Yes, Carl Landry, the Lakers are THAT Popular

The Los Angeles Lakers won over the NBA lottery-bound Sacramento Kings 106-99. But for me that wasn't the story.

I read the game recap article from the Yahoo! Sports website and found this quote from Kings forward Carl Landry. Here's what he had to say about the presence of Lakers fans in Sacramento in the sellout game:

“I almost thought we were playing in the Staples Center,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. To see that many Lakers fans out there was kind if disappointing, but at the same time it was motivation for us.”

Carl Landry has been in the league for four season now and he was previously playing for the Houston Rockets and he was traded to the Kings last February. What I don't get is that given that he has been playing in the NBA's Western Conference and he's still surprised that there are Lakers fans in their home court.

I'm pretty sure that the Los Angeles is one of the most popular, if not the most popular, team in the league right now. The same way there's the New York Yankees in major league baseball, the NBA has the Lakers.

So news flash to Carl Landry: The Lakers are even more popular in Sacramento today because the Kings are just mediocre.


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Despite Stopping Losing Streak, Lakers Unimpressive

First of all, I'm glad I'm blogging again about a Los Angeles Lakers win. That three game losing streak was a pain in the a$$. It was disappointing, but the Lakers are in a funk.

Anyways, the game against the Toronto Raptors was a close shave, with the Lakers falling back in the first three quarters. The Raptors trio of Chris Bosh, Jarrett Jack, and Andrea Bargnani gave the Lakers the Lakers fits until the home team rallied in the fourth quarter. The game was tied via a Bosh three-ball with nine ticks left, but none other than Kobe Bryant made a jumper over two defenders. Despite leaving 1.9 seconds on the clock, the shot virtually sealed the win for the Lakers 109-107.

I was quite confident that the Lakers were going to win the game since they were back home and the Raptors aren't exactly the Cleveland Cavaliers. But a Kobe Bryant last second jumper for the win?!? Totally unacceptable.

Yeah, Andrew Bynum was big on the offensive end, but the Lakers frontline was again reverting back to its "soft-as-marshmallows" form by getting out-rebounded. Can someone explain to me how Amir Johnson, a Toronto forward generously listed as 6-9, and Jack, a short shooting guard, get more rebounds than Bynum?

I share Kobe Bryant's words after the game: the win against Toronto was garbage.


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Lakers Go 0-3 in East Road Trip

In the last three games, the Los Angeles Lakers looked more like poodles than dobermans in their Eastern road swing.

Here's a rundown of what transpired in games in Miami, Charlotte, and Orlando:

• 111-114 OT loss to the Miami Heat - Poor third quarter set-up a comeback in the fourth to force overtime. The Lakers put up a good fight but fade away late in OT, with Kobe Bryant committing a charge against Jermaine O'Neal.
• 83-98 loss against the Charlotte Bobcats - With the great Michael Jordan in attendance, the game showed additional proof that the Bobcats have the Lakers' number. The second of a back-to-back, the Lakers looked flat offensively. Starters Ron Artest and Derek Fisher combined for 5 points and 14% shooting.
• 94-96 loss to the Orlando Magic -The Lakers turned up the grittiness a couple of notches higher, but the Magic out-muscled the Lakers in a rematch of the 2009 NBA Finals. Similar to the Heat game, the Lakers made a run in the fourth quarter and had good breaks with Orlando missing free throws in the final minutes, but the team lost with Kobe failing to convert a jumper at the buzzer.

The three game losing streak is the Lakers' longest since the acquisition of Paul Gasol in 2008. Incidentally, Gasol played poorly against the Heat and Bobcats, but he came out of his stupor in the Magic game.

The way I see it, the Lakers were failing on two key areas: offensive execution and the defense. The Lakers averaged 14 turnovers and only 15 assists in the losing streak. A team assist/turnover ratio of 1.07 is a good indicator that the team is not executing properly. (To illustrate, the pitiful New Jersey Nets have an average 1.22 assists/turnover ratio).

For defense, in the last three games, the Lakers got out-rebounded on the defensive end by their opponents by an average of 7 more  rebounds per game. Moreover, their opponents averaged 3 more blocks. Finally, the Lakers' allowed their opponent better offensive opportunities as their opponents always had a better shooting percentage than them. (In the three games, the Lakers opponents averaged 48% from the field versus the Lakers' 41%)

Clearly, the Lakers are not playing up to par. This doesn't bode well as we are in the final quarter of the season.



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Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals

HBO is coming up with a documentary called "Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals" and it puts the spotlight on the intense rivalry of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in the 1980's.

From their NCAA days to their NBA glory years, the two have been linked by competition, friendly and otherwise. The two met in the NBA Finals three times, with Magic coming away with the title twice.

Here's a preview from the HBO site:

Preview

The documentary will run throughout March

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Lakers Bloggers Roundtable

Bloggers who are covering the Los Angeles Lakers recently had a quick round table about the topic:

There's a perception out there that LA's weakness is at point guard defense, to what degree is this true?

Those who participated were

• Don Landrigan of With Malice
• Chris Clark of Silver Screen and Roll
• Chris Shellcroft of Lake Show Life
• Yours truly (Yey!)

My fave point was from Chris Clark of Silver Screen and Roll:

I take a certain amount of issue with the idea that the main weakness besetting the Lakers is on the defensive end.  The Lakers have had a top 3 defense in the league all season long.  Point guard is clearly their weakest defensive position, and often the other team's point guard has a great deal of success relative to the rest of his teammates, but whatever is wrong with the point guard position is hardly causing the team to suffer too dramatically.  If the question were amended to read "is LA's weakness the point guard" or "is point guard the biggest defensive weakness", the answer would be absolutely to either question.

You can read the roundtable at With Malice.


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Kobe Bryant Aston Martin Shoes

Thanks to OSneaker.com, I received nice pics of Kobe Bryant's latest kicks!

The new basketball shoes are inspired by the Aston Martin automobile brand and are really shiny. :) Here are the pics of the Aston Martin edition Kobe Bryant's Hyperdunk shoes:

Nice! :D

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Kobe's Return: Mixed Results So Far

Two games after Kobe Bryant's return from injury, we've seen the best and worst situations.

In the game against the Memphis Grizzlies, Kobe was spectacular. He scored 32 points, made 13 baskets out of 19 attempts and was 3 of 4 from the three-point line. Most important of those treys was the game winning basket he made with 4 seconds left.

But in the next game against the Dallas Mavericks, Kobe was 9 out of 23, and made zero three-point field goals. He missed a potential game-tying three point shot with 25 seconds left. After that, the Los Angeles Lakers went downhill and succumbed to the Mavs.

You can argue that it was a back-to-back pair of games, but that's my point: Kobe doesn't have his legs yet after an 18-day leave from the game.  I'm sure there will be a lot of inconsistent performances from Kobe before the month ends. That means that three things must happen to make the transition easier:

1. Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, and Andrew Bynum should be more aggressive to relieve scoring pressure off Kobe
2. Defense must be top-notch
3. The back-up guards (Shannon Brown & Jordan Farmar) should step-up.

If you ask me, it could really be worse (see Tracy McGrady in New York). But to expect Kobe will miraculously be MVP-caliber at this juncture is wishful thinking.


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