Oh and. . .

LAKER FAN TIL i DIE....AND THEN SOME MORE AFTER THAT

Next Season

lost to a better team

Nash Photo

Not kissing that bicep now are ya little man????

Overmatched and Outhustled

Overmatched, outclassed, embarrassed.  How does a team respond to that kind of thorough beating?  Never mind Kobe's attempt at minimalization with his loss is a loss attitude.  At the very least, I want to see us mad....mad at something....acting like we care.  If not for personal pride, what about for Lakers pride?  What about the franchise, the history, the fans, hell even the haters? 

The purple and gold is more than what happened last night.  Yeah, the Suns played a helluva game but that game was increasingly helped by our barely lackluster play on what I guess was supposed to be the defensive end.  How is it Phil hasn't found a way to make any of his teams during his L.A. tenure understand defending the pick and roll?  That oh so simple play has been the stick in our ass for years now. 

And personally, Jordan Farmar was the only guy I saw step up last night.  Lamar had a quick start but when his dunk got pinned and then stolen in mid-air by Amare, his fire extinguished.  Kobe tried to facilitate but with no finish Kwame blowing layups like a hooker at the pointe, it became moot. 

Simply put...lose Thursday, and we might as well call Mr. Clean and ask to borrow his dustpan cuz we will be swept.

Quick Note on Denver Game

The most interesting, and oddly enough, least reported stat from last night's 115-111 loss is the free throws attempted.  Denver was given, awarded, allowed -- however you want to say it as long as the implication of bad ref'ing is noted -- 49 free throws last night.  The Lakers had what would be an average, maybe a bit above average 28. 

The age old argument of free throws as a result of bad defense or bad referees.... last night it was bad referees.  One example, and then it's back to work.  Ok, two that my beer fogged mind can recall.  Luke Walton jumps for a rebound, receives an elbow to the face from Nene in mid air as the ball is tipped to Najera.  Turiaf stands behind Najera and gives what can be described as no more than a bump; more like a tap if anything.  Where does the whistle come?  On the elbow to the face that if Kobe had done would have resulted in 7 free throws and the ball?  Nope, that was missed.....Najera goes to the line. 

Example two:  Under a minute to go, Kobe feeds Brian Cook a pass underneath.  Brian Cook attempts a layup, gets clobbered by -- yep -- Nene.  No call made, scramble for the loose ball results in Nene tap dancing at the end line, throwing the ball to AI who trips -- on his own feet -- as Luke Walton jumps over his legs.  Whistle - Luke Walton on the foul. 

Lastly, -- yeah I know I said two but this one just came to me -- Kobe Bryant fronts Carmelo on an inbounds pass.  Carmelo -- with both hands -- shoves Kobe to the floor to get open for the pass.  Refs missed it.  Which is fine except for the fact that it happened in front of two of the three refs, the one handing the ball to the inbounder and the one on the end line.

Horrible job, cost a game and likely a playoff spot.  That's not to say the Lakers aren't at fault.  After all, when you're coming back in every game that means you were playing like shit for the previous 3 quarters.  But when it's eight on five, the task becomes even more daunting.

Why so close to .500

If you're a Lakers fan wondering why we're so close to the dreaded .500 season, you may be surprised to find out that it's not because of our tough conference.  In fact, we are 26-21 against our conference.  It's the under .500 record against the considerably weaker Eastern Conference.  We are 14 -16 against the Eastern Conference. 

There is no excuse for that.  No amount of injuries can explain that away.  If we were equally bad against the West, then injuries could be our crutch, pun intended.  But we aren't, indeed we have the 5th best record against the west in the western conference......

Not a good feeling

I just got a feeling.....and it ain't a good feeling.  I feel like we're slowly collapsing.  I don't know why, and I don't know how to stop it.  But the feeling of optimism from the first two and one half months of the season has slowly begun to fade into fret. 

We survived the Lamar Odom injury but it just seems that the high level that our role players were performing at has disappeared.  Andrew Bynum seems to have plateaued recently and Radmonovic hasn't produced consistently enough to be that third option. 

