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Game Recaps
LAKER ROSTER: The Rookies
09.14.10
As rookies, Devin Ebanks and Derrick Caracter can count on spending a lot of time at the end of the bench during the regular season, if they’re not shipped off to the Developmental League. In either case, you can view the presence of the rookies as addition by subtraction, as they won’t have to do much of anything to match the output of Josh Powell and Adam Morrison. Plus the combined salaries are considerably lower. And they are young. Ebanks, a 6’9″ 215 lb small forward from West Virginia, is only 20. Caracter, a 6’9″ 265 lb power forward from Texas-El Paso, is 22. As second round draft picks, no one should suffer from super high expectations here. I would only expect to see them playing in the preseason and games that are routs (one way or the other). My hope is that they work hard in practice, learn the offense, and realize that their role, coming off the bench, is to preserve and build on any lead that the starters create. Last season It seemed to me the bench was keen on jacking up long distance shots when they didn’t turn the ball over, and letting the opposition drive to the basket without offering much resistance. In short, perfo
rming poorly both offensively and defensively.
Ebanks has been compared to Trevor Ariza, and if he’s as good defensively, that works for me. The Lakers are a little thin at the power forward position, so I believe Caracter will have more opportunities for playing time. There have been some comparisons to Shaq, as far as commitment to conditioning anyway. His contract has incentives for him not to balloon up in weight.
The Lakers are one of the more veteran teams, so I like having a little youth as well. Management was sufficiently impressed with their potential to sign them to contracts, so here’s hoping they contribute in some fashion to the Three-peat.
It’s a long season, so having players that the coach has enough faith in to play during the season, thereby allowing the starters to rest, is critically important.
Your World Champion Miami Heat?
09.09.10
Don’t worry, Laker faithful. It’s not that I am rooting for the Miami Heat to win the championship next year. Far from it. My hope is that they will be booed excessively on the road. And in a few days, my blog will state the reasons the Lakers will be successful in their quest for a three-peat. I just want to present the case for the possibility that the Heat could really win it all. Let’s look at 3 areas:
- Coaching
- Talent
- Hunger
I observed during George Karl’s absence from the Nuggets playoff series last year a team without direction, basically a chicken with it’s head cut off. They lacked discipline and focus. I have always felt that Phil Jackson hasn’t always got the respect he deserves. His detractors like to point out that he has won with Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant. They fail to acknowledge that all of these players have been coached in the NBA with the same key teammates, and not achieved the success that they have with Phil. In the last 20 years, 3 coaches have accounted for 17 championships. And the 3 coaches with single championships in that span were Pat Riley, Larry Brown and Doc Rivers. Now Erik Spoelstra is not a proven entity, but you know Riles will step in if the Heat lose 3 games in a row. So the Heat have plan A and plan B set up for coaching for the season.
The Heat were much more successful, despite cap restrictions, in developing a roster than I expected. I thought it would be LeBron, Wade, Bosh and 11 guys that were either as old as the stone age (think Shaq) or no-names. Instead, they have Udonis Haslem, Eddie House, Mike Miller, Mario Chalmers, Da’Sean Butler, Carlos Arroyo, Joel Anthony, James Jones, Jamaal Magloire, Juwan Howard, and Zydunas Ilgauskas. While I don’t believe those guys are the best at their positions, it was more than I thought the Heat would be able to do.
And I know you’re thinking – can you put a team together like that, have it mesh, and be successful in its first season? And I am reminded of the Boston Celtics in 2007-2008, when Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joined Paul Pierce. I think the Heat have a lot to prove this season. Teams that play the Heat, like those playing the Lakers, will be exerting extra effort because they know they must. So I don’t think the Heat will break the Lakers streak of 33 straight wins. Nor do I think they will hold the best single season record. And I do believe they will lose back to back games this season. The East got better during the off-season, with key free agents either staying in the East or signing up in that conference. I don’t see any team in the West that vastly improved their roster. Although I like the Thunder, with the Lakers strengthening their bench, I think the Lakers will have an easier time reaching the finals this year.
