NY win tonight proves KG was right all along.

Anything IS possible!

Portland's announcer's are even worse than nails on a chalkboard..."D" has picked up, now we need to take care of the ball...

http://tinyurl.com/5br7qj

Bench scoring: 38-10. Really Nice!!

There's something to be said for finishing games...there's also something to be said for throwing out the knockout punch early.

You do that and the opposition no longer thinks they can compete.

That's what we did in the third. Best defensive quarter I have seen us play. No lie. 16 points allowed, everyone challenged like it was the last shot.

I counted at least 2 24 second violations for the Blazers, that will get it done.

Proud of the team tonight. Happy for the win.

Best record or not, that kind of play is something to be proud of...against the Blazers which aren't a bad team imo.

Go Lakers!

Huh. That was...all right, I suppose. I really can't wait until our road games. Those will measure our true worth.

WOW - AK/BK: was that your question to PJ about TA starting over Vlad Rad to get the "decision was for internal reasons....ie meaning none of your business"? Shut down by PJ. Interesting now we really need to find out about Vlad's status and why he is REALLY in the dog house. But I am glad you asked it. Way to represent. THANKS

wow. what an upset Sunday it has been!

ironically.... the only two games that didn't go according to the script happened in Los Angeles!

the Clippers couldn't pull off the upset and the Lakers didn't get upset.

GO LAKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christopher Blake, that win was for you!

Thanks for repping so well up there, and take care!

The tacos tonight were referred as bloody tacos compliment by the favorite of PJ in the doghouse. Vlady should be grateful to the magic toe of Luke, had it not been inflamed, he would be rotting in the doghouse till the end of time. Vlady haters would comment that he has poor defense, not a glue to the team, poor shooting, lower BBIQ than Luke etc. The way I look at it, Lakers edge against other teams are: Kobe and Pau as 1 & 2 punch, then comes the slasher and all around worker LO and Ariza, and without the long shooters like Sasha, Fisher and Vlady the triangle becomes two sides instead of three. Bynum will not get freedom to move when opposing guards are clogging the post.

Anyway, we have been commenting so much on the bad sides of our players never gave them the props for being the best this season. The next test will be the 8 succeeding games: Hornets, Warriors (road b2b), Pacers, Heat, Rockets (road) Spurs (road b2b), Magic, Cavaliers. This is what I mean by injecting FEAR than brag, dominate all these games and action will be louder than words.

Tonight's game is a perfect example of why NOT to trade Luke,
Rad, Lamar, Farmar, or anyone else.

With their depth, the Lakers can have two people out injured,
start off a little bad, work out the kinks, plug in Rad, and still
dominate a good team.

Congrats to Rad for playing hard tonight and being successful.

The Celtic mystique has never recovered since their dismantling on Christmas Day. The triumvirate are now losing confidence with each other. Why? They won games in the past thru intimidation from Perkins, Posey, PJ Brown and lastly KG. In 2009, that trick didn't work, they were stopped by the Lakers and other teams by playing toe-to-toe with them. It was now exposed that KG and Allen were not really consistent in their games. What is the latest with the Celtics? They are hoping to sign Marbury. Wow, never seen Ainge that desperate to sign as the sick man of NBA, if Larry Brown, Thomas and D'Antoni could not reform Starbury, what can Doc Rivers do? He is old, slow and star complex, he will implode further the Celtic problems. Boston Globe took a survey among fans and majority are not agreeable with Marbury.

Walton is an excess for his long contract till 2013. He is a negative to Buss treasury in terms of luxury taxes in the future. Lakers need to pay Ariza, Lamar and Fisher if Lakers would like to dominate the league for a longer period. Now if Luke is getting only 2M liek Mihm and as a good feeder and assist man,l then that's a good deal. But for 30 million for 5 years that's just a horrendous contract, pure favoritism! As a good feeder, he should be a PG, unfortunately he is slow and cannot catch up with 75% PG's of the league. Therefore, he becomes a shooting forward but he is 30% shooter. The last test, is he is a good defender? Oh Yeah, we have been watching Luke Walton defense since 2004 and he can't guard the grandmother of Sir Charles dui. LOL!

Andrew Bynum needs to learn to move more on offense without the ball.

Try more pick and rolls.

He's young.

But he'll have to learn to move like Gasol moves.

You can't stand still Andrew and expect the ball to come to you. You have to move without the ball. It is the triangle offense. When you move, you'll get the ball more often and slam dunk it. Otherwise, when you get the ball, it is either too high and too far away from the rim for you to move, or you take too long to create a shot.

Good job getting rebounds, however, and playing defense.

If you can't get your offense going, play defense. We can always use that. Defense wins championships.

Missed the game tonight, damn work!

I've only looked at the box so got no idea what kinda game it was.

Few questions if anyone wants to answer...

How did we look without MVP 2009 Luke Walton? jk luke i still love you

How did Trever play in the starting role?

Was Vlad really that good, or just hot for a short stretch?

Why the %*&# did AB17 only take 4 shots?
Lack of agression or lack of passes to him?

And who likes tacos? Me likes taco's!

lol. Preach Mr. Edwin Gueco, Preach!

Of course you forgot that because of that the rest of the world thinks they're entitled to Luke Walton like contract as well lol, jk.