And I don't even want to talk about the road performances....I welcome the all star break.

Mejia's idiocy continues

The L.A. Lakers did the rest of the NBA a huge disservice by snapping Dallas' 13-game winning streak on Sunday night.

Tony Mejia has long been on my list of 'Paid Idiots with a Keyboard'.  His 'opinion' pieces are based on little more than his like/dislike of a player, team, or coach.  Naturally, his dislike of the Lakers franchise has made us archrivals though I'm unsure if he's hip to me as his adversary.

Anyway, his latest piece basically states that the Lakers should have intentionally lost a January game in order to allow the Mavericks to continue winning until they get complacent.  Yes, he is suggesting they should have thrown the game.  Now when Dallas' previous double digit win streak was broken, there was no suggestion of throwing the game.  Why would a so-called expert ever suggest a team throw a game for the sake of the league?  Idiot.

With that said, great game Sunday night.  No Kwame, No Lamar, and a 9 point deficit headed into the fourth quarter made for another confidence builder a la the Houston game a few weeks back.  These Lakers are showing the league a lot about heart.  They are showing me a lot about teammates.

Christmas Day Game Log

2nd Quarter

Starting out with 4 bench players trying to get a spark with Kwame being the lone starter on the floor.  Normally, Lamar would be out there at this time for a bit of stabilization. 

Good work Kwame...way to stick with the play!  Fight for the rebound, wait for the steal on the lazy pass. 

Looks like Phil's plan is to lure the Heat to sleep, take the edge off.

Deeper Lakers squad makes me feel tons better about Kobe being on the bench for 5 minute stretches or more.  V-Rad, aka the Geico Cave man, is slowly getting into a Lakers rhythm.  Luke has definitely picked his game up.  Maurice Evans has had some nice run too, despite just getting his shot jacked by Mourning....

Time for more eggnog and brandy. . . .

What the hell is 'Curse of the Golden Flower'?  What kind of name is that?  Why does a martial arts flick have such a girly name?

Okay Sasha, that's three straight shots....

Another bad call on Kwame, three personals and maybe one of those was an actual foul. 

The fact that the Heat were given a championship last year still leaves a bad taste in my mouth....

Four straight threes from Sasha...

Phil...take Shootsha out....

Five possessions....five threes attempted.....one three made.....down by twelve,not surprising.

Why the hell is lebron wearing a headband in the pool?

Gotta hold my newborn, be back later.....

The Official Low Down on Kobe's Digits

Technorati tags: Lakers, Kobe Bryant, 24, 8

Lakers.com has a quick note on Kobe's uniform change from 8 to 24:

 #24 was Bryant's first high school number, before he switched to #33. Kobe has said that he wanted #24 as a rookie, but it was unavailable, as was #33, retired with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The story as I understood was a little more than that.  As you may know, Kobe was formerly signed to Addidas.  Kobe later signed with NIKE who had the loyalty to stand by him through his legal troubles.  However, apparently (no research done by me on this -- I either heard it or read it somewhere) Adidas was still using #8 as a selling point even though Mamba had moved on to a different athletic company.  So what's the best move if a company is using you to make money that you aren't getting a piece of?  Change whatever it is that company is using to make loot.  No association, no appreciation.   

Fake Fans and Their Excuses

Time and time again, I hear so called basketball fans complain about the NBA.  Spouting such idiocy as "I used to be a big NBA fan", "The players are too thuggish", "The players are paid too much", "I like the college game better".  To hear these 'fans' irks my nerves but I typically bite my tongue.   Nevermore.

