballos have to do with anything? Every era has had its busts and loons. If that’s the best you can do to argue against the Jordan era, you need to quit posting.

The bottom line is that the 90s were an exceptionally strong era for basketball with a number of players who began in the 80s playing at a high level for a remarkably long period of time and a good mix of young talent coming in. The league did not begin to suffer until too many of those young guys faded too quickly for various reasons (Penny, Grant Hill, Larry Johnson, Derrick Coleman, Shawn Kemp, Vin Baker, Zo Mourning, Jamal Mashburn, et al.) and the next generation turned out to be too selfish (AI, Marbury, Vince Carter, T-Mac, Steve Francis, Zach Randolph, Ron Artest, Eddy Curry, et al… culminating with Kobe (and Shaq) blowing up a dynasty to feed their egos). If you ask me, the nadir for the league unquestionably came in the 2000s with the Nets (the worst finals team I have ever seen… well that is until the Cavs made it last year- although they at least have a true superstar) making the Finals twice and that garbage Heat team winning the Championship. It’s only really this year that the NBA is truly back (and Thank God for that).

Call me crazy, but I'm still a little worried about Phoenix this year..Shaq looks like he's getting in shape and he will be a force inside. He's motivated...If he stays healthy, I'm a little worried! History is not on their side, but you never know! Even if he is old, no one in the league can match up with him.

This Luke thing is starting to become such a thorny issue on this blog and the truth of matter is that Luke should never have been signed for six years 30 million. Not one team attempted to sign him. He is slow not athletic nor can he hit open shot's with any dependable consistancy not to mention he wouldn't survive in the D-league a week for the exact reasons stated on this well informed blog. So unless we buy this clown out we will end up losing a player we really need because Mitch and Phil bleeped this one up. Look at PJ and Mitch roles they played on there respective teams and they probably saw Luke as a younger version of themselves. Just check it out!

LakerLover,

In an earlier thread you wrote:

so you are saying Phil is lying or you disagree with his assessment, even while thinking he is the best coach in the league?

By your logic, anyone being critical of Kobe is not a laker fan and by extension anyone being critical of Arod is not a Yankee fan. I cant think of anything less ridiculous.

If anything kobe apologists should go to kb24.com since this is a LAKER blog not a Kobe blog

My response: I don't think Phil is lying. I think Phil is
either mis-guided or brainwashed. It was Phil who
asked Kobe to shoot the ball a lot two years ago
per Phil's comments. It was Brian Shaw, last year,
who said: we need Kobe to put the ball in the bucket.
Phil also said something about Kobe scoring last year,
when the losing streaks started. For some support
on that issue, you might ask the question: Why did
Phil take so long to sign his contract extension?
I believe he signed it this year, after personnel got
better.

Yes,
I do think this while believing he is one of the best
coaches in the NBA. No, I don't think anyone is better
than he is. Yes, I think that some are in the same
class that he is. [ Popovich and Sloan come to mind. ]

I also think that it is possible to be critical of Kobe while
being a Laker fan.

I appreciate how you deflected my questions. I'll bring
you back to them. Is Farmar a better player because
he worked his tail off this summer or because Kobe
passes him the ball? If it is the latter, than please
explain Smush Parker. If Bynum is a better player
because Kobe passes him the ball more, then please
explain why Kwame sucked. I watched Kobe stick up
for Kwame and watched the ENTIRE LAKER TEAM
make a *concerted* effort to pass him the ball and get
him involved in the offense. Kwame was not, is not,
and will never be as good as Pau Gasol. That has
nothing to do with Kobe not giving him the ball. It has
everything to do with the skill sets and work ethics of
Kwame. If you disagree with my last statement, please
enlighten me.

BTW, if this is a Lakers blog: Why are you putting the
improved play of Bynum, Farmar, Lamar, Sasha &Turiaf
on Kobe instead of sticking up for the Lakers who
obviously worked hard this summer? [ Based upon
your response to what Phil said. ] BTW, I believe that
Tex Winters [ the special consultant to the Lakers who
created the triangle offense ] has called out a couple
of the Lakers for not playing aggressively enough.
[ Which supports my view. ] In an other interview,
he also *might* have suggested that Kobe pass the ball more, although I'm not certain of this. If you can find a link supporting the latter statement, please provide.

BTW, have you noticed that if the Lakers win the next
two, they will only have lost ONCE during the month
of February?

Go Lakers!
Go Kobe!

The Dallas game comming up will be a very big test for us ...Dirk will go Mr wippy again...Its Howard and Kidd that worry me...and Terry and Stak..........Bynum would be very handy to have ready but as long as the bench gives its punch we should win....Besides Stak the bench is thin ...Terry starting at the 2 gets canceled out even Jones for that matter...Odom will have his hands full ...It would be nice for Odom to play on Howard but he will get Dirk

Luke sucks. He has no athletic ability, he's slow, and he has very little basketball skills. I've been saying this for 2 years on this blog, nothing new from me. In addition, I've challenged anyone on this blog to demonstrate just how Luke Walton has a high, so called, basketball IQ. When I posted this 2 years ago, no one could debate me.

So, I will state it again...Luke Walton has very little basketball skill and average to low basketball IQ. Period. If you disagree, lets debate it.