That Kobe Bryant is decent at basketball. Uhh… the pinky didn’t seem to be bothering him.
Shaq was great too. I love the NBA right now.
Also, I saw exactly zero minutes of the game, but Chris Paul threw considerable ink on the stat page (31, 11 dimes, NINE steals) against “defensive upgrade” Jason Kidd.
More later, must sleep.
I’m not sold on Pau Gasol as number two on a championship team, but this is a huge deal that puts the Lakers in the West elite.
Bigger question: what are Bulls fans thinking right now? If this guy can put Kobe and company over the top, think about how loaded Chicago would have been.
Bynum has some maturing to do, but this is going to be a scary team.
I don’t have a real concrete case or anything, but Phil Jackson’s two year, 24 MILLION DOLLAR extension seems absolutely ridiculous to me.
You know you’re about to lose a game when:
1. You let a team shoot 16-21 in the fourth quarter.
2. You make Jordan Farmar look like an all-star.
3. You’re being overpowered by Andrew Bynum.
4. Kobe Bryant is playing absolutely horrible basketball through three quarters and you still can’t maintain a lead.
5. Your point guard is Flip Murray.
6. The Lake Show throws a pass to no one, heading out of bounds, it bounces off a ref and lands in the hands of a Laker who hits a jumper.
Get well soon Chaunce. I miss you. I apologize for being so critical, just come back home.
And I also apologize to Flip Murray. He can do good things, but he can’t be a primary ball handler, especially at the end of games.
I don’t want to talk about this game, despite all the good minutes the young guys gave.
My feelings: with Chauncey and McNugget down—and hopefully this will be very temporary—we should start Afflalo, Rip, Tayshaun, Amir, and Sheed.
Maxiell was not great today. He was attacking the rim, and getting fouled (and making his free throws.) But he was also minus 23 in +/-. He’s better coming off the bench, bringing his crazy energy. Amir, on the hand, seems to need time to get settled on the floor, and adjust to what’s happening—he should start.
When Afflalo needs a break, I think you need to have Tayshaun handling the ball. There is just no flow whatsoever to what we’re doing when Flip is running the offense.
Cheikh Samb. I’m excited. Really excited.
We got completely owned on the offensive boards—NINE to Odom, FIVE to Bynum. That’s disgraceful.
I don’t want to talk about this game anymore. I’m done here. Peace be to Chauncey’s knee.
Mr. Flip Murray. What happened to the youth movement?
I’m starting to remember how much I love Chauncey.
Also, I watched the Rocks-Lakes game last night.
Advice: Yao needs to follow the Spurs example and shave. T-Mac’s elbow needs to be okay. Kobe needs to be traded.
Would I trade Rip, Tayshaun and a number one for Kobe? Absolutely.
(Side note: does the splash intro to the Lakers page feel a little over-the-top to anyone else?)
I got skipped over when they were passing around the Houston Rockets kool-aid at the NBA dorks convention, and last night’s near implosion against the Lake Show didn’t help. The Lakers, however, looked surprisingly good, and their comeback shows that when you have Kobe Bryant you at least have the chance to be in a lot of ball games. But this team can only be as good as its big guys.
BREAKDOWN:
Ronny Turiaf—Your starting power forward with Odom out. He’s reasonably solid, but I don’t think there’s a whole lot of upside here. 10, 5, and 400 hyper-exaggerated facial emotions is the best case scenario.
Kwame Brown—Has finally started to look like a NBA center. I think he’ll be a useful 12-8 guy this year.
Andrew Bynum—Supposedly Bynum is the deal-breaker keeping Jermaine O’Neal from joining the Lake Show. I guess I’m just not seeing why he’s so valuable (aside from his youth.) His skills are developing, but he’s half the player of, say, Al Jefferson. Maybe I’ll look back eventually and feel like an idiot, but I don’t just think he’ll be a megastar in the league. And even if he’s an All-Star-type guy in three or four years, what does that matter if Kobe is killing you from Brooklyn at that point anyway? Kobe-level talents are exceptionally rare (even rarer than all-star centers. Believe that.)
The Lakers are in a tough spot, so allow me to do some uninformed speculation:
They need to sell tickets. They can’t completely blow things up. They don’t want to trade the best player in the league (again) and then watch him win a title (again.)
Washington has a good core, they can do fine in the East right now, they’d need too much to give up Arenas. Chicago has a great, very young core, they shouldn’t make a move yet. Cube doesn’t want to deal Dirk (for reasons that escape me.) I think you have to take your shot with Jermaine.
Would you want to face Kobe and Jermaine in the first round of the playoffs? I don’t think so. And then maybe you could get a point guard somewhere next year and really do some damage.
