ESPN

Here are your 10 additional things to take away from the Lakers' 96-71 home win against the Utah Jazz on Tuesday ...

The Lakers finally checked a notch in the win column Tuesday after going o'fer in new coach Mike Brown's first four games on the sidelines (two preseason, two regular season) and Pau Gasol put an end to a longer and just as dubious streak in the process.

Gasol scored 22 points, which may not seem like a tremendous total for a four time All-Star with a career scoring average of 18.8 points per game, but it had been a while since Gasol topped the 20-point plateau while wearing a Lakers uniform. You have to go all the way back to April 10 against Oklahoma City for the last time Gasol did it, which was 15 games ago (five regular season, 10 playoffs) for the Lakers. Gasol scored 26 in a loss against the Thunder. You have to go back even further for the last time he scored 20 in a win, 22 games to be precise, when Gasol went for 20 when Los Angeles beat Dallas on March 31st.

"[I was] just trying to be more active," said Gasol who had totals of 14 and 15 points in L.A.'s two losses to start the season. "Trying to make myself more available to my teammates and then just attack. I have to get more to the line like I did tonight and just be aggressive. Obviously they might throw different coverages here and there, but I just need to continue to be more aggressive and it pays off."

Gasol went 10-for-12 from the free throw line and shook off any discomfort he felt in his right shoulder after mildly spraining in while fighting through a screen Sunday against Chicago.

"It still bothers me a little bit, but it felt better [Tuesday] than it did [Monday] and it seems like it’s under control," Gasol said.

Now, the leaders of the Lakers' team -- Brown and Kobe Bryant -- would like to see Gasol take control more often.

"He has to. He has to," said Bryant who should know something about it after scoring 26 against Utah, his third straight game of 25-plus points while playing with a torn ligament in his right wrist. "He’s got to do it. He’s got to be aggressive. He’s got to take shots. We want to keep coming to him. He’s just got to look to score."

Brown said Gasol is a facilitator by nature from years of the Spanish National Team running its offense through Gasol in the post, and he even called Gasol's passing game "off the charts" for the three assists he picked up against Sacramento, but he'll certainly take the scoring version of the big man.

"He was very aggressive and we need that aggression out of him," Brown said.

Gasol was just as effective on defense, picking up five blocks and harassing Utah's Al Jefferson into a 2-for-16 shooting night.

"It gives me more confidence," Gasol said. "It gives me a path to follow and it feels good play at the level that you know you’re capable of playing and you’ve been playing for a long time. Now it seems to me that I found a good path and I just got to stick to it."

(Read full post)

Here are your 10 additional things to take away from the Lakers' 114-95 preseason loss against the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday ...


There wasn't much for Mike Brown to smile about after the Lakers trailed by as many as 27 en route to a 19-point rout.

But, after opening his postgame remarks by admitting it was an "ugly game from us," Brown couldn't help but break out a grin and chuckle a little bit when talking about how rookie point guard Darius Morris played.

"The rook came in and he was either feast or famine, which was OK," said Brown. "It was his first taste of NBA experience."

That first taste was more than just a nibble because starting point guard Derek Fisher sat out Monday as a preventative measure as he continues to work himself back into playing shape. And so Morris played just 34 seconds less than Steve Blake on Monday and was the lone true bright spot for the Lakers, finishing with 11 points, three assists and three rebounds in 24 minutes.

"Coming out that tunnel, it was just an honor," the L.A. native and Winward School graduate said of wearing his No. 1 Lakers jersey for the first time.

Morris made an immediate impact when he checked into the game as Brown's first substitute midway through the first quarter.

After Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum combined for three straight turnovers, Morris found the ball in his hands as the shot clock was winding down on the possession. Rather than playing hot potato with the ball and dumping it off to a teammate, Morris rose up and connected on a 22-footer before the 24 seconds had eclipsed.

"I think that was like the ice breaker for me," Morris said. "For that one to go in was a huge boost for my confidence."