So this year, I will be rooting for the Lakers and whoever is playing the Heat. Three-peat time!
What’s Up, Doc?
09.03.10
I used to respect Doc Rivers. He had a solid NBA playing career. He coached a championship team. Then he started saying Laker starting five haven’t beaten Celtic starting five. And I’m thinking we’ve got some revisionist history going on here. First of all, Kobe & Bynum, two of the five starting Lakers. had surgery in the off-season. So I wouldn’t exactly call them healthy for the playoffs. In addition, injuries are part of the game. When the Celtics beat the Lakers in the 2008 Finals, I didn’t go around saying the Lakers would have won if Bynum had played and Ariza had been healthier. Nor do I recall hearing anyone in the Laker organization making 
excuses. You play the 5 best players you can and you live with the results. Does Doc think the Celtics should be declared champions because Kendrick Perkins couldn’t play in one of the seven games played for the finals? (The math here is 3 Celtic losses with Perkins playing + 1 loss with him not playing = Lakers are True Champions)
Let’s review some NBA history.
In 2004, Karl Malone was the starting power forward for the Lakers, and he was injured prior to the finals match-up against the Detroit Pistons. Now as the Lakers lost in 5 games, I don’t believe they necessarily would have won had the Mailman been uninjured. I think the Lakers were highly dysfunctional that season, Shaq’s last as a Laker. But this is another example of a team losing with one started being hobbled. When the Lakers lost to the Pistons 15 years earlier in 1989, they had entered the finals undefeated before being swept. Now when your starting backcourt goes down with hamstring injuries, that’s gonna affect team play. And when one of those players is Magic Johnson – well, nuff said. But just as you can have injuries (or calls) work against you, sometimes it’s the other team that has misfortune. Such as the Celtics in 2010 or the Pistons in 1988, when Isaiah Thomas played on a sprained ankle. Even a couple of years earlier than that, I seem to remember Larry Bird suffering from some back problems.
So my point is that it balances out – some seasons your team is healthy and other years it’s the opposing team that’s in better shape.
It all has to do with how you respond to adversity. To the 2010 Celtics credit, they managed to build a 13 point lead on the road in game 7. They just couldn’t close it out. Thirty years ago, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, starting center for the Lakers, sprained his ankle in game 5. The Lakers next game was in Philadelphia, but the team didn’t get down. Magic Johnson came onto center court, jumped as center, and played perhaps the greatest game of his career (OK, it was his greatest game). Which is really how you always want you team to respond to a teammates injury, by pulling together and playing a little harder. I’m just surprised Doc doesn’t blame the refs, the commissioner or the weather for losing as well. What’s up, Doc? I’ll tell you what’s up. My blood pressure, from listening to you whine and make excuses about not winning. Here’s a challenge for you – make it to the finals this year and show everyone the Celtics weren’t just another one and done team.
Back-To-Back! Lakers Rally, Beat Celtics In 7 For 16th Title!
06.17.10
It wasn’t pretty, but it couldn’t have felt sweeter, as the Los Angeles Lakers won their 16th NBA Championship (2nd straight) 83-79 over the Boston Celtics Thursday night at the Staples Center, in a thrilling Game 7.
The Lakers, pushed to the brink of elimination just two days earlier, rallied from a 13-point second half deficit in Game 7, led by the hard-nosed play of Pau Gasol who scored 19 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, and Ron Artest who put in 20 points and recorded 5 steals.
Kobe Bryant struggled shooting the ball all night, going 6-24 from the field, but still managed to score 23 points and grab 15 rebounds. His 17-footer with just over five minutes left in the fourth quarter put the Lakers up 68-64, as they held on down the stretch for the win. Bryant was named the series MVP, averaging 28.6 points, 8 rebounds, and 3.9 assists, his second straight Finals MVP award, and his fifth title.
