You'll never catch me !!! Wooooooooooooo!

Anyway, the Lakers better not be slipping this week. The teams don't seem that tough on paper but I know they marked their calendars.

K Bros... "suit up" nice!

How do you make it so the videos don't play all at once at every reload. All of them, plays at once.

crap.. now i'm craving tacos...

It's great to see the attention the Lakers are getting, it's well deserved. Pau Gasol is a huge blessing for this team... I highly doubt they'd be where they're at right now without him. And whatever happened to Lamar during the Bulls game was definitely the best thing that's happened to him, he's been unstoppable these past couple outings.

This is such a solid team and it really excites me to see how few minutes everyone is playing. Will Boston be able to compete with Allen and Pierce averaging over 35mpg each while Kobe and Gasol are averaging under 35mpg? The balance is impeccable thus far, here's to keeping the D going and the O flowing.

-Jason

Ummm... all the videos play simultaneously by the way, which is not only annoying and difficult to follow, but it makes your rambling boastful diatribe about how you're entitled to special tacos nobody else gets particularly surreal.

Lakers Today... Lakers Tomorrow... Lakers Forever.

GO LAKERS!

Fixed.

Unfortunately, it means no "widescreen," but at least it's not all jumbly.

BK

LakerTom,

Thanks for the link to the slam online article. It was good. Looks like everyone is starting to get, what we have know since the finals. With AB and TA in the lineup, we WIN.

Fatty,

>>> "Isaiah, I got just the guy for you, that curly red headed Luke is just the player you need. Oh, sorry, I didn't know you've been replaced."

That's why my new suggestion is just release Luke outright and put him out of his (and our) misery.

Glad to see that the drugs are still working for you! Happy psychedelic Saturday.

When the 2 free tacos promo really took fire was during the latter part of the 06 season. There was a point during that series against PHX where PJ wrote one simple word on the wipeboard - "tacos". But, that initial promo was if the Lakers held opponents under 90 pts not 100. I think, for this team, they should move the bar back to 90 and really make the team have to work hard to earn tacos for the fans.

NO ONE WAS TALKING WALTON BAILOUT LAST YEAR, AS MY SON CARRIED THIS TEAM ON HIS BACK TO THE FINALS ! ! ! ! DID WE ALL FORGET THAT HE FILLED SOMEBODY'S SHOES THAT WAS ALWAYS PLAYING THE IAM HURT CARD !

Did we see a spark from Andrew last night?
I sure hope so.

You could see he enjoys playing with the 2nd unit.
And why not.

Give me Bynum and the Big 4-LO,AZ,JF and the Machine
and they most likely give our starters a beat down. You know why they are so good? Because they don't have to find Kobe and give him the ball. Like AB said 2nd unit is completely different than the Starters and how they play ball.
I happen to like the free style ball the 2nd unit plays. And the young players like getting Andrew the ball. And since I think Andrew is the KEY to WINNING IT ALL this year, FEED Andrew the ball.

It is clear the MASTER PLAN of the 2 BIGS down low is going to work. If I am correct the 2 leaders in assist the last 2 games were Bynum and Gasol. At least I think. Anyway the feeding it in the post, have teams collapse and swing it back outside for the 3 is working perfect. Just as long as the Lakers can hit 3s this is going to work. On the Defensive side we all know it is going to be a success. Length is killing the other teams and thank GOD that Phil finnally found out about defense being played in the NBA. What a big step for Phil but he finally got there.

One other thought if Kobe plays like he did last night I like our chances. Kobe showed great control and I thought I was watching MJ. Very effecient work by Kob.

Anyway cheers to all the Laker Fans and MAMBA24, LakerTom, JonK, and all the rest is 81-1 really impossible?

BD

Mr. Walton's contract will be an albatross around the Lakers neck until it mercifully expires...(YOU KNOW, ABOUT 2032)

"Albatross....albatross....what flavor is it?....it's frickin' albatross you stupid git"

we may get lucky and trade it away in it's last year as an expiring contract--and there is a slight chance it could be packaged with a coveted player in a trade (but that seems doubtful to me and maybe not even in our best interests)...