(Read full post)

Over at SI.com, Zach Lowe has published his list of the NBA's 100 best players- ESPN.com's NBA page is rolling out our edition over the next several weeks- and as is always the case with this sort of thing the rankings have beget plenty of debate. Locally, some Lakers fans might look at Kobe Bryant (#5) and wonder if he's too low, or question a lofty ranking for Pau Gasol (#10) following his shoddy postseason. Both are totally legitimate topics of conversation at the water cooler or your local tavern (or your local tavern's water cooler), but as it relates to the team's chances of recapturing a title next season, the exact landing spot for any individual Lakers player on a list like this is totally irrelevant.

What matters is the total amount of talent on board, and using Lowe's reasonably presented rankings as a guide, the Lakers have plenty of it. Four players in the top 38, including Bryant and Gasol along with Lamar Odom (#33) and Andrew Bynum (#38, a ranking pinned to the injury-related limitations on Bynum's body of work, not his on-floor potential- Lowe admits the placement could look "ridiculous" by the end of next season if Bynum stays healthy). This constitutes more top 40 players than any other team in the NBA, and while no two writers would arrange the names identically, none of the Lakers are wildly out of place.

The Lakers clearly have the front end talent to win, especially considering their riches in length along with the versatility and skill of their top four. What they lack is reliable depth through the rest of the roster, along with certain skill sets. Once they're again allowed to go shopping, this is where the emphasis should be placed. (For a refresher on L.A.'s needs, click here, here, here, and here.) Improvement won't come easy given their salary constraints, but the notion the Lakers need some sort of high end talent injection to ride shotgun with Kobe remains as inaccurate now as it did at the end of the season.

Here are your 10 additional things to take away from the Lakers' 95-87 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday ...

If there was one player on the Lakers' roster most responsible for their remarkable turnaround after the All-Star break, it was Andrew Bynum.

And now that the Lakers are starting to look like the lackadaisical bunch they were before the break, when they hit rock bottom with a loss to Cleveland, no player has been more vocal about it than Bynum either.

"I just think we’re going out there and playing kind of stupid basketball," said Bynum after his 13 points and 17 rebounds weren't enough from stopping the Lakers from losing to Golden State to extend their current losing streak to three games.

"We’re not playing our smartest," he continued. "People are going hard, but the energy … When you put negative energy out, it’s going to come back to you. That’s what happens. And it goes all the way down the line, from the coaching staff to the players who miss free throws to when we came in at halftime, the video guy put in the [wrong game] from two-three games ago against Golden State. So, the collective energy is just bad right now."

Bryant, who scored 10 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter to cut the Warriors' 19-point lead to eight in a too-little too-late rally, took it all with a grain of salt.

Asked if Friday's game against Portland was a "must-win" to avoid dropping four straight, Kobe replied with thick sarcasm: "It’s massive. It’s a season-turner."

When he was nearing the end of his bemused postgame remarks, a reporter commented that he didn't seem too upset to which Kobe replied to in sing-song fashion: "Oh yeah, I’m totally happy with the way we played tonight. I’m ecstatic."

The fact of the matter is this team is too experienced to get too low after a single loss or even a few losses. They remember going 4-9 over the last 13 games of the regular season last year and still winning the ring. And they recall sleepwalking through the Houston series two years ago en route to their first championship.

"We know that come playoff time, everything is going to be fine," Bynum said, coming down from his rant with some rationale. "When I say that, I mean there’s not going to be anybody out there not playing their hardest basketball."

The loss mathematically eliminated the Lakers from the possibility of catching the Spurs for No. 1 in the West.

Not that the team is sweating it. There’s been varied opinions shared by the Lakers as to how important home court advantage throughout the playoffs really is.

Bryant, using his own circuitous logic, said that the Lakers actually didn’t have home court advantage in the Finals last year because after the series started 1-1, three of the final five games were in Boston.

(Read full post)

Here are your 10 additional things to take away from the Lakers' 86-85 loss to the Utah Jazz on Tuesday ...

Kobe Bryant had just nailed two clutch 3-pointers in the game's final minute and change when he found the ball in his hands again, with his team down by one and six seconds left to play.

He sized up Utah's rookie Gordon Hayward, who was checking him, made his move into the lane to attempt one of his patented game winners and then . . . he didn't find the ball in his hands any more.

"It slipped out my hands," Bryant said. "It just slipped."