The game was ragged all night, with both teams struggling to find any rhythm offensively, as it seemed everyone was feeling the pressure of a seventh game. The Celtics built a 49-36 lead late in the third quarter before the Lakers chipped away and got it to 64-61 midway through the fourth, when Derek Fisher hit a high-arcing 3-pointer to tie the game. That play seemed to breath life into the Lakers as they took the lead on two Kobe Bryant free throws and never looked back. The title was Fisher’s fifth as well, as he once again showed his big game heroics.
Phil Jackson, who may retire this offseason, won his 11th title as a coach, putting him now two ahead of Red Auerbach all-time. His teams are now an amazing 48-0 when winning the first game of any series.
The win marked the first time the Lakers have beaten the Celtics in a Game 7, they previously were 0-4 in such situations against the men in green. The Lakers franchise now sits just one title behind Boston (17-16) for the most all-time. Before the 80’s, the lead was 13-6 in favor of the Celtics.
With the core of the team returning next season, there is no reason why the Lakers can’t get their first 3-peat since 2000-2002. But for now, all is right with the world, the Lakers are champs….again!!
Quotables: Lakers Trounce Raptors 112-99
12.01.08
Here is a collection of quotes following the Lakers 112-99 win over the Toronto Raptors at Staples Center, to run their record to an NBA-best 14-1.
Lakers Coach Phil Jackson
On Kobe Bryant:
“He’s looking to pass the ball. I thought he stayed aggressive in the things that we had to have.”
On Team:
“I think 10-5 would have been great with us, but we’ve been playing well enough to get that momentum. Now we’re just playing on momentum most of the time.”
“It’s human nature to get lackadaisical and for us to believe that things are going to go right for us because they have in the past. But we are only successful in the moment. And you have to prove it again and again, especially in sports.”
On Andrew Bynum and his injury:
“There’s going to be a period of adjustment he has to go through. He’s going to have to find a way to get through this. And if he does, then we’re going to feel pretty good until the next incident happens—and then we’ll have to deal with that at that time. But unless this moves around in his foot, we’re in pretty good shape if he can adjust his play to accommodate that.”
Lakers Guard Kobe Bryant
On needing 38 points to become the youngest to 22,000 points:
“To be honest, I don’t follow anything of that sort. I just go out there and do what I do, I don’t care about that stuff. You guys got me all wrong. I just play. I play hard, and I play the same way all the time. I never concern myself with milestones or anything like that.”
“We’re just playing well, playing in rhythm. We understand each other. We’ve been together for a while.”
“The first quarter was a little bit of a slow start for us defensively, but then we were able to dig our heels in and get used to the rhythm. We tried to corral Bosh a little bit. They had some double-digit deficits and the rhythm of the game was kind of getting away from them a little bit. They were looking to take some 3-point shots in transition and kind of got away from going to him a little bit.”
Lakers Forward Pau Gasol
“We expect to win every night. We have great expectations. Fourteen-and-one doesn’t surprise me with the team we have.”
Lakers Center Andrew Bynum
“Our rebounding was big. They weren’t very impressive inside with J.O. (Jermaine O’Neal) out and we were able to take advantage of it.”
Lakers Forward Trevor Ariza
“We have the versatility to play any kind of way. The way the NBA is, that’s a good thing because we can slow the ball down, we can run up and down the court, we can do whatever.”
On putting inferior teams away early:
“Honestly, I don’t know what it is. We’re not doing it on purpose. Everybody in the NBA is a pretty good team. Most of the time, we can’t just beat them in the first quarter.”
Raptors Coach Sam Mitchell
“I saw a lot of good things. We showed a level of toughness. I thought we boxed out. We just couldn’t get any rebounds. We got some good looks, but didn’t make them all.”
Raptors Forward Chris Bosh
“I know that good teams are not going to let me just get off offensively. They did a great job of trapping and their rotations were really good. I didn’t get too many good shots all night and I made some costly turnovers.”
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