I am not refering to Mr. Walton himself, but his suffocating contract---a real blemish on Mitch's otherwise fairly impressive track record...

Good thing is this year anyway, the contract from hell hasn't had much of an impact (except losing Ronny--but I think Powell is a more than ample replacement)...

the damage that ludicrous contract will undoubtedly do is this summer (or the next) when we lose another player or three that are legitimate parts of our dynasty...

Hopefully Dr. Bus's commitment to keeping his players is real and indeed money is no object (does that really happen in real life?)...

I do love Mr. Walton's new (and highly approriate) moniker....wait for it...The Human Victory Cigar...

I would like to see that Havana play in every game this year...lots of minutes !!!

GO LAKERS !!!

Mamba 24 Do we need a requiem for Butler? He probably hasn't stopped crying from Thursday night.

Jason - I absolutely agree... the balance is terrific this year. Thursday niight, six players in double figures. last night, five in double figures. We had this kind of scoring balance last year as well but before then I'd have to search my memory, it certainly didn't happen during the Shaq/Kobe years when so much was predicated on them leading the way.

The lines have blurred.. during the three-peat years crucial system players like Horry and Shaw were getting 5 or 6 ppg and everyone was fine with that... now you have Sasha making 5.6 ppg as the 9th man down and some people says he's not earning his contract. It's not just about points either, everything's spread, rebounds, steals, assists and stuff that doesn't show up on the stat sheet - jump balls, floor burn, etc..

Um, random thought.. the polar opposite of balance - the Knicks game last night? Because of the trade, D'Antoni suited up 9 players but only used 7! Starbury sat again. I'm not a fan of the dude but that's cold.

Eric,

>>>>> With AB and TA in the lineup, we WIN.

Exactly. I thought the Slam article was extremely well done. While Hollinger’s PER is justifiably criticized for not factoring in defense, I like how John Krolik uses the PER of the players that a defender guards to measure the defender’s effectiveness. This is one of those rare situations where the statistical results mirror our instinctive sense of what is happening. The Lakers are getting great defensive effort from almost every player on the team but stopping penetrating guards still appears to be their Achilles heel.

Last night’s game was definitely encouraging on several levels. First, Kobe looked quicker and smoother than he has in a while. He was still hounding and harassing his man late in the third quarter with the game well in hand. As Krolik said in the article, the commitment to defense had to start with Kobe. And as many of us hoped, he carried over the defensive attitude that he had shown in the Olympics. Bar none, Kobe is the MVP on this team.

And last night was really about defense and the Lakers brought theirs in spades, pressing and frustrating the Nuggets all night long, trapping, forcing turnovers, contesting every shot. The energy was terrific. Kobe, Farmar, Lamar, and Trevor all made plays where they shifted into another gear to make fabulous shots or blocks at warp-speed. The Lakers were lightening quick as ball hawkers last night, often on their way to the other end before the Nugget’s ball-handler had realized he had been picked or the pass stolen.

Krolik also gives due credit to Drew as the #1 reason the Lakers defense is so much better, already the 2nd best shot blocker in the NBA behind Dwight Howard at 3 per game. No disrespect to Pau and Lamar, but it seems like every time that Drew leaves the game the other team immediately scores one or two layups. Drew’s value includes all of those shots that players do not take inside or alter or hurry because they know Drew is there. When he leaves the game, we struggle to protect the rim.

And of course, Krolik also focused on Trevor Ariza as the other big reason for Lakers improved defense. We essentially came within 2 games of the championship without two of our top three defensive players. Drew and Trevor have transformed last year’s team into this year’s dynamo. And Drew is still only playing at around 75% of the Beast he was before getting injured last year. There was a point last night when we had Drew, Lamar, Trevor, Farmar, and Kobe on the floor and the Lakers were like lightening.