As Bryant walked off the court after the final buzzer had sounded he held both of his hands in front of his face and stared blankly at the 10 fingers that did him wrong.

Bryant hit eight game winners last season but has yet to add a buzzer beater to his resume this year. Tuesday seemed like the perfect opportunity, but Lamar Odom wasn't surprised that Bryant didn't even manage to get a shot off.

"It happens and I’m not surprised it happens in a game like this," said Odom who went on to call the loss their "worst game of the year, by far."

Bryant blamed himself for the loss, not because he fumbled the final possession, but because he only attempted one shot in the first half and thought he failed to establish an aggressive tone for his team.

Andrew Bynum placed the fault on everybody.

"Tonight was just the case of coming out and really thinking we can just beat the team just by being there," Bynum said. "I don’t know why we torture ourselves like that."

The Lakers had 19 turnovers Tuesday, a game after coughing it up 20 times against the Nuggets.

"That speaks to the inefficiency offensively in terms of decision making and spacing and making sure that we’re operating in a way that allows for all five of our guys to be effective," said Derek Fisher.

Bynum was more blunt, claiming the team "gave up on the triangle."

(Read full post)

Here are your 10 additional things to take away from the Lakers' 95-90 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Sunday ...

On Friday against Utah, Lamar Odom played sick.

On Sunday, a crucial play that didn't go his way late in the game made him sick.

Denver center Nene missed the second of two free throws with 11.3 seconds left with a chance to turn a three-point Nuggets lead into a two-possession game. Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin was lined up around the key with Odom between him and the basket and Ron Artest behind him.

Martin pushed Odom under the basket, tipped in the miss and put the game out of reach.

The normally easy-going Odom let his frustration show after the game, first chucking the basketball from one end of the court more than 60 feet towards the opposite basket and hitting a camera mounted on the top of the shot clock and later telling a reporter as he made his way across the locker room, "Second time ... Two times this year ... [Expletive]!"

(Read full post)

Here are your 10 additional things to take away from the Lakers' 96-85 win against the Utah Jazz on Friday ...

Lamar Odom is usually a 6-10 bundle of energy before a game.

Sometimes he'll get in an extra couple sets of push-ups and sit-ups right before tip-off.

Other times he'll work the room, talking to teammates and reporters about what's going on in the world of sports on that particular day.

Then there are the days he'll rifle through a bag of candy to get that last sugar rush before taking the court.

Before the game Friday in Utah however, Odom just sat slumped in his chair leaning his head against his locker. He barely moved other than to shuffle to the bathroom. He hardly spoke and with baseball's opening day just passed and his Yankees starting with a win there was plenty to talk about. He didn't dare eat and instead gingerly took sips from a cup of water.

When the game started he had to run back to the locker room twice more before he checked in for the first time.

"I was back there throwing up. I don’t know if it was what I ate, or what," revealed Odom after the game. He was officially listed with gastroenteritis (stomach flu), yet played through it. "Guys like Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher and Pau Gasol, these guys are great and they don’t miss games if they’re hurt, tired [or] sick. You learn from their greatness. It rubs off on you."

Odom finished with 16 points and seven rebounds in 30 minutes and hit a 3-pointer early on in the fourth quarter to put L.A. up double digits that really broke Utah's spirits after they had led by as many as 17.

"Come on, lock him in -- Sixth Man of the Year," Bryant said after the game, continuing to be Odom's No. 1 spokesman for the award. "It shouldn’t even be a question."

Said Gasol: "He gave us everything he’s got as usual, but more credit to him for not feeling well [and playing]. Throwing up is not something easy to deal with when you have to play an NBA game, but he played really well."

Of course, it wasn't the first good game a player has had with the flu in Salt Lake City.

(Read full post)

Here are your 10 additional things to take away from the Lakers' 102-84 win over the New Orleans Hornets on Sunday ...

The Hornets did one thing well on Sunday: manage to make the Lakers' second unit look decent in comparison.

New Orleans reserves shot just 10-for-27 from the field, while similarly the Los Angeles' substitutes went 11-for-26.

