One more day! 15 Wins!

Check one Mamba24!

Of course i added this at the tail end of the last thread but here we go again:

hey i want to ask you guys and gals a question.

for the life of me i cant remember why the Lakers in the early part of the decade wore a black stripe on their jerseys. i first thought that it was because of the passing of Chick Hearn, and then i thought it was because of 9/11, but then i saw them with that stripe on their jerseys in pictures dating as far back as the 99-00 season. i just cant remember why they wore that stripe. can anyone help?

thanks

Good Morning Mamba24, Good Morning Charles, Good Morning Laker Nation!

I can't wait to see how badly what George Karl tries to do to stop us flops! Double Kobe and deal with Pau and LO? Man up on Kobe and Pau and deal with LO, D-Fish and Vlad Rad? The Muggets simply do not have the size and speed to keep up with us.

It's dusty in here from years of being gone too soon.......get the brooms out, it's time to sweep!

15 TO 15!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEFENSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LET'S GO LAKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mamba,

I am all aboard that wagon!!
Title up to you my friend....

Also, I hope that this ends any and all "Kobe never said he wants to be a Laker for life" arguments...

KB24 is a warrier and a gym rat who only wants to see the same in his teammates. If you want to take the ENTIRE summer off.....then do it with another team.....like fat shaq!!

janaya

There's a lot of positivity from Lakerland right now, but it feels a little premature. One loss tommorrow and all that goes out the window because we'll have lost home court. I hope the team watched Utah last night and understands how seriously they have to take their tasks.

Focus.

Trevor's due for another CT this week on the foot. If it's good, he's gonna be ready to workout with the team immediately, if I'm not mistaken.

It is at that point which all penetration will cease.

I can't wait for Trevor and THE BEAST to be back and this team to be whole again. The Lakers will dismantle teams once they are. We win now. We will destroy later.

Riddle me this Batman? How would a '63 drop top Impala keep me in LA? It should work the same anywhere else.

But I guess its all in the spirit of the Beach Boys. KB24 sounds like a true So Cal dude now..........or is it "all about the options"? See this...

http://www.superchevy.com/features/nova/sucp_0605_
nova_droptop_options/index.html

BEWARE OF THE NUGGETS ADJUSTMENTS IN GAME 2

I watched again the Lakers game with Nuggets and I have some few observations:

1. The Laker starters were on an up-tempo, jacking up immediately double digit lead in the first quarter and as soon as the bench came in with Farmar, Sasha and Luke the lead went down and Nuggets took the lead byas much as 8 pts. The same is true in the 3rd and start of 4th Q, the lead of 19 at the beginning of 3rd went down to a single digit. It means that bench of Nuggets were more productive than their starters.

2. Luke made a lot of breakthroughs because of mismatched in height of the player guarding him. Everyone was concentrated on Kobe, the PF, K-Mart was guarding Kobe so he was out of his position in the post, then Melo as well as JR Smith were also concentrated on Kobe when attacks the hoop, thereby, it slipped the focus away from Gasol and LO who are always on the move free to do their thing.

3. Vlad made only 8 pts. but he made 3 to 4 good assists to Gasol, the passing of the big men at the posts.

4. In the future, I think Farmar should reconsider his present position to a shooting guard (2) because he's more of a player looking for a good shot before passing the ball, that was his training when he was with the Bruins. He can't keep up with defense of fast PG's in the league. A second year Coby Karl will be more of a natural PG.

5. Kobe was playing his game, in trying to take advantage of those one-on-one guarding and just missed a lot of those shots. His individualism became glaring because of those magnificent passing by his teammates and Pau is connecting. Unlike before, we don't mind his individualism because Kwame or Smush will just wasting those assists. Another reason why Kobe was limited in pts and PT, he sat down for sometime due to foul troubles.

6. After watching the Jazz, Suns, Hornets and Spurs played in their series, we really need Bynum in order to compete effectively with these teams. We don't really need Bynum's offense but it is the defense in the post where he will contribute much in stopping Boozer, Duncan and the two Sun's termites, Chandler's alley hoops, Amare & Shaq. At present, the Nuggets do not have that dominating Center in Camby or K-Mart, so we could win easily without him.

Keep the Fab 4!

Although it is too early to talk about the next season, I am just responding to what Kobe said. There are 2 Lakers that have expressed interested to be Lakers for life, Kobe and Lamar. I am pretty sure that Pau and Andrew will like to be Lakers for the rest of their career. So, let make sure that these 4 core Lakers will stay intact. We should build a dynasty surrounding them. I think we fans should speak out in unison- there is a prize to be paid to be an elite team in NBA, that is luxury tax. I am sure Dallas, Phoenix are committed to it. If Lakers do not want to pay the luxury tax, they will resign to be the third world country in NBA.