Soopafly, Trevor started off slow. As did we as a team. Lots of turnovers in the part of both Fish and Kobe...but when the third quarter came around...game over. The 5 of Bynum, Kobe, Trevor, Fish, Pau...game over. Of course my man Sasha and Vlad, and LO had a hand in it as well. Overall that 3rd quarter defense...like I said showed the difference between us and portland. We're just too good.

The Lakers should not be complacent. They always lose one game for every 6-7 games they win. We're due for a loss now.

I love my DVR.

It allows me to watch the game at a later time, if I have other commitments that keep me from watching the game live.

I have to say, though that the one drawback of not watching it live is that I don't get to crack wise with all of you on the Live Blog.

Oh, well, guess you can't have everything.

Game notes:

-I really respect Portland's team, they play hard, they just missed a stack of open shots tonight.

-Oden is like an Oak Tree out there.

-Ariza's nickname "The Cobra" should stick. It's a good complement to "The Black Mamba". His slogan should be : "Losing is a disease. Meet the cure". Or something like that. http://tinyurl.com/arizacobra

Never...

"Jack Nicholson took our brownies...he's had them down there with his friends and they're eating all of them..."

"Of course Kobe gets the call...Kobe gets every call..."

"Come on Kobe, man up!"

"That might have been the dunk of the year...France dunked on Spain..."

"sasha vooyachick has the worst hair...he only washes half of it...so and so could take him in two rounds...so and so could take him in one..."

"Phil Jackson cut his hair and shaved...he finally entered the nineties..."

They complain on every call...make fun of Phil's chair...call it his throne...complained about the Pau and Ariza trades, then said all we gave up for Trevor was Brian Cook...my personal favorite of the night was...

"LeBron has a much better understanding of the game than Kobe..."

That's the sampler platter...they're bad all the time, but against the Lakers, it's like...I don't know...such jealousy about everything LA...petty comments about the stars...and especially our fans...they really bad mouth the fans at Staples...
"Me thinks the Lady doth protest to much..."
They should have kept Schonley on TV...he was a lot better...even Chick said what the Blazers did to him was a disgrace, if I remember correctly...

http://tinyurl.com/5br7qj

LTLF,

"(Miller's) shooting is off
this year - only 37% on his 3's (Rad shoots 45% on his 3's). And both Rad and Luke know the triangle"

You make it sound like the triangle is something only years of practice will help master. To that I respond with: Well, what about Pau? He seemed to do just fine after getting in mid-season. Also, there is a difference between shooting 3s on a Minny team with just one real scoring threat - Big Al - and getting WIDE open looks on a Laker team where the defense has to worry about Kobe, Pau and Bynum. And just for the record, Mike is shooting 47% from the field this year. Yes, Vlad shoots better from the 3, but can you explain why he went from starter to scrub?

"JO + Kobe + Pau + Bynum is about 75 million for four players.
Thank you Isaiah Thomas."

You seem to forget the fact that JO's contract (21-22M) expires next year, after which he's more likely to get something along the likes of a MLE. As for the 75M over this season and next - SO WHAT? We aren't trying to attract FAs, we are trying to strengthen the team. Even with those 4 taking a lot of the salary, we still have Ariza, Fisher, Vujacic, Miller, Powell and the rest. Try thinking BIG picture if you can.

"Foye and Cook are young...

and suck"

Really? Do you even follow the rest of the NBA or are you just a Laker homer? Just FYI (and feel free to look this up), Foye is averaging 15 and 5 for the season - and that's not even looking at the last two months, where his scoring is up. If that "sucks", boy, Farmar must be a vaccum cleaner. And before you bring up the issue of minutes, let me just say that Hollinger's PER is a useful tool as well.
As for Cook, I don't think averaging 10+ pts a game in 25 minutes while shooting 42% from the 3 qualifies as "suck"-worthy. And just like Foye, those numbers (both minutes and PPG) are trending up.

"What part of "championship contender" doesn't appeal to you?

Is your dislike of Lamar and Luke and Rad so great that you'd
rather the team suck for the next few years so that you could get
rid of them?"

Now you are going brain-dead on me. "Championship Contender" is very different from "Champion". Cleveland and Boston (since you brought them up) are both "championship contenders". Yet I see both teams trying to get better. Wait a minute, Boston is a champion too. And till a couple of days ago, on pace to beat the Bulls record of 72-10. They shouldn't even think of touching the team. Or should they?

Look at it another way, if you were to learn that either Boston or Cleveland were to get those 4 players (JO, Foye, Cook and Miller) through trades that did not involve touching their starting 5, would you be happy that they lost some chemistry or worried that they got better? Yeah, thought so..

And BTW you need to grow up a little - trading someone doesn't mean you "dislike" them, or that you are a closet fan of another team!!!!

Maybe, just maybe, it's because I want the team to get even better than they are right now?

I only caught the second half, due to work... but it was great to see Vlad playing so well... also nice to see Powell, Mihm and Sun at the end.

Tom and Edwin - the bloggers' 1-2 punch... nice posts, guys.

I see AB diving to baslet and no entry pass given. Why continue to dive if don't get passes thrown? Will frustrate any big not just AB.