The Lakers bench let a 17-point third quarter lead dwindle to six in the fourth quarter before L.A. was able to pull away by 18. It echoed recent performances against Phoenix (where a 21-point lead disappeared, and the Lakers won in triple overtime) and against the L.A. Clippers (where a 16-point lead was cut to four).

Besides letting leads slip away, the Lakers bench has had a hard time of extending the margins when the starters check out. As bad as their 11-for-27 shooting line Sunday, it was an improvement to the 5-for-20 shooting the L.A. bench put up Friday against the Clippers.

"I wasn't happy with some of the end of the third quarter and the second quarter," Lakers head coach Phil Jackson said about the bench. "They had open shots, they worked the ball the right way and Shannon [Brown] and some good looks. They just didn't go down."

Bynum's statistics were pretty meager by his recent standards (13 points, five rebounds, one blocked shot), as the 7-footer played only 22 minutes because of picking up five fouls.

"It wasn’t foul trouble," Bynum maintained after the game. "I don’t think I committed any fouls tonight."

The refs thought otherwise, whistling Bynum for an offensive foul with 9:37 remaining in the fourth, his fifth of the game.

With the Lakers lead at 10 points, Jackson kept Bynum on the floor, rather than take him out and save him in case New Orleans was able to close the gap.

Rather than play tentatively, Bynum was aggressive, scoring seven of the Lakers next nine points, including two on a ferocious dunk after a sweet pivot move in the post.

"At that point I was like, ‘Well, I might as well go hard because if I get a foul, it’s to be expected,’" Bynum explained. "Luckily, some good things happened."

(Read full post)

Here are your 10 additional things to take away from the Lakers' 106-98 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday ...

It was a weird game for Kobe Bryant from the very start.

After deciding to play against Minnesota after not practicing all week on his bum left ankle, the lack of time on the court showed. He looked pretty rusty. Bryant was 0-for-5 in the first quarter for zero points with a turnover while his main defensive assignment, Wolves rookie Wesley Johnson, went 5-for-6 while scoring 14.

He found a little rhythm in the second quarter by hitting consecutive 3-pointers with less than a minute remaining, but then didn't make it out of the locker room at halftime in time to start the third quarter, leaving Shannon Brown to fill in a the two in his place.

"He was detained," said Lakers head coach Phil Jackson, somewhat cryptically, when asked what held Bryant up.

"I was just stretching [my ankle] out," Bryant explained. "It was really stiff so I made sure I got a good stretch."

Bryant made a couple more shots in the second half (and Johnson made a couple more as well, finishing with a career-high 29), but it was a shot he took to the face when the back of Martell Webster's head collided with Bryant's cheek that could have some ramifications long after the Lakers have forgotten about the T-Wolves.

"I got hit in the jaw, but my jaw is fine. I can take a hit," Bryant said after the game, in a foul mood despite the win. "It was just that my neck snapped back. My neck is pretty stiff right now."

Even with the ankle and the neck working against him, Bryant finished with 18 points, five assists and four rebounds in 28 minutes as he kept up his streak of not missing a game all season.

L.A.'s next game is Sunday against the Portland Trail Blazers, who Bryant scored 37 against in an overtime win in the Lakers' second game after the All-Star break.

"I'll be ready, for sure, I promise you that," Bryant said. "I'll be more than ready."

Jackson said that Bryant's quickness was hampered by the ankle and it affected his defense against Johnson and he'll discuss with his reigning Finals MVP about having to sit out to heal up.

"We’ll talk about it," Jackson said. "I’m sure he’s going to say no, but we’ll definitely talk about it and see how he’s doing, if there’s anything bothering him."

(Read full post)

Here are your 10 additional things to take away from the Lakers' 97-84 win over the Orlando Magic on Monday ...

They trailed by five at halftime as the Lakers' offense was shooting just 35.4 percent from the field and making the Magic defense look every bit as dominant as L.A.'s D has been in the last 10 games.

The first two quarters were so sloppy that the guy who likened his toughness to Bruce Willis' last year, Kobe Bryant, was just 2-for-10 at the half and had to give himself a pep talk in the locker room to stop playing like a "wuss."

And then they took the floor for the third quarter and looked like a completely different team, much the same way the Lakers came back after the All-Star break and seemed to have found a different gear.

