Lakers

[Vanilla]

Spank, and wait, here it comes again....SPANK!!!! *laughing*

I had to come out of witness protection to talk some trash! Hope all is well with you and yours.

[Dr T]

It looks like this season is going to have a rough start. I'm sad we lost L.O. and we were spanked by the Clips and now Kobe is hurt. They are still my boys!

[Vanilla]

My boys are having a "rough start" *cough cough* as well, but much like you, they are still, my boys! :-)

[Dr T]

Hi Nills. You can say that again. We drop our first regular season games. We had a heart breaker loss vs. the Bulls on Christmas day and then another loss to Sac. That young team looked good. I am usually confident and say, "The Lakers are going to take the whole thing again this year!" but I will stay quiet and watch my boys develop. We have some good things but we need to adjust to new things as well. GO LAKERS! We can do it!

[Vanilla]

Okay, I will!

My boys are having a "rough start" *cough cough* as well, but much like you, they are still, my boys! :-)

Well...you did give me permission to say it again! (you didn't think I would let that chance fly by, did you?)

I will hope for the best for my boys and cut out all trash talk for the time being!

Happy New Year!

[Dr T]

We finally got out first win of the season vs. Jazz (96-71)! Kobe and Pau played well and helped the team to a victory Tuesday night at home. I thinik that is the last 3 game back to back to back of the season for us. Keep it up boys!

[Dr T]

Kobe Bryant scored 28 points and Pau Gasol had a double-double (16 points, 10 rebounds) as the Lakers routed the Knicks 99-82 in L.A. on Thursday night. Steve Blake added 11 points.

I'll take it. Keep bringing the W's boys!

[Dr T]

My Lakers (3-2) finished 2011 with a win over the Nuggets (2-2) @ home in LA, 89-92. We play them again tonight in Denver. Bynum played strong but said he was very winded and expects it to be more difficult playing at a higher altitude tonight This was his first game back from his amended 4 game suspension. Fish played in his 500th consecutive game and Kobe was one assist shy of a triple double.

[Dr T]

Andrew Bynum (18 points, 16 rebounds) and Pau Gasol (20 points, 11 rebounds) led the way but the Lakers lost to the Nuggets 99-90 in Denver on Sunday night. Kobe scored 16 points but was 6 for 28 from the field. The Nuggets forced him into tough shots all night. He turned it over a ton like he often does but the good thing for him was he scored his 16,000 point during this game. WTG Kobe. He finished the night with 28,012, good for sixth all-time and first among active players. He is 584 points behind former teammate Shaq. We get Houston next on Tuesday. We are not looking like the Lakers that I know. We are adjusting I guess. GO LAKERS!

[Dr T]

I was very impressed with how Bynum played tonight. That is the way the big man needs to play. I worry about his knee though but loved to see him step up and dominate. He even had some skill shots that when in tonight. Drew had 21 points with 22 rebounds in his first 20-20 game of his career. Kobe had 37 points and Pau added 14 points and we finished strong to beat Houston 108-99. We did not shoot the 3 ball well (we only had 5 of 14). We play in Portland on Thursday. We need to keep it up. We are doing well at home so far. :)

[Dr T]

Lost to Portland last night and won vs. Golden State tonight. We are at .500

[Dr T]

I was off. We are 5-4 now so not at .500. We play 3 at home in LA and we play tonight against the Grizz. Pau plays his brother Marc who is stronger and bigger than Pau. The game stareted at 6:30pm. Go LAKERS!

[Dr T]

We topped Mephis 90-82 tonight. Kobe had 26 points, Bynum (15 points), Barnes (15 points) and Pau (13 points) all finished with double-doubles as we won our sixth straight at home. We turned the ball over a lot but our rebounding really helped us out. We had a very poor 4th quarter too. We only had 12 points but I'll take the win! We host Nill's boys on Tuesday. Should be fun.

[Dr T]

Bryant Named Player of the Week

Kobe Bryant today was named the Western Conference Players of the Week for games played Monday, Jan. 2, through Sunday, Jan. 8. Bryant guided the Lakers to a 3-1 week, including wins over Houston, Golden State and Memphis. Bryant’s 33.0 point average led the league, and he added 6.3 assists while playing a team-high 38.0 minutes.

From Lakers.com

[Dr T]

Last night vs. Suns, Kobe scored a season-high 48 points on 18-for-31 shooting and we took the game 99-83. Pau had a double-double (16 points and 12 rebounds. We shot poorly from beyond the arc again. I really like Shannon Brown with his humble ways and like him as a player. I was sorry to see him move on to the Suns. I'm happy we won this game. We need to keep it up. We play Utah next in SLC

[Dr T]

Tonight's game against Utah we played ok for two quarters and not so hot on two. We scored the same number of points in the last quarter-15 minutes, as we did in the OT-5 minutes (12). Kobe scored 40 points in our 90-87 victory over the Jazz. Pau had another double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds while Matt Barnes scored 11. The Jazz always play us tough at home. We play the Cavs next.

[Dr T]

Steve Blake injury news: EL SEGUNDO – Lakers guard Steve Blake had an MRI exam today, the results of which show that he has a costochaondral fracture (fracture of the cartilage that connects the rib to the sternum). Blake originally suffered the injury during the Lakers’ game against the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, and aggravated it in last night’s game at Utah. Blake will be re-evaluated in the next day or two, but for now his status should be considered day-to-day.

