After the Lakers pulled out a tough win in Oakland against a fiery Golden State squad, I spent a few minutes with Sasha Vujacic in the locker room.
Wearing a green tie to counter his barbs at my socks last week, that fashion decision was (of course) the first thing he talked about after I asked him about his six assists and no turnovers.
Moments later, Andrew Bynum stuck his head into the mic to let us know that Sasha was his fifth favorite actor from our earlier conversation (’Drew could only think of four actors in a top five column we were doing that will go out shortly).
So it only took Vujacic a minute or so to actually talk about the game.
Lakers.com is fully willing to take credit for Sasha Vujacic’s best home games.
We can’t explain exactly why it works like this, but when Sasha sits down with us after shootaround before home games, he balls out.
During Sunday’s beating of Golden State, Vujacic was 6-of-10 from the field and 4-of-7 from three for a season-high 17 points, plus a season-high six assists, two boards and a steal … Not to mention only two turnovers while serving as the backup point guard in the absence of Jordan Farmar, and some tough defense against smaller guards on the perimeter. Not coincidentally, he appeared on Lakers.com that morning.
Sasha’s already admitted the cause (admittedly, playing 30 minutes didn’t hurt his cause), and can even rewind back to the season’s first four games, in which he’d made just 7-of-22 shots and was ready to crack his head against the base of the basket. Sasha came on Lakers.com, and proceeded to make all three of his shots from the field with three assists and a steal for a +15 in 15 minutes of playing time against Houston the next day.
Alas, below is the video of Sasha before his best game of the season … Though, clearly, he’s more worried about the socks* I wore to shootaround then the fact that Lakers.com is basically ensuring that he lives up to his contract.
*OK, I wore white socks with my blue suit at 11 a.m. shootaround, because I had to promptly change back into jeans and running shoes to cart my in-town family around Manhattan Beach. Obviously, blue socks were waiting in the car for the game, but Sasha cared so little about that excuse that he brought it up three times during the video (some were edited out) and then again twice in the locker room. Thanks for blowing up my spot, Sasha, ‘ppreciate you.
After Wednesday’s shootaround, we spent a few minutes shooting the breeze with Sasha Vujacic … And by pure coincidence, Vujacic played his best game of the season later that evening, scoring 15 points in 19 minutes with three three-pointers. Towards that end, last time Vujacic talked to us on video was prior to the Houston game (Nov. 9), when he broke out of a slump by going 3-for-3 from the field with three assists and two boards in 15 minutes. Just saying.
Alas, on this day we talked about music, with Sasha detailing a recently-attended John Mayer concert, his love (err, hate) for techno/rave music and more.
Both Vladimir Radmanovic (thigh) and Sasha Vujacic (ankle) said that they’re feeling fine after Monday’s practice.
After Kobe Bryant told collected media that Radmanovic looked “great” in practice and didn’t show any signs of the bruise, Vladi said it “feels good and I’m ready to go.”
Moments later, Vujacic told me that he’s fine, and is thinking more about Chicago than his ankle. He won’t even be listed on the injury report.
Point guard Derek Fisher, whose ribs are a little sore, said he will play on Tuesday.
Before L.A. goes for its third-straight win to start the 2008-09 campaign, I sat down in the locker room not to talk Nuggets - we’ve already done plenty of that - but to talk Slovenia with Sasha Vujacic. Sasha covered Slovenian women, food and music in comparison to American versions of those topics.
As for the game tonight, Phil Jackson in his pregame media access primarily repeated what we’ve heard the last two days, specifically that he expects a big effort from a Nuggets team still mad about last year’s playoff drubbing. Other than that, he joked around about why he keeps shaving his beard, saying he likes to keep photographers guessing about his expressions.
You can check back with us at about 7 p.m. (that’d be 6 p.m. L.A. time) for the live running diary in Denver’s season opener at the Pepsi Center.
Lakers head coach Phil Jackson said prior to Friday evening’s game in Ontario that both Kobe Bryant and Sasha Vujacic would play against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Jackson expects Vujacic to see significant time after missing the previous seven preseason games with his ankle injury, while Bryant will play just enough to keep his hyperextended knee - which is apparently close to 100 percent already - loose.
While some question whether Bryant should even test the knee in a relatively meaningless preseason game, Jackson said that Bryant knows his body well enough at this stage of his career to make such a decision.
Certainly both pieces of information regarding Kobe and Sasha are good news for the Lakers. On the other hand, forward Josh Powell will be held out of tonight’s game due to the same strained left hamstring that caused him to miss Thursday night’s win against Charlotte. Powell did tell me that he’s “definitely” going to be ready for the season opener, and we’ll see if the training staff concurs next week.
Kobe Bryant, Sasha Vujacic and Josh Powell will all be in street clothes for L.A.’s Thursday evening contest between the Lakers and Charlotte Bobcats.
Bryant said before the game that his knee is a little sore, but he remains quite pleased that the hyperextension was nothing at all serious. He’s listed as day-to-day, and could possibly play tomorrow night in Ontario … Though we shouldn’t be shocked if he doesn’t. We’ll certainly be shocked if he doesn’t start in Tuesday’s season opener.
Vujacic, on the other hand, told me that he is going to play tomorrow night, as he’s intent upon getting at least one preseason game under his belt before the regular season opener against Portland.
Offseason acquisition Powell suffered a strained left hamstring Tuesday night in San Diego, and is also day-to-day.
After consecutive impressive outputs this past weekend at STAPLES Center, spirits were up at the Lakers’ practice facility on Monday.
The most pressing news: Sasha Vujacic completed his first practice since the first day of training camp. After the workout, we heard from Phil Jackson, Andrew Bynum and Vujacic, interviews you can watch on our video page.
Here are your Phil bullet points:
He was asked, yet again, about his starting lineup. Wow. This has to be some kind of record (answer didn’t change).
Jackson said he’s using Lamar Odom and Jordan Farmar in “special roles,” and said that Odom is enjoying his current role in part because he gets to run the show as the leader of that “sequence of guys.”
Farmar has been impressing Jackson, who explained that part of Jordan and the second unit’s importance is providing energy to the team as the vets ramp things up over the first month or two of the season.
Jackson said Vujacic looked “OK,” then “pretty good.” Jackson saw him limping once or twice, but heard no complaints.
A note about Bynum: He said that while his knee’s feeling good, he did have a little bit of swelling a week ago, and left it at that.
Stay tuned for a preview of Tuesday night’s action in San Diego against the Charlotte Bobcats with Derek Fisher serving as analyst/assistant coach.