"We had a good second half," said Lakers head coach Phil Jackson. "We got our offense running a little bit. Defensively, we got some steals and some easy baskets."

The Lakers outscored the Magic by 18 after halftime -- 56 to 38. They shot 53.7 percent from the field after hitting at just a 35.4 percent clip in the first half and they simply looked like a team determined to win while the Magic started to run out of gas after playing the second night of a back-to-back on the road.

(Read full post)

Here are your 10 additional things to take away from the Lakers' 93-84 road win against the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday ...

Ron Artest sprung himself on Marc Gasol in the short corner, taking the ball away from Gasol to gain a steal and then taking an unintentional shot from the Grizzlies center to the face to gain a swollen nose.

Artest covered his face with his hands, sprinted to the far side of the court, sure that he had broken his nose again like he did while playing basketball back in high school and once again earlier in his career in the NBA.

His first feeling was pain. Blood flowed from his nostrils and pooled in his mouth. His next feeling was anger. The Lakers forward stared Gasol down as he made his way towards the Lakers bench as the referee called a medical timeout.

"Ron knows how to remove himself from situations like that so he got out of there," Lakers head coach Phil Jackson said. "Instead of standing there and getting in a confrontation, he got out of there and removed himself from anything that could contain any problems. So, that was good, that part."

The bad part was Artest continuing to stew as he was corralled towards the bench. First he pushed Lakers trainer Gary Vitti's hands away when he tried to take a look at him. Next it took his longtime confidant Chuck Person looking him in the eye and Kobe Bryant touching him on his face to grab Artest's attention and try to center him.

"We have a relationship where even though things may get a little crazy for him, I’ll go up to him and check on him and make sure he’s alright and he’ll respond," Bryant said. "So, I just wanted to make sure he’s OK."

Play resumed with the Lakers up by five with 34.6 seconds left in the third quarter and Artest discarded a bloody towel on the sidelines and marched back in to shoot two free throws. He missed them both.

"I want to see him go back out and make those free throws," Jackson said, assessing Artest's anger management. "Get control so he can get his breath going the right way and calm himself down and make those free throws."

Pau Gasol said it was the third time Artest had been hit in the face and he reached his boiling point.

"Obviously he didn’t appreciate that very much," Gasol said. "He’s an emotional player."

Gasol admitted it would have been awkward if he had to break up a fight between his teammate and his younger brother.

Added Bryant: "It was Pau’s brother, so I didn’t want him to beat up Pau’s brother."

But that doesn't mean that Bryant would have had a problem with Artest mixing it up if the incident occurred with someone else.

"It depends on the situation," Bryant said. "I’m not opposed to him smacking somebody, I’m really not, and taking a game [suspension] for it. I have no problem with that. Because at some point, they know he’s not going to respond and they try to take advantage of it sometimes. I’m not opposed to him smacking somebody."

He didn't fight anybody, but he fought on, adding two more steals in the fourth quarter to tie his season high of four and knocking in a 3-pointer to give him 13 points in the win.

"I just kept playing," Artest said. "Once I got my head cleared and they plugged me up a little bit, I just went out there and kept playing basketball."

Artest did not break his nose, it's just swollen according to the team.

"It looks a little bit crooked," Artest said. "I just got to ice it and hopefully it’s not broke … It should be alright. We got these great trainers, they’ll fix me up."

The Lakers held the Grizzlies to just 16 points on 7-of-21 shooting in the fourth quarter as they turned a five-point lead after three into a nine-point win at the final buzzer. It was the second straight game they put the clamps down in the final period, as they held New Orleans to just 13 points on 6-of-22 shooting in the fourth quarter Saturday.

"That's what a good team does," Jackson said. "They learn how to lock a team down and come out in the fourth quarter and play defense."

Bryant, who has preached the mantra "defense and rebounding" ever since the summer of 2008 when he saw the two tenants employed by Boston to beat L.A. and later used by Team USA to win gold at the Olympics, was encouraged by what he saw.

"We have rhythm defensively," Bryant said. "I don’t care what sport you look at. Defense is universal. You defend, you win ... A lot of times it’s ugly basketball, but it’s pretty in June."