In fact, this post on sportsbybrooks.com is what inspired this post.  I couldn't remember my login/password for that site and since I rarely visit it, I didn't care to create a new one.  In short, the post is entitled 'When did the NBA die for you?'  His basic premise is that he doesn't know anyone who watches a full game anymore and he wants to pinpoint when the league died.  Let's attack his points one by friggin' one

1. The product is unwatchable.  When making such a vague statement, please reinforce with some details of why you personally find it unwatchable.  I find baseball and hockey unwatchable but I wouldn't call them dead.  I would simply say I don't like either sport.
2. I don'tknow anyone who has (or could) watched an entire game in the past 4-5 years.  This is simple on two fronts.  A) You don't go to games because those people attending games have seen entire games, and B) Folks of a feather flock together.  If your friends don't like basketball, even though you claim to be a fan (a player fan at best but more on that later), the chances of you catching a game are less.  You tend to do what your friends do.  We are all products of our environments.
3. He then asks a series of questions suggestion the time of death of the NBA.  Magic announcing he had HIV, the last strike, Jordan suspended for gambling or retiring, or high school kids going straight to the NBA.   2 out of his 4 questions relate to a specific player.  This suggests to me that this person is probably not a team fan (whom in my opinion are much more loyal to the sport, as well as more knowledgeable even if their knowledge is concentrated on a specific team).  He also mentions the last strike as a possible road to NBA rigor mortis.  My issue here is that he implies that his interest has waned in the last 4 - 5 years yet there hasn't been a strike in the last 4-5 years.  Lastly, jumping on a media bandwagon, he brings up high school kids going straight to the NBA.  I've said it before and I'll say it again.  Nobody has a problem with high school kids jumping straight to the minor leagues.  Nobody has a problem with giving a 19 year old a gun, sending him to a foreign country, and saying fight this war because 'your country need you to'.  But let a high school kid, jump into a league, make some bank, and maybe rise, maybe fall in the NBA and it's an atrocity.  Too many underprivileged kids becoming privileged too fast is playing in the background here.

There were only two responses to his post.  One was an obvious Celtics fan who disapproved of Rick Pitino as coach.  No qualms with that as I have admittedly said I follow the Lakers obsessively and note other teams only as they relate to the Lakers. 

The second response is what got my jock strap in a wedgie.  The reply was (the NBA died) 'When the players started packing pieces and travelling in posses'.  I just want to get this straight, there are 32 teams with 15 players each (not including practice squads or the NBDL) which equates to 480 players in the league.  I dare anyone making these generalizations about players being too thuggish, packing pieces, etc to name 10% of the league that can be considered guilty of that behaviour.  Yeah, name 48 players that have demonstrated thug mentality, that have been arrested on gun charges...or any charges.  Bet it won't happen....but you know where the 'NBA players are thugs' idea comes from....hate to say it but it is simply ignorance.  You see a league that is 90% black and add a couple of well, if not over publicized, incidents and you can apply the image of 10 players to a league of 432 players (taking out the 10% of white players because they are rarely seen in that light). 

Oddly enough, the word thug is only used in reference to players in sports dominated by black athletes.  Baseball has a bench clearing brawl and I guarantee you not a single player will be looked at as having thug behaviour.  Even though the next pitch is an intended bean.  Hockey specializes in fights and does everything but market them as part of the sport.  Not considered thugs. In fact, they are revered for their injuries resulting from their thug behaviour.  Why is that?  If the fighting is part of the sport, why are they put in the penalty box?  Simply stated, the race of the players of any sport still play a huge part in determining the image that sport.

The NBA isn't dead, just the bandwagon player fans and fairweather fools aren't paying attention anymore.  Which is actually good.....

Bleeding Purple and Gold moving! And NBA Finals Joke

As far as the mockery that was Games 5 and 6 of the NBA Finals, I find it hard to discuss and say that I'm an NBA fan right now. The unaccountable referees have once again found a way to make the NBA a joke to all but the most die hard fans. How can one player shoot 46 free throws in two games after averaging around 10 per game? How can one player shoot as many free throws in two games as the entire posing team? Travesty.

With the Superbowl being a referee sham, and the NBA finals being decided by the refs, sports year 2006 is becoming the year of the power hungry referee. A shame really, cuz I may have to watch hockey in order to see the actual players determine the outcome of a championship.

