the Lakers just sent a message to all the teams with sub .500 records who were looking to steal one from us on this trip.

actually, they sent two messages, but I think the "our bench can outproduce your bench" is the one that will stick with those other teams more..

..as opposed to the "hey, we'll spot you 15" that the first half Lakers were doing.

Gotta love the 4th Qtr D that threw down the beat down to make the Bulls bow down. We just need to cut down the yip yapping jibber jabber to the Zebras so we can put up the only banner that matters. LAKE SHOW FOR LIFE!!!!

131-92,

"Dont worry about the Cavs schedule and having a better record than them ... worry about the Celtics record and staying in front of them ... cuz thats the only chance you have of beating the Celtics!"

Hmm the Celtics have 4 more losses than the Lakers and 5 more than the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Didn't I say you Green dudes should stop smoking and look at Lake Erie? The Cavaliers sure look hungry for you dudes!

-KB Blitz

Thank you!

Key is that Phil played LO with the reserves instead of Pau. That move reinstated the original second unit from the start of the year when the bench mob was excelling.

Pretty good coach that Phil Jackson.

Need the cockiness of Farmar and Sasha back.

keep it up Lake Show!

Now we cant fall asleep on the THUNDERS they will come out fighting but we should win that game. the cavs will never loose i think if we keep wining cause they just play with to much energy. I cant see us having a better record then them cause we have to much road games. We might go 7-0,6-1,6-2 or the worst 4-3. But after that we will win almost every game maybe not the ROSEGARDEN. BUT THE CAVS only game is the Boston maybe Spurs.

Good Grief, Luke is absolutel y worthless. The best we can hope for is he holds his own otherwise it is a major disadvantage having him on the floor. Additionally, JF is not ever going to be an NBA caliber above average ,starting PG. If Mitch could come up with a PG that is NBA qualifty in the off season, the Lakes would have a dynasty. I love TA and please AB, get well soon!

Welcome back Jordan farmar and sasha vujacic. Intesity back - Check! Shooting touch back - Check! Farmar stepped up big time in the 4th and hit 2 crucial threes and made key steals down the stretch. While I especially enjoyed the jawing of sasha and Gordon, that fueled the fire of the machine. Did you notice the two baskets in the 4th by sasha were all net, the ball didn't even grace the rim. Looks like his touch is back. How bout those MVP chants in Chicago for Kobe. Wow, totally unexpected. And how scary will d rose be 2-3 years from now, the dude is definetly a baller. Once he develops an outside game he"ll be imposible to guard. Great game. Lakers for life! 09 champs!

lamar is always the difference makers.
he stabilizes both the starters and bench; he complements everyone's game.

When I watched the first half i was practically crying at Laker's defense, no one was stopping the drives and they were taking uncontested shots..good to see luke, ariza and farmar gaining confidence in the 2nd batch for the good win!

Great comeback!! But...

We're not going to win any championship if we CONTINUE to play like that in the playoffs.

Lack of effort in the first half and CONTINUED missed free throws will NOT get the trophy!!

Although the Lakers pulled this out, they did all the things that drive me nuts about them.

1. Poor free throw shooting.

2. Not blocking out on defense.

3. Odom missing layups.

4. Gasol trying to lay it in instead of dunking.

5. Gasol getting pushed around. BY ROSE!!!

6. Silly fouls 20-30 feet from the basket - Fisher had one on Brad Miller in the 3rd. They were only down 1 in the 3rd at the time. Gasol tried for a reach a few possessions before too. Fouling someone like Brad Miller is like just giving points away.

7. Rambus defense - where the guards just let the dribbler go around them. I think #2 is due to their type of defense where they allow the dribbler to just go around them most of the time to try and trap them into the baseline. I think this causes other player to leave the player they're guarding and makes it difficult to block out causing a ton of easy 2nd chance points. Every team that the Lakers play against do a much better job of preventing penetration, even 1-1 against Kobe, than the Lakers guards do in preventing penetration, because they don't really try to keep the dribbler in front of them. They just try to funnel them to the baseline every time.

8. Bennett Salvatore - thank you Bennett, for game 6 2002, but you don't have to spend the rest of your life trying to show that you don't favor the Lakers. Also, with this guy, it's like the home team getting a free 10 points. Although I don't think it was Bennett that made this call, but that call on Odom on Rose was HORRIBLE.

I was able to watch the game on WGN last night here in Cleveland.

The Lakers are now 31-1 when utilizing the powers of the lucky barstool.

Dr. Jerry Buss needs to buy that place and pay me to guard that barstool at all times.

Anyhow, an ugly first half last night, but I was proud of how our team came back in the second half. The Zohan has gotten past his funk and is playing like the player Laker Nation loves.

Bring on our next opponent!

Time to bring some pain to the East!

What do we play for? RINGS!!!!

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

GO LAKERS!

70sLakersfan - you're telling it like it is? You mean, when you proclaim 30 minutes before the game is over that the Lakers won't win the game? That's "telling it like it is"? Maybe you shouldn't be making predictions and then trying to rationalize them when you're wrong. How about "I was wrong to make that kind of prediction."

You have valid points and criticisms about the Lakers mental make-up, but just quit with the prediction business, because you're no good at it. Or maybe this is some mental defensive mechanism so you won't be disappointed if the Lakers don't win the title, then you can say "I knew it. I told you so". But if they do win, you'll be happy just like the rest of us, but you'll explain that it was because of the "change" in their attitude that led them to become champions, when really nothing changed, you were just wrong in your assessment of the team.