Finally, I loved how Lamar has played the last two games. Last night, he was great without the ball, sealing his man in the lane for easy shots off passes from Drew several times. That was the interior passing game that I hoped Drew and Pau would develop. But Lamar worked hard without the ball to get great position and Drew hit him 3 times for easy layups. The Lakers just have to find some way to keep this guy. He is too versatile and valuable to let get away. That coast-to-coast drive at breakneck speed was Lamar at his best.

Now that the Pistons and Suns are out of the way, the Lakers should cruise to a 14-1 record as they start December. Personally, I am not that worried about the Pistons. They were just red hot that game. They missed all of those same looks Thursday night against the Celtics. And they didn’t get 3-point straightaway bank shots either. But the Celtics are another story. They are playing just as well as the Lakers and it is starting to look like they will both break out and leave their respective conference opponents far behind as they compete for the regular season best record and home court advantage in the Finals.

Tom

Rick F.

"Luke appears permanently hobbled. A career as a mattress spokesman isn't the end of the world."

LMAO

I still must assert, with cautious optimism, that the Lakers still want for a worthy Western Conference sparring partner to help them learn to cope with "smashmouth" defense.

There just aren't any in the West. The Lakers are shredding the teams out here so badly that games are over midway through the third quarter.

Every team in the West are but shadows of themselves as the Lakers have them beat physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. All the "big" teams out West are saying the exact same thing after loosing to us; "we've still got to find our identity/rhythm/mojo/pace/.

No tests of stamina. No tests of will. No tests of perseverance. Kobe's only had to save them for one game.

His Super Hero Cape is bound to get rusty at this rate.

Plus, how are the Lakers going to sharpen their teeth over the next two weeks?

They aren't. That's how. They are going to spend the next two weeks trying to learn how not to be complacent. Which really isn't a skill you need in the playoffs, and certainly not in the Finals.

Maybe we should play the bottom of the bench more just so the games could be closer?

Or, like I suggested previously, hire a football team to practice against us. Or, better yet, a rugby team.

We should make the scrimmages be that for every shot a rugby guy takes, they score like 60% of the time automatically. And of course, no fouls, if there is no blood (just like Chick would say).

If you look at our amazing record since Pau came on board, almost all of our losses have come against physical East teams. That isn't a coincidence.

The Detroit win was promising. I'm hoping it was also an Omen.

--Fearless

Ooops! I meant the game against the Bulls was encouraging.

Sorry 'bout that!

--Fearless

Tom,

As usual, you are right to predict 14-1 by December.

But, I still maintain that the first 15 games of this season offer no real test, no real challenge.

Well, maybe a couple of those teams gets real hot and we have to simply outscore them to beat them?

I dunno. I'm just worried.

--Fearless

Fearless "Maybe we should play the bottom of the bench more just so the games could be closer?"

Yeah, or maybe just play them more so they can be game-ready, period. It was nice to see them get some actual minutes last night - 20 combined for Powell, Walton, Mihm.

Idle trivia - I wonder what team has had the most players score double-figures in a single game. Stats junkies?

Oden just dunk and kicked his feet out "Shaq-style" into Amare's head. LOL.

Sorry Faith for the delayed response on your post this morning, as usual just back this evening.

~~ Well, even the security guard of US Congress is aware of the ill-conceived contract of Lakers with Luke, no one will dare to listen to Lakers pleas.

OK. let us imagine a bail out was granted in our dreams. We still lose. Our grandchildren and great grandchildren will be paying dearly for Luke's contract. He just surpassed the legends, he is now an eternal Laker. LMAO!!!

Eric M.,

You're pretty negative and not all that hopeful. I worry about you sometimes.

GO LAKERS!

I worry about Boston but I also worry about Cleveland. We always seem to have problems with them although a series might be completely different. Boston just looks gnarly. They look tough. We need that toughness too. Looking forward to the Christmas day matchup. GO LAKERS!