Three Good:

• Kobe Bryant: 24 has been on quite a roll of late, and tonight was no exception. 26 points on an extremely efficient 11-19 from the floor, a figure distorted by a couple of misses late in the fourth. Over the last six games, Bryant is averaging a very robust 31 points, on 55% shooting.  Sunday night, he started hot while the Lakers struggled mightily to generate anything that looked even a little like a structured offense.  Most of the buckets were J's, but as things went on Kobe was able to get closer to the basket and do more damage near/in the paint. He influenced the flow of the game at both ends, making contributions not just on offense but also to what evolved into a very strong defensive effort for the Lakers.  Best of all, Kobe played a very reasonable 33 minutes, no small thing given L.A.'s schedule this week.
• Pau Gasol: Like the rest of his teammates, he had a slow start, struggling to find space on offense. On the other end, the incredibly high, impossible-to-defend release of LaMarcus Aldridge caused some problems, but as the game went on, Gasol was his normal influential self.  19 points on 7-9 shooting, a pair of dimes and a steal in just over 28 minutes of play. He wasn't a beast on the boards (only five), but showed his trademark versatility, and quietly posted a good night. 
• The Short Bench: With Trevor Ariza shifted to the starting lineup in place of the sesamoiditis-y Luke Walton, LA only used three reserves in meaningful minutes - the Bench Mob reduced to a mere Small Gathering - but all contributed with strong play. Sasha Vujacic hit four of the seven shots he attempted and was his usual pesky self on defense, despite being saddled with a case of tonsillitis.  Lamar Odom had a very positive influence on the proceedings, with 10 points, six boards, a pair of dimes, a steal and two blocks in just under 28 minutes of burn.  He finished a +19. The big story was probably Vlad Radmanovic, who struggled in his initial action at the end of the second quarter but came back strong after halftime, burying two big triples and playing an active game off the ball as the Lakers pulled away.  Not typically a guy who thrives in inconsistent minutes, Radmanovic played with a lot of energy, piling up 16 points in just over 18 minutes.  Especially impressive were the seven trips to the stripe, not a place Radmanovic generally frequents.  Should Walton's injury mean Radmanovic returns to the rotation, this is the sort of performance the Lakers will need out of him.

Two Bad:

• The First Quarter: You know things are going poorly when a team shoots 55% over 12 minutes, and only scores 19 points, especially when said squad is afforded eight trips to the line. That's exactly what happened to the Lakers, who were limited to a rather shocking 11 field-goal attempts in the opening 12 because they turned the ball over nine times.  Nine times?  Nine. Times.  This against a single assist on the quarter.  That's a comical 1:9 A/TO ratio as a team.  Amazingly, Portland was only able to turn the mistakes into eight points, thanks to tight Lakers D/a tendency to miss wide open shots.  From there, though, the Lakers tightened up considerably, finishing with 13 giveaways on the night. 
• Rebounding: The Lakers neither buttoned things up on the defensive boards - Portland managed to snag 15 offensive rebounds, including a few sequences where they had multiple cracks at the basket - nor attack the glass themselves, generating only seven offensive boards, five below their season average. 
• Tactics: 1) For the life of me, I couldn't understand why the Lakers doubled down on Portland's Greg Oden on the block as much as they did. Oden is physically strong and loaded with potential, but at this point in his career isn't a strong offensive player, and the Lakers did themselves a disservice by giving him so much attention in the post.  All it did was open up lanes for his fellow Blazers to cut and create open shots elsewhere on the floor. When Andrew Bynum manned up on Oden, who finished 3-7 from the floor, he did fine. If anyone deserved a double, it was LaMarcus Aldridge, who's ludicrously high release on a smooth fall away J is virtually impossible for one player to defend. 

2) With Luke Walton out, I was surprised PJ didn't start Vladdy.  After the game, I asked Jackson about the decision, and he referred to "internal" reasons for the choice ... meaning "none of your business."  Interestingly, though, he said (and Trevor Ariza confirmed) that Ariza would have preferred to continue coming off the bench. Personally, I'd have let him.  I like the rhythm of Ariza making his first run with the reserves and think he fits better with that group than the more structured starting unit.  "I can see the way the game is being played, and see how I can change the game a little bit," Ariza said of his preference to begin the game in sweats.  "But tonight I had to [start].  We won, so that's all that matters."

Generally speaking, when players go down to injury I'm a proponent of changing the roles of as few players as possible to fill the hole. With Radmanovic, they can plug him back into a spot he has played in before without disrupting Ariza's allocation of minutes.  It's just one game and the Lakers could certainly change things up - Walton was walking with a noticeable limp when I saw him after the game, so my early money is on him missing at least a couple of games - but for tonight, I'd have made a different choice. 

One Big Issue:

• Bynum: He didn't do much on offense (four points on four field-goal attempts), but was strong on the glass with 10 boards, and I was impressed with the physicality he showed against Greg Oden down on the block defensively. He aggressively fronted Oden repeatedly in the third quarter, working to deny passes and move Oden into uncomfortable spots. While statistically it won't go down as one of his best nights, to watch Bynum engage another player physically - to really work on defense - was encouraging. And beyond that, you can really see a good rivalry developing between both players that should be fun to watch for years to come. 

Quotes:

PJ:

• On Bynum: "He did some things we normally don't see from Andrew that were spontaneous.  He fronted Oden in the third quarter, and a couple of times in the first quarter he prevented the ball from going in. I took him out early in the third quarter because I thought he wasn't aggressive to the ball, but I thought he came back and played well."
• On Ariza: "He was really effective in the second half. We switched and put him on [Steve] Blake so that we could slow down their offense. That really made a difference in the third quarter. He did a great job defensively for us."

Blazers Coach Nate McMillan:

• On the Lakers: "They are a good group, they are on a mission. They definitely know what they need to do to win. And right now everybody is healthy for that group. And Phil can push a lot of buttons. He has a lot of different combinations that he can go with as far as playing big and playing small. You know those guys are playing ball, all of them playing well."

BK

AUDIO

• Pau Gasol:Download pau_gasol_1.4.09.mp3
• Lamar Odom: Download lamar_odom_1.4.09.mp3
• Andrew Bynum: Download andrew_bynum_1.4.09.mp3
• Kobe Bryant (with some amusing talk about NFL football and his beloved Eagles):Download kobe_bryant_1.4.09.mp3