I hope he'll be ok. He's a little fighter...

[CloudySkies123]

Hope the Lakers can improve offensively!

[Dr T]

Hi CloudySkies.

Me too. I hope they move the ball more, play tough and we get points from 3 point land. I really miss L.O. off the bench. We are 8-4 right now. I see room for growth but we are doing well at home so far.

[Dr T]

Adding to the W's tonight. Kobe had 42 points as he had his third consecutive game with 40 or more points and my boys beat the Cavs 97-92. Pau had another double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds while Bynum had a double-double also with 15 points and 11 boards. That's 5 wins in a row for us. We had a poor shooting quarter again.

[Dr T]

Play Clips tonight. I hope we pick it up

[Dr T]

We were worked by the cross town Clips last night. Kobe had another 40+ game and had 42 points. This was his 4th straight 40-point game and we lost 102-94. Kobe is an amazing player but we are better when he involves others more. Bynum had 12 points and 16 rebounds while Pau added 14 to the total. We get the Mavericks next. We have a tough next few games so we will see where we stand. Go Lakers.

[Dr T]

Kobe Bryant has been named as one of the 20 finalists for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Men’s basketball team, a roster which includes eight 2008 Olympic gold medalists and 10 members of the 2010 USA World Championship gold medal winning team. The lone Laker, Bryant will await further word about making the final roster, which has only 12 spots.

from Lakers.com

[Dr T]

Kobe named player of the week again

Kobe Bryant has been named the Western Conference Player of the Week for games played Monday, Jan. 9, through Sunday, Jan. 15. Bryant led the Lakers to a 3-1 record and tallied 40+ points in each contest. This is the second straight week Kobe has been awarded the honor.

[Dr T]

We face the champs that put us in our place last year this evening. We will see how we do. Go LAKERS!

Mavericks-Lakers Preview

By MATT BECKER

Posted Jan 16 2012 1:39AM

After starting their NBA title defense in brutal fashion, the Dallas Mavericks are playing superb defensively and are once again looking like championship contenders. Their turnaround, however, has largely come against struggling teams without elite scorers.

That's about to change.

In a rematch of last season's Western Conference semifinals, the Mavericks go for a sixth straight win Monday night against the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant, who is in the midst of a remarkable scoring binge.

Dallas (8-5) opens a four-game road trip after a record-setting performance in Saturday's 99-60 victory over Sacramento. The Mavericks jumped out to a 52-23 halftime lead and ended up allowing the fewest points in franchise history while limiting the Kings to 25.6 percent shooting.

"It's all dictated on our defense," said Jason Terry, second on the team in scoring at 14.9 points per game. "We want to play great defense and get stops."

The Mavericks have been doing a lot of that lately, allowing an average of 77.6 points on 37.7 percent shooting during their five-game winning streak.

Dallas has come a long way since allowing an average of 108.0 points in opening the season with losses to Miami, Denver and Oklahoma City. Part of this stems from its offseason additions - including Lamar Odom, Vince Carter and Delonte West - growing into their new roles, while some of the turnaround can be attributed to weak competition

The Mavericks' last five games have come against New Orleans, Detroit, Boston, Milwaukee and Sacramento - teams with a combined record of 18-42. They've won the last two with such ease that Dirk Nowitzki and his fellow starters have had the luxury of resting for the fourth quarter.

They'll likely face a much bigger challenge against the Lakers (9-5), although they didn't have much trouble with them in last season's playoffs.

Dallas, which dropped two of three to Los Angeles in the regular season, swept the Lakers, finishing them off with a 122-86 demolition that saw both Odom - then a Laker - and Andrew Bynum earn ejections.

Nowitzki averaged 25.3 points on 57.4 percent shooting and 9.3 rebounds in the four playoff games, while Bryant averaged 23.3 points and got little help from Pau Gasol, who averaged 12.5 points.

Although Bryant didn't have much success against the Mavericks last May, he's been having no trouble lately.

The 13-time All-Star has notched four consecutive games of 40 or more points. It's the first time an NBA player hit the 40-point mark in four straight since Bryant did it five times from March 16-25, 2007.

Despite Bryant's scoring exploits, the Lakers suffered a 102-94 loss to the Clippers on Saturday, snapping a five-game winning streak. Bryant finished with 42 points on 14 of 28 shooting and made 12 of 14 free throws.

He felt the game was lost, however, by the Lakers' inability to control the glass. The Lakers, second in the league in rebounding at 45.7 per game, were edged 50-42 by the NBA's third-worst rebounding team.

"That's the area that really killed us," Bryant said.

Los Angeles could again have some trouble on the boards against Dallas, which is averaging 45.9 rebounds in its last seven games, fourth-best in the NBA.

Odom, a proficient rebounder during his time with the Lakers, hasn't had much to do with the Mavericks' success on the boards.

After spending the last seven seasons in Los Angeles, Odom requested a trade in December after learning the Lakers wanted to include him in a trade for New Orleans superstar Chris Paul. A day later, Los Angeles shipped him to Dallas for a first-round draft pick and an $8.9 million trade exception.

Odom was instrumental to the Lakers' championships in 2009 and '10 and was named the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year last season, averaging 14.4 points and 8.7 rebounds.

He is struggling mightily in his first season in Dallas, however, averaging 6.8 points on 31.2 percent shooting and 5.0 rebounds.