(Read full post)

Here are your 10 additional things to take away from the Lakers' 101-95 win against the New Orleans Hornets on Saturday ...

Maybe the Lakers made a trade after all. They swapped the slumping Pau Gasol for his former MVP-candidate self.

Gasol scored a season-high 34 points against New Orleans, going 13-of-17 from the floor and grabbing 10 rebounds.

After averaging just 10.5 points in the Lakers' consecutive home losses to Sacramento and Boston, Gasol is now averaging 26.3 points and 11 rebounds in his last three games after Kobe Bryant had a conversation with him encouraging the recently minted four-time All-Star to be more aggressive.

"I think he played terrific," said Bryant who scored 32 points of his own, running the Lakers' record to 5-1 all-time when he and Gasol both score 30-plus points. "He’s really asserting himself. It’s something that we need from him. I think he understands that now. I think the switch went off. We’re going to see him continuing to attack."

Gasol was asked if the recent uptick was solely due to his discussion with Bryant.

"I don’t know," Gasol said. "I don’t know if it’s a coincidence because from that game especially in that game against Houston when Andrew [Bynum] was out, I knew I had to be more aggressive. I knew I was going to play 40-plus minutes and I was a little tired also myself."

Gasol clarified what he meant by "tired," putting to bed any speculation that his decreased productivity was due to lingering hamstring issues or any other health problems.

"No health [concerns] luckily," Gasol said. "My body is feeling good and I’m proving it. It’s just a matter of we were in a slump for a while and I wasn’t getting very involved. Obviously that’s frustrating but you have to find, you have to search for that [opportunity] sometimes instead of waiting for it."

Bryant said he thinks Gasol can keep up the elevated level of play for the rest of the season. The Lakers have 31 games remaining before the playoffs, what amounts to basically a college season.

"I don’t see why not," Bryant said. "He has the skill to do it. It’s just more of a mindset more than anything. He’s such a nice person, he wants other guys to be involved and all this other stuff, but that’s not necessarily what’s best for our team."

Said Gasol: "I’ve been shooting the ball well the last three games but I got to continue, continue to be aggressive, be assertive and utilize my talents. Make sure I’m doing what I’m capable of doing out there, not watching."

Lakers head coach Phil Jackson hadn't heard about Bryant's "Black Swan" comments regarding Gasol.

"Kobe did that?" Jackson asked. "I talk to him every day about being more aggressive."

Then the 65-year old coach revealed he's still hip enough to watch "Saturday Night Live."

"I saw Jim Carrey as the Black Swan," Jackson quipped. "I don’t want Pau to be like that."

Derek Fisher has built his reputation as a guy with a penchant for making big plays on the offensive end late in ballgames, but Saturday he did it with his D.

"He made some good rotations, the type of rotations we ask players to get after and it got the ball back for us," Jackson said.

Fisher made two huge defensive plays in the games final minutes to preserve the Lakers' lead. First he stripped David West for a steal with 2:36 remaining and L.A. up by five. Then he drew a charge on Chris Paul with 1:07 left and the Lakers still clinging to a five-point cushion.

The guy who hit the Lakers' only buzzer-beating game winner this season against the Clippers was asked if defense can be clutch.

"Yes, no question," Fisher said. "Just helping your team win is a clutch thing to do.I think you just have to be willing to stick your nose in there and compete and just make a difference. It may not always be on the offensive end but you have to make an impact when you’re out there on the floor. That’s what I try to do."

The Lakers coaching staff has struggled with getting its players to take charges. Last year during the playoffs, ESPN's Shelley Smith reported that Lakers players were actually paid $50 per charge as an incentive.

"It’s something we’re making a conscious effort of doing," said Bryant. "We have guys on the team that don’t take charges. I’ve never been a charge-taker, I’m more of a ball-stripper. Ron’s never been a charge-taker, Lamar’s never been a charge-taker, but we’re doing it."

The 15-year veteran said he was setting up Paul, the All-Star starter, for the offensive foul.

"It was a couple plays before where I was playing him and he got back to his right hand and from that point on I really wanted to lock in and try and make him go back to his left," Fisher said. "I felt that everything he was doing he was getting to his right and that’s when he was able to set situations up so I just kind of played him to go to that right hand again and I’m sitting right there on it."