To Call or Not To

I like Dwayne Wade. I really do. With that said, who exactly fouled him last night on his drive to win the game? Nowitzki didn't touch him, in fact no one did. This is the biggest play in the game on the leagues biggest stage. Cuban has every right to be ridiculously upset with having a game taken away by the grey shirts. No call on what looked like a push off was bad enough, but then to call a foul where none occurred is horrible.

A Less Deserving Player

Is there any other person in the NBA that is least deserving of an NBA title than Antoine Walker? He exemplifies cry baby. He exemplifies content-less hype. I don't think I've ever seen a player complain every time the whistle is blown (or not blown).

Don't get me wrong, when he's hot, he's money. But isn't that the definition of being hot? Isn't every player in the league capable of being hot? The key is consistency. The other key is at least knowing when you're not hot.

If he's not crying, he's about to cry. If he's not about to cry, he looks like he's about to cry....

Marcus Banks

Admittedly, I don't know anything about Marcus Banks' game. I know he was part of dealing Gary Payton until the mitten failed his physical. But the latest rumors are that Banks is coveted by management....

The word is that Wolves free agent point guard Marcus Banks is headed for the Los Angeles Lakers. Two years ago, the Boston Celtics and the Lakers made a trade that had Banks going to the Lakers and Gary Payton moving to the Celtics. But Payton failed a physical and the deal was called off. The Lakers have been trying to land Banks ever since, and that is where he is likely to be when the 2006-2007 season starts.

Jack Nicholson Is P.O'ed

The Lakers said Monday they had increased prices in eight of their nine season-ticket pricing plans, an average of 4% to 5% overall.

I guarantee you can go get season tickets for the Hawks for two grand.....

Let's Hear it for the Boy

Shaquira! Shaquira
I never knew that he would shoot that bad
He makes the basketball mad
Rims don't lie

Behind the numbers: Jerry Stackhouse scored more points in the last minute or so of the 2nd quarter than Shaquira scored in the entire game. In fact, Stackhouse almost outcored Shaquira on a single possession. 2/16 from the freebie line in 2 games, and it should really be 2/19 including his retries due to lane violations....

With that said, if anyone knows how finnicky the roundball mistress can be, it's Lakers fans. So I won't harp anymore until the finals are said and done. I may harp a little bit but I won't talk as if it's over until the fat man sings....Shaquira Shaquira.....

A new nickname

Since Shaquille O'Neal had the audacity to nickname Eric Dampier, it's only fair that Shaquille is given a nickname of his own. I've decided that from here on out, Shaquille O'Neal will now be referred to as ....duh donna nuh.......Shaquira!

Shaquille's Idiocy Exposed

This week, he was at it again, taking a backhanded swipe now at Phil Jackson when he praised Pat Riley by saying: "I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, but he's actually been the best coach I've ever had."

That's right, better than the guy who coached him to three titles. The one who has won nine NBA titles to Riley's four.

Back in 1999, Shaq said of Jackson: "He's like a white version of my father."

This week he said of Riley: "He's the Italian version of my father."

Maybe Shaq has all these insecurities because he has daddy issues.

But the really silly thing he said this week was of Buss and the reason for his trade to the Heat: "He didn't want to pay me."

Right, Buss never wanted to pay him. Guess that $175million he signed him to over the years was chump change. And that $40-plus-million offered for another two years was an insult.

Shaq wanted the max, and since he was already set to earn over $27 million in the final year of his contract in 2005, it was an easy decision for Buss. Shaq was 32 and Kobe 25, and my 10-year-old could have made that call.

Shaq ended up signing an extension with the Heat at the $20 million per he rejected with the Lakers, and just to rub it in, lost the weight for Riley he never would for Buss.

And yet, there are those that still say Kobe pushed Shaquille out......with no proof of this, they still spit it like it was the word....

Lazy Laker Surfing Today

So as I am lazily surfing the 'net I come across this:
created by kodeko81

Hell, I wish I could have played this before my Laker Playoff cookout party, it's a bit inspiring.