@70sLakersfan

>>>>"First of all I could care less about what happened with the Bulls and Celtics or any team for that matter except for the Lakers. I'm not living in the past and 30 years ago. I've played b ball through high and in to college in So Cal and am now retired Air Force living in New Mexico and still play organized basketball at my present age and do it quite well so i'm not some chump that don't know bad ballin when I see it. And lastly Son, i'm not whinning, just tellin the truth about this Laker team in it's present state and they are not tough enough or mentally ready for playoff basketball right now. Yeah they won the game in the end but, the Bulls were in total control of the game until they started missing shots. It is what it is... A Weak perfomance that won't fly in the playoffs. I've been an NBA and Laker fan for a very long time and just like (Chick Hearn), "the best and most unbiased Laker/basketball announcer ever" will always tell it like it is....."

Now that we've established your tremendous credibility...I seem to recall the issues people have with you stemmed from your first half comments where you counted the Lakers out and called our bench bad, etc. The Lakers won in the end and it was largely thanks to the bench. I think the point people are trying to make is that you shouldn't make assumptions, comment, and naysay before a game is over because 1) it's the NBA and anything can happen and 2) people don't like reading unnecessary negativity.

Now, your comment about whether this Laker team is ready for the playoffs is somewhat more legitimate, I just happen to disagree. Yes, this team has problems but I think they're perfectly capable of competing for a championship *right now* even without Andrew Bynum in the lineup. Every team has issues and no team is perfect. The question is whether or not the team can peak at the right time, ala how Boston did in the conference / ultimate finals last year.

good win last night. i was actually able to watch it on a streaming website. thank god for technology.

i applauded the play of Sasha, Jordan, and Trevor last night, and will gladly do so again today. i hope they continue to play like this from now on, and until they win the NBA Championship.

good move by Phil to play Odom with the bench. Gasol has been playing too many minutes anyway. i get the feeling that Odom won't mind playing some more minutes, and it won't affect him in the long-run. he should be fresher than Gasol, since he came off the bench (1st half of season), and didn't have to play in the off season.

too bad the lead wasn't a little bigger, or else PJ might've put Brown in the game. like to see the dude get some minutes. (i'm secretly still rooting for Sun Yue, but since he's not even with the team right now...)

70's Laker fan, KB Blitz, Justin N and anyone else for that matter,

This Laker team is going to rise or fall in the playoffs based primarily on the leadership of Kobe Bryant. I've watched and played basketball my whole life. I saw the Lakers in the 70's as a young kid, was there for every game in the 80's (the golden era i would like to call it) and continue to go to most games and basically live and die with the Lakers.

The great teams, teams that win championships, always have chemistry and strong leadership. Kobe, perhaps the greatest individual talent I've ever seen, is obviously holding the cards for this team. Jerry West was the leader of the 60's and early 70's teams. (Though their championship heartbreak is well documented, he got them there, knocking at the door every year.) Magic, in my opinion the greatest ever, lead Showtime like no other and has the rings to back up his greatness. Kobe was the key in the early 2000 run because he gave the Lakers a deadly one, two punch and Phil was able to coax him into team concept with great role players.

Now, it's all about Kobe. He must coax, cajole, encourage, lead and make his teammates comfortable and confident in the throws of pressure playoff basketball. He was awesome last year on our run to the finals, but did not have a great final and that was ultimately our downfall. Once again this year, he must get the most out of his teammates for us to win it all, with or without Bynum. (Hopefully with.)

I'm saying this because lately, and at times throughout his career, Kobe seems to think he's the only player that matters on the court and it's frustrating to watch his teammates stand around and let it be all Kobe all the time. That didn't work in the finals last year, it didn't work in the finals against Detroit in 2004 and it's not gonna work this year. The Lakers can play beautiful basketball when ball is moving and everyone is touching it. Hell, Gasol is the perfect complimentary player out there. If the ball gets stuck in Kobe's hands, or he gets caught up in one on one battles, we will fail in long the run. We might win games, Kobe can win them by himself, but we won't win a championship that way. I've harped on the fact the Laker's are unstoppable if he averages between 7-8 assists a game and takes less than 25 shots. I keep saying this to promote the idea of Kobe as the most dangerous damn distributor on the planet. His teammates need to touch the ball. They need to touch it often, in close games as well. If Kobe gets his teammates more involved, they will kill for him and deliver when it matters most. We do it at times, but i want us to do it all the time. It's on Kobe to always look to encourage, and reward his teammates on the floor, that will be how we win the championship. Individual scoring, one on one battles, MVP awards don't mean crap at this point. It's all about rings now, Kobe must make the commitment to play for his teammates, that will get us to the promised land.

Mikefloss,

Your comments are 100% dead on about the Lakers. I have had similar sentements for years about this team. In the final analysis and whether Kobe knows it or not, his legacy has been playing out from the day he arrived in the league to this present day. We keep hearing about Jordan to this day and he is being remembered aguably as the best to ever play this game because he did not allow his team mates to mess it up for him. He kicked @ss when he had to and simply demanded that his team mates played to the best of thier ability and worked hard every night or they answered to him like it or not because when ever you said Chicago Bulls you instantly thought Jordan. Each win or loss was his. Kobe is in that same position today as his legacy is being written. This Laker team has been together for at 4 to 5 years except for Bynum and Gasol who have fit into thier roles nicely. Kobe has to step up and lead the Lakers by any means necessary.