Lakers.com BasketBlog

Heading into LA’s second and final regular season meeting with the Celtics in the 2009-10 season, we compared the teams through the prism of numbers:

1,000 Career victory total reached by Phil Jackson when the Lakers beat Boston 92-83 on Christmas Day last season.

97 All-time Celtics wins against the Lakers, to 83 losses, since the Lakers moved to Los Angeles.

68.4 Phil Jackson’s winning percentage (13-6) against Boston in his Lakers tenure.

42 Wins for LA, to 13 losses, putting them six games clear of Denver in the Western Conference.

33 Wins for Boston, to 18 losses, pitting the Celtics 8.5 games back of first place Cleveland.

19 Points by which Boston beat LA at STAPLES Center on Dec. 30, 2007, Boston’s last win in Los Angeles.

9.6 Rajon Rondo’s assist-per-game average, good for fourth in the NBA. Kobe Bryant leads the Lakers with 4.6 assists, less than half of Rondo’s total.

4 Boston’s rank in field goal percentage, compared to L.A.’s 12th. Kendrick Perkins leads the NBA with his 60.8 percent average, while Andrew Bynum is sixth at 57.1 percent. Kevin Garnett (53.7 percent), Rondo (52.5 percent) and Pau Gasol (51.9 percent) are also over the 50 percent mark.

3 Straight regular season wins for the Lakers over Boston.

2 LA’s rank in rebounding, compared with Boston’s 29th, an obviously major discrepancy.

1 Boston’s rank in points allowed per game. The Celtics, however, play at a slow pace, and are only 18th in points scored per game. LA, on the other hand, ranks fifth in scoring and ninth in points allowed, the second best differential in the NBA after Cleveland (Boston is fifth).

It’s been a struggle this season for the Philadelphia 76ers, who have lost twice as many games (30) as they’ve won (15).

Yet Philly remains dangerous due to a mix of young talent and an untraditional style that has helped them earn several quality wins: at Boston (98-97); at Portland (104-93); at Denver (108-105); New Orleans (96-92); and Dallas (92-81).

In January, the Sixers are 6-7, and have made a change to their starting lineup by putting rookie Jrue Holiday and Elton Brand into the mix and sending Louis Williams and Thaddeus Young to the bench. L.A.’s coaching staff acknowledged that Brand may demand a double team at times, which opens the floor for cuts within coach Eddie Jordan’s Princeton offense.

The Lakers will also be well aware of Andre Iguodala, who leads the team in scoring (17.6), assists (5.7) and steals (1.87), and beat L.A. himself with a buzzer-beating three-pointer last season at STAPLES Center. He finished with 25 points in that game, and the 76ers overcame a 14-point fourth quarter deficit.

But in Philadelphia last December, the Lakers won rather easily (114-102), led by 32 points from Kobe Bryant.

A few other notes heading into the contest:

- Philly’s All-Star starter isn’t Iguodala, but Allen Iverson, who joined the team after parting ways with the Memphis Grizzlies and has averaged 14.5 points and 4.4 assists in 20 games this season.

- Offensively, the Lakers will likely look to go inside once again to Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol, who have combined for 86 points in L.A.’s last two victories at Washington and Indiana.

- Kobe Bryant says he’s starting to feel better from his various ailments, and the recent numbers are backing up his claim. He made 8-of-15 shots in Washington (53.3 percent) and 10-of-15 in Indiana (66.7 percent) after failing to shoot over 50 percent in 13-of-14 games in which he was bothered by a broken finger (among other things).

- Tipoff is at 4 p.m. Pacific; we’ll see you on Lakers.com for full coverage.

Prior to L.A’s Tuesday evening contest against the Wizards, a local media member asked him where he would you put this year’s team up against some of his better teams, and Jackson’s answer was interesting enough to quote directly:

It kind of feels to me like a team that’s won a championship and … having been to the Finals the year before the championship (also) and knowing the grind the season’s are, sometimes they don’t present the intensity (about) regular season games that I’d like them to.

Perhaps the good news is, Jackson’s early decade championship teams went through much of the same before going on to win; he has no reason to believe his 2009-10 version won’t ultimately lock in.

One thing that helps, thinks Jackson, is the road, where opposing crowds and teams have it out for the Purple and Gold.

“We got stagnant at home a little bit,” he said. “Now that we’re on the road we want to find some traction.”

A few other notes prior to tipoff:

- Jackson wasn’t worried that the team would have any letdown after an emotional day at the White House. He was, however, concerned with the team’s lack of practice time due to the crazy schedule of late.

- Jackson emphasized that the Lakers absolutely couldn’t take the Wizards lightly, noting a few players in particular: “(Antawn) Jamison and (Caron) Butler are very good scorers, and they have a track record of playing well against us. I don’t know if we’ve ever stopped (Earl) Boykins.”

- Phil revealed that he voted for Dirk Nowitzki and Chris Paul for the All-Star team, but wouldn’t divulge his other picks.

- The head coach tempered his criticism of Ron Artest’s shoes, disclosing that he was purely speculating about why his forward was suffering from plantar fasciitis.

- Mike Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser from ESPN’s “PTI” program stayed after the media session to catch up with their frequent guest.