(Read full post)

Here are your 10 additional things to take away from the Lakers 114-106 overtime win over the Houston Rockets on Tuesday ...

Lamar Odom started off pretty rough. He was 2-for-7 in the first quarter and 0-of-2 in the second quarter as the Rockets hung around at halftime.

"I wasn't happy with Lamar's performance in the first half," said head coach Phil Jackson matter of factly after the game.

But the Lakers' MCP (most consistent player) wasn't about to bow out after a sub par effort in the most critical point of the Lakers season thus far.

"I just kind of kept going and going and going and going until I started to feel comfortable out there offensively," Odom said. "I always try to play a complete basketball game and I just took my time."

The Energizer Bunny-like statement from the team's emotional leader was only meant to apply to Tuesday, game No. 49 of 82 on the Lakers schedule. But there's a message in there every player wearing purple and gold can learn from. When things get hard this season, as they have already (see the three- and four-game losing streaks and the four losses out of seven games stretch they came into the Houston game with), just keep going at it. Sheer effort and determination go a long way.

For Odom, it was turning a bad personal start into a team win and the third 20-plus points, 20-plus rebounds game of his career (he finished with a precise, Barbara Walters-esque 20 and 20).

He started in place of the injured Andrew Bynum, playing as big as his 6-10, 230-pound frame would allow but he won the game in the fourth quarter and overtime playing out on the perimeter, picking up all four of his assists for the game in the final period plus the extra session.

"Having Lamar be the playmaker I think really is what threw them off because they’re used to seeing me being at the top of the floor and everybody can defend and then close out on shooters," said Kobe Bryant. "Once you put him at the top and move me off the ball, I don’t really think they knew what to do."

The All-Star reserves will be announced Thursday. Bryant continued to beat the drum for his talented left-handed teammate who has yet to wear "East" or "West" across his chest in the February classic in 12 years as a pro.

"You know he’s capable of doing that," Bryant said. "He’s so selfless because he’s accepted coming off the bench, when as a starter, we all know he’d be an All-Star hands down."

In a game where Bryant had 32 points and 11 assists and Pau Gasol chipped in 26 points and 16 rebounds, Odom stood out not because of his numbers, but because of his nerve to stick with it.

Seven of Bryant's 11 assists came in the first quarter. It seemed like he was trying to try to put the fourth quarter against Boston behind him. You know, the one where he took 10 straight shots as the Celtics stretched their lead. But Bryant maintained he was just taking what the defense was giving him.

"It’s all about what the defense does," Bryant said. "The first quarter, they doubled, they trapped, I hit guys, they made shots. Obviously if they’re making shots, they feel better about themselves, but the defense dictates that."

Said Jackson of Bryant's early approach: "I thought everybody got involved that way."

What was telling after the game was that even though it seemed that the Lakers balanced final effort was spurred by Bryant abandoning the ball hog act, the back-to-back Finals MVP has his team's trust to make the right play, even if it means being a volume shooter at times.

"It’s up to him to make the play. No matter what, I stick with him," Odom said. "The basketball play is there for him. We live with him reading the game. Sometimes he’s going to shoot seven times in a row, sometimes he’s going to draw the D and kick it."

(Read full post)

Here are your 10 additional things to take away from the Lakers 100-88 win over the New Jersey Nets on Friday ...

It played out just how Phil Jackson hoped it would.

With the Nets and former Lakers Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar in town, Jackson spoke before the game as if he was a fantasy sports owner who had two players on his roster playing against the team he really roots for.

"I hope both of them have a good game but it doesn’t contribute to a win for the Nets," Jackson said. "That’s the best you can do."

He got his wish. Vujacic scored 17 points on 7-of-16 shooting off the bench (showing he's still got that quick trigger finger) and Farmar scored 12 on 5-of-11 and the Nets actually made a game of it, closing the gap to two with 7:31 remaining in the fourth quarter following a Vujacic 3-pointer.

The 17 points were the most Vujacic had scored at Staples Center in more than two years, dating back to Dec. 28, 2008 against Golden State.

