A shiny 6-3 record is a nice thing to have with ya as you head out for a three game road trip. The Lakers left early Monday in preparation for their game tonight against the Indiana Pacers.
Center Kwame Brown remained in LA nursing his sprained left MCL. The team will miss his defense tonight against Pacers big man Jermaine O’Neal. O’Neal hasn’t been himself thus far this season as he recovers from off-season knee surgery and a new up-tempo offense.
“I look at where we’re at right now and where I’m at physically, I’m on schedule to get back to where I need to be,” he said. “Obviously, I need to score some more points, get some more rebounds, block some more shots but we’re only 10 games in and we kind of game myself a 10-game cushion to get my rhythm going, get my cardio going. I’m really looking forward to (Tuesday’s) game to really pick it up on the offensive end of the floor.”
Pacers Head Coach Jim O’Brien won’t be sleeping on Kobe.
“He’s the best player in the world,” Indiana Pacers coach Jim O’Brien said. “If he’s interested in scoring, he’s going to score. Defensively, he showed for USA Basketball this summer that he’s one of the great shutdown guys in the world — certainly in our league.”
Bryant has been held under 20-points the last two games, which is extremely out of character for him. The emergence of the “Bench Mob” has taken some of the responsibility off of Bryant’s shoulders. The second unit eclipsed their own 67-point outing against the Suns with a 73-point effort against the Bulls on Sunday night, the most since the heyday of Showtime.
Jordan Farmar continues to lead the charge for the bench players.
“I’m definitely just more a part of it,” Farmar said. “The ball is in my hands a lot so that’s what it may seem like, and I’m making a lot of decisions. But nothing happens if they don’t help me defensively, if we don’t make the rotations, if I make the extra pass and they don’t knock the shots down. We’re just having fun.”
Andrew Bynum has also had a strong season while playing on the second unit and it is likely that Chris Mihm will get the starting nod in Brown’s absence.
Get all your post-game info in Lakers Gameday
The Lakers followed up on their impressive victory over the Detroit Pistons on Friday with a 106-78 blowout of the Chicago Bulls on Sunday night. The Lakers went into halftime down 46-45 before the second unit sparked the team in the latter half of the third quarter, outscoring the Bulls 61-32 in the second 24 minutes. The Lakers came out particularly sluggish in the first half, failing to establish any consistent rhythm on offense. In his post-game comments, Jackson said, “I’m surprised that the crowd was still there when we came out in the second half.”
The Lakers bench scored 73 points, the most points Lakers reserves have scored since April 24, 1988. In all, five bench players scored in double figures, the first time that has happened since March 9, 1985.
Jordan Farmar led the way again for the Lakers, scoring 14 points and divvying out a career high eight assists in 25 minutes of play. Jackson singled Jordan as one of the key beneficiaries of the new up-tempo offense he implemented before the season. Andrew Bynum also excelled off the bench, contributing 14 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Chris Mihm played his best game of the season finishing with 11 points and seven rebounds. The Lakers needed Bynum and Mihm to step up as center Kwame Brown left the game in the first half with a mild to moderately sprained knee after a Bulls player fell on him in the first quarter.
Continue reading ‘Lakers vs. Bulls Post-Game’
Lamar Odom has recovered from his off-season shoulder surgery and should make his 2007-08 debut tonight, most likely to the starting lineup at small forward.
“I’m looking forward to finally being able to play,” Odom said. “I’m just going to get out there and run as hard as I can for as long as I can. Hopefully, I can make some plays.”
Kwame Brown remains hobbled by bursitis in his right heel and is most likely out for tonight’s game against the Timberwolves.
Continue reading ‘Lakers Today: 11/09/07′
Injury Updates
Kwame Brown took it easy for the second consecutive day and was seen shooting free throws in flip-flops towards the end of practice. According to Phil it’s more than likely that he won’t play tomorrow against Minnesota (or “more than unlikely” that he will play, watch the first 30 seconds of the video for that to make sense). Phil also mentioned that Kwame’s physicality in the paint was missed against the Hornets.
With the Lakers having three full days off between games Phil plans to give the guys some time off to relax before focusing in on the Spurs & Rockets. This should also give Forward Maurice Evans time to heal up and hopefully be ready for Tuesday’s game.
The only thing standing between Lamar Odom and the STAPLES Center floor is clearance from the team doctors, which both Phil and Lamar referred to as just a “little issue”. Neither expects the clearance to be much of a problem since Odom has been scrimmaging at full contact for the past two days.
Continue reading ‘Practice Wrap-Up: Thursday 11/08/07′
Amazing happened at STAPLES Center last night and the pleasure was all on the Purple & Teal’s side of the table instead of the Purple & Gold’s.
“Oh man, what a finish,” was how Phil Jackson put the teams 118-104 loss to the Hornets on Tueday night. Peja Stojakovic and Chris Paul both set franchise highs for the Hornets (Peja with 10 trey balls and Paul with 21 assists) and for Lakers Opponents in Peja’s case. The previous record for 3-pointers made by an opponent had been 8 by Stephen Jackson as a member of the Spurs in ‘02, Gilbert Arenas in ‘04, and our own Vladimir Radmanovic when he used to play for the Supies back in ‘05.
It ended up being a forgettable game for the home team that was missing a couple starters and a key piece of the bench as Kwame Brown and Maurice Evans joined Lamar Odom on the inactive list.
How long Kwame will be out with the heel injury is still up in the air, but Lamar Odom is still targeting a Friday return, and Mo says he hopes to be back for the game in San Antonio next Tuesday.
A bright spot from last night was the first half play of Andrew Bynum & the second half play of Chris Mihm. If Kwame is unable to go on Friday these two will be relied upon to slow down Wolves Center Al Jefferson. Jefferson was the key piece in the Kevin Garnett to Boston trade this summer and is justifying the extension he got last week by averaging 19 points and 11.7 rebounds a game so far this season. Bynum & Mihm will have to string together more than just one good half a piece to deal with that.
It sounds like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has faith in Andrew
“He just turned 20 years old!” Abdul-Jabbar said. “To be 20 years old and to be in this position is really great. His level of play and his effectiveness can keep going on an upward grade. I think he has every chance of doing well. In a lot of ways, he’s still a teenager, so you’ve got to give him an opportunity to get through that, but he’s greatly improved. It’s all good stuff.”
Lakers.com breaks down the ten most important factors that will determine the team’s success this season.
10. Chris Mihm’s Return From Injury
After missing the end of the 2006-2007 season and all of last season, Chris Mihm’s health is finally approaching 100%. However, the seven-footer is coming off a severe ankle injury that has limited his lateral quickness on the offensive and defensive end in seven exhibition games so far. As a result, it will inevitably take several games of live action to determine Mihm’s full effectiveness—an assessment that could weigh heavily on the Lakers front court depth this season. Moreover, Mihm must answer questions as to as how effective he will be at defending some of the larger players in the Western Conference. If he heals, Mihm brings a solid post presence on the offensive side and some lane clogging on the defensive end. If he has not, then he will likely pick up quick fouls defensively and see limited minutes on the court.
Continue reading ‘Top 10 Keys to the 2007-2008 Season’
The NBA’s deadline to pare down rosters came and went at 3pm pacific today with a couple teams making trades to essentially cut excess players or avoid luxury tax implications. The official rosters that have been released by the league assigns players over the 12 that you’re allowed to suit up per game as inactive. The Lakers roster was released showing Lamar Odom, Chris Mihm, and Kobe Bryant as inactive?
Continue reading ‘Misunderstanding the Inactive List’