As for game 2, beware of Linas Kleiza! He's the x-factor in Denver!

*___________________________________*
*.LAKERS SWEEP DENVER BANDWAGON
*___________________________________*
(01) LAKER TOM - Owner
(02) FAIRWEATHER FATTY – Driver
(03) HAVA98 - Game 1 Win Director
(04) TWOODY – Taught Kobe the Crossover
(05 WHITEMAMBA24 – Game 2 win Director
(06) MAMBA24 –Riding ShotGun
(07) JUSTANOTHERMAMBAFAN - Game 3 Win director
(08) JAIMSYY – Game 4 Win director
(09) THE OUTLAW – Director of Lawlessness
(10) LAKERS LEGACY – Director of Laker Tradition
(11) MICHAEL H.- Sent MBenga Home from practice
(12) DAVID IN SPAIN - Convinced Pau Gasol to join Lakers
(13) TOAD – Director of removing Denver carcass
(14) JANAYA – Made Camello back pedal in fear
(15) KOBESBAD - Made Kobe raise his game

KEVIN GARNETT JUST NAMED DEFENSIVE PLAYER
OF YEAR! ESPN

PsychedLaker Girl is down for the Dagger to Denver in game 4. Like to hear you coming out Swinging Psyched!!!!

TWoody

Mamba24, AK, BK or anyone in the know.

If KG is Def POY does that mean he is out of MVP? They usually don't give 2 awards to the same player do they?

TWoody

I can never tell if Heisler thinks we are all idiots -- or if he just likes to read himself and congratulate himself on how witty he is.

George Karl is a motivator -- he has painted his team as having no chance against goliath -- The worst thing that can happen is for the Lakers and Laker Nation to fall into that trap.

Unfortunately, reporters in this city buy into motivational tactics like they are gospel and print junk. Oh, and there is always the ‘rehash of what happened last summer’ portion of the story. Because Laker Nation forgot what happened since your last story 24 hours ago.

Condescending creeps.

Puddle said it right that if John Black or Gary Vitti gave us a bleak info about the injuries, then people will not be upset and expect much with the training staff. However, to make excuses that different people respond to different injuries is just lame and also pale. Go to the D'League where nobody mind the kind of injury diagnosis proclaimed. These are the playoffs, any statement especially medical bulletins should be carefully analyzed. There is a thin red line that separates misinformation and malpractice based on the viewpoint of season ticket holders and sponsors. Of course, it is not glaring because Lakers are still winning and the No. 1 seed without Bynum.

If there is such thing as Gamesmanship on the part of PJ, it is a good strategy only for a while, however it may affect his credibility in the future. He may become the boy who cried wolf and no one cares or believes. Fans and media will always second guess his interviews tied up with possible inner motivations.

Speaking of wolf, I have not heard of blogger Wolf lately. He used to be the harshest critic of Kobe.

Darock

Wilt passed on 10/12/99 - that would be the reason for the black stripe in the 2000 season.

Kwame Sighting

In the OC

Kobesbaaaad (and he is)

Man is it great or what to hear such words emanating from the mouth of one Kobe Bean Bryant. Lord of the Mamba, breaker of defensive ankles and driller of clutch shots. Ah...the sweet sound of harmony. The planets are aligning, the gods are smiling and Laker Bloggers are happily typing. It all means nothing if we let down at home tomorrow night. So let's dif down deep into our Laker Souls and find some defensive intensity.
It's sad to hear that AB 17 s done for the Playoffs, unless he makes some sort of Walt Frazier entrance, I think training camp (maybe in Barcelona this year, Jerry?) wll be the next time we see the young lad in purple and gold. I think that we'll be fine for a few reasons:
1 - The rest of the team. These guys are playing great team ball and have been for pretty much the entire season, even when we were 9 and 8 we were really moving the ball and playing better help defense on guys driving the lane then since the 80's with the Captain patrolling the paint. No offense to Shaq, but he was never a defensve monster and Phil's first run with the Lakers was to use the rest of the team to make up for Shaq's defensive lapses.
2 - Lamar Odom. He s playing monster defense right now, he bodies up his man, closes off the baselne well, rebounds like it's going out of style and is hustling every which way but loose. His scoring and attentiveness on the offensive side has improved because he's making it happen for the team on the defensive side.
3 - Luke Walton/ Vladimir Radmonavich. These two couldn't throw it nt the ocean from a boat at the beginning of the year, Vlad Rad picked it up a little earler on the offensive side and Luke struggled untl something like a month ago, but both have shown some consistency for the coaching staff in regards to their roles on the team. Luke's taking alot less 3 pointers and using his funky-white-guy post up moves, making much better decisions wth the ball and still playing good defence, as he has pretty much all year. Vladdy has started to atone for his season from space last year and, too my surprse and delight, has shown that as a 6' 9" forward he can REBOUND and play some defence.
4 - Phil Jackson. Anyone who can coral the Lakers young bucks into buying into a system that is 1/ 2 4 seconds or less and 1/2 triangle while keeping a disgruntled super star happy and waitng for the myriad of space cadets that we have on this team from checking out entirely can get them to make the adjustments to compete in this years playoffs. He will figure out a way to keep it together. Just like Eddie Murphy in 'Bowfinger', "Keep it together, keep it together, keep it together." That should be our collective mantra for the post season.
5 - The X Factor...Chris Mhm. Noe playng much, hasn't shown that he can since he went down, but we all know that he can be a 10 and 10 player when he's at his best. Hopefully we can get a good sold game or two out of him during ths run, especially if Mark Cuban's favorite African native is going to be sidelined by a rib (always VERY painful the ribs) injury. In Chris' defence, I'm not expecting much out of him, but anything he can gve us wll be a huge boost psychologically for himself and the team because they've been with him on this painful two-year journey.
Well gang, those are my thoughts.

GO LAKERS!!!!

Aw hell, put me on the sweep bandwagon, 'm hoppng off the 4 to 1 bandwagon. Happy Tuseday, y'all.

PsychedLakerGirl,

I wish I can be totally optimistic like the others here. I just tell what I think is best. Now we can win if all the stars are alligned on our side, just roll the dice and see what happens. Going for Championship are rare occurences, you must have the right players for defensive purposes and not play by chance. Bynum is our insurance. Everybody here have insurance to protect their cars, their homes, their assets and also their families. Rolling the dice without insurance is just risking our rare opportunity this year. Next year is another year and nobody knows whether such opportunity of being the No. 1 seed will happen again. Lakers achieved dynasties in the past not by chance but it was well planned and executed the plan carefully.

puddle-

Honestly, I don't see it. First, people tend to ignore the longer end of the estimates, and any signals or caveats that things could take a while. Second, I don't see the real PR angle. While teams will keep injury information close to the vest for competitive reasons, lying about Trevor Ariza isn't going to sell them more tickets. Same holds true for AB. It's just a frustrating thing for Lakers fans to see players injured, and for timetables to change. But it's always important to remember that whenever a guy gets hurt, the projection for his return is just that. A projection.

Bynum's injury was very serious, and there was talk when he got hurt that he could miss serious time. Ariza has a broken foot. The hope is it heals quickly- his hasn't. It's part of the game. If you look around the league at different teams, there are injuries all over the place. It's part of the game.

For what it's worth, LAL's training staff is among the most well respected in the league.

BK

Greetings' Laker Nation,Fans and everyone It's good news
to hear Kob, say he want's to stay home here in L.A. hopefully we will get some good news about Trevor's return this week.

Psyched

Once again, I'm with you 100%. Win now with what we have. Even if TA and AB do come back before the playoffs are over, there will be little time to get them game ready. Let's stick with what we have..........it's plenty good enough to take down anyone we meet. Even playing PHX with Shaqtus doesn't scare me.........we have Mihm and Mbenga and even Braveheart to give 18 fouls on Shaqtus and get him out of the game when he retaliates. We match up pretty well and can dertainly compete with anyone with the team we're putting on the court right now.

As Pig said earlier, "We win now, We will destroy later".

Win one this year, and look for a loooooooong dynasty with TA and AB back. Even Kobe said if we don't win this year, we'll be back after it next year.

DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEFENSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

15 TO 15!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*___________________________________*
*.LAKERS SWEEP DENVER BANDWAGON
*___________________________________*
(01) LAKER TOM - Owner
(02) FAIRWEATHER FATTY – Driver
(03) HAVA98 - Game 1 Win Director
(04) TWOODY – Taught Kobe the Crossover
(05 WHITEMAMBA24 – Game 2 win Director
(06) MAMBA24 –Riding ShotGun
(07) JUSTANOTHERMAMBAFAN - Game 3 Win director
(08) JAIMSYY – Game 4 Win director
(09) THE OUTLAW – Director of Lawlessness
(10) LAKERS LEGACY – Director of Laker Tradition
(11) MICHAEL H.- Sent MBenga Home from practice
(12) DAVID IN SPAIN - Convinced Pau Gasol to join Lakers
(13) TOAD – Director of removing Denver carcass
(14) JANAYA – Made Camello back pedal in fear
(15) KOBESBAD - Made Kobe raise his game
(16) JAMIE SWEET - Will change last name to Sweep

Pig,

Thanks for the update about Trevor Ariza. Let's get him some Dit Da Jow so we can be assured he gets a green light after his CT scan!

GO LAKERS!