“Let me put it this way -- I’m breathing again," Vujacic said before the game about his increased playing time and averages in New Jersey. "I was suffocating for quite a while. I’m breathing again. I’m just being honest. And it’s fun. It’s fun to play again. It’s fun to rebuild. It’s [a] new challenge.”

Said Nets coach Avery Johnson, "He’s a guy that I’ve described as positive energy. He lights up a room. He really cares about playing basketball. He loves to play the game. He plays it with passion and he’s in a situation in his career right now where he really wants to prove that he can be a really solid player on a team. His seven years here were great years for him, but now I think he feels that it’s time for him to spread his wings and he’s really excited about this opportunity with our franchise."

Vujacic received a tepid ovation from the home crowd and actually earned a smattering of boos when he canned his first jumper in the early going. Farmar on the other hand, who was honored with a pregame video set to Kanye West's "Homecoming" and presented with his 2010 championship ring by Derek Fisher and Kobe Bryant at center court, was given the red-carpet treatment by fans in the arena who rose to their feet with a hearty standing ovation for the L.A. native.

"The reception was amazing," Farmar said. "They kind of raised me. You know, I was born and raised in the city and everything I know about basketball. It was great to feel the love from my home city. I was looking forward to getting a win and we came up a little short."

Friday marked the halfway point in the Lakers season and now the hard part begins. Los Angeles closes out the month of January with seven more games, six of which promise to be difficult. It starts Sunday against the resurgent Clippers who recently beat the Miami Heat and who almost knocked off the Lakers in their first meeting, falling at the buzzer on a Fisher floater. It continues Monday against Oklahoma City, the first meeting between the two teams since the Thunder gave the Lakers all they could handle in the first round of the playoffs. After that there are road games in Dallas and Denver and three more home games to round out the month against Utah, Sacramento and a Finals rematch against Boston.

"Really we will see the meat of our schedule coming up," Jackson said.

(Read full post)

Here are your 10 additional things to take away from the Lakers 115-110 win over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday ...

Kobe Bryant displayed his full repertoire of celebratory actions in the fourth quarter.

There was the Dikembe Mutombo finger wave with 3:10 remaining when he drove into the lane, absorbed the contact from Andris Biedrins and still made the layup, sending him to the line for an and-one and Biedrins out of the game with six fouls.

There was the lower jaw jut, dubbed simply "The Kobe Face" that he displayed several times after canning a couple jumpers with the defender glued to him.

And there was the arms spread out in full Michael Jordan "Wings" fashion after he hit his dagger of a pull-up 3-pointer with 43.9 seconds left that doubled the Lakers late lead from three to six. (Usually when Bryant spreads his arms out like that he'll go into airplane mode, but Wednesday he just settled for taxiing.)

"You have a responsibility to your team to try to come through in those situations and make the right play," Bryant said. "Tonight, I did that."

Said Lakers coach Phil Jackson: "He's been waiting to have that kind of game. We haven't had many finishes like that for a while and that's what he loves to do."

Warriors coach Keith Smart also was agog at what he saw Bryant do. "What can you say?" Smart said. "An MVP, a champion and a super competitor -- when you have those combinations you find ways to give your team a chance to win."

It put the exclamation point on his 17 points in the fourth quarter, 30 points in the second half and 39 points in the game, but before there's any coronation proclaiming him Kyra Sedgwick's equal as "The Closer" once again, don't forget about the lefty portion of the Lakers' two-handed attack in the fourth quarter.

Before Bryant could put the final brush strokes on L.A.'s masterful 46-point fourth, Lamar Odom filled in a lot of the picture by scoring 16 points in the final period of his own, helping the team erase a six-point deficit after three quarters.

"I was trying to wait and wait for the offense in the first three quarters and it didn’t really work out so I just stayed poised and just kind of waiting my turn and some plays were there to be made," Odom said.

Ron Artest, who chipped in down the stretch with 3 of his own with 1:55 remaining, estimated it was the best fourth quarter Odom has played as a Laker.

"It might have been up there," Odom said. "Right now we’re having fun just playing and finding ways to win games and just trying to get better individually and as a team. We’re trying to do the things we need to do to 'keep the goings going on,' as they say where I’m from."

(Read full post)