Assistant Coach Kurt Rambis previews the Phoenix Suns before Thursday night’s showdown. Check out Lakers Gameday for the full preview.
Archive for the 'Preview' Category
So, how about those 5-5 Chicago Bulls? How good are they? Do they pose a serious threat to the Lakers Tuesday night at STAPLES?
To get a better idea, I spent some time yesterday and today talking to two people who know much more about the Bulls than I do.
First came Ben Shields, one of my best friends from college who’s been following the Bulls in Chi-Town for the last eight years. Second was Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw, who prepared L.A.’s scouting report for the game.
The former can be heard on our Gameday page, and the latter on our Lakers.com video page.
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.
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:
For all your gameday information check out the Lakers Gameday Preview on the main site.
In it you’ll find everything you need to know to get you ready for tonight’s second meeting with the Clippers, including an audio interview that Lakers Reporter Mike Trudell did with Clippers radio voice Brian Sieman.
Here’s the audio below.
In many cities to which the Lakers travel, I’ll be getting in touch with a member of the local media (or the specific team against whom L.A. is playing) to garner some expertise that exceeds my from-afar knowledge of the opponent.
Here in Denver, my guy is Chris Lewis, who spent four years with the Orlando Magic and Florida Gators before moving to Denver to cover the Rockies, Broncos, Nuggets and more.
A buddy of mine from years back, Lewis came by the team hotel to talk about an interesting collection of Nuggets, and specifically about Saturday evening’s matchup at the Pepsi Center in Denver.
You can listen to the full interview by scrolling down on our Gameday Page.
With 23,006 points and counting in the 13th year of his career, Allen Iverson is already the 20th most prolific scorer in NBA history at the age of 33.
Among active scorers, A.I. ranks second only to Shaquille O’Neal, who has entered his 17th NBA season and has chalked up 26,286 points in his career. A.I. went No. 1 in the 1996 draft, and classmates Kobe Bryant (21,619) and Ray Allen (18,227) rank third and fifth, respectively, among active scorers. Furthermore, Iverson’s career scoring average of 27.7 trails only Michael Jordan (30.12) and Wilt Chamberlain (30.07) on the all-time list. Kobe, by the way, is at 25.0 and Shaq at 25.2.
On the other side of the floor, while not known as a great on-ball defender, Iverson’s always in the league’s top five in the steals category, and will eagerly swipe you should your attention wane. Only Jason Kidd, with two more years in the league, has more than Iverson’s 1,876 thefts among active players.
I tell you this because Derek Fisher will spend some time Saturday night trying to check one of the game’s great all-time scorers in Iverson, so we put Fish on camera to gather his thoughts.
Click below to see the video.
It’s tough to get a terrific grasp on the 2008-09 Clippers, mostly because they have just five players from last year’s squad still wearing red, blue and white … And because they’ve been beat up all preseason and we have yet to see the full complement on the court.
That said, Clippers play-by-play radio voice Brian Sieman - with whom I used to work while with the Timberwolves - knows more than pretty much everybody else. That’s why I gave him a buzz Wednesday morning, to commandeer thoughts on his L.A. team, and to preview tonight’s game at STAPLES Center.
You can listen to the full interview on our Lakers Gameday page.
Check out Lakers Courtside Connection before every game for the scouting report straight from the coaching staff.
Their starting lineup consists of Steve Blake and Roy in the backcourt, Nicolas Batum and Aldridge at forwards, and Greg Oden at center. Blake has had a number of good games against us in his young career. He’s crafty and can hit the 3 and runs the team well. Roy is a star in this league. He is athletic and active. They will post him up, have him handle in screen and roll situations, and he can shoot to three point range. Throw in the ability to defend and you have a complete player who will be an all-star for years to come. Batum is a young active player who can shoot the three. He does a little bit of everything and likes to play the passing lanes defensively. Aldridge is a long, athletic big man who will come to block shots.
