Assistant Coach Kurt Rambis previews the Phoenix Suns before Thursday night’s showdown. Check out Lakers Gameday for the full preview.
Archive for the 'Podcast' Category
Before the Lakers headed to the team plane bound for Phoenix, Phil Jackson stopped to talk to the media about last night’s win over the Bulls and Thursday night’s showdown with the Suns.
Click below to listen to Phil or check out our video page here to watch it.
To preview Tuesday’s game against the Chicago Bulls, Lakers Reporter Mike Trudell called up his college buddy Ben Shields, who spent eight years watching the Bulls while getting his doctorate in media technology and society from Northwestern University. The co-author of a sports marketing book called “The Elusive Fan - Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace,” Shields also happens to have a silky smooth jump shot.
The first part of the conversation focused on Chicago’s coaching change, the 5-5 Derrick Rose-inspired start to the season, the worth of Ben Gordon and Luol Deng and more. After talking hoops, Shields gave his take on Chicago’s hiring of veteran sports writer Sam Smith, who now writes exclusively for Bulls.com, marking a significant change in the industry.
Before the Lakers go up against each opponent, we like to spend a few minutes picking the brain of someone who follows that respective opponent personally. In this case, we got ahold of Pistons.com editor Keith Langlois, who spoke to us prior to Detroit’s 107-102 win in Golden State on Thursday night. That win was the second straight for the Pistons after two losses after the acquisition of Allen Iverson.
You can listen to the entire interview on our Gameday page under the “Lakers.com Preview” tab.
A few subjects we tackled:
A) How A.I. fits in with his new teammates
B) Why the trade (AI to Detroit for Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess and Cheikh Samb) was made in the first place
C) How much Rodney Stuckey’s presence in Motown factored in
D) Rasheed Wallace, on and off the court
E) Shooting struggles for Richard Hamilton
F) Boston vs. Cleveland
G) The rise of the Eastern Conference
H) Facing a 7-0 Lakers team
A few other things to keep in mind:
1) Detroit’s veterans played big minutes last night, including 46 from Tayshaun Prince, 43 from AI, 40 from Hamilton and 39 from Wallace.
2) Rodney Stuckey didn’t play against the Warriors due to “dizziness” and is day-to-day.
3) The Pistons probably won’t be able to use the small lineup they utilized for most of the Warriors game (AI, Arron Afflalo, Hamilton, Prince and Wallace) against a big Lakers’ lineup.
4) The Lakers play 7-of-8 games at STAPLES Center before a trip through Indianapolis,
Check back on the BaseketBlog before, during and after the game for complete coverage.
In the locker room after L.A.’s seventh win in as many tries, I caught up with Lamar Odom. We spoke for a few minutes before he got distracted since Sasha Vujacic didn’t deliver some soap to the locker room. Fair enough.
Here he is…
Check below for Phil Jackson’s post-game audio.
Head Coach Phil Jackson’s post-game media session.
“We sucked the joy out of a good victory.”
That was Phil Jackson’s postgame quote about a game that L.A. thoroughly dominated for about 42 minutes before allowing the Hornets to get within three points at 83-80 before Kobe Bryant made a shot so tough that, realistically, few if any other players in the league would have even attempted.
With James Posey draped to him like stink on an NFL offensive lineman, the shot clock down to one and a glass circle seemingly covering L.A.’s rim, Bryant somehow got a flat, 26-foot, fading bomb to go down that restored normalcy to a furious Hornets’ comeback.
Though out of rhythm as he largely deferred early in the contest, Bryant managed 20 points (including nine free throws), the same total reached by a very solid Derek Fisher, who canned four threes in the first half that pushed L.A. to a 51-30 lead at the break. No misprint there … L.A.’s swarming defense (and some missed open Hornets looks, to be fair) held the Hornets to only 30 points in the entire first half. New Orleans managed to pull only two points back in the third quarter before scoring more points (34) in the fourth than in that first half, but it just wasn’t enough to beat the Lakers.
Phil Jackson shortened the rotation a bit to nine players (Odom, Ariza, Farmar and Vujacic off the bench), while New Orleans showed its lack of depth by giving minutes to Mike James, Hilton Armstrong, Rasual Butler and Devin Brown. A solid defensive game plan effectively trapped CP3 all over the court before that big N.O. run, keyed in part by Andrew Bynum’s defensive presence, which produced four blocks and changed several other shots. L.A.’s now the only undefeated team in the league with Detroit coming to town on Friday.
A few numbers:
Up next for L.A., the Pistons on Friday. Here’s Derek Fisher in the locker room:
Finally getting four quarters of good basketball from an opponent, the Lakers raised their collective game enough in the second half to emerge with an impressive W in a hostile American Airlines Arena in Dallas.
The best stretch of the game came just after an explosive Gerald Green dunk that put the Mavs up 81-76 at the start of the fourth, when a 7-0 run featuring a Sasha Vujacic three, Lamar Odom finish in the lane and Trevor Ariza two-handed flush from the baseline gave L.A. a lead it would not concede. Nine points in the next two minutes from Kobe Bryant, some of which were of the truly special variety, helped build an eight-point Lakers lead, and a collectively strong defensive effort that limited Dallas to 20 fourth-quarter points sealed the deal.
A few key stats:
Finally, here’s what Jackson had to say after the contest:
I’ll have to trust you to pull out Jackson’s best points yourself, because if I don’t get off the bus and onto the plane in the next two minutes, Mychal Thompson and Stu Lantz are likely to knock me around, and that doesn’t sound like a good idea.
Spero Dedes and I talked about it earlier today - this edition of the Dallas Mavericks, even with many of the same players, is much different from that which won 67 games two years ago.
Yet and still, the Lakers didn’t seem overconfident heading into Tuesday night’s game at American Airlines Arena in Dallas. I spent a few minutes talking to Lamar Odom, Sasha Vujacic, Derek Fisher and Chris Mihm, and their collective message was the same: this Dallas team is better than its 2-4 record. Sometimes players will offer the company line of respect prior to a game just out of habit, but that didn’t seem to be the case here … And that’s good, because overconfidence or indifference generally equals a loss in the NBA, especially on the road.
So while those of us that just get to look at the numbers might think the Mavericks have slipped considerably, the Lakers players and coaches want to see for themselves.
At the usual time, Phil Jackson addressed collected media, addressing Dr. Jerry Buss’s comment about hoping to have Phil around for several years, addressing the difference between an Avery Johnson/Rick Carlisle coached team and more.
Here’s the audio:
Down at the juice bar (have to admit, the first one I’ve ever been to) at our Dallas hotel, Lakers radio voice Spero Dedes and I took some time to chat about a struggling 2-4 Dallas Mavericks team prior to Tuesday evening’s 7:30 p.m. tip against the Lakers.
After dropping a 103-92 road game to the previously winless L.A. Clippers, Dirk Nowitzki - who has had three 30-point games - had this to say:
“If you don’t compete hard, it’s not about X’s and O’s. You can run whatever play you want. You can have all the schemes you want defensively. We’ve just got to push ourselves to play harder. I don’t know what’s going on. We don’t leave it all out there.”
Spero had a good point about the quote, that it’s not something you hear from players until they’re starting to panic. And it’s quite early in the season for that…
Alas, Dedes and I talked about that comment, chatted about Josh Howard (who’s day-to-day with a sprained wrist) and Jason Kidd (who certainly hasn’t turned the Mavs around) and also paused while his spread of berries and granola was delivered by the waiter. Finally, let me apologize if you hear any interference in the audio interview … Just remember, journalists, don’t put your recording device anywhere near an iPhone, or that’s the sound you’ll hear. My bad on that one.
Here’s the audio:
