Woo Hoo! We're on fire tonight! On both ends on the court!

Phil, typically refusing to call a time out when the other team goes on a run...why?

http://tinyurl.com/5br7qj

GG, Lakers

You HAVE to score an interview with Pau, c'mon! I'm relying on you, Kam Bros.

Did u see that from pau??

I seriously fell from my chair when i saw that.. common dude has better handles than DFish!! :)

LAKER GURU FROM INDIA

pau

should teach fish, odumb, sasha, ariza ....how to run a fast break. except kobe, he is the only laker who knows how to do that.

and as a 7 footer, it is very impressive. plus in the spirit of magic, he can make it "showtime". obviously, he, like kobe, is a student of the game and yes, practices even things that r not designed for a center/power forward.

congrats on his 10001 points

I'm really worry now about AB's complacency. 8 points, 2 rebounds and 3 blocks tonight are not what I'm looking for in the upcoming NBA center. He was not a factor in the past 5 games. What is wrong with him? He's slow under the basket and seems lost on the D end. Making dumb fouls must irritated Phil!

Lakers kicked their hind ends.

Trevor was awesome tonight Christopher but he's no All-Star lol.

Great overall game, save for the 4th quarter. A 40 point game from KB and him hitting the boards again 7 rebounds. Pau on his 10,001 point. Another 20 and 10 guy. That's the 2nd Option dude.

Hmm if teams won't respond with Kobe setting screens maybe that can be used more?

The thing though that was frustrating though was Bynum. I felt he had a nice first quarter than lost any passion/energy. Norm Nixon said it best that Bynum wasn't active and during times on the floor after the 1st quarter Utah kept coming back. Kobe and Pau always bailed us out but we should maintain those leads as an elite team. Granted Utah is a very good team but the interior defense was lacking.

Bynum I think was too passive between deciding when to sag off and when to be close to his man as both Koufos and Okur are the shooting centers. I mean, I would rather let Okur/Koufus shoot from the perimeter so why not Bynum take more of a serious effort to try to go inside instead of thinking of which one. Fish did a nice job on D-Will as did Kobe when KB matched up on D-Will. Fish did the best he could in his funneling but Bynum was too passive defensively. He did fantastic in the 1st quarter but that was it.

With Bynum on the floor our defense was better but only when he was active. When he is passive he is just as a liability on defense. What does he need to have another alley oop? Bynum has to keep up his aggressiveness for the entire game and not keep it for one quarter. Bynum also has to work on moving without the ball as in getting open without Kobe/Pau finding him. I think too much he is being passive instead of being aggressive. He's probably the strongest Laker on the team so why not get more closer to the basket? His hook shots don't have much arc which results in bounces out and I feel he's beginning to rely too much on the face up jumper. It's not bad but we need him to be stronger to the basket. His post moves have somewhat regressed so it's important for him to work on that and not rely on Kobe and Pau so great.

Bynum does have the potential to become great. But while Kobe and Pau's presence won't make him a 20 and 10 threat for a while, he must stop trying for them to find him and instead create on his own. Both Kobe and Pau are experts and know where and when to create their own shots and both have honed their skills so they can create without being too reliant on their teammates.

Bynum won't reach Kareem's level but I project assuming he keeps improving to be at most 80% (which is not bad). But the way he is doing, maybe at most 35% of the Cap's skills. He does have the footwork and somewhat the rebounding skills but does not have the other things that Kareem had. He has learned from Kareem for 2 1/2 years now (not including this season) he should learn by now at least 50% of Kareem's skills. He does have the explosion but he does not have the aggressiveness. He is too much reliant on Kobe and Pau. Guys like Sasha, Lamar, and even Trevor are better than him at moving without the ball and the offense rewards them as long as they convert their shots. I hope he starts creating because he should be the 3rd option and say should be averaging 15 ppg especially with his minutes. While there isn't enough offense for him to be 20 and 10, he should be 15 and 9/8 that so when he moves up in rank he can become 20 and 10 and even more at being the 1st option.

Until then, he is no beast and attempts to find him will be harder as teams quickly double him to prevent the pass when he gets the ball and neutralizing him instead of him being close to the basket and making more shots instead of short range jumpers which he is doing too much of.

And Sasha did ok though he scored like 2 points. Only 2 shots out of his 4 misses were makable just didn't hit. His buzzer attempt I think he could have gotten closer and his other miss I think he was not set enough to shoot it.

-blitz

I think AB needs a confidence boost and no more PJ mind games.

AB was told by PJ to concentrate on defense and rebounding butwhen he does not dominate offensively most every1 complains. He is doing what he was told to do.

He wants to do more and be on floor but PJ is down on him and pulls him. AB complains and PJ basicallly tells him to shut up and he is too young to know better.

Did PJ forget AB's breakout as beast before the injury?

I see AB a bit hesitant and not jumping high on his hook shots. He has a tendency to line drive his shots with no arc. When he elevates this is not too much of a problem as he is line driving his shot downward.

When he does not elevate his line drive hits the front of the rim and he misses. Wanting to excel and being held back makes him fustrated and thus less effort.

WStu says it best when you reward the bigs for hustle and running the floor. If you ignore him he is less likelyto run. He feels that then his teammates don't trusty him.

Feed the beast and tell beast to post low with aggresion or post low pass out to get closer and repost closer. But he has to be fed or he will not work when he is ignored. That is human nature.

A GREAT W !!!!!!!!!! Nonetheless, I'm glad I'm not the only one hallucinating about AB being 'passive instead of being aggressive'... PJ did say he wanted AB to defend and rebound so.. what part of 'defend and rebound' doesn't AB understand?

AB should be right under the basket as our final line of defense. He is very effective when he applies this basic principle. Furthermore, he's shown he's got great footwork and can penetrate the paint for easy lay ups... not the low % shots he's been taking. AB, YOU HAVE TO TAKE IT PERSONAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We ALL KNOW you have potential BUT YOU have to make it happen. You need to adopt the philosophy that EVERY REBOUND IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND DUNK THE FREAKING BALL..... YOU ARE A LAKER FOR GOODNESS SAKE... BE THE BEAST WE ALL KNOW YOU CAN BE AND STAY HEALTHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PICK IT UP BIG GUY.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLAKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kobe shooting the best fg% of his life right now
his 3 point fg is up to 34%
he is taking the ball to the hole again, just when it looked like he lost half a step he is coming back big time.
There is no reason he shouldn't be in the mvp debate
Him Lebron and Wade will be there at the end but it is amazing to me how much more respect is getting for having a team with an ex all star and all defensive player no 2 draft pick and a good power forward than kobe was getting for draging smush parker kwame brown and brian cook to the playoffs

blitz:

good job on your AB analysis. I would disagree with you on AB's skills compare to the Big Cap, Kareem. I think AB, at his current stage, has at most 10-15% of Kareem's skills. Unfortunately, I don't think AB would ever come close of being at 50% level of Kareem. He has no hunger now after signing a big fat contract!! AB has not demonstrated any PASSION to win and/or defensive skills we dream of before the beginning of the season. His shot selection were terrible last night. What disturb me the most is lack of aggressiveness on both ends. I wish he could learn that from Ariza who has emerged a s a reliable SF (Compare to the duds in Luke and Vlade) complimenting the